I'd like to turn with me in God's Word to Psalm 90. Psalm 90. Continue our study through the Belgian Confession. As I mentioned, we're going to pause for a bit on Article 1, with a number of sermons on who is God. In particular, we're just going to look at two words this evening. infinite. Most of what we'll try to see is the biblical background for such a confession. We confess an eternal and infinite God. We're going to read here from Psalm 90, uniquely the Psalm of Moses. This is God's holy word. A prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You return man to dust and say, Return, O children of man, for a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood. They are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and is renewed, in the evening it fades and withers. For you're brought to an end by your anger, by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath, we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are 70, or even by reason of strength, 80. yet their span is but toil and trouble. They are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you? So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? Have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your works be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 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. their ends are reading from God's holy word. Let us turn over to article one of the Belcher Confession. You'll find this on page 153 in your Forms and Prayers book. 153. To draw your attention to a few pages before this, back on page 142, there's a history, short history of the Belgic Confession. There's a history of each of our confessions and creeds, helpful in the Forms and Prayers book. Or refer to the previous sermon on this subject. Belgic Confession, article one, it's on page 153. We'll confess article one, the only God, together. We all believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that there is a single and simple spiritual being whom we call God, eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, unchangeable, infinite, almighty, completely wise, just, and good, and the overflowing source of all good. Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, In George Orwell's book, 1984, which if you haven't read it, you should read it. I don't know if I was assigned it in high school, but I didn't read it until about five years ago. In that book, there's a main character named Winston Smith. And Winston Smith is being brainwashed by the party, which is the oppressive, tyrannical government. He's being brainwashed by the party so that he can serve Big Brother. with the government having 24-7 surveillance on everyone. And there's a concept in this world of the future, it's called double-speak. It means to say something which contradicts with reality. But if the party claims that it's true, then it is so. It is true. They have a branch of government, in the book 1984, to change history so that it fits with the goal of the party. If someone rebels against Big Brother, they will be exterminated and any reference of their life or of having ever existed will be erased from the public record, will be erased from history. Now in an interrogation with the main character, Winston, the interrogator holds up all the fingers on his hand except for his thumb and he does this. He holds up what seems to be the number four. And he says to Winston, how many fingers do I have up? Winston says, four. He says, wrong. This is five fingers, because the party wants it to be five. He says, two plus two equals five. Then the interrogator holds up, once again, those four fingers minus the thumb. And he says, how many fingers do I have holding up? And Winston says, four. And they punish him for it. He continues to argue four cannot be five. But finally, Winston gets so worn down in the interrogation and the torture that he just says, fine, this is five, even though he knows it's four. And this continues on and on and on until he thinks four is five. In that dystopian society, doublespeak is the way of speaking with contradictions. When we come to the study of theology, especially the doctrine of God, in a lot of ways we're dealing with language. When we speak about God, it's difficult to put into words what it means that God is eternal and infinite. Theologians and philosophers throughout the centuries have debated and written and offered their definitions and distinctions. Some have argued that the problem is that we are creatures. Our language is also creaturely. So they believe in something called negative theology. You can't say anything positive about God. You can just say what God is not. And in part, we confess that this evening. We're limited by our intellect and we're limited by our language. And with all those limitations, how can we speak about an infinite, eternal God? How can we even speak about God? This God, the reason why we can't is because this God has revealed himself to us. God has told us about himself. And so we look at the scriptures once again as we continue our series asking the question, who is God? Our theme this evening is the only true God is not limited by space or time. The only true God is not limited by space or time. First we'll see He's infinite, second eternal, and then third omnipresent. I encourage you to leave your Bibles open, especially in the second or third point, we'll look at a bunch of Bible passages together. So in this sermon, we're looking at two incommunicable attributes of God. Incommunicable because there's not a reference of them in us. We're looking at God's infinity and eternality. But as we look at this in the Belgian Confession, we recognize the fact that this is written in 1561. After 1561, theology continued to develop. In fact, even the language of communicable and incommunicable attributes are not taking place in 1561. I'll explain that way later. Nevertheless, it's a helpful distinction. In theology, the broader term is divine infinity. Divine, infinity, and it contains two parts. God is eternal and God is omnipresent. God is not limited by time. God is not limited by space. And so we'll look at those individually in a moment. But at the outset, let us notice the limitation of the term. The word infinity means simply not finite. or not limited. God, in his divine essence, is so completely different from creatures that we need to speak about God concerning what he is not. Infinite, not finite, not like us. Not limited. To echo the psalm and the prophet Micah, who is like our God. As we dig a bit deeper into the attribute of infinity, there are two main ways to speak about God's infinity. And the primary focus is God's lack of limitation. By anything created, anything finite, this gets into a deeper theology question, is God then governed in any way, directed in any way, or responding in any way to creatures? And the answer is no. And yes. Mostly no, when we're talking about the infinity of God. There's another way of speaking of infinity, and here's where it becomes even more personal, is that God is infinite regarding virtue. God is not limited in his virtues. In God's essence, every virtue is present in an absolute sense or an absolute degree. And this is the infinity of God's essence. This does not mean that God is infinite in magnitude. Sometimes they'll speak about the boundless dimensions of the universe. Where does the universe end? Is there an end of it? I saw a couple weeks ago that they discovered some galaxies. Can't remember how far they are away. Maybe like 12 billion light years away, I think. And they probably think those galaxies don't even exist anymore. Because of the way that... It seems like there's no end to it. There is. The galaxy, the universe, the cosmos is limited. It is created. There was a time where it was not. It is not equal to God. God has no body. He has no extension. We also do not mean that God is infinite in number. In mathematics, we could speak about something infinitesimally small or large. We show this by something like one-third. Can you write out in a decimal point one-third? Point three, three, three, three, three, right? We're allowed to put a line over it. It just means repeating. But write it all out. Well, you would never stop writing. There's no end to it. Mathematicians still have not found the final integer of pi. might end, I'm not a mathematician, I don't know if there is an end to it, but they certainly haven't found it. Some people memorize hundreds of points of pi. God is not point something, something, something, repeating. That's not what it means that God is infinite. God is one and simple, as we saw last week. Now, as we think about the infinite nature of God, it can seem very abstract. In a sense, it's hold the other. He's not finite. He's not like us. Everything we know, everything we know is finite. God is infinite, the only infinite one. As we move on to these next two attributes, hopefully that God's infinity becomes a little bit more easy to understand. So second, he is eternal. Infinity, in the sense of not being determined by time, is the eternity of God. God transcends time. He's above it and outside it, cannot be limited by it, and yet, He enters into it. Explain that. He's outside of time, not bound by time, not limited by time. He created time. Genesis 1 verse 1 is when time was created, before that there was no time, to use that language. And yet, God enters into time. The scriptures get at this in a number of different ways. We know this, well, He's the first and the last, the Alpha, the Omega. Revelation 1, which is taken from Isaiah 41, verse 4. He existed before the world. Genesis 1.1, John 1.1. A scripture reading this afternoon from Psalm 90, there at verse 2. It says, I will say to my... Oh, that's verse, chapter 91, Psalm 91. Psalm 90, verse 2. Wherever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. That's a Hebrew way of saying infinitely, eternally, beyond comprehension, you are God. Psalm 93 verse 2 said something similar. Your throne is established from old, you are from everlasting. And then also from our scripture reading verse 4. For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. This is echoed throughout the scriptures. You can see all those scripture references I put in your bulletin rack and look at all of them. But in Isaiah 40, 28, he's the everlasting God. Isaiah 57, he inhabits eternity. He lives forever and ever, according to Deuteronomy 32, Revelation 10, Revelation 15. He's called the immortal God. 1 Timothy 6, Romans 1. He is, and was, and is to come. You heard that already. I begin the worship service each afternoon, evening, with that phrase. It's taken from Revelation 1, verse 4 to 6. It's eternal. In all these scripture passages, it describes God's eternity in a way that still uses the language of time. It's an interesting concept. If God is outside of time, not limited by time, and can't be subject to time words, the only way we can talk about him is with time words. So what do we really mean here? Well, there is a false view of God's eternity which describes God as everlasting. And the Bible uses the word everlasting, but it's not the way that we usually use it. I think in your sermon outline it put a line, a true line, arrows going the opposite way. That's not how God is going. God was and God will be. If God was like that, on this line of time, with an arrow going eternally that way, eternally that way, from everlasting to everlasting, you know what the problem with that is? What if you put two dots on that line? One is before the other. One is after the other. God cannot be that. God cannot be limited to time. This is beyond our experience. The real problem is describing God in a way that there is a succession of time. However, this is not how time works for God. He is outside of time. He is above time. Everything is eternally present to God. Time, by definition, is creaturely. It's connected to God's creation. If there were no creation, Genesis 1, verse 1, never took place. There would be no time. There was no succession of events in the past before creation. The past, the present, and the future to God, in a sense, are all the same. One theologian described God as being eternally present. That's a time word again. You get the point. Though this might sound a bit theological, and it is, we need to ask the question, what is time? What is time? It may be a question you've never asked before. If God's above this thing, outside of this thing, but made this thing, what is time? We can distinguish here between intrinsic and extrinsic time. Extrinsic regards the standards by which we measure motion. For instance, the rising and setting of the sun. It's an easy way to determine time. We call it a day. The movement of the heavenly bodies. You might not have realized it, boys and girls, but you do know that there are stars out all the time. Middle of the day, there's just as many stars as there are at night. You just can't see them. When the sun goes down, all of a sudden, the stars appear. Did you know you see the same stars every night? They do change. They do shift in the sky. The Big Dipper seems to move throughout the year. Orion's belt to one place here and then two months later moved over to there. And so you can determine the times, the seasons, all according to the heavenly bodies. And it seems quite arbitrary. But God created the earth this way. He created the entire cosmos this way. How long is a day? 24 hours? 24 hours made up of 60 minutes each? Could God have created the world to spin half as fast? Then what would happen? Well, a day would be 48 hours or 24 hours with 120 minutes in an hour. This is all relative time. We've determined this, not God. It's just a creaturely way of speaking how one day passes. Time in this sense, one day will cease. There will come a time where there won't be time on the new earth. Intrinsic time, on the other hand, refers to the fact that things have a present and a past and a future. Yesterday, one thing is true of all of you. I know this for certain. Yesterday, you were younger than you are today. And shall you live tomorrow, you will be one day older than you were today. We have a past, we have a present, and a future. The future is always becoming the present, and the present is always becoming the past. This connects with the idea that you can't step into the same river twice. Know why you can't step into the same river twice? Step into the river, you step into that river at that time. Take your foot out, step into it again, that water's gone, you have a whole new river. You never step into the same river twice. Everything is flowing, going, going. Time passes and passes and passes. We don't think about the succession of time. We think about it by minutes, hours, unless you watch the Olympics. Then hundredths of a second determines medals. But since time changes, there can be no time liability in God. There's no shadow of turning. There's no variation in God, James 1, 17. As we grow, day after day, older and older, as we have a birthday, every birthday is a picture of our mortality. We're getting older, and every single day, you're closer to death than you were the day before. We're finite. God is infinite. Maybe an analogy from the work world would clarify. How is time measured? Doesn't it seem like some days go faster than others? I can remember being a teenager, certainly wouldn't ever have this as a minister. As a teenager, you're working hourly. And it's 90 degrees outside. I was working in the tire business. I'm all dirty, getting under cars. They roll up warm. You've got to change your tires. You've got to do this and that. And you watch the clock. And it's like, the minute hand doesn't even move. The day takes forever. It takes forever to get to lunch break. You just watch the time go so slow. Other days, you're busy. Time goes fast. It's like, all of a sudden, it's lunchtime. All of a sudden, it's 6 o'clock. Time to go home. When you enjoy your job, when you enjoy your task, it goes faster. Sometimes it seems like the day just began. You're like, wow, where did the day go? You're probably enjoying your day at that point. The day can go by just like a snap of a finger. And this might be a way of illustrating what Psalm 90 is getting at in verse four. A thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past. Yesterday when it's passed, it happened so quick. It's gone. Did you know that Thanksgiving is this week already? Did you know Christmas is coming after that? We just had summer. Time continues to pass. A thousand years compared to a day. It's a poetic way of describing the extreme difference in time. God is outside it and not subject to it. Nevertheless, God's outside time, not subject to time. We should not view God as being removed from time, though he did not have to. He does break through into our time and life. God is working through time. God is present and imminent in every moment. There's an essential difference between eternity and time. But there's also a relationship that they have so that God can work in time. In the fullness of time, God sent forth the Lord Jesus Christ. In reality, in our day-to-day, almighty, eternal God, infinite, incomprehensible, can have a real, true relationship and true fellowship with his people. Walking with his people in fellowship This is why when the Bible describes God in these ways, what a wonder of God's mercy. The idea of God walking with Adam in the garden, the cool of the day. What a picture of God's mercy. This God who is not limited by these things comes into the reality of our time. The eternal God seeks to have communion with his creatures. In time we have growth and development, et cetera, and this is all the work of God in time. God is the Lord over time. The idea of eternal time is an oxymoron. A time without beginning is inconceivable. Only God causes time. Third, God is omnipresent. The omnipresence of God is part of the infinity of God. It's infinity of God regarding space. He is everywhere present. The Scriptures testify to this attribute in many places. God is exalted above all creatures. He's exalted above all space. Heaven and earth cannot contain Him. 1 Kings 8.27 says, And so the picture that the Scriptures give is of a God who's far, He's not like us. He doesn't live here. And a God who's near to us, and close to us, and intimately connected with us. He fills the earth and heaven in different ways. Heaven is uniquely a place of God's dwelling, even though it was also created. It's a place of God's throne. Deuteronomy 26, 2 Samuel 22, Psalm 11, Psalm 33, Psalm 115. The throne of God who dwells in heaven. But we also see God coming down in mercy. Walking in the garden in Genesis 3. Coming down at Mount Sinai in a unique way. God dwells in a special way with his people. Both in the land of Canaan, in the tabernacle, in the temple, above the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. However, the prophets warned the people time and again not to grow complacent. They thought that was their security. You see a cloud? See the pillar? See the ark? See the tabernacle? See the temple? There is our safety. And they often thought that if God dwelt among them, then it didn't really matter what they did. Remember, as we've seen in 1 Samuel, those who brought the ark into the battle against the Philistines thought, we can't lose if God is with us. Well, they did. They lost. The ark was taken by the Philistines, and they brought it back to Philistia. When we speak of God's omnipresence, we're not simply saying that God is in all places at all times. He is. But we're saying something more. God is above space. He's not limited to it. God is not like air or light that fills the universe. God is wholly different. So the application of this involves the presence of God. We confess that God is everywhere present. And this is going to go into a lot of theological debates in church history. Debate about the Lord's Supper. How is God present here? Well, if he's omnipresent, he's certainly present here. So is God present in some place different than He's present in another place? Yes, He is. Though God is omnipresent, God is present in His church in a different way than He is present in the world. There's a presence of God which is to be feared, like it is in hell. Is hell the absence of God? No. God has to uphold hell. He upholds it in His judgment and His wrath. But there's a nearness of God, a closeness of God, an intimacy of God, a presence of God, which brings salvation. God is in His holy temple. God is present here in corporate worship in a unique way. He wasn't here in this way yesterday, on Saturday, where we had no worship service. Where two or three are gathered in my name, I'm with them." That means God's uniquely in that presence, in a unique, particular way. And we see this throughout the scriptures. God was near to Abraham. God called Abraham by name. And then God established a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. And God himself passed among the pieces of the animal that were cut in two, or cut in many pieces. God and Christ is present among his people together in an altogether different way. God came into time. The eternal, the infinite became finite. It's the greatest of all miracles in the scripture. The infinite became finite. The immortal became mortal. How can that possibly be? Christ is present among his people. And the Lord Jesus Christ, God, in the flesh, became subject to time. Christ lived, and he died, and he was buried, and was finite. He was limited to space and time. Yet, as Christ rose, he defeated death, the even greater enemy of time, the greater ender of time, death. And so if you trust in Jesus Christ, you have life. This great miracle of the incarnation, God becoming flesh, is kind of the underwritten attribute of all of God's attributes, as we see. So we can speak about this from a very matter-of-fact, fundamental, theological way. In a lot of ways, these sermons in Article 1 of the Belgian Confession are very theological. In fact, your sermon outline came into existence when I first, 15 years ago, started preaching through the Belgian Confession, so I could define some big words to use. It's theological, the idea that God is eternal and infinite, and yet it becomes very personal and intimate when we see what God has done in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we're given purpose and direction. The God who's outside of time comes rushing into time. The God who's created this earth will redeem this earth. The result of our sin, death, the great ender of life, becomes an enemy which is defeated in Jesus Christ. We might confess even though we die, yet we will live. And so turn to him. And there's the fulfillment of this as well. There's a fulfillment of this all in Revelation 21, verse three. This will all one day all be fulfilled. It says, There behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. We look forward to that day for the cessation of time. Not because time is bad. God created time and it's good. Because on that day, in a way that we will never experience in this life. We will know the Lord our God. Our faith will be sight. The Lord Jesus Christ will be the light of the day. We will dwell eternally without spot and blemish anymore, without tears and burdens and worries anymore. We will live eternally with God. These concepts, brothers and sisters, are too great for us. Nevertheless, God reveals himself as the everlasting God, and we take that by faith. This God, who is so completely different and infinite regarding space and time, has come near to you and to me in his love, in his care, in his mercy. This great God has become our shepherd and has promised that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life. And so let us seek him. Let us seek his love and his grace. And let us pray that he will continue to come near to us in his love, his grace, and his mercy. And so as we see at the end of any theological discussion, let us worship him. May he continue to move us to gratitude and thanksgiving. This is our God. Amen. Let us pray together. Our Father in heaven, we confess that you were too great for us to comprehend. You've revealed yourself in the scriptures. We confess that you were eternal and infinite. We've heard this and seen it in the passage of scripture, but we cannot fully comprehend this. And so we stand before you with humble adoration and praise. We thank you that though you are far, far removed from us, in your nature, you've come near to us in your love and your grace and mercy. You've sent forth the Lord Jesus Christ. We praise you for your glorious salvation. Father, make us true worshipers and help us to understand what you've revealed to us. Lord, we pray that even a theological discussion as this might not remain impractical or theoretical, that we might see that you, the infinite God, is a covenant-keeping God who in time has shown your love and grace to your people. Apply your word to our hearts. Guide us and keep us this week. Help us to serve you wherever you have placed us and whatever you call us to. Forgive us when we fail to serve you. Forgive us when we fall short of our callings. And restore us once again in your salvation. We pray for your blessing upon our offering. Continue to give us our daily bread. And help us to know that indeed, you are the overflowing source of all good. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.