God Everywhere ~ 20150927 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

09/27 God Everywhere and Nowhere; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20150927_god-everywhere.mp3

We are studying God, what he says about himself in his word. We are seeking to know him, to enjoy the relationship with him that he purchased for us with the blood of his only Son our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Prayer

Psalm 22

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? 2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.

...11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.

...19 But you, O LORD, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid! 20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog! 21 Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!

Isaiah 64

1 Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence— 2 as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! 3 When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. 4 From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.

We want to know you God. We long to be near you, to enjoy your presence, to be with you. We want to believe truth about you and flee from the idolatry of imagining that you are like us, from the sin of bringing you down to our level. We want to listen to what you say about yourself. To believe you. To stand in awe and wonder at a being so supreme, so awesome, so uniquely other. We were made to worship. To worship you alone. Guide our thoughts. Stir our hearts. Capture our affections. In Jesus' name and for his glory we ask, Amen.

Do you sometimes feel like God is far off, he is not listening, like he is not even there? Do you sometimes experience the nearness of God, and other times feel abandoned?

God Unlimited by Time or Space

Last time we looked at the infinity of God in relation to time. God is unlimited, unconstrained by time, or by the sequence of events. He is not a temporal being, he has no beginning and no end, he is, he exists independent of anything outside of himself. Yet he interacts with us, his creatures, in time.

Today we will look at God's infinity as it relates to space. Just as God is not limited or constrained by time as we understand it, so God is not limited by the material universe, by space or distance or size. Sometimes this is referred to as the immensity of God, the ubiquity of God, or the omnipresence of God.

If we ask 'What is God like?' we could look to the tabernacle. God gave Moses specific instructions on building him a sanctuary.

Exodus 25:8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. 9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it. 10 “They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.

If we understand the ark to be a kind of a throne, it is a box about 27 inches high by 27 inches deep by 45 inches wide. You would have to be a bit taller than me to sit on a throne that tall without your feet dangling awkwardly. If we keep reading, we see that the cover of this golden throne is complete with angelic figures ;

Exodus 25:22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

God would meet with his people in most holy place, which was about a 15 foot cube. If God were 10 feet tall, he could safely hover above the cherubim without bumping his head on the ceiling. Is this how we are to think about God?

God Uncontainable

If we jump ahead to the time of the kings, David made preparations for his son Solomon to build a temple in Jerusalem to replace the portable tabernacle, now that God had given them the land. In 2 Chronicles 2, Solomon wrote to make arrangements with the king of Tyre, who would supply skilled laborers and materials. He said:

2 Chronicles 2:4 Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of the LORD my God and dedicate it to him for the burning of incense of sweet spices before him, and for the regular arrangement of the showbread, and for burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths and the new moons and the appointed feasts of the LORD our God, as ordained forever for Israel. 5 The house that I am to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. 6 But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him?

Listen to parts of Solomon's prayer of dedication in chapter 6.

2 Chronicles 6:14 and said, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart,

...17 Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David. 18 “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! 19 Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you, 20 that your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where you have promised to set your name, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. 21 And listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen from heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

Solomon understood that heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain God. So just how big is God? Solomon speaks as large as he can. Heaven cannot contain him; the sky above cannot contain him. The highest heaven cannot contain him – what we think of as outer space cannot contain him. The biggest space you can imagine cannot contain him. God is uncontainable. The God who made the universe cannot be contained in the universe. Some scientists conjecture this universe is at least 28 billion light years in diameter. Remember that one light year is the distance that light can travel in one year, which is about 5.8 x 10¹² miles (that's twelve zero's), or 5.8 trillion miles. And then times that by 28 billion light years. Heaven, even the highest heaven cannot contain him. God existed before the universe existed. God spoke the universe into existence. God created space, and space cannot contain God.

The Lord asks Isaiah's generation in Isaiah 66:

Isaiah 66:1 Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? 2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. ...

Heaven is what I sit on. Planet Earth is the little thing I pull up to rest my feet on. Heaven and Earth exist because I brought them into existence. I am not contained by them. Paul says in Acts 17:

Acts 17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

God made everything and cannot be contained by anything he has made. This is the danger of sacred places. They tend to give us the impression that there are places we can go to be in God's presence, and there are other places that are exempt from God's presence. We come to church to meet with God, and then we leave God in the church building and go do other things.

God in Heaven and Hell

Look with me at Psalm 139. The Psalmist cries out in amazed worship:

Psalm 139:1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

You Lord know everything about me. You are ahead of me, behind me, all around me. Your hand is always on me. The Psalmist asks 'where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?' Is there anywhere that God is not? Of course, we expect we would find God in heaven. That is what makes heaven heaven. 'In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore' says the Psalmist (16:11). But what about hell? Isn't hell the absence of God? Isn't that what makes hell hell? Isaiah says

Isaiah 59:2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

But the Psalmist says 'If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!' No one can hide from the presence of God, not even in hell. Sin separates us from God, not spatially, not by distance, because God is everywhere. Sin separates us relationally from God's favor. I might be in the same room, looking one of my daughters in the eye and say 'I feel like there is a huge distance between us'. I don't mean that she is on a different continent. I mean that there is something that has driven a wedge in our relationship. Heaven is not so much a location as an experience of God's pleasure, God's favor, enjoying the intimacy of relationship. Hell is not so much a place as the experience of a relationship with our good Creator broken, the experience of his displeasure, his anger. God is eternally present in hell to ensure every sin is justly and fairly punished.

If I fly across the sea, if I attempt to hide in darkness, you are there. There is no place we can go that God is not already there.

God Filling Space

God says to the prophet Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 23:23 “Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away?

24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.

God is both near and far. There is no place that he is not. He fills heaven and earth. How does he fill all space? Is he like that expanding foam that when you spray it in a crack it expands to fill whatever space is there? Or should we think of him as so incredibly huge that his big toe is in Canada and his heel is in South America? He is present here in Utah, but only by the sole of his foot? These are all flawed ways of thinking about God that are limited to the material universe. God is not a man. God is not like us. God is spirit. He is immaterial. He is. And there is nowhere that he is not. His being is fully present everywhere. He is fully present in this room with us today, giving us his undivided attention, and he is fully present in Provo and Payson and Salt Lake City. He is fully present in Thailand and Azerbaijan and South Africa, and he is fully present with the believer praying in secret in Iraq. He is not more present in one place than another, he is not limited to being in one place at one time. His being is unlimited by space or time. It would be just as correct to say that God is everywhere as to say that God is nowhere, because where is the wrong question. In asking about the whereness of God, we are looking for physical boundaries. God has no physical boundaries. He is not physical or material. Just as God is not a creature of time but the Creator of time, independent of time and outside of time, God is not a creature in space but the Creator of space, independent of space and outside of space. He contains all space and yet is fully present in every point of space.

Immensity and Incarnation

What do we do with this when we look to Jesus and the incarnation? Jesus, eternal God, who possesses all the characteristics of God, took on flesh and became human. Did God the Son become confined in time and space to a limited human body? Did he cease to be unlimited during his time on this planet? And we believe that his humanity continues on forever, so is he still limited now? There are many hints throughout the Gospels that although Jesus really and truly took on a real human nature, and in that human nature he was confined to be in one place at each moment, that he never ceased to be fully God, and as God he continued to fill heaven and earth. Speaking of the incarnation, one of the old theologians said 'remaining what he was, he became what he was not'. Continuing as infinite eternal measureless God, he took on an additional nature, a human nature. In his humanity he is limited; in his divinity he is unconfined.

Speaking of the Son of God in his incarnation, the author of Hebrews writes:

Hebrews 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Jesus, while in his humanity he was confined to his mother's womb, was all the while upholding the universe. Colossians tells us:

Colossians 1:17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

While asleep in a boat from exhaustion on the sea of Galilee, he was holding every molecule of the universe together. Jesus said to his disciples, before his human body ascended into heaven,

Matthew 28:20 ...And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus, physically, bodily, is seated at the right hand of his Father's throne, as eternal God Jesus is ever present with every one of his followers to bless and care for us. Hebrews says:

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Use of Doctrine

What are the implications of this truth for us? What does it matter? All biblical truth is intensely practical. It affects how we live, it affects our attitudes, our actions, our responses to difficult circumstances.

The truth of God's omnipresence is a great comfort to believers. This means we are never alone. God is always with us. Jesus will never leave us or forsake us. Whatever we are going through, whatever trials we face, God is with us. He is for us. He will see us through.

This truth has implications on how we pray. We don't have to take a number and wait in line for someone else to finish before we can talk to God. We don't have to wait for God to make the rounds to our neighborhood before we can talk to him. Whenever we want, as often as we like, for as long as we desire, we have God's full and undivided attention. Take a moment for that to sink in. The God of the universe, the God who spoke all creation into existence, the God who governs every king and president and ruler, the God who is sovereign and supreme over all spiritual forces good and evil, is eager to listen to you. He counts your prayers as significant.

This gives us great confidence when we pray for others. God is fully present with us to hear our prayers here for our brothers and sisters who are in a different town or on the other side of the planet, and at the same time (or even before we ask) is fully present there to answer that prayer wherever they are.

The infinite presence of God is a great comfort to believers, but a great terror to unbelievers. In Revelation 6, we are told:

Revelation 6:15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?

Hebrews 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

There is no place we can flee from his presence. Not heaven, not hell, not the depths of the sea, not the farthest reaches of space. Augustine writes “there is no place whither thou mayest flee from God angry but to God reconciled. There is no place at all whither thou mayest flee. Wilt thou flee from him? Flee unto him.” The only safe place to flee from the wrath of God is to flee into the outstretched arms of Jesus. “No one comes to the Father except through me” Jesus said (Jn.14:6). Herman Bavinck writes “approaching God and seeking his countenance does not require pilgrimage but penitence and humiliation.” [Bavinck, p.163]

Isaiah 66:1 Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? 2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

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