Let's turn in the Word of God to Psalm 139. Again, Psalm 139, and we're reading from the seventh verse of the chapter. We thought about the opening first six verses. We mentioned it in our study last Lord's Day. Those verses remind us that God is omniscient, God is all-knowing. Now we come to the verse number seven. And this particular section reminds us that God is ever present. He is all present. He is omnipresent. And so let's read what the Psalmist David said in the verse number seven onwards. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea. Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike unto thee. For thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. And eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect. And in thy book all my members were written. which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. And we'll end our reading at the verse 18. Let's engage in prayer. You pray that God will minister to your heart even today. Our loving Father, we continue on before thee, and we thank thee for, O God, the giving of thy people into the work of God. We thank thee for, O God, thy goodness to us and thy mercies. Lord, we bring these things to thee as but a token of our gratitude for all that God has done for us. As we gather now around thy word, minister to our hearts. Speak to us, we pray. Send the Holy Ghost, we pray, that he might minister to every waiting heart. Lord, open our understanding to receive the things that are contained within thy word concerning thee. And so answer prayer and shut out the world and shut us into God. We pray this in Jesus' precious and holy and wonderful name. Amen and amen. Well, last Lord's Day we began to study together one of the incommunicable attributes of God, namely God's infinity. I want to remind you that the incommunicable attributes of God are those attributes that exclusively belong to God and cannot be ascribed to any other being. God alone is infinite. God alone is eternal. God alone is unchangeable. A week ago we thought about how God in the area of His knowledge is unbounded and is unlimited, and therefore he is omniscient, he is all-knowing. And as we came to expound that biblical truth of God's omniscience, we came to appreciate that God's knowledge not only incorporates the great things that happen in this world, but it also extends to the smallest things in nature, even the demise of a house sparrow. Well, today we want to I want us to continue to look at this incommunicable attribute of God, God's infinity, and think about how that God is unbounded and how He is unlimited with respect to space. And therefore, He is omnipresent. He is the omnipresent God. And so for the rest of this meeting, I want you to behold your omnipresent God. been thinking about this phrase, behold your God. We thought about behold your omniscient God last week. Today we think about this thought, behold your omnipresent God. And so I want you to consider firstly with me God's omnipresence defined. God's omnipresence defined. As with the word omniscience that we thought about last week, The word omnipresent is a compound word. It's made up of the prefix omni, meaning all, and the word present. In simplest of terms, the word omnipresent means that God is all-present. I want you to listen to how some theologians and preachers defined what it means for God to be omnipresent. Augustine was one of the early church fathers and he said this. There is one true God who is really a God, who is wholly present everywhere, is confined by no frontiers and bound by no hindrances, is indivisible and immutable, and though his nature has no need of either heaven or earth, he fills them both with his presence and his power. He would say on another occasion concerning the presence of God, In no place is God's being either confined or excluded. A. W. Tozer wrote, God dwells in his creation and is everywhere indivisibly present in all of his works. There is no place in heaven, earth, or hell where men may hide from his presence. Thomas Watson said, God is not confined to any place. He is infinite and so is present in all places at once. God's center is everywhere. His circumference is nowhere. Charles Hodge remarked, God is equally present with all of his creatures. at all times and in all places. He is not absent from any portion of space, nor more present in one portion than in another. Strong in his systematic theology declares that God in the totality of his essence, without disfusion or expansion, multiplication or division, penetrates and fills the universe in all of its parts. And then finally, a man by the name of W. Dixon, he said, God is present everywhere, equally at all times in the possession of all of his perfections or attributes. Because God is omnipresent, he transcends all spatial limitations and therefore he is present in every point of space with the whole of his being." Now notice those words, with the whole of his being, because they guard against the idea that God is some way diffused throughout space, so that one part of his being is present in one particular place and another part of his being is present in another particular place. That is not the case with God. That is not the case with our omnipresent God, but rather in the whole of His being, God is present in every point of space. The story is told of an atheist who was converted by one of his own sinful actions. He had written this on a piece of paper, God is nowhere. He ordered his little child to read it. And this is how the child said it, as she saw it written on the piece of paper, God is now here. She had just put together the letter W, changed it around, and it is recorded that that pierced that man's heart, and that man was savingly brought to saving faith in Jesus Christ. What he thought was a denial of God, that God is nowhere, his little child said, God is now here. And it convicted him. Another occasion a little child was asked this question. Sometimes children are greater theologians than men. The child was asked the question, why is there but one God? This is what the little child replied. Because God fills every place. and there is no room for another one. God fills every place and there is no room for another God. What a wonderful truth. God is all present, ever present. Having thought about God's omnipresence defined by what some individuals said about it, I want you to notice secondly with me God's omnipresence evidenced. His omnipresence evidenced. Now as we think about this truth, I want to present from the scriptures how we can prove that God is omnipresent. It ought to be immediately recognized by us that if God is a spirit, and we've thought about that, God's spirituality, and if he is the creator of all things and that he is, it is then only for us to be expected that he is inescapably present everywhere. God is inescapably present everywhere. And that truth we come to appreciate in three ways that we find recorded in the Holy Scripture. The first way in which the Bible presents the truth that God is all present is by the simple affirmations of Scripture. If you have a pen and piece of paper to hand you, you can jot down these Bible references that affirm the very fact that God is at all times present in the entirety of his being in all places. I think of what Elihu said to Job over there in Job 34 in the verse 21. His eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity might hide themselves. Such is only possible when God is everywhere present. Being present, therefore, in all places, the sinner is unable to hide themselves from God's all-seeing eye. Similar sentiments are found in Proverbs 15, verse 13. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. I think of what we read here in Psalm 39, another reference to verses 7 through to 10, whether shall I go from my spirit or whether shall I flee from my presence? If I ascend up to heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall I hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. Now you may think, well, is God present in hell? God is present in hell by his justice. By his justice, he's there. God is everywhere. By the way, this is one of the Bible references that you can use to prove the deity of the Holy Spirit. Man's unable to escape God's presence. This inability is not only ascribed to God the Father, but it's also described and ascribed to God the Holy Spirit. Notes verse 7, whether shall I go from thy spirit, whether shall I flee from thy presence. We're told in this verse that there is not a locality In this entire universe that God is not present, whether it be heaven, whether it be hell, whether it be in the uttermost parts of the sea, God is present in each part at the same time in all of his essence and in all of his attributes. When King Solomon came to dedicate that temple, that great temple that his father desired to build but he could not because he had shed blood. Whenever Solomon had built the temple and he came to the dedication of it, we read these words in 1 Kings chapter 8, because King Solomon, he came to appreciate something. He came to appreciate that an earthly building could never contain the infinite God. And therefore he says in verse 27, 1 Kings chapter 8 and verse 27, but will God indeed dwell on the earth? Hold the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee. How much less this house that I have builded, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee." The skeptic attempted to ridicule the faith of a poor man by asking him, pray sir, is your God a great God or a little God? And Perman replied, Sir, my God is so great that the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and yet he condescends to be so little that he dwells in broken and contrite hearts. The infinite being, that is God, is heard to say in Isaiah 66, in the verse number 1, The heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? Both heaven and earth at the same time knew the presence of God. Heaven is my throne, the earth my footstool. How can that be explained only by God being the omnipresent God? Heaven and earth knows God at the same time. The last verse is found in Jeremiah chapter 23. If you turn there, Jeremiah chapter 23 and the verse 23 and the verse 24. The question is asked, by God, am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Jeremiah 23, verses 23 and 24. Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? Now God is not saying here simply that He fills heaven and earth with His knowledge or with His influence, but rather He is saying that He is filling all of His creation with His very essence equally. and everywhere. That means that there is not a place in the universe that we can imagine that is devoid or is deprived of God's presence. Now there are only a few examples, some scriptural affirmations that allude to the fact that God is omnipresent. He is in all points everywhere in the entirety of His being at this same time. Now we find that hard again to grasp because we are limited, bounded individuals. We cannot be in this meeting today and be in Balaamina at the same time. That is not possible and yet the God of heaven can. Just as much as he meets with us here in this house today, so he will meet with our fellow brethren and sisters across the province and across the world today. God is always near me, ever present in the entirety of his being. It brings to our thought the immensity of our God, the greatness of our God. We must not bring God down to man. But we must have ever high views of our God, and our God is the omnipresent God. Our God is not like the idols. Their God, those that worship their idols, their gods are confined to those idols, but not our God, because God is spirit. God is infinite with respect to space, and therefore He is not the confined God, He is not the bounded God, He is not the limited God, but He is the unlimited God. He is the unbounded God who fills all points of space by His entire and in His entire being. But there is another way in which the Bible sets forth the truth that God is present, and that is by the examples from Scripture. There are individuals in the Bible who became aware that God is ever present. Let me give you a number of those individuals. I think about Cain. Cain became aware. Cain became consciously aware of the fact that although no human eye had seen him murder his own brother in the open field, the omnipresent God had saw him. God asked the question to Cain, Where is thy brother Abel? Where is Abel thy brother? To which there came the reply, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? Knowing all things, and having seen all things, and having been present at the murder scene, God exposed his key in sin with these words, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me, from the ground. Having thought that he had committed this terrible deed out of sight, Cain became consciously aware that the omnipresent God had been there to witness his crime. Achan was another man, was another man who thought that his sinful deeds were concealed from others and yet he forgot. The ever-present God was there when he took off Jericho's spoil and he hid it within his tent. When no human eye had witnessed his sinful deed, God was fully aware of what he had done and God brought him to account for it. I think about Joseph. Joseph lived his life in light of this fact that God is ever-present. When tempted to sin by Potiphar's wife away from the gaze of everyone else within Potiphar's household, Joseph refused her approaches by saying, how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God while no human eye was upon him? Joseph still believed that God's eye was on him, that God was present. The fact that God is ever present was the very thing that restrained Joseph from sinning against his God. God was there. Hagar was another individual in the Bible who realized that God was omnipresent when she found herself in the wilderness, running away for the first time from her mistress, Sarai. With every other eye off her, God's eye was on her. We're told in Genesis chapter 16 that God spoke to her. In verse 13 we read these words, and she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, thy God seeth me. For she said, have I also here looked after him that seeth me? She came to appreciate that life in this world is spent under the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-present God. In every part of his dominion, in all the worlds that he has formed, even in the most destitute and in the most uninhabitable places such as the wilderness, God is always present. Jonah, Jonah boarded a ship bound for Tarshish. just down there at Joppa's Harbor in a futile attempt to flee from the presence of the Lord. That's what we're told in the narrative. He was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, or that's what he thought. However, that reluctant prophet to the Ninevites was soon to realize that God's presence knew no bounds. God's presence did not stop at the shoreline. But this man was going to find out that God's way is in the sea. Just as much as it's on the land, God's ways are in the sea. And he was going to realize that he could not evade the presence of God even in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea. These individuals became consciously aware that God is ever present. There is a third way in which the Bible presents the truth that God is all-present, and that is by the names and the titles of God in Scripture. The names and the titles of God in Scripture. I'm specifically thinking about two names, two titles of God that incorporate this thought of God ever-present. One's found in the Old Testament, one is found in the New. I only have time to set them before you and you can think them out in your mind meditate upon them this afternoon. In Ezekiel chapter 48 verse 35 we read these words, and the name of that city from that day shall be the Lord is there. The literal reading of the text is Jehovah Shammah It's one of the names that are inscribed on the windows of this particular church. I don't know if you've ever noticed them. Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there. Now if God be confined to heaven, as some would think, how can he then be present in this city as well at the same time? This can only be made possible when we realize that God is not confined to merely heaven, but that he is omnipresent. So at the same time he can be in heaven, while at the same time he can be found in this city, Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there, he's there, and he's here. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them, God is here. God, as I've said, will be with our brethren and sisters across the world today. He'll be there in the entirety of his being. This is the God that we have, Jehovah Shammah, but there's another title, another name that's given to God. This time it's found in the New Testament, Matthew 1, verse 23, speaking about the coming Messiah. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, shall be with child, and she shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Notice that the text does not say God with you, singular, but rather God with us, plural, plural. And that can only be the case if God is one who is on my present making it possible that he can be with you. as much as He can be with me at the very same time. Emmanuel, Jehovah Shammah, they are names and titles that evidence the fact that God is omnipresent. But having defined God's omnipresence and seen from the scriptures that God is omnipresent, we now come to a third point, and that is God's omnipresence applied. God's omnipresence applied. When Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones came to meditate upon the fact that God is ever-present, he rightly said this, this is the fundamental thing, the most serious thing of all, he said, that we are always in the presence of God. We are always in the presence of God. If I was to ask you today, where do you live? I know that some people, they'll say that they live on Hilton's Town Road, other people will say they live in the Huntion Road, others will say they live in the Blackstone Road, others will go a little bit further, they live in Cullabacke, other people they live in a particular area, a particular townland. And that would be true to say. But if I was asked that in a broader sense, where do you live? You may say in answer to that question, well, I live in County Antrim, and you would be right to say that. I know some people live in County Londonderry, so we need to keep them on board as well. They just live on the other side of the ban. Nothing wrong with that. County Londonderry people are great people. I hail from there, you see. Some people, I say, well, broaden that out a bit further. Where do you live? And they would say, well, I live in Northern Ireland. And you would be right to say that. Broaden it out a little bit further. You would say, well, I live in the United Kingdom. And you would be right in saying that. If I was to ask you the question again, to broaden it out further, where do you live? Well, you would say, well, I live in the continent of Europe. And you would be right in saying that. Broaden it out a little bit further. You would say, I live in the world. And you would be right. Broaden the question out a little bit further. Where do you live? You would say, well, I live in the Milky Way galaxy, and you would be right in saying that. Broaden it out a little bit further, and you would ask the question, where do you live? You'd say, well, I live in the created universe, and you would be right in saying that. But broaden it out to the furthest expanse and ask the question, where do you live? And you would have to say this to be your answer. I live in God. I live in God. Because God transcends Northern Ireland. And your little home place, he can transcend Europe and the Milky Way and the galaxies and the universes. Those great expanses, God lives beyond because he's beyond all spatial limitations. And so if we were to answer that question biblically, we would have to say that I live in God. And there's biblical evidence for that. Acts 17, Paul stands at Athens. In him, we live. and move and have our being. Now let me ask you, have you lived your life with that fact this week? That you live in God? That you live in God? You know when we come to live our lives in light of that fact that God is present everywhere Both challenge and comfort comes to our hearts now. We'll reverse the order than what we did it last week. I want to think first of all about the comforts that this brings to our hearts, that God is all present. And I say with God being omnipresent, there is comfort for the distressed Christian. What consolation for the Christian to know that in the midst of their sorrows, which we are exposed to, that the omnipresent God, he sees every tear, that he hears every groan of the heart, and he's in every valley into which we descend. Just as God is present upon life's mountaintop experiences, at the same time, he's also the God of the valleys. Being ever present, he means that he is all-knowing, And thus, in our distresses, He is ever ready to deliver us from our sorrow and give us the strength to bear upon all of our trials. The omnipresent God, He tells us over there in Isaiah chapter 43, verse 2, how familiar the words are, but let me repeat them in your hearing again. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers they shall not overflow thee, and when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. The psalmist would say, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. For you, the distressed child of God, this truth that God is all present, should bring comfort and consolation to your distressed soul today. Can I say in the second place, there's comfort for the tempted Christian. You know, the devil is the great tempter. It's one of his titles. However, can I say that it is very unlikely that any of us have ever been the object of the devil's personal onslaughts. See, too often we think too highly of the devil. We attribute to the devil that which only belongs to God. We need to remember that God alone is omnipresent and therefore the devil, and I'm speaking about the personality of the devil, he cannot be attacking some eminent saint of God in some part of the world while at the same time he's attacking you, personally speaking. Because he is no more omnipresent than you or I are. He is a created being, a being that is confined, limited to his constitution, to his makeup. He is limited and bounded, and therefore he cannot be on my present. However, God is the uncreated being, and therefore he is unbounded by time or space, and therefore he can come to the aid of every child of God at this very same time. and provide a way of escape. There's comfort for you in your temptations. God is there, and he'll provide a way of escape. But there's also comfort for the serving Christian. Due to the fact that God is present everywhere, no matter where you go, no matter what ministry God will maybe call you to in future days, or even as you serve Christ now, No matter what part, remote part of planet earth God may send you to, no matter if no one else is with you, God will be there. God will be there. Did he not promise that to be the case to his disciples just prior to his ascension back to heaven? They were David Livingstone's motto words, his great Life verse, Americans would call it. Jesus Christ said this to his disciples, though I am with you always, even on to the end of the world. As we serve the Lord Jesus Christ in whatever capacity, thank God we can depend upon God being ever present. We can depend on him being a present help. can depend on Him being our strength, our protector, our guide. It's comforting to know that there is nowhere at home or abroad, there's nowhere on land or a sea that we will ever reach a place where we will not be in the presence of God who can defend us, who can comfort us, who can guide us, and who can sustain us. What a wonderful truth to know that God is as much with the Millers today as he is with us here in Portland alone. He's as much with those serving the Lord Jesus Christ in Kenya, in Liberia, in Australia, as he is with us today, and therefore there's comfort for the serving Christian. There's comfort for the isolated Christian. The fact that God is on my present. There often comes a time in life when sickness, when illness, or just old age, will inhibit the child of God from assembling with the saints of God. Isolation from the church of Christ, being isolated from the church of Christ, that child of God, is not to think that they cannot worship God in the place that Providence has placed them. Because God is present in all places, the homestead, the nursing home, the hospital, the foreign country can become a Bethel to God's isolated children. John experienced that in Patmos. Whenever he was exiled from the church of Jesus Christ and no other believer with him, Paul was still able to worship God because God was ever present. One preacher put it like this, the truth that God is everywhere present should stimulate in us or should stimulate us to the cultivation of an incessantly devotional spirit. The whole universe, he said, is but one vast apartment filled with the divine presence and everywhere, therefore, we may be closeted with God. That, however, the fact that God is on my present and that the isolated one can worship God even when old age takes a hold and sickness comes upon an individual, that fact is not to say that if you're fit and well, that you are to forsake your assembling and yourself with the people of God and with the saints of God, because such a course is forbidden in Hebrews 10 verse 25. But whenever we will find ourselves at some stage unable to congregate with God's people, he can meet with us, and we with him by his omnipresence. Having thought about the conference, let's quickly think about the challenges that it challenges that God's omnipresent brings. Can I say it brings a challenge first to the sinner? It was William Sacker, 17th century Puritan, who said, a man may hide God from himself, yet he cannot hide himself from God. Hebrews 4.13, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. How foolish then, if you're an unconverted person in this house today, how foolish for you to think that there would be some hiding place in this world that the infinite God is not present in. No thought is hid, no lust is secret, no sin concealed that he does not know about. To run from God is pointless and futile. because there is nowhere that God is not present. And sinner, as much as you would desire or wish that to be the case, that you would be able to find a place that God is not present, you'll never find a place. You'll never find a place in this entire universe where holy God is not present. God can be scoffed at, mocked at, disbelieved, spurned, and blasphemed, but ultimately he is unavoidable. That's a fearful thought. Fearful thought to those that hate him. Terrible truth to those that despise him. A startling reality to those that reject him. God is ever present. Think of it, sinner. He was present this week when you sinned against him, when you slighted his son, when you mocked his name. He was present, everywhere present, in the entirety of his being. Sinner, he knows all about you. He's made record of all your deeds and crimes against him. It would be wise for you then to run to the Savior. Ah, there's also challenge to the idolater. The infinite God, the one whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, cannot be compressed or confined. into a 10-inch idol that sits on a mantelpiece or beside a bedroom bedside cabinet. To fashion an idol or statue to represent the unbounded, the unlimited God is a pointless and a vain exercise. Thirdly, and the final please, the omnipresence of God also challenges us as believers. being consciously aware that we are at all times in God's presence. We need to ask ourselves the question in light of that fact, shall I yield to temptation when I am beneath the gaze of the infinite Holy One? Shall I dare to break His commandments, the commandments of the divine lawgiver of whom and in whose presence I am at all times? Shall I rehearse to others what I myself have heard from the mouth of a gossip? When God is present and listening to everything that I say, shall I watch that program in which sin is promoted, God's name is blasphemed, and the Savior mocked and defamed when God is nearby? The fact that God is ever present should be that which restrains us and safeguards us from sin. The fact is, brethren and sisters, we do not live in light of God's ever-presence. We think that we can hoodwink God, deceive God, but we cannot, because he is all-present. Proverbs 5, 21, for the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings. There was a time when you went into a Christian home. You often find hanging on the wall a little plaque with the following inscription. Christ is the head of this home. The unseen guest at every meal. The silent listener to every conversation. That is God's on my presence, simply put. the unseen guest at every meeting, the silent listener to every conversation. May God help us then to live with an abiding sense of the ever-present God who is with us at all times. God is ever near me, hearing what I say, knowing all my thoughts and deeds, all my works and play. Behold, your omnipresent God." Let's bow our heads in prayer. Our Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word. Rejoice, O God, that we can say that the Lord of hosts is with us. Thank Thee, O God, that Thou art our great Emmanuel. Thou art Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there. We thank thee, O God, that therefore, being with us, in all of his being, we can call upon him in our time of need. What an encouragement it is for us to pray that God is with us. We can call him into our situation. O challenge our hearts, speak through thy word. Lord, be pleased to work and help us to live as thy people under the fact that God is present and he knows all about us and he sees and hears all we say and all we do. O God, challenge us, we pray, and give us an abiding sense of Thy presence as we leave this place. Bless, O God, as we meet around the table now, those that love Christ, for we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. 322.