The sufficiency of God in all things

Definition of the sufficiency of God - God possesses within

himself, intrinsically and eternally, every quality in
infinite measure.
In other words - God has no need for anything outside of
who God is, in and of himself. God needs nothing
apart from himself, for he possesses every quality
within himself.
Exodus 3:14 - God said to Moses, “1aI AM WHO 1I AM”;
and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel,
‘1I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
Biblical Insight:
God has no needs or restrictions outside of Himself1
God has this attribute intrinsically but we possess our attributes
derivately in that we had to get them from someone else.

God possesses all His qualities by nature: It is God’s nature to be

good, loving, holy, just and beautiful

God possesses these qualities eternally – there was never a time in

the past and never a time in the future when He won’t have these
qualities.

God possesses these qualities in infinite measure which means there

are no limits or restrictions to His love, wisdom and justice.
So is this view taught in Scripture?
Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 50
Background – Israel is on trial and God is acting in the role of both
judge and prosecuting attorney who is charging them. God is
holding Israel accountable before His bar of justice.

Psalm 50:4 – God is talking about the people of Israel and those who
have practiced the sacrificial system that God has put in place.

Psalm 50:4-6 are what I am calling the set up verses:

God is calling heaven and earth to bear witness
His people are on trial and God is judging them
So we need to know – “What is the charge that God is bringing
against His people?”
Read Psalm 50:7-12
You may be asking the question – “What in the world is going on
here?”

God first tells the people of what they are NOT guilty of.
They are not guilty of failing to bring sacrifices before Him because
He says that they are doing that.
God says – you are bringing your bulls and male goats from your
field
So Israel might ask – “So what are we doing wrong?”
You told us to bring sacrifices and that is exactly what we are
doing, we are bringing our sacrifices.

However, Israel is evidently doing this with the same mindset

toward sacrificing that we common to those pagan nations that
were surrounding them.

The pagan nations around Israel believed that their gods were
needy. They thought that the gods got hungry literally and
therefore they would bring a sacrifice to their particular god to
eat and then be satisfied. When the tummy of this god was full
then he would bless those who fed him. This is probably the
religion that occupies almost 2/3s of our current world.
Illustration – a person goes on a missions trip to Madagascar and
discovers that they are big on ancestor worship. People spend time
doing whatever the deceased grand father liked to do.

So what picture does this paint for us about God? As we sacrifice

these things to Him we are helping Him out and contributing to His
needs. It’s a good thing that we are here because if we weren’t He
would lack.

Go back to verse 8 – The problem isn’t their sacrificing but their

thinking about sacrificing
Do you see the problem?
These Israelites are worshipping God as if He were needy, and they
are going to give in order to help Him out.
Application for consideration:
How many people in the evangelical church think this exact same
way?
 In the giving of their tithes and offerings
Going to the mission field
Serving in a particular ministry
There is an underlining thinking that to this degree – poor
desperate, poor hungry, poor helpless God and I am going to save
the day with my gift, sacrifice, service and life.
And God says to that type of mindset – Don’t give it!
Read Psalm 50 verse 13 – Question – Is that what you think I am
doing, eating flesh and drinking blood in order to satisfy My
hunger?
Did you not understand what I said in verses 10-12?
Verse 14 – What does thanksgiving imply, in terms of
relationship to God?
We are the total recipients of His gifts and He is the Giver!
God says you think you are offering in order to help me out?
No, instead offer me a thanksgiving.
I am the Giver and You are the receiver
I am the full One and You are the empty one
I am the wise One and You are the foolish one
I am powerful and You are weak Read Psalm 50:14-15 and get
the order right
You are to call upon me – God is the rescuer, helper, strong hold,
rock, refuge, provider, protector, shield,
And then it says – He will rescue you because we are weak, needy
and helpless
Oh brothers and sisters in Christ learn this truth for your prayer
life and be transformed!
Now turn to Isaiah 40:12-17 – Still under the attribute of the self
sufficiency of God

In verses 12-13 you have rhetorical questions which means the

answers to the questions are obvious that you don’t have to give
the answer.
Look at verse 12 – and look at all the metaphors and think of
these images
Do you know anyone who is big enough to scoop up the Atlantic
Ocean or the Pacific Ocean in His hand? How big is God?
Illustration # 1
Going to the beach and grabbing up all the water in your two
hands and seeing what difference it really makes.
So what is the picture of God here?
1. He is big
2. He is powerful
3. He is immense

Lesson for the grandkids someday – if I scoop all the water in the
ocean in my hands you can’t tell anything. But can you imagine a
God who can scoop up all the water in all the oceans in the palm
of His hand.
Illustration #2
God marks off a span, which is the distance between you thumb
and little finger.
Think of it light traveling at 186,000 miles per second and it takes
approximately 7 minutes to get to us from the sun to the earth.
The next closest start is 4 and ½ years from the time it leaves the
star to planet earth and by the way this is our next door neighbor
which is the Milky Way Galaxy.
When you look at the stars on a clear night almost every star you
see is in the Milky Way Galaxy of which there are about 10
billion stars and those are the ones in our neighborhood.
Separated by an average distance of about 10 light years spanning
out across this Milky Way Galaxy.
Which begs the question, how many Galaxies are out there? The
Hubble telescope still finds more and more but it seems as
though there are millions upon millions more spread out across
this universe. And they are hundreds of thousands of light years
away – so who do you know that can mark them off between His
thumb and little finger? Who could possibly do this?
Answer – only God
How big is God?
Then the next image – who do you know who can calculate the
dust and weigh the mountains ranges of the Rockies and the
Himalayas on a scale?
God is so great, so powerful and so huge that He can do this with
no problem
Verse 13 – A shift in the topic – it is no longer the bigness and
enormous nature of God but instead it is His knowledge and
wisdom
What is the answer to these questions – Who has taught God?
Who has advised God?
Answer - No one
God doesn’t need any advice because He already knows it all

Illustration – Contrast this with a President who takes office and

states that he will have no advisors but himself. What would we
say about a President like that? We would say that he is a fool.
Folks we need to remember this image of God when we pray and
we need to pray like the Lord Jesus. How did He pray? Our
Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name!

Father God you are separate and above all creation in Your
wisdom, supremacy, and majesty! And then we pray that by the
Spirit we might get in tune with the will of God, this is not a will
we are trying to shape but one that is already established.

Jesus praying in the garden, not My will but Thy will be done!

God needs no advisors because His wisdom is flawless!

Can you imagine all the problems in the world and God doesn’t
need help from anyone!
The nations – all of our collective prowess and military power,
technological advancements, wealth, wisdom, and all the
resources that we have are but a drop of water in a bucket or a
speck of dust on a scale to God.
Illustration – My foot is injured and I have Plantar Fasciitis.
Nancy went on the internet the other day and there were
thousands of entries just on one section of the foot. I was
overwhelmed with all the information.
Imagine if someone from a campground is bringing back a
bucket of water from a stream and they only spill one single
drop. What would you say? Basically they didn’t spill
anything and surely it would not be even noticed.
Illustration:
Housewife goes to the deli to buy a couple of pounds of ham and
the butcher is getting ready to weigh and price it and the lady says
“wait a minute.” And the man says what is the problem and she
says there is a speck of dust on the scales.
What is the point of these images?
Just keep reading – we were a speck of dust but look at Isaiah
40:17 now we are down to nothing and keep reading, the nations
now are less than nothing!
Trivial
Inconsequential – they don’t matter or even make a difference
So we need to be careful here and think and meditate on what this
really means.
Are we to take this as meaning that God doesn’t care about the
nations?

So is does NOT mean that God doesn’t care about the nations for all
we have to do is read Psalm 2:8 – Christ came for the nations
(Revelation 5:9 and Genesis 12 – all the nations will be blessed)

So what does God mean when we are less than nothing before Him.
It means in comparison to God’s wisdom, knowledge, power and
greatness that could contribute anything to God.
Illustration: Me going up to Tiger Woods at the Wachovia and
offering him some tips on driving the golf ball a little further.
What information do I have that could benefit his golf game?
The point here is what can the nations of the world add to the
infinite power, wisdom and knowledge of God?
Answer – nothing
Turn to Acts 17:24-25
Paul is in Athens, which was the religious center of the world at
that time. They had represented in their city all gods and it was
as polytheistic as one could imagine. The irony is the one God
they didn’t know was the true and living God.
Main point of these two verses – God is self sufficient
How could it be possible for God to need anything in creation
when He gave everything for creation to exist. There is nothing
that God needs!
Illustration – teaching that Jesus died for you and since He died
for you what are you prepared and willing to do for Him.
And we grow up with this attitude that the tithe is God’s and
everything else is mine
You must stay in position as receiver and God must be the giver!
 Some final thoughts
We live in a culture that encourages us to have a very man-centered
theology.
Many times we process the gospel this way: “If Jesus died for me
then what am I going to do for Him.”
Unfortunately that leads to religious living and not gospel living.
Religious living says I will do for God and then He will approve of
me. Whereas gospel living says I am already approved of by God
on the basis of the death of Christ and now I want to do for Him.
This type of living comes from delighting in Him not a duty
performed for Him.
Since God is sufficient in all ways and in all things we can not add
anything to who He is nor what He has done.
 Some final thoughts
We must learn how to align our lives under the waterfall of God’s
grace where He is always in position of the Giver and we are
always in position of the receiver.
Yes we must serve but as defined in 1 Peter 4:11 - “…whoever
serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God
supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus
Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen.
Therefore our serving comes through His strength and not ours
which means we must receive that from Him. Once again grace is
showing up to give us what we don’t deserve!

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