Sermon #7 Series:
Who Is God?
Title: Our Infinite, Eternal, Omnipresent God
Text: John 4:24
Reading:
Subject: God’s attributes of infinity, eternality, and omnipresence
Date: Tuesday Evening - January 30, 1990
Tape #
Introduction:
My aim, my goal, my purpose in
preaching is setforth in the opening petition of Elijah’s prayer before the
prophets of Baal. This is the purpose of our ministry in this congregation. If
indeed I have no other ambition but this in my preaching and we have no object
but this in the ministry God has given us in this place, God will honor my
preaching and honor our labors together as his people. Here is our goal, hre is
our ambition, here is the object of our ministry - “It came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice,
that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of
Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy
servant, and that I have done all these things at thy Word. Hear me, O LORD,
hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God” (I Kings
18:36-37). I want all who hear my voice to know that the Lord our God is God
indeed and that he alone is God. I want, somehow, by the power of God the Holy
Spirit, to turn men and women away from the idolatrous vanities of their
corrupt imaginations that they may fall down before the throne of the living
God in reverent faith and adoration.
I want all men to see and know the
greatness and solitary supremacy of our God. Particularly, I want you to see
something of God’s great majesty tonight, so that we may together worship him
for a little while. God’s greatness is to be seen in those magnificent
attributes of his Being which are essential to him as God and distinguish him
from all his creatures. I have shown you, in recent weeks, something of God’s:
·
Solitariness
·
Immutability
·
Sovereignty
·
Omniscience
·
Foreknowledge
·
Omnipotence
The
subject of our meditation tonight will be Our
Infinite, Eternal, Omnipresent God. The three attributes of God, infinity,
eternality and omnipresence, are attributes of God alone. He who is infinite,
eternal, and omnipresent is God. And these three magnificient attributes of our
God are full of comfort for us. Yet, God’s infinity, eternality, and
omnipresence are so closely relatted to one another that they will be best
appreciated when considered together. Therefore, I have decided to deal with
them in one messge.
In John 4:24 the Lord Jesus Christ
tells us, “God is a Spirit: and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.” God does not have a
body, consisting of parts and material substance, as we do. “God is a Spirit.”
Proposition:
God’s spiritual nature, him being the uncreated Spirit by w
hom all things were made, implies that he is infinite, eternal, and
omnipresent.
Divisions:
Tonight, I want us to meditate upon these three
characteristics of God’s spiritual nature.
1.
The infinity
of God.
2.
The eternality
of God.
3.
The
omnipresence of God.
I. GOD IS INFINITE.
“When we say that God is infinite, the meaning is, that he
is unbounded and unlimited, unmeasurable, or immense, unsearchable and not to
be comprehended” (John Gill). God dwells alone in his infinity. There is none
before him to limit him, none after him to limit him, and none above him to
limit him (Isa. 443:10; 44:6). Our great, infinite God is the only totally
independent Being. All things depend upon God; but God depends upon nothing.
All things are of him, through him, and by him; but God dwells alone. All
things are checked by God; but God is checked by nothing. All things are
limited by God; but God is limited by nothing. God is infinite. And God alone is infinite.
No creature is infinite. No thought, word, deed, work, or
possession of any finite creature can be infinite. Indeed, nothing created is
infinite. Space is not infinite. Time is not infinite. Light is not infinite.
Darkness is not infinite. Only God is infinite. Infinity distinguishes God and
sets him apart from all his creatures.
We sometimes speak of sin as an
infinite evil. But even that is not strictly accurate. The God against whom we
sin is infinite. But sin is not infinite. Sin is the finite act of finite
creatures. However, our sins, because they are acts of emnity against the
infinite God, demand an infinite satisfaction.
·
Finite
creatures can never render infinite satisfaction to the infinite God. That is
the reason why hell is eternal. The sufferings of finite creatures in hell can
never satisfy the offended justice of the infinite God (Ezek. 18:23, 32;
33:11).
·
But here is
good news - Christ, the infinite God, our Savior, has rendered infinite
satisfaction to God for our sins by his obedience and death in our nature, as
our Substitute before God (Isa. 53:10).
Complete atonement Christ has made,
The law’s demanded price He paid:
All that His people owed to God,
He satisfied by His own blood.
Christ Jesus my discharge procurred,
The whole of wrath divine endured:
The law’s tremendous curse He bore;
Justice can never ask for more!
God alone is infinite. And God is
infinite in all the attributes of his Being. Everything that God is is
infinite.
A.
God’s understanding is infinite (Psa. 147:4-5).
God sees, knows, comprehends, and
understands all things perfectly and at once. “There is no searching of his understanding” (Isa. 40:28). In
comparison with God’s wisdom the wisdom of the heavenly angels is only folly
(Job 4:18).
B.
God’s power is infinite.
With God nothing is impossible. His power has never yet been
exerted. All power is his. He who created one world by his eternal poer could
have made ten million worlds. He spoke this one into being and upholds it by
the word of his power (Rom. 1:20; Heb. 11:3). There is no end to God’s infinite
power. “Is anything too hard for the
Lord?” No. His power is infinite.
C.
God’s goodness is infinite (Mic. 7:18-20).
I have heard men say, “There is a
limit to God’s goodness.’ But that is not so. There may be a limit to your
enjoyment of God’s providential goodness in this world. But there is no limit
to the goodness of God. He is good, eternally good, always good, infinitely
good, infinitely good to all his people in Christ.
D.
God’s holiness is infinite.
There is none holy but God. None are pure and righteous
before him. Even the holy angels are not pure in the sight of his infinite
holiness (Job 4:17-18).
1.
No man can
make himself holy, righteous, and pure in the sight of God.
2.
Our only hope
of acceptance with him is the imputation of Christ’s purity, righteousness, and
holiness to us by grace.
3.
And all who
are made pure before God by divine imputation are clothed with humility before
him (Isa. 6:2-3).
E.
God’s love is infinite (Eph. 3:18).
Could we with ink the oceans fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above
Would drain the oceans dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Do you see the unsearchable greatness
of our God? He is infinite, immense, uncomprehensible. The heavens cannot
contain him, much less our puny minds. God measures all things; but he is
measured by none. God comprehends all things; but he is comprehended by none.
We know him by faith in Christ; but our ignorance far outweighs our knowledge.
God is too big for our brains. No creature can ever begin to comprehend the
infinite God. In heaven’s glory we will know God in perfection; but we will not
know him perfectly, fully, comprehensively. One glory of heaven will be the
saints’ ever increasing knowledge of our great, infinite God.
Because he is infinite...
II. GOD IS ETERNAL.
God is not limited by time. He is eternal. The infinite God
is the One who inhabits eternity. He is the eternal King, the everlasting God
(Gen. 21:33; Deut. 33:27; Isa. 40:28; Rom. 16:26; I Tim. 1:17).
That which is eternal is without
beginning, without end, without succession of time. It never changes. In this
sense God alone is eternal. We speak of eternal happiness for the saints in
heaven and eternal misery for the damned in hell, and the Bible describes our
salvation as the gift from God of eternal life. But the word “eternal,” in that
sense, simply means everlasting. That which is everlasting has a beginning, but
no end. When the Bible speaks of God being eternal, the meaning is that he is
from everlasting past to everlasting future God (Psa. 90:2). God alone is
eternal, without beginning, without end, and without succession of time, or
change.
Of course, you do not need for me to
remind you that eternity, like infinity and omnipresence, is an attribute
belonging to each of the three Persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. When we say that God is eternal, three things are implied.
A.
God is without beginning.
There never was a time when God began to be. He is
self-existent and independent. God alone possesses immortality in the essence
of his Being. He has made his angels immortal spirits, and made men to have
immortal souls. But their immortality and ours depends entirely upon God. He
makes us immortal. But he could annihilate us as easily as he made us, were it
his pleasure to do so. God, however, is essentially immortal. And he alone is
immortal (I Tim. 6:16), because God alone is eternal. Everything about God, every
attribute of his Being is eternal.
1.
God’s power is
eternal (Rom. 1:20).
2.
God’s
knowledge is eternal (Acts 15:18).
3.
God’s mercy is
eternal (Psa. 103:17).
4.
God’s love is
eternal (Jer. 31:3; I John 4:16).
5.
All God’s
purposes, counsels, and decrees are eternal.
They all one of old, even from
everlasting (Isa. 25:1: Eph. 3:11).
a. His covenant of grace is an
everlasting, eternal covenant (II Sam. 23:5).
b. His blessings fo grace are eternal
blessings (Eph. 1:3).
c. His election is an eternal election
(Eph. 1:3; II Thess. 2:13).
d. His Book of Life is an eternal book
(Rev. 17:8).
e. His salvation is an eternal
salvation (II Tim. 1:9).
B.
As he is without beginning, God is without end.
He is called, “the
incorruptible God” (Rom. 1:23). God is over all, blessed forever. His
dominion is an everlasting dominion. He is the most high God who lives for ever
and ever (Rev. 4:9-10; 10:6).
I repeat again, God is totally
independent. God does not depend upon any of his creatures for anything. His
Being, his glory, his happiness and his satisfaction are all in himself. He
does not need us! And because he is totally independent of his creatures, he is
eternal, without end.
1.
His counsel
stand forever (Psa. 33:11).
2.
He keeps his
truth forever (Psa. 146:6).
3.
His covenant
stands fast with Christ forever (Psa. 89:28).
4.
He sustains
his elect in grace forever (Psa. 89:33-36).
5.
God will be
the portion of his saints forever.
C.
God is without succession of time.
Time means nothing to the Ancient of Days (II Pet. 3:8). God
is not restricted, limited, constrained, pushed, or hindered by time. Time is
his servant, not his master. Time moves by him. God does not move by time.
1.
God never gets
in a hurry.
2.
God never gets
frustrated.
3.
God is never
pushed.
4.
God never
changes.
God is eternity. He inhabits eternity.
With him there is no beginning of days, nor end of life. God is eternal.
God is infinite.
God is eternal.
III. GOD IS OMNIPRESENT.
That simply means, God is everywhere, at all times, in all
the fulness of his infinite, eternal Being. As he is eternal, unlimited by
time, so he is omnipresent, unlimited by space and place (Acts 17:27-28; Psa.
139:7-10).
Much could and should be said about
God’s omnipresence. But I want to send you home with this thought upon your
heart. May it be bread for your soul for many days. The Lord Jesus Chrsit, God
our Savior, this magnificent, infinite, eternal God is to us “a God at hand and not far off” (Jer.
23:23-24).
A.
Our God is gloriously present with his saints in heaven.
B.
Our God is powerfully present in the exercise of his dominion throughout the
universe (Isa. 66:1).
C.
Our God is graciously present with his elect throughout the earth.
Though our Lord’s humanity is limited by time and space, his
divinity is not. He is with us, always, everywhere with us.
1.
In the
assembly of his saints (Matt. 18:20; Rev. 1:13).
2.
In the
ministry of his gospel (Matt. 28:20; Rev. 1:12).
3.
In the trials
we must face (Isa. 41:10; 43:1-5).
He says, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come unto you.”
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!
4.
In the Valley of the Shadow of Death (Psa. 23:6).
Application: Phil. 4:4