Sermon #23 Series: Who Is God?
Title: El Shaddai - God All-Sufficient
Text: Exodus 6:3
Reading:
Subject: The Sufficiency of God
Date: Tuesday Evening - July 17, 1990
Tape #
Introduction:
When the Lord was about to deliver
Israel out of Egyptian bondage, he spoke to Moses and said, “I am the LORD: and I
appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God almighty,
but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.” When he was about to save his people, God revealed himself
by the name, Jehovah, which means Deliverer, Savior, God who saves. And when he
sent Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob out to follow him in strange lands, he appeared
to them by the name God almighty. That name, “God Almighty,” is translated in
the margin of our Bibles, “El-Shaddai,” which means “God Almighty,” identifying
our God as One whose power is infinite and uncontrollable.
This name, “El-Shaddai,” however,
speaks of much more than God’s omnipotent power. It has the idea of One who is a nourisher. In fact,
El-Shaddai is said to bless his people with “blessings
of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the
breasts, and of the womb” (Gen. 49:25). As a mother nourishes her children
with the milk of her breast, so the Lord our God, El-Shaddai, tenderly
nourishes his own elect with the fulness of his Being.
El-Shaddai also means, “God who pours out.” He not only
nourishes us, supplying everything we need to sustain us and keep us, but he
also pours out upon us all the blessings of his grace. Our God is a fountain
overflowing and gushing out with grace that flows to us with constant fulness,
like a mighty river from the throne of God.
El-Shaddai means, “God all-sufficient.” And that is the title of my message tonight -
“El-Shaddai - God All-Sufficient. Tonight,
I want to show you something of the blessed, infinite sufficiency of our God.
The Lord our God is so great and glorious that he has all sufficiency in
himself, for himself, of himself, so that he needs nothing to make him happy
and complete. And El-Shaddai is God All-Sufficient for his people. Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, as they made their pilgrimage through this world, needed
nothing but God whose name is Sufficient!
Proposition:
That man truly lives by faith who lives in the confidence
that he needs nothing but God, whose name is El-Shaddai - God All-Sufficient.
This attribute of God, his
sufficiency, implies three things about his great and glorious Being.
1.
God needs
nothing from anyone.
2.
God is able to
supply all our needs.
3.
God is
perfect.
I. GOD’S ALL-SUFFICIENCY IMPLIES
SELF-SUFFICIENCY, AND INDEPENDENCE. In
other words, God needs nothing from
anyone.
I know that preachers have for years portrayed God as a
pathetic being who is in desperate need of man, as one who cannot be happy and
satisfied without man, and one whose will, work, and glory greatly depends upon
man. But from the beginning God revealed himself as El-Shaddai, God Almighty
and All-Sufficient. God is so infinitely great that he stands in need of
nothing and is in need of no one. The self-existent God is the self-subsistent
God. He is perfect, complete, happy and satisfied in himself. We can add
nothing to him. And we can take nothing from him. He is God (Rom. 11:35-36).
“God in his divine persons, God
Father, Son, and Spirit, have enough within themselves, to give the utmost,
yea, infinite complacency, delight, and satisfaction among themselves and to
one another.” From eternity, “the Father delighted in the Son, `the brightness of his glory and the express
image of his person;’ the Son in the Father, before whom he was always
rejoicing, when as yet no creature existed; and both in the blessed Spirit,
proceeding from the (see Prov. 8:30). For creation adds nothing at all to the
perfection and happiness of God, nor makes the least alteration in him” (John
Gill).
There is no vacuum in God, which we
must fill. He lacks nothing that must be supplied by his creatures. We stand in
need of God. He alone supplies our every need and supports us in life. By him
we consist. In him we live, and move, and have our being. He upholds us by the
word of his power. But God needs nothing from us. God All-Sufficient is God
Self-Sufficient!
A.
The services we perform for God in faith are not for his benefit, but for ours (Acts
17:24-25).
1. In the Old Testament the ordinances
of worship were for man’s benefit, not God’s (Psa. 50:7-15).
All those sacrifices, ceremonies,
rituals, priests, and holy days were for the instruction, comfort, peace, and
edification of God’s people. But God received nothing by it.
2. The ordinances of worship in the
New Testament are for the same purpose.
God gains nothing by what we are doing
here tonight. Our worship, service, and obedience to God does not enrich him.
It enriches us. By these things we are led into communion with the living God
and brought into the enjoyment of his gracious presence.
·
Our praise
does not benefit God - It benefits us.
·
Our prayers do
not benefit God - They benefit us. The throne of grace was set up, not for God,
but for us (Heb. 4:16).
·
Our
sacrifices, services, and acts of obedience to God do not benefit him - They
benefit us (Job 22:2-3; 35:7-8; Lk. 17:10; Tit. 3:8).
B.
Even the righteousness, obedience, and sacrifice of Christ as our Substitute
added nothing to the perfection of God’s glorious being, but was altogether for
our benefit (Psa. 16:2-3).
1.
His obedience
was for us (Rom. 5:19).
2.
His death was
for us (1 John 3:16).
3.
His
resurrection was for us (Rom. 4:25).
4.
His exaltation
is for us (John 17:2).
5.
His
intercession is for us (Rom. 8:34).
6.
His second
coming is for us (1 Thess. 14:13-18).
7.
Even His
judgment in the last day is for us (Isa. 14:1; Rev. 18:24).
C.
And the sinful deeds of his creatures do not in anyway diminish the happiness,
perfection, and glory of God (Job
35:6-8).
God is so infinitely great, so
thoroughly self-sufficient that no creature can add anything to him, take
anything from him, hinder his work, impede his purpose, or in anyway alter him.
God needs nothing from anyone. His name is El-Shaddai - God All-Sufficient!
II. BECAUSE HE IS ALL-SUFFICIENT,
GOD IS ABLE TO SUPPLY ALL THE NEEDS OF HIS PEOPLE.
God is able to do whatever he pleases. He is able to fulfil
all his promises. He is able to accomplish all his decrees. And he is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Nothing is too hard for
our God. He who sent manna from heaven every day to feed a hungry nation for
forty years can feed you. He who causes water to gush out of a rock in the
desert can refresh you. He who caused a pair of shoes to walk thousands of
miles for forty years and remain new, and caused a coat to last all that time
without the least wear, can clothe you. He who caused an ax to swim can keep
you afloat. The name of our God is El-Shaddai, God All-Sufficient!
A.
We see something of God’s infinite sufficiency in the physical world around us.
In his good providence, God gives life and breath to all
things (Acts 17:25). He breathed into Adam the breath of life and gives the
breath of life to all the sons of Adam. He is called the God of our life (Psa.
42:8), because we get life from him. And he supports, maintains, and preserves
the life he has given from his own sufficiency as long as it pleases him (Job
10:11-12; 12:10; Psa. 66:9).
1.
God provides
for all men all the necessities of life.
2.
God provides
the needs of all his creatures daily (Psa. 104:27-28; 145:15; 147:9).
3.
God, out of
his great, infinite sufficiency, in the exercise of his wisdom and power,
totally rules the universe (Psa. 22:28; Prov 8:15-16; Matt. 10:29-30).
So great is God’s infinite,
incomprehensible sufficiency that though he made all things, sustains all
things, provides for all things ,and rules all things, his sufficiency is not
even diminished!.
B.
But, above all else, we know El-Shaddai to be God All-Sufficient because we
have experienced his all sufficient grace.
El-
Shaddai is the God of all grace. He is able to cause all grace to abound toward
us; and he does. He is able to supply all our needs; and he does, out of that
rich and glorious plenitude and all-sufficiency that is in him, by Christ Jesus
(Phil. 4:19).
1.
Our Lord Jesus
Christ is an all-sufficient Mediator (John 1:14, 16; Col. 1:18-19; 2:9-10).
2.
Christ is the
Mediator of an all-sufficient covenant (Eph. 1;3).
3.
And God
bestows upon us all-sufficient grace in Christ (2 Cor. 12:9).
He says, “My grace is sufficient...”
·
To justify
you!
·
To pardon you!
·
To cleanse
you!
·
To keep you in
life!
·
To sustain you
in death!
·
To bring you
up to heaven!
·
To present you
faultless before the presence of my glory in the last day!
The name of God our Savior is
El-Shaddai - God All-Sufficient. He is able to supply all our needs. And he
does!
Illustration: Abraham - “The Lord
will provide.”
III. ONCE MORE, GOD’S ALL
SUFFICIENCY IMPLIES THAT HE IS PERFECT.
One who lacks nothing, needs nothing, to whom nothing can be
given and from whom nothing can be taken away is perfect.
A.
God is perfect in his nature (Matt. 5:48).
·
His
immutability :(James 1:17).
·
His knowledge
(Job 37:16).
·
His wisdom
(Rom. 11:33).
·
His power
(Isa. 40:26-28; 59:1).
·
His holiness
and purity (1 John 1:5).
B.
God is perfect in his work (Deut. 32:3-4).
·
Creation
·
Redemption
·
Providence
·
Grace
“As for God, his way is perfect” (Psa. 18:30). (See Eccles. 3:14).
C.
And before he is finished with you, if you are his, God will make you perfect (1
Pet. 5:10).
1.
We are perfect
now positionally and representatively in Christ.
2.
We shall soon
be perfect personally and experimentally with Christ.
Application:
The name of our God is El-Shaddai - God All-Sufficient.
1.
God needs
noting from anyone.
2.
God is able to
supply all our needs.
3.
God is
perfect.