(upbeat music) Who is God? I can think of no more foundational question in all of the world. So who is this God, this one behind all of creation? Who is this one who made you and who made me? Who is this one who speaks to us through an ancient book, a book that is as alive as it is old?

This is a beautiful topic covered by Pastor John's recent sermon he delivered in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He opened that message with 10 brief answers to the all important question, who is God? Have a listen. - Why did God identify himself as I am who I am? I absolutely am.

Now if we can take off our clouded spectacles of mere religious jargon like G-O-D, this should come, will come as a bolt of lightning. God is. That's staggering. What sentence could be more important in any language than God is? So what did he mean when he said I absolutely am?

I am who I am. What did he mean? Now I'm gonna linger here longer than you think I should, perhaps, because until God becomes dominant in our thinking and in our feeling, until God becomes the blazing sun at the center of the solar system of our daily lives, until God becomes the Mount Everest in the foothills of all of our concerns with this world, until God rests on the souls of the saints in Belfast and on the churches of Northern Ireland, until he rests on the churches and the people here with 10,000 times more weight than all your political concerns and all your church growth concerns, then all of our talk about the glory of God and singing and gathering for worship will be just more tinkering and engineering of religion to try to get people to do what we hope they will do in some kind of appropriate way.

The world doesn't need any more tinkering with religion. It needs God. It needs to see God. It needs to be stunned that there is a God. So it's no accident that when Moses says, who's sending me? God says, I am who I am, period. And we need to linger over that.

And I've got 10 things I think it means. They're very short. It's not the whole message, it's introduction. (audience laughing) Number one, God is who he is means he never had a beginning. And that just staggers the mind. Every child asks his parents, where did God come from? Who made God?

And every wise parent says, nobody made God. He just was always there. Always. No beginning. Number two, God is who he is means God will never end. If he didn't come into being, he can't go out of being because he is being. Absolute being. There's no place to go outside being.

There's only he. Before he creates, he's all there is, absolutely. Number three, God is who he is means God is absolute reality. There's no reality before him, there's no reality outside of him unless he wills it and creates it. He's not one of many realities before he creates. He is simply absolute reality.

He's all that was, eternally. No space, space didn't exist. The universe didn't exist. Emptiness did not exist. Only God existed forever. Absolutely and absolutely all. Number four, God is who he is means that God is utterly independent. He depends on nothing to bring him into being. He depends on nothing to support him.

He depends on nothing to counsel him. He depends on nothing to make him what he is. He is absolutely independent. Number five, God is who he is means everything that is not God depends totally on God. All that is not God is secondary, dependent. The entire universe is secondary reality.

Let that sink in because nobody in this city believes that. And if the church doesn't, you're just like them. All the universe is secondary. Humanity is secondary. God is primary, absolute, first, last, glorious. Everything else, secondary. Galaxies compared to God, nothing. That's number six. Let me just go back and restate it.

God is who he is means all the universe is by comparison to God as nothing. All the universe by comparison to God is as nothing. Contingent, dependent reality is to absolute, independent reality as a shadow to substance, as echo to thunderclap, as bubble to ocean. All that we see, all that you are amazed by in your land or around the world, all the world, all the galaxies is compared to God as nothing.

If you put God on one side of the scales and the universe on the other side of the scales, the universe goes up like air or dust on the scale. Isaiah 40, 17, all the nations are as nothing before him. They are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

Number seven, God is who he is means God is constant. He's the same yesterday, today, forever. He cannot be improved. He cannot be diminished. He's not becoming anything. He is who he is. There's no development in God. There's no progress in God. Absolute perfection cannot be improved. Number eight, God is who he is means he is the absolute standard of truth and goodness and beauty.

There's no law book which he consults in deciding what is right. There's no almanac to establish facts for God. There's no guild, no musical guild, for example, to determine what is excellent and beautiful. He's the standard. He himself is the standard of the right, the true, the beautiful. Number nine, God is who he is means God does whatever he pleases and it is always right, always beautiful, always in accord with truth.

There are no constraints on God from outside that he doesn't will to exist and thus govern. All reality that is outside of him is subordinate to him. So he's utterly free. He's the only free being in the universe, in fact. He is utterly free from any constraints that don't originate from his own will.

Finally, number 10, God is who he is means he's the greatest, the most beautiful, the most valuable, and the most important person in existence. He's more worthy of interest and attention and admiration and enjoyment than all persons and all realities put together, including the entire universe. Now, the Bible reveals and assumes that God everywhere.

- Amen, that's so good. There's a lot more to God, but there's nothing less about God than these 10 incredible realities. This excerpt is from Pastor John's sermon in Belfast, Northern Ireland that he preached there in July. The message is titled "The Glory of God and Why We Sing." Video and audio of the message is available online right now at desiringgod.org.

And wherever you're listening to this podcast in the midst of your busy day, thanks for joining us. You can subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app in YouTube or in Spotify. And for our episode archive or to submit a question of your own, go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

Friday, we're gonna close the week with a doozy. Is there a place in the church for female pastors? Female pastors, some say yes, others say no. Pastor John will weigh in on the factors that we need to understand in this growing debate, a debate growing within complementarian circles, not outside of complementarian circles.

This is a very interesting factor in all of this. That's up on Friday. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you then. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)