Eternal God ~ 20150920 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

09/20 Eternal God; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20150920_eternal-god.mp3

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

-Shakespeare, Sonnet 60

Time marches steadily forward. Time devours. We are creatures at the mercy of the ravages of time. Our lives are temporary. Fleeting. Momentary. Finite. We can think back in history to a time before we existed, before we were born. We had a starting point. And we will just as certainly have an ending point. We will pass away. We will return to dust. And given enough time, we will most likely be forgotten. We seek for permanence, something that will endure, a name that will last, something that will be established. But even the things we seek to leave behind soon fade away.

God is not like us. God is not subject to our limitations. God is infinite. He is not subject to the things we are subject to. God is not subject to the effects of time. God is without beginning and without end. He Is. He is eternal.

Prayer: The Infinite and the Finite (Valley of Vision)

Thou great I Am,

Fill my mind with elevation and grandeur at the thought of a Being

with whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,

A mighty God, who, amidst the lapse of worlds, and the revolutions of empires, feels no variableness, but is glorious in immortality.

May I rejoice that, while men die, the Lord lives; that, while all creatures are broken reeds, empty cisterns, fading flowers, withering grass, he is the Rock of Ages, the Fountain of living waters.

Turn my heart from vanity, from dissatisfactions, from uncertainties of the present state, to an eternal interest in Christ.

Let me remember that life is short and unforeseen, and is only an opportunity for usefulness;

Give me a holy avarice to redeem the time, to awake at every call to charity and piety, so that I may feed the hungry, clothe the naked, instruct the ignorant, reclaim the vicious, forgive the offender, diffuse the gospel, show neighbourly love to all.

Let me live a life of self-distrust, dependence on thyself, mortification, crucifixion, prayer.

Everlasting God

In Genesis 21, after the birth of Isaac, after Hagar and Ishmael were sent away, after he settled a dispute over rights to a well of water, we are told:

Genesis 21:33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.

YHWH El Owlam; The LORD the Everlasting God. He is perpetual. Think back before the first event you can conceive of; God was there. Think forward into the future as far as your mind can imagine; God is there. Extend a timeline infinitely in both directions and God encompasses it all. But a timeline does not extend infinitely. Time is not infinite. Time and matter and motion were brought into existence by God. Before time existed, God is.

At the end of Moses' life, as he blesses Israel, he says:

Deuteronomy 33:26 There is none like God,... 27 The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

There is none like God, the eternal God is your dwelling place, the everlasting God is your support.

Moses' prayer is recorded in Psalm 90.

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.

Psalm 90:1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” 4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: 6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. 8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. 10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. 11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. 13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. 16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

Life is short. Life is fleeting. It is here and then it is gone. Days fly away. The number of our years is limited. We are dust. In contrast to man, God is timeless. God is a safe harbor across all generations. God is God from everlasting to everlasting. All the way back before the birth of the mountains, before God formed land, before he spoke the globe into existence, from everlasting, you are God. And on beyond the distant future, you are God. From eternity past to eternity future, you are.

Eternity and Time

God is not limited by time, by dates, by sequences of events. For us it is often challenging to fit the necessary events into the allotted time. Time quickly slips away. We run out of time. Some things get done, and others have to wait. But from our experience we learn that time is relative. If there is something on the calendar that we are looking forward to, eagerly anticipating, it seems that time slows to a painful crawl. The anticipated event may never come. God is not constrained by the clock or the calendar. He never runs out of time. He never has things he wishes he could do that he simply doesn't have time to get done. His perception of time is different than ours. Verse 4 says:

Psalm 90:4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: 6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.

God's perception of a thousand years is compared to our perception of yesterday, of a short period of time, of a dream, of grass that lasts a day. What seems to us an unimaginably long period of time, to the eternal God is like a few hours in the night.

Peter encourages believers in the face of scoffers who mock the promise of the soon coming of our Lord:

2 Peter 3:8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

He takes the truth of Psalm 90, that a thousand years is as yesterday, and mirrors it with the parallel truth that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years; where we feel limited in what can be accomplished in 24 hours, to God it is as if he had a thousand years.

God is able to operate within time, but he is not constrained by time. He is not limited by time in the ways that we are limited by time. He existed before time, he created time, and he encompasses time.

Inhabiting Eternity

Isaiah 9:6 calls Jesus Mighty God and Everlasting Father, or Father of Eternity. We will come back to this later.

Isaiah 40 calls God everlasting.

Isaiah 40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? 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.

Elohim Owlam YHWH. YHWH is eternal. He does not get fatigued by doing work in time, he brought the earth out of nothing, but he doesn't have to gasp to catch his breath.

Isaiah 57 calls God the one who inhabits eternity.

Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Where God dwells is outside of time. He inhabits eternity. He is holy, set apart, totally other than us. He dwells in eternity, but he also enters time and dwells with those who humbly turn to him.

Eternal Dominion

In Daniel 4, after the pride of king Nebuchadnezzar is humbled, he praises God.

Daniel 4:34 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;

The God of Daniel, the Most High God, higher than any of the gods of the Babylonians, is a God who lives forever. He has eternal life in himself. His rule is an everlasting rule, and his kingdom endures throughout time.

Jeremiah calls YHWH the true God, the living God, the everlasting King.

Jeremiah 10:10 But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

For his dominion, his rule, his kingship to be everlasting, he must be an eternal being.

In the New Testament letter of Jude, he says in his closing doxology:

Jude :25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

If God is to have glory, majesty, dominion and authority eternally, he must exist eternally. Jude defines this with the three categories of eternity past, 'before all time'; the present 'now'; and eternity future, 'forever'.

Immortal

Timothy in his opening doxology calls God the King of the ages or the King of eternity.

1 Timothy 1:17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

He calls God immortal, not subject to death or decay, and he attributes honor and glory to him eternally. In his closing doxology in chapter 6 he says

1 Timothy 6:15 ...—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

He attributes to him immortality and eternal rule.

In Romans 1:23, the immortality of God is contrasted with mortal man and animals, who are subject to death and decay.

In Romans 16:26, Paul refers to God as 'the eternal God'.

Revelation 4 describes the worship around the throne of God.

Revelation 4:8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” 9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne,...

God is described as the one who was and is and is to come, the one who lives forever and ever. Past, present and future, the eternally living one.

Jesus the Eternal Word

John begins his gospel by describing Jesus as the eternally existent Word.

John 1:1 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.

Jesus eternally existed with his Father from before the beginning. John begins his first letter, 1 John, this way:

1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—

He describes Jesus, whom the apostles heard and saw and touched as “that which was from the beginning”; he eternally existed. The life was made manifest, his eternal life who existed eternally with the Father. He was revealed to them in time. He says in chapter 5:

1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Jesus, the Son of God, who is the true God and eternal life, came to give us understanding. Jesus who is eternal life came so that we may know him. Jesus said in John 17:

John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Jesus innately possesses eternal life with his Father. Jesus offers eternal life to all who believe in him as a gift. This does not mean that we can become eternal beings; it would be impossible for us who had a beginning to become without beginning. We are invited to participate in God's eternal life by knowing him, by entering into relationship with him, by enjoying him forever.

Eternal Joy

Psalm 106 points us to this aspect of eternal joy. Psalm 106:48 praises the blessedness of the eternal God.

Psalm 106:48 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the LORD!

God not only exists from eternity past to eternity future, but he is blessed or happy from everlasting to everlasting. He is delighted to be who he is.

If we look back to Psalm 90, where we started, we see this aspect of joy. Psalm 90 begins with a recognition of the eternal nature of God. He is our dwelling place throughout generations and he is God from eternity past to eternity future. Psalm 90 ends with a prayer. The prayer of Psalm 90 is that the Lord bring satisfaction and the joy of his presence to our days. That he would exchange the days and years of evil and affliction with days of gladness in God. That he would establish and make permanent and lasting the work or our hands.

Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. 13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. 16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org