Today on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. What's the size? of your God. I trust we believe in a big God. An awesome God.
A God who is so big that He's infinite and eternal. Today we're considering this question: Is God infinite? And Eternal. Welcome to the Verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe, senior pastor of Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Today, we're looking at some of the profound and practical implications of God's eternal and infinite nature as we continue a series called What Would You Ask God?
Get a fresh sense of how awe-inspiring the one true God is. There is no one like Him.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe with today's message. Do you ever pause to reflect on how small you are In our immense universe, Today we're further considering the fact that God is infinite, and eternal By saying that God is infinite, we mean that God in His being and perfections is absolutely free from all limitations, conditions and restrictions. God is infinite as to His knowledge, so He is omniscient. infinite as to his power, so he is omnipotent. And God is infinite in regards to time.
So we say that God is eternal. Today we're focusing on the eternality of God. I'm trying to expand your mind.
so that you'll understand more and more of the God who is infinite and eternal. but also a God who loves you and me. Job Chapter 11 Verse seven. We're going to see that God is infinite. And here Job It's talking.
About the infinity of God. Chapter eleven, verse seven. Can you discover The depths of God Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are as high As the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know?
Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. Job is saying that God is infinite. By saying that God is infinite, we mean that God in His Being and perfections is absolutely free from all limitations, from all conditions and from all restrictions. We are finite, all of us have our limits. Of course we do.
You may be rich, your riches have a limit. You may be strong, your strength has a limit. Our perspective. is restricted by time. But guards perspective.
is eternal. Listen to Isaiah. In chapter 46. Verse nine, a scripture we've seen before. Remember the former times long past, For I am God and there is no other, I am God and there is no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning.
and ancient times things which have not been done. God knows the end of history from the beginning. God knows the end of the ball game before the ball is even kicked. Why? Because he exists in eternity.
All you have Unlike gods. Who is eternal? Who exists endlessly backwards and forwards throughout all of time because he is eternal. All we have is today. This day This moment.
The fact is, time is our common Commodity, isn't it? Time never speeds up for the impatient. Time never slows down for the lazy. Time always marches on relentlessly. We cannot stop the tick of the clock.
Each of us has eighty six seconds each day to enjoy, to waste, to sleep, to work, to play, to love, to hate. We all have the same commodity of time because all of us, as it were, are locked into time. I was reading that not content in an article, not content with seconds, we're now able, obviously, to measure fractions of a second. Olympic records are won or lost by hundreds of seconds. In nineteen fifty five in England, doctor Louis Essin completed the math that led to the building of the world's first atomic clock.
It was accurate to approximately one in ten billion. By the year 2000, atomic clocks were so accurate that they would lose just one second during the entire known age of the universe. Amazing. They've got ways of calculating what a second is. I thought I would read that to you, but then I thought, who's interested in that?
I am slightly, but there's a way, there's a scientific way of measuring what a second is. Actually, fascinating. But scientists are still not satisfied. with such accuracy as to the second. They are now working on optical frequency transitions, creating a highly stable system that is claimed to be accurate.
Listen to this. To one part in ten to the power eighteen. That would make it about one thousand times more accurate than the best existing clocks. Why is this so important?
Well, highly accurate time measurement is essential to the running of the Internet, to the security of the world's stock markets, where millions of dollars or yen or euro or pound sterling are won or lost in a second. The fact is all of us Are controlled by time. As I'm talking to you, you're watching your watch and saying, How long is this message going to go on? We are concerned with time from the moment we get up. We are bound by time.
Fascinating, isn't it? But not so fascinating as to consider. That there is no such thing as past, present or future with God. Do you ever think of that? God lives in the eternal now.
He exists in the past, present, and future at the same moment of time. God knows, God sees, the exact date. of your death. and of mine. Tomorrow, a hundred years, a thousand years from now, if time exists that long.
It is just as real, just as present to God as today. is to us. Because God has already experienced all of the future as he exists in eternity. He is. From everlasting.
To everlasting. Do you think of that? That God has already experienced all of the future as He has what we call the present and the past, because God is eternal. He is from everlasting. to everlasting.
Some implications of God being eternal.
Well, because God is eternal, He is always with us. Hebrews thirteen verse five and The wonderful promise: I will never leave you nor forsake you. Why will God never leave us or forsake us? Because God is infinite. He is always With us.
Psalm 23: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Even through the valley of the shadow of death, yes, God will be with us. What about when we die? No problem, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That God is with us now.
And God will be with me through death. And God will be with us for all of eternity. In fact, the Scripture says that when Christ comes, we will be forever with the Lord. He is eternally. present with his people.
It also means that you can always trust in the Lord. You can always turn to the Lord for help. Because He never gets tired. He never gets weary. We sometimes look to people for help and they say, Oh, I'm so tired.
I don't know if I can help you. I'm so weary. I'm so mentally exhausted. Give me a break. I'll get back to you tomorrow.
God is never ever like that. He's infinite in His strength. Listen to Isaiah. In that wonderful chapter. Chapter forty.
Listen to these words. God gives strength To the weary. And to him who lacks might, He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles.
They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. You say, John, I'm here today and I'm very weary and I'm very tired and I don't know if I can go on another day. Life is so horrible and life is so miserable. And God says, Well, turn to me.
Wait on me. Because I understand that, but I'm never tired. I never get weary. I never lack wisdom. Because I have infinite power I have infinite strength, I have infinite wisdom.
And I understand that the healthiest and the most athletic of men Get tired and stumble and get old, but I'm not like that, and therefore wait on me, put your trust in me. Says Moses, He is the eternal God who is our refuge. And underneath are what kind of arms? Everlasting arms. Fathers, your arms are not everlasting.
Husbands, your fi your arms are not everlasting. We sometimes fail. We let down our wives and our children and our friends, don't we? But God is never like that. He never fails.
He is the eternal God who is our refuge. His arms are everlasting, and He holds us, and He will never let us fall. He will never drop us, he will never abandon us. He is always at our side. Always there to help.
And when we die, it is forever with The Lord. Do you understand that all of us are heading for eternity? to a place where there is no time. Do you realize that soon you will be in eternity? You say, Well, Monroe, you look pretty old, but I'm only in my teens.
I've got a long time to live, really. You know that, do you? No, you don't know that. None of us do. On death, each one of us will pass into eternity.
How does that thought impact you? How does it impact you if you knew that you were going to die tomorrow? If you knew that time for you was going to end tomorrow and you're going to go into eternity? Tom Stoppard, the British dramatist, said humorously, Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where is it all going to end?
Humorous from an unbeliever, yes. When is it all going to end? The fact is, Tom. Brilliant dramatist although you are, it is never, ever going to end. You see According to the scripture, according to the Christian gospel.
And this is very sobering. We're not all heading for the same destination. We're all going into eternity, but some of us. Will experience eternal life. Others will experience eternal judgment.
Some will go to heaven and some will go to hell. You say, wait a minute, preacher, you're trying to scare me.
Well, I'm not trying to scare you, I'm trying to give you the facts. I'm trying to warn you. that if you're on the wrong road, you need to get off that road. Because whether you believe it or not, all of us. are heading into eternity.
The clock is ticking, and one day for each of us, the clock will stop and we will go from time into eternity. You say, what determines whether we go to heaven or hell? Religious observance, sincerity, church attendance, living a good life. Let me tell you, compared with God who is infinite in His holiness. None of us lives a good life.
All of us drop the ball, all of us mess up, all of us fail, all of us sin. Compared with your neighbor, you may be a very good person compared with God. You're sinful because God is infinite. In His Holiness. But in the miracle of the gospel, that is the good news of Jesus Christ.
This eternal God that we've been thinking about who is outside of time Who's outside of space?
Now he comes into time. He comes into human history. The word becomes flesh and dwells among us. He is Emmanuel. not a remote God.
Not the God of the deist, but a God who is. with us. And we're all spiritually dead, heading for eternal destruction, the Bible tells us. But our Lord Jesus Christ has intervened and offers us the free gift. of eternal life.
So Paul says the wages of sin It's death. But the gift of God. It's what? Is eternal life? Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Isn't that wonderful that we're heading for death, but Christ comes and offers us eternal life. not through the Church. not through some religious observance, not through trying to be a wonderful citizen, but through our Lord Jesus Christ, who as we saw last week as we studied the Trinity is God. And what did He do that He can give us eternal life? He comes into time.
Dies on the cross for our sins, living a perfect life, rising from the dead. Yes. Why? Because he is eternally alive. And when we receive the living Christ, the eternal Christ, into our hearts and our lives.
Where once we were spiritually dead, now we are spiritually alive. And Christ gives us as a gift, undeserved gift, gives us eternal life. You see, only the eternal God can give you eternal life. Listen to the teaching of Jesus. Enter by the narrow gate.
for the gate is wide And the way is broad that leads to destruction. and many are those who enter by it.
Now, this is Jesus. This is not me. For the gate is small. And the way is narrow that leads to life And few are those who find it. Matthew seven thirteen through fourteen.
Or listen again to Jesus. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. And does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. John five, verse twenty four. And then John 3:36, he who believes on the Son has eternal life.
He who does not obey the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. The question is: As we think of this God who is infinite and eternal, do you have the assurance that you personally have eternal life? Do you? Do you have the assurance that on death Realizing that however old you are or however young you are, you don't know when you're going to die. Do you have the assurance that on your death you will go to heaven to be with Jesus Christ, this eternal God?
Do you? Are you trusting in Jesus Christ alone? for your eternal salvation. Many of you say, John, by God's grace, we are. Praise God.
If you're not, may you trust Christ. And may all of us live in the light of eternity. All of us are heading from time into eternity. You'll leave behind all of your possessions, all of your achievements, all of your resources. You say you want to make a name for yourself, you might go down.
In history. Perhaps even as a footnote. But so what? The Lord Jesus said, What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world? I don't know what your world is, but supposing you fulfill every dream that you had.
And you lose your own soul, what's the profit? Or what would you give in exchange? For your soul. If we're wise, we invest for eternity. We invest in the lives of people.
We invest in eternal values. We invest in eternal realities. We invest in the kingdom of God. We are passionate about that which will last for eternity. John Stott Rights To those who are following Christ, he says, Lift up your eyes.
You are certainly a creature of time. But you're also a child of eternity. You are a citizen of heaven. And an alien and exile on earth, a pilgrim travelling to the celestial city. He said, I read some years ago of a young man who found a $5 bill in the street and who, from that time on, never lifted his eyes when walking.
In the course of years, he accumulated twenty nine thousand five hundred and sixteen buttons. fifty four pins. He accumulated a lot of money. A bent back. and a miserly disposition.
But say, think of what he lost. He couldn't see the radiance of the sunlight and the sheen of the stars, the smile on the face of his friends, or the blossoms of springtime, for his eyes were in the gutter, his eyes were always down. Say, stop. There are too many Christians like that. We have important duties on earth.
But we must never allow them to preoccupy us in such a way that we forget who we are and where we're going. Who are we? We're children of the eternal king. Where are we going? We're going to heaven through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, keep looking up. And know this God who is from everlasting to everlasting, the King, eternal. The way to receive eternal life Is to receive His eternal Son, Jesus Christ, into your heart and life. Then you will know the God. Who is infinite in his perfections.
Then you will say, as the psalmist says, this God. is my God. forever. Endeavour. Do you get that?
This God. is my God for ever and ever. We who are in time now are all bound for eternity. C. S.
Lewis says, this is why we're sometimes surprised by the passing of time. He says we've got this consciousness of eternity. He says we say such things as, oh my, how you've grown, how time flies. And Lewis likens that phenomenon to a fish. repeatedly astonished by the wetness of water.
He writes, This would be a strange indeed, unless, of course, the fish were destined to become one day a land animal. No, but a fish is not astonished by the wetness of the water. But we are astonished often by how quickly time goes, aren't we? The older we get, the quicker it goes. Why is that?
Why are we so often surprised by the passing of time? It's because God has made us like that.
Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3: God has put eternity in our hearts. We realise, don't we? There is more to life than this. We realize, don't we, if we're wise people, that soon our life on earth will be over.
Soon we will be in eternity. Therefore, make sure your trust is in the eternal Christ. Live for Christ. He will be with you. Each millisecond of your life and he will be with you.
for the countless ages of eternity. And so we sing. When we've been there, ten thousand years. Pen Thousand years, bright, shining as the sun. There'll be no less days to sing his praise than when we first begun.
Why is that? Because we're in eternity. There's no clocks, there's no calendars, there's no time. We are there. In the unending ages of eternity, preoccupied with this great, awesome God.
and his son. who loved us. and gave himself for us. What a wonderful Wonderful God. And so when you see the expanse of the ocean, think eternity.
And when you see the stars in the sky, The innumerable sc Stars in the sky think eternity. And when you are on the seashore and see the sand on the beach, think eternity. And when you are surprised by the passing of time, think eternity. When you stand by an open grave, think eternity. timeless eternity.
Shoreless infinity, measureless, limitless, fathomless sea, incomprehensible, vastness extensible, ever. endeavour and ever to be. Purpose immutable, kindness inscrutable, Christ for the sinner, accursed on the tree. Grace unaccountable, love unsurmountable ever. endeavour, endeavour to be judgments immensity Torments, intensity, fearful finality, changeless decree, conscious non-entity, sinful identity, ever and ever.
and ever to be. Anguish, or ecstasy, peace or perplexity, infinite, absolute offered to thee. pause on the brink today. ponder eternity, ever. and ever endeavour.
to be. What's it to be for you? May each of us Say from the depths of our soul with the psalmist. This God. This God who is infinite, this God who is eternal, This God who loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us.
This God who is my Savior and my friend. This God is my God. Forever. And double. This is the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe.
There's still more to hear when John returns in just a moment, so stay with us. From matters of truth and identity, to the subjects of love and grace, our world seems more confused than ever. but to find truth and certainty about who we are and find peace, we must turn our attention away from the world and look to the Word of God. To help he do that, John wrote a booklet titled Eternal Security, Finding Certainty in a Chaotic World. Through this special resource John shares his personal testimony, along with a careful examination of Scripture, to offer us clarity on matters of eternity.
Get your copy today by visiting our website at theverdict. org. While you're there, consider making an investment in this Bible teaching ministry. Whether it's $5, $50, or more. Your gift today helps cover the cost of sharing these gospel messages to listeners around the world.
And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the Verdict Podcast, featuring John's weekly podcast exclusive called Avizandam. It's available wherever you get your podcasts, or simply go to our website. Again, that's theverdict.org. The verdict is a ministry of Calvary Church in South Charlotte. We're located on the corner of Highway 51 and Ray Road.
If you've been looking for a church home or a community to help you grow in your walk with Christ, We invite you to join us for our Sunday services. For more details about Calvary and our service times, visit theverdict.org.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? God is infinite. And God is eternal. Do you realize that you're heading for eternity? Our eternal destiny is difficult to grasp.
But this brings us to the good news of Jesus Christ. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have Everlasting life. Trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior. And as a gift, you will receive eternal life.
Next time we answer the question. Does God know everything? Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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