(upbeat music) - Man, I really love this question today. Here it is. "Hello, Pastor John. "My name is Alex and I live in Alabama. "I was just thinking today about all the things "that run out. "Money runs out, food runs out, sex runs out, "cars run out, time runs out, "people run out of time and die.

"But God never runs out. "Can you elaborate on that subject for me? "It seems like a reminder not to rely on things "but on the eternal God. "Pastor John, what would you say to Alex?" - I am so eager for this question. I am so thankful that Alex simply threw open the door for me to talk about the inexhaustibility of God.

Couple of reasons why I'm so excited to talk about this. One is that my introduction to Reformed theology, 50 years ago, was not mainly through secondary theological sources, but through texts of the Bible that elevated the self-sufficiency, the inexhaustibility of God as high as it possibly could be elevated.

In other words, what struck me is that the very godness of God was that he is absolutely free, absolutely self-sufficient. He has no needs from outside himself, but he's completely and eternally sufficient in himself, and not just sufficient, but a Vesuvius of joy in the fellowship of the Trinity so that he has absolutely no need of me whatsoever, but he's so full that he is prone to overflow with a river of pleasures towards those who will have him as their supreme treasure.

That picture of God years ago from the Bible was ravishing to me. The second reason this is such a golden invitation to me is that just the day before yesterday, I received an email from a friend who has gone through years of very, very hard times, and he wanted to thank me, even though I was part of the hard times, for something from a message years ago, and the gist of it was, well, I'll just quote what he sent me, quote, "Grace is the overflow of God's self-sufficiency, so you can't have grace if you don't have an utterly, infinitely, gloriously, self-satisfied, all-sufficient, overflowing God who does not need you at all," close quote.

That's the picture of God that he was sustained by. That's the meaning of grace that held him and kept him from making shipwreck of his faith. Grace is the overflow of the self-sufficiency of a God who doesn't need him. That's what grace is. It's the overflow from an inexhaustible fountain, which means that the only way we can relate to God so that he's pleased and so that it glorifies him is not by hauling buckets of human labor up the mountain and pouring our supply into the pure, inexhaustible mountain spring of God, but rather by falling on our face, exhausted and putting our faith and our face in the water, and coming up and saying, "Ah, that's so good.

Thank you, God, for the overflow that you are for me." Now I've eaten up half my time telling you why I'm so excited to talk about this question. So let's consider in the time that remains just a few passages of scripture that celebrate the fullness of God to the point where he doesn't need us at all and where it would be an offense to him if we tried to become his benefactors.

For example, Acts 17.25, God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And that's not just true of God the Father. It's true of Christ as he comes into the world. Mark 10.45, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

We don't serve him, he serves us or we die. Romans 11.34, who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? Nobody, you can't give God counsel. Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? Nobody, you can't loan God anything to put him in your debt.

Why? Next phrase, for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever, amen. Or Psalm 50, verse nine, Spurgeon called this Robinson Crusoe's text because if you read that novel, you realize Crusoe used these verses to get himself through. Psalm 50, verses nine to 15.

Every beast of the forest is mine, God says. The cattle on a thousand hills. If I were hungry, I would not tell you. For the world and its fullness are mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls and drink the blood of goats? No, offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and perform your vows to the most high.

Call on me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will glorify me. That's amazing. So how do we glorify a God who has absolutely no needs and has all resources in himself? Answer, by not being his benefactors, but his supplicants, by calling on him for help, then we get deliverance, he gets the glory.

Or as the Psalm says, I will deliver you and you will glorify me. You get the deliverance, I get the glory. This is what stunned me years ago. The bigger God gets, the more self-sufficient he becomes, the less he needs me, then the more resourceful he can be for me and the more riches of glory he has to pour out freely on me and the more glorious he looks when we find our joy in him.

What a God. That's exactly the way God wants us to experience his absolute fullness and self-sufficiency. He wants us to experience it as the source of inexhaustible grace. Listen to the way Isaiah 40, 28 makes the connection. The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. What's the consequence of all that self-sufficiency? He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might, he increases strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.

So the inexhaustible hand of God is good news for the exhausted. I remember in those early days when I was first being amazed by this kind of self-sufficient, inexhaustible, overflowing God, that two of my passages were 2 Chronicles 16, 9, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is blameless toward him." In other words, he's on the lookout.

He is actually on the lookout for anyone who is humble enough and weak enough to let him be strong for them. And Isaiah 64, 4, "From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear. No eye has seen a God besides you who works for those who wait for him." Can you believe that?

In other words, God's uniqueness, nobody's seen a God like this. God's uniqueness is that in his overflowing fullness, he delights to work for us rather than have us work for him. The giver gets the glory. So not surprisingly, this kind of absolutely self-sufficient, inexhaustible, overflowing God is where the gospel comes from, the gospel of our salvation.

"For those who have absolutely no way to save themselves," he says, "ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. He who has no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without price." Isaiah 55, 1. It's like the machine shop that I jogged by for years until it closed recently.

It had a permanent help wanted sign nailed to the wall on the side of the building. So every time I go by, almost big permanent help wanted sign, but some days there was a big red diagonal line through the sign with a big no in the middle of it.

No help wanted. And I used to leap for joy while I was jogging saying, "That's my God." Yeah, yeah. "That's my gospel." No help wanted, no help needed, no help demanded. I exist to be inexhaustible and to help those who will trust me. That's my glory. That's the glory of the gospel.

So, amen, Alex. Everything else runs out like you said, but God never runs out. He will be giving and giving and giving to all eternity as we receive and receive and receive like little children with joy. So important. And if anything in this episode does not make sense, go back and listen to it over and over until you get it.

These are glorious and crucial truths here at DeGrasse. Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for joining us today. You can ask a question of your own, search our growing archive, or subscribe to the podcast. You can do all of that at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. I am your host, Tony Reinke.

We break for the weekend, and Pastor John and I will be back on Monday, Lord willing. Thanks for listening. We'll see you then. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)