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Pastor Scott L. Harris
Grace Bible Church, NY
March 3, 2022
Trusting God, Part 3: The Infinite, Eternal God
Selected Scriptures
Introduction
I want to continue in the series on Trusting God this morning. The major reason that people do not trust God is that they do not Him, and they do not know Him because they have substituted the musing of man for God’s revelation of Himself. That is true for the pagan, for those in false religions, for those that are tied up in cults, and tragically, it also tends to be true even among those in Bible preaching churches. Obviously the problem is not nearly as severe for those that are part of a church that is serious about teaching the Scriptures since they are at least hearing about what God has revealed about Himself, yet the problem can still persist for the following reasons.
1) It takes time to learn the Scriptures for yourself. New believers do not know or trust God as well as mature believers.
2) Because the natural tendency is to understand new concepts and terms by personal experience or what is already thought to be known, it is easy to misinterpret revelation from other times and cultures and especially what is beyond human understanding. That is why those steeped in anti-God or secular philosophies can have a very difficult time believing what Scripture plainly states. A case in point are professing Christians who believe in evolutionary time though it is contrary to Scripture and the hard sciences such as physics.
3) Theological systems tend to force interpretations into its system even when contrary to the text. The amillennial and post-millennial interpretation of Revelation 20 is an example of this. Though multiple specific events are plainly stated in relationship to a specific period of a thousand years, one millennium, which is stated six times in the text, their theological systems force an allegorical interpretation on an obviously prophetic narrative.
4) Man’s sinful nature creates an aversion to God as He is. Adam and Eve hid from God after they sinned. Salvation from sin by God’s grace through faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ changes that since our sins are forgiven and we are invited to come boldly before His throne of grace, yet current sin can still create an aversion to God. Fear of displeasing God or of being punished for sin can easily cause even the believer to shy away from God instead of going to Him – much like a child that has just disobeyed their dad tries to avoid him instead of coming and confessing the wrong doing.
I am sure that others can come up with additional reasons people do not know and trust God, but these four would be primary and each can easily result in defining God in terms of what is desired instead of what God has revealed. People are uncomfortable with what they do not understand and even more so with what they cannot control. While people want a God that will take care of them and do what they cannot do, neither do they want a God that they cannot manipulate or at least appease by their own means and methods. It is a factor of man’s pride, but people do not want to be surprised, overwhelmed, astonished by what is incomprehensible to them, and God is far beyond any and all humans in just His ways and thoughts much less His nature and attributes. Consider what atheists, agnostics, false religions and cults do in defining God.
Atheists try to escape God by defining Him as non-existent, yet they then spend their lives being angry at, or at least working hard to ignore, a being they claim does not exist. Agnostics define God as unknowable as a means of escaping Him. Any humility in that is feigned because it takes a lot of pride to claim God is unknowable just because you don’t know him. Psalm 145:18 states that “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.” Agnostics seek God the same way thieves seek a policeman after robbing a store.
Secularists who claim to be without a religion in reality have one of their own design. They create for themselves some reason for their existence. Man needs a purpose for life by which they will pursue what they believe will be success in the end, however they might define it. That can even include the nihilistic escape from pain in which suicide is success.
False religions define God according to their own experience and imaginations into something they can understand and manipulate or at least appease. Demons then empower the false religion in order to manipulate the people and enslave them to its lies. In the ancient world and among animists today it has been physical objects and life forms – rocks, trees, Sun, moon, animals. There are also religions such as those of ancient Greece and Rome and modern Hindus with a panoply of gods and goddesses with specific powers and authority.
Cults redefine God to make Him less than He is and someone with characteristics more favorable to the desires of the cult leaders. What is held in common with all false religions and cults is the idea that salvation, however it is defined within that religion or cult, is something achieved by human effort even if that is by manipulation or appeasement of the deity or deities.
We must be careful to identify and define God correctly. We do not want to be among those who fit the saying that “God created man and man has been trying to return the favor ever since.” A good working definition for the God who has revealed Himself in the Bible is “God is a spirit who is infinite and eternal in His being, perfect and unchangeable in His attributes, and in Whom all things have their source, support and end.” Let me quickly expand on that definition.
That God is a spirit who is infinite and eternal means that God exists outside of and encompasses the time-space continuum in which man is entrapped. Man is a finite physical being with a spiritual nature that was created and brought into existence at a particular time and location. That God is perfect and unchangeable in His attributes is just another way of saying that God is holy, righteous and immutable. Man is the opposite. He is a sinful creature that changes over time toward evil or good and changes course in any direction. God is the creator in whom all things have their source, support and end. Man can be creative, but he can only use the materials God has already created, and since man is finite, he can only give limited support to what he makes and their end will always be something other than him.
All of this means that God is something completely different from man. That is important to keep in mind even for those of us who do want to know God according to His word. We cannot squeeze God into our preconceived ideas or our own limited experience and understanding. He is different from us, and even as we do come to understand Him correctly, faith must be exercised in trusting Him in life. A passive faith is a non-existent faith.
Even after walking with the Lord for many decades, fear in present circumstances can still make it hard to trust God. The exceptional nature of Job’s faith is seen in his statement in Job 13:5, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” That should be the nature of faith of every professing Christian, but that will require maturity that places a higher priority on applying what God has revealed about His character and nature than on your circumstances or your emotions regarding it all. The answer that God gave to Job can be boiled down to “I am God, this is what I have done and this is what I am like.” Job’s response in Job 42:1-6 first acknowledged that God can do all things and His purposes cannot be thwarted; Job then confessed that he had “declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know;” he then sought further instruction from God; and finally he retracted and repented in dust and ashes.
Job’s faith seems so extraordinary because it is so rare to find such maturity, but even Job had to grow in his knowledge and trust in God. So take heart for you can develop that level of trust. Consider David’s life also. The Scriptures record both his victories and failures in which this man “after God’s own heart” did not do what was right and gave into his fears. In the Psalms, David often expresses either his troubles or fears, yet he also encourages us by pointing the way back to the foundations of faith and being able to trust God in whatever situation he found himself. David’s trust in God developed over the course of his life. That is a model any of us can follow.
The ability to trust God is directly related to your knowledge of His attributes and character. In this sermon series we have already covered the fact that God is the Creator of all things and that He is self-sufficient, self-existent and immutable. (See: Part 1 – God, The Creator & Part 2 – The Self-existent, Self-efficient & Immutable God) While everything created has its origin in God and is in need of God, the origin of God is Himself and He is not in need of anything outside Himself. All things have been created simply because God desired to do so for His own good pleasure and not because He has need of anything He has created. That makes God something completely other than you. I will expand on that even more when we get to His holiness. God is also unchanging in His nature and character and He is faithful to do whatever He promises.
We are the opposite for we are always changing physically, mentally and spiritually. Our physical bodies and our mental abilities grow initially, but eventually they begin to decline. After a certain point, you cannot physically do what you used to be able to do, and even though you gain an increasing amount of knowledge over your lifetime, eventually you start losing your ability to remember it. Spiritually, man only declines until he is saved, and then he can mature as God does His work to conform the Christian to the image of His son which is a very positive change. Man is also often incapable of keeping his promises despite the desire and efforts made simply because we are of limited ability and resources. There is no limiting factor upon God except Himself. God, the Creator of everything is self-existent, self-sufficient and unchanging in His character and attributes. He keeps His promises. He can be trusted.
This morning I want us to begin our examination of the attributes of God that show that He is infinite. He is infinite in relationship to time, space, knowledge, wisdom, and power. Today we are just going to look at the concept of being infinite and its relationship to time. God is eternal.
The Infinite God
The concept of something being infinite is very difficult for us to grasp because it is not something we can observe or experience. In geometry an infinite line is expressed as a line with an arrow on the end meaning it is goes on and on without an end. We can try to imagine it, but immediately we try to put some kind of limit on it. Does the line extend beyond the earth to the edge of our solar system? Our galaxy? Our universe? What is beyond our universe?
When it comes to time, everything God has created exists within time, so how we correctly understand something that is eternal? Every created thing came into existence at a point in time in the past and it will no longer exist at some point of time in the future. Even those things we tend to think of as stable because of their longevity are not eternal. Mountains are not eternal. They are formed (Psalm 104:8) and will erode away (Rev. 16:20). The earth is not eternal for it was formed at a point in time (Gen. 1:1) and will one day be destroyed (2 Peter 3:10). The Sun is not eternal for it also was formed at a point in time (Gen. 1:16) and one day it will be no more (Matt. 24:35; Rev. 22:5). Even secular thinkers acknowledge these truths though they think it will take eons of time.
Perhaps the best way to think of something being infinite is to define it terms of the word itself. Infinite is a compound word joining the prefix “in” meaning “non” with the adjective “finite” meaning “limited.” What is infinite is not limited, it is without bounds. We usually use the word infinite as an hyperbole – an exaggeration to express abundant sufficiency such as “an infinite resource,” but it is used in an absolute sense when applied to God. The only boundary on God is whatever limit He places on Himself. That is how Jesus, who as the second person of the triune Godhead possessing all the infinite attributes of God, can limit Himself in becoming a man and yet remain fully God. Man is limited by the boundaries of time, space, knowledge, power and ability. God is not bounded. He is infinite in the true sense of the word. As Jeremiah 10:6 succinctly states, “There is none like You, O Lord; You are great, and great is Your name in might.”
How do we know God is infinite? First because of the many verses which describe Him as eternal, present everywhere, all knowing, all powerful and sovereign. It is also related to God being a Spirit. Concepts of measurement are applied to that which is material or emanates from what is material, but God is not material. This is then expressed in the many statements that He is unmeasurable, unsearchable, unfathomable, and incomparable with even His wondrous works being innumerable. We will explore each of these attributes of infinite nature in depth in this sermon series, so I will make the Biblical case for each of them as we examine each attribute.
What I want to stress here in this general point about God being infinite is that God is not like us, so great care needs to be taken to understand God according to what He has revealed about Himself and not project our human attributes upon Him. Even when an anthropomorphism (a human characteristic) or a zoopomorphism (animal characteristic) is applied to God such as the strength of the “arm of the Lord” (Isa. 52:10; 53:1) or taking “refuge in the shelter of Your wings” (Psalm 61:4) those are used only to give us a concept of God’s character or actions and neither define nor confine God to those metaphors. God is infinite in all of His attributes. He is not like you.
I will push this even farther. God is above, outside and beyond all His works. He exists in dimensions of which we can only surmise by what interaction they may have within the dimensions in which we exist. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a two dimensional flat world of width and length but not height. You could only guess at this third dimension of height from the evidence found where it intersected your flat world dimensions. God is a Spirit and exists in a dimension which we can only understand from where it intersects our physical world of the time-space continuum and from what is revealed by God about the spirit dimension. What about possible dimensions which could exist which do not intersect with ours and God has not told us about it and therefore we are ignorant of them? Remember Deuteronomy 29:29 states that “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” In addition, Isaiah 55:8 states, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.” It is the pride of man that demands that God and concepts of Him fit within what man can comprehend. But a God that can be fully comprehended by man would be a limited being and therefore not God. It must be enough for us creatures to know what God has chosen to reveal about Himself
By striving to understand God as He has revealed Himself, you will find the source of truth that enables you to trust Him, and trust is needed to walk with God by faith. If you project human traits upon God or your own thoughts or the musings of men, you will not understand properly His character or ability. That in turn will destroy confidence in His commands and promises. You will not be able to walk with Him in faith because you will not trust Him properly.
The Eternal God
For the rest of today’s sermon we will examine God’s attribute of being infinite in regards to time. He is eternal. By that we mean that God is not limited by the boundaries of time. He exists before, after and throughout time. That is a hard concept to grasp and I don’t think anyone can grasp it fully because it is beyond us. We are creatures bound by time and its ever rolling progression. How can any of us conceive of a dimension unbounded by time?
God’s Relationship to Time
God existed before time for He was already present at the beginning and the beginning took place because of Him. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” John 1:1–3, 1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”
God exists in the present and throughout time. Revelation 1:8 encompasses all three dimensions of time – past, present and future: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” God knows the future before it happens and uses to prove He is God. Isaiah 46:9–11, 9 “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; 11 Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.” The same point is made in Isaiah 41:21-23.
In Romans 8:29-30 Paul describes the order of God’s process in salvation. Those He foreknew He predestined, called, justified and glorified. The foreknowledge and predestination would be part of God’s choosing the elect “before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). Calling and justification is based on God’s grace to those who have faith in Jesus Christ which occurs in the individual’s lifetime (Eph. 2:8-9), and glorification is still future (Phil. 3:20-21). The word for foreknowledge here is prosginwvskw / prosginōskō which as used in the New Testament has an element of relational or experiential knowledge and not just theoretical knowledge about something as found in the other Greek word for knowledge, oida / oida. I may be stressing these differences more than others would, but I find the word choice is meaningful and supports the idea that God exists through time and is not bound by the progression of time. God’s omniscience has a relationship with His being eternal. In other words, God knows the future, not just about the future. If that does not make sense to you, don’t worry about it. God’s ability to control history as it happens to bring about the fulfillment of His prophecies does not make a lot of sense to us mere humans either. However, it is the ability to say with 100% accuracy what will occur in the future that distinguishes God from demons and charlatans. Anyone, including demons, can make educated guesses about what will occur in the future, but only God knows the future and has the ability to bring about exactly what He states beforehand will happen.
God also continues to exist after time ends. In Revelation 22:13 Jesus proclaims, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” That same concept is found in several other passages (Isaiah 41:4; 44:6; 48:12; Rev. 1:8; 21:6). In addition, Hebrews 9:26 speaks of the consummation or completion of the ages, while 1 Cor. 10:11 speaks about the “end of the ages” and 1 Peter 4:7 states that “the end of all things is near” or “at hand.” Time is bracketed by a beginning and an end, and God exists on both sides of it.
Defining Time, Eternal & Eternity
Perhaps we can understand the concept of something existing before and after time and therefore the ideas about eternity by defining time. Our understanding of time has always been in relationship to the movement of matter whether that is the revolving of the earth which sequences day and night, the orbit of the moon around the earth which marks a month, or of the orbit of the earth around the sun which marks a year. We can divide the day into hours and minutes and track them by the shift of a shadow on a sundial, the movement of gears under constant pressure from a spring in a clock, or by counting the number of oscillations of a Cesium-133 atom in an atomic clock. Time is measured by the movement of matter. God is a Spirit who is the creator of matter but exists outside of any material substance.
There are three Hebrews words and three Greek words that help us to understand the Biblical concept of eternity. I want to take a very quick look at each.
First is md6q6 / qedem which is translated in Deuteronomy 33:27 as eternal – “The eternal God is a dwelling place, And underneath are the everlasting arms . . .” The root meaning of this word is “to precede someone or something either temporally or geographically” (TWOT) and hence “pertaining to having existed a long time ago in the past (ancient),” or “to an unlimited duration of time” depending on the context (Dictionary of Biblical Languages). In the same passage, the term translated as “everlasting” ml2We / olam, pertains to “an unlimited duration of time, usually with a focus on the future” (Dictionary of Biblical Languages). The two words used in the same verse points to the God being characterized as being of an unlimited duration of time both in the past and the future. That matches the definition of infinite meaning without limits, unbounded.
A third Hebrew word is de / ad which carries the idea of perpetuity, an unlimited amount of time, without end (Dictionary of Biblical languages). It is used twice in Isaiah 9:6-7 translated as “Eternal” in reference to the Father, and “forevermore” in reference to the kingdom – 6 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.” It is often used in conjunction with ml2We / olam to emphasize the point that what is being talked about will be of unlimited duration in perpetuity – usually translated as “forever and ever.” This phrase is used in reference to the Lord’s reign (Exodus 15:18), the Lord being King (Psalm 10:16), the Lord’s throne (Psalm 45:6), the Lord’s truth, justice and precepts (Psalm 111:8), and the praise that is due to Him (Psalm 145:21). Again, this usage matches the definition of infinite with reference to time.
The first Greek word is aijwvnioV / aiōnios which comes from aijwvn / aiōn from which our English word “eon” is derived. In the New Testament this word is used as a description of an attribute of God with “not merely the concept of unlimited time without beginning or end, but also of the eternity which transcends time” (TDNT). It is used that way in reference to a characteristic of the Father (Romans 16:26), the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 9:14) and Christ’s glory (1 Peter 5:10). It also used as a contrast to what is temporal, what only lasts a short time (2 Cor. 4:18), for what is everlasting – it will exist without limit. This includes Christ’s dominion (1 Timothy 6:16), His covenant (Hebrews 13:20), the gospel (Rev. 14:6), salvation (Hebrews 5:9) and redemption (Hebrews 9:12). The future kingdom and its dwelling places in which those who have eternal life will live are also all described as eternal (2 Peter 1:11; 2 Cor. 5:1; John 3:16; 5:24; 1 John 5:13). That is contrasted with those that will have eternal judgment and punishment (Matt. 25:46; 2 Thess. 1:9; Hebrews 6:12).
The second Greek word, aji:doV / aidos, carries the idea of both eternal (without beginning or end) and everlasting (of unlimited duration) depending on the context. It is only used twice in the New Testament. In Romans 1:20 it is used to describe God’s “eternal power.” In Jude 6 it describes the everlasting bonds placed upon the angels that did not keep to their own domain.
The Necessity of God being Eternal
Even if these Hebrew and Greek words were not used directly for God, the concept of eternal and everlasting are compelled by God’s other attributes which are all of infinite nature. In addition, Titus 1:2 states that God existed and His promises were made “before time began” (NKJV) – crovnwn aijwnivwn / chronōn aiōniōn. He loved the Son before the foundation of the world (John 17:24) and also chose who would be saved in Him before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). The concept of everlasting is also needed to give meaning to salvation, Heaven and Hell.
I have already noted that terms for eternal and everlasting are applied to all three persons of the triune Godhead. Here are succinct statements regarding this truth regarding Father, Son & Spirit.
God the Father described as eternal (Deut. 33:27) for He is from everlasting to everlasting (1 Chronicles 16:36) and lives forever (Isaiah 57:15). He is the King eternal (1 Timothy 1:17) who has eternal power (Romans 1:20) and whose lovingkindness is everlasting (Psalm 136).
God the Son was in the beginning with the Father and was God (John 1:1) who shared in the Father’s glory before the foundation of the world (John 17:5, 24). Among His titles is “the mighty God” and “everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6). He is the “Alpha & Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 1:8; 22:13). He is the “I am” from eternity (Isaiah 43:10-13; John 8:58). Jesus has life in Himself just as does the Father (John 5:26) and He gives eternal life to whom He wishes (1 John 5:21; 1 John 5:11).
God the Spirit is called “the eternal Spirit” (Hebrews 9:14), and it is the Spirit that gives life (John 6:63) including eternal life (Galatians 6:8).
Moses contrasts the eternal nature of God with the transitory nature of man’s life span on this earth in Psalm 90 describing God and His relationship to time in verses 2 & 4, 2“Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God,” and 4“For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night.” In contrast, man is described in verse 2 as dust that returns to dust and in verses 5-6 as grass which sprouts new in the morning and is already fading and withering away by evening.
If God were not eternal, man would have no hope. We would be just a meaningless brief interaction of complex chemicals that will decompose back into their base chemicals. But God is eternal and He has a plan and purpose for man. Even Psalm 90:10 states that though our years on this earth are only 70 or 80 years which are soon gone, “we fly away.” God has made us in His image so that we are much more than the sum total of the chemical reactions of our physical bodies. We have souls that are eternal in the sense that they are everlasting after their creation. Our souls will continue on into the eternal future. That is a blessing to the saved, but a curse to the unbelieving.
Those that do not have Jesus as their Savior need to give serious consideration of His claims and promises and then repent of their current beliefs to place their faith in Him. They need to recognize the extreme danger of being on the broad road that leads to eternal destruction in everlasting hell. Unless there is a change of mind and direction, the joys of this present time will provide no comfort in the torment that will be theirs for eternity.
For those that have placed their faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ that means a hope of life in heaven with our Savior. We will have new bodies that are glorified, immortal and incorruptible. The sins and sorrows of this life will be behind us and we will experience them no more. In knowing this truth about God being eternal, our faith is strengthened to trust Him in the present because we know He holds our eternal future in His hands. As Paul states in Romans 8:18, “. . .the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
I will close with a quote from A.W Tozer’s comments on the statement in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that “He has also set eternity in their heart.” It is a good description of the present state of the believer and our hope for eternity to come.
“. . . to be made for eternity and forced to dwell in time is for mankind a tragedy of huge proportions. All within us cries for life and permanence, and everything around us reminds us of mortality and change. Yet that God has made us of the stuff of eternity is both a glory and a prophecy – a glory yet to be realized and a prophecy yet to be fulfilled . . . The glory is that [the prophecy of eternity in heaven with Christ] is there and one day it will be fulfilled. The misery is that we are not there yet and currently must contend with mortality.”
Keeping eternity in view helps us to believe and trust God so that we can endure any present suffering that comes upon those whose faith is in Jesus Christ.
Sermon Notes -3/6/2022
Trusting God, Part 3: The Infinite, Eternal God – Selected Scriptures
Introduction
People do not trust God because they do not ________ Him
1) It takes __________to learn the Scriptures and know what God has revealed about Himself
2) The natural tendency is to understand things according to personal ____________& what has been taught
3) Theological systems tend to __________Biblical interpretation into their system
4) Man’s sinful nature creates an _____________to God as He is
People are ________________with what they cannot understand and control – God is beyond us
Atheists try to escape God by defining Him as _______________- but reality keeps getting in their way
Agnostic seek to escape God by claiming He is _____________- a proud statement of their own ignorance
Secularist to escape God by being irreligious – but nevertheless develop ___________religious views of life
False religions ______________the true God for one defined by their own experience and imaginations
Cults ____________God into a being they are more comfortable with and can be manipulated or appeased
A working definition for God: “God is a spirit who is infinite and eternal in His being, perfect and unchangeable in His attributes, and in Whom all things have their source, support and end.”
God is something completely ______________from man – He cannot be squeezed into man’s ideas
_________in the present can still make it hard to trust God – Job 13:5 is the extraordinary faith we all need
The faith of Job & David grew over the course of their lives increasing their ___________of God
Trusting God is directly related to _______________God according to His revealed attributes and character
God is the _____________and He is self-existent, self-sufficient and immutable
Man is a creature who is __________and constantly changing – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually
The Infinite God
Because we exist in the time-space continuum which has ________- it is very difficult to understand infinity
Infinite = not finite = without limits, _______________. The term is usually used as an hyperbole
God is infinite in the ___________sense. The only boundary on God is whatever limit He places on Himself
The Scriptures describe God as a _________who is eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, sovereign
Concepts of measurement apply to what is _____________- but God is not material, so He is unmeasurable
God is infinite – He is ________like us – He is above, outside and beyond all His works
We must understand God according to His revelation of Himself which then _____________faith & trust
The Eternal God – He is not limited by the _____________of time
God’s Relationship to Time
He exists _______to time – Genesis 1:1; John 1:1-3
He exists in the present and _____________time – Rev. 1:8, etc., Isaiah 46:9-11
Romans 8:29-30 – His foreknowledge is relational / experiential, not just _____________.
God exists through time ______________the future, not just about the future
God exists __________time ends – Rev. 22:13; Isa. 44:1; Heb. 9:26; I Cor. 10:11; 1 Peter 4:7
Defining Time, Eternal & Eternity
Time is defined in relationship to the movement of _______: Day, month, year, Sundial, clock, atomic clock
md6q6 / qedem – Deut. 33:27 – unlimited duration of time – often pertaining to the ________- Eternal
ml2We / olam – Deut. 33:27 – unlimited duration of time – usually pertaining to the _________- everlasting
de1 / ad – Isaiah 9:6-7 – Eternal / forevermore. Used with ml2We / olam – unlimited duration in __________
aijwvnioV / aiōnios – _________/ everlasting. God (Rom. 16:26), Holy Spirit (Heb. 9:14) & what is related
aji:doV / aidos – without beginning or end (Rom. 1:20); of _____________duration (Jude 6)
The Necessity of God being Eternal
God’s other attributes are infinite, and God existence and promises are “__________time began” – Titus 1:2
God the Father is ___________, everlasting to everlasting, lives forever, is King eternal, has eternal power
God the Son is the Alpha & Omega, the “I am” from eternity, is “_____________Father,” gives eternal life
God the Holy Spirit is ____________(Heb. 9:14) and gives life including eternal life (Gal. 6:8)
Psalm 90 – God is “from everlasting to everlasting” & unfettered by the _______________of time.
If God were not eternal, man would have ____________or purpose of existence
Man is made in the image of God and so has a soul which will “__________” – continue past physical death
The unsaved are on the road to eternal destruction & need to ___________and place their faith in Jesus
The saved will spend eternity in heaven with the Savior & have glorified, __________, incorruptible bodies
Our Eternal God gives ____for eternity enabling us to live in faith & trust of Him in the present – Rom. 8:18
Keeping _____________in view enables the Christian to endure the misery of present mortality
KIDS KORNER – Parents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help. Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents at lunch. Older Children – 1) List the words used related to infinite and how many times they are used (eternal, unlimited, etc.). 2) Talk what it means that God is eternal and why gives hope to Christians
THINK ABOUT IT! – Questions to consider in discussing the sermon with others. What are some of the reasons that even Christians can have difficulty knowing and trusting God? What hinders you the most? How do each of the following redefine God in the attempt to escape the true God: Atheists; Agnostics, Secularists, False Religions, Cults. Why is it important to correctly understand God? How would you define God? How is Job’s trust in God extraordinary – Job. 13:5; 42:1-6? How did David’s faith & trust in God grow over his lifetime? How does our faith & trust in God compare to Job? David? What needs to be improved? How can it be improved? What meaning & significance of God being Creator, Self-existent, Self-Sufficient and Immutable? What does the word “infinite” mean? How is the word most commonly used in reference to material things? How is it used in reference to God? How do we know God is infinite? What can be known about dimensions in which we do not exist? What is the danger of forcing God to fit into the dimensions in which we exist? What is time? How is it measured? How can God exist outside of time? What is God’s relationship to time – Past? Present? Future? What does it mean that God exists through time? Why is 100% accuracy in prophecy a sign of deity? His God bound by the progression of time? Why or why not? What are the basic meanings of the Hebrew and Greek words listed above for eternal / everlasting? Why is it necessary that God is eternal? List specific verses that declare / explain that each person of the Trinity is eternal / everlasting? What is the contrast between God & man in Psalm 90? How does God being eternal enable you to have greater faith & trust in Him?
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