"To Infinity and Beyond"
Psalm 102:25-28
Attributes of God Series
Sunday, September 16, 2012

Introduction: You don’t have to live long to understand that life is always changing. While most people don’t like change (they like their lives to be somewhat of a constant), the truth is that change is the only constant. The changes of life can be a little overwhelming, causing us to wonder what is going on. Many years ago, a family would buy a house and stay in one place. But now families move quite regularly. Because of this, if we try to find our security in anything in this world, we will be disappointed, because this world is always changing.

            This morning, the attributes of God I want to talk about are: God being immutable (or unchanging), transcendent (existing beyond the created universe), and infinite (having no beginning and no end). These attributes of God are quite remarkable, and stretch our thinking on how we need to understand and relate to God.

I.                   God is Immutable- (Malachi 3:6; Psalm 62:2, 102:25-28, 33:11; Hebrews 13:8; Exodus 3:14; Acts 17:28)

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could find stability in a world of change?

a.      Changeless- Illustration- In my years of dating, one of the most

challenging parts was wondering from day to day how I would feel about the person I was dating, or how she might feel about me. There would always be times when I felt good about the relationship. But there were also times when I didn’t. This is a natural part of relationships, yet hard to deal with, because our emotions can be all over the place. One of the aspects of Tami that I appreciated so much while we dating (and still appreciate now) is how she is pretty constant in her emotions. Once Tami and I fell in love, there was no longer any doubting. I knew that Tami loved me. This was a constant.

            But even though Tami is pretty stable in her emotions, she is not perfect. As imperfect people, we still have times when we change, when we waver. So where should our real security lie?               

    GOD. We are told in Malachi 3:6, “I the Lord do not change.” This is the attribute of God’s immutability. God does not change. And yet, we might want to argue: “But everything must change. Flowers bud, bloom and then wilt. Ugly caterpillars become beautiful butterflies, which in time flutter no more. Shiny new tools rust. New clothes fray.” And yet we hear again Malachi 3:6, “I the Lord do not change.”

While everything in our world seems to be in continual flux, we have a creator who is changeless. This is quite a contrast to the creation. The creation changes, the creator does not! Change actually highlights the security that can be found in the unwavering, unchanging ROCK that is our God. As Psalm 62:2 tells us, “Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” And so the change we experience in life helps us to appreciate the Changeless One.

Another aspect of this, that is different than what we are used to, is that God does not progress, develop, grow, or get better, for God is and always has been absolute perfection. God is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) This is why God can state in Exodus 3:14 that His name is “I AM WHO I AM.”

All that God is today, He has ever been and will ever be. Because God is perfect, He can’t change or get better. He always was perfect, and will always be perfect.

b.      Finding stability- Since God is the only one and the only thing that

can never change, then our lasting security lies only in Him and in His ways. God, knowing His creation, warns us against trusting in people. God knows that He alone can be trusted, for nothing can influence or change Him from His nature of total goodness.                    Illus. A few years ago there was a scandal that hit the NBA; the National Basketball Association. It had been discovered that at least one of the officials was betting on games that he officiated during his last two seasons or work, and that he made calls affecting the point spread in those games. This is troubling, because referees and umpires and judges and others in power in this way are supposed to be impartial, fair, and trustworthy…You probably have heard of judges and politicians who have been bribed to change their decisions.

            This scandal reminds us that people can be influenced to change their nature, opinion, or decisions by some kind of manipulation. How can there be stability in our world, when the very people who make up the world are not stable? And the answer is, that there can’t be. We cannot count on living in a stable world. But, because of God, we can find stability in parts of our lives, and God can help us to bring some stability to the world by allowing Him to make us more trustworthy.

            Stability in life comes from having stability in our faith. God is the only truly stable object of faith for man. All else may change around us, but as Christians, we may live secure as we remember that it is in the Changeless One, God whom “we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)

            The truth is, this attribute of God, being changeless, is what affects all other attributes of God. Because God is changeless, God will always possess knowledge of everything and the ability to make perfect use of this knowledge. God will always have all power; God will always be all-present. God will always be there to provide for us. God will always stand by His word. As Psalm 33:11 tells us, “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations.”

And so this brings us great encouragement and hope, because the

Bible tells us that “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” What great security can be found in the promise of One who does not change! Or as we read in our Bible reading, in Psalm 102:25-27, “In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. ²⁶ They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. ²⁷ But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”

II.                God is Transcendent- (Isaiah 40:18-29, 55:8-9)

a.      God is over and above us- The great theologian R.C. Sproul tells

Us in his book The Holiness of God: “Transcendence means literally, ‘to climb across.’ It is defined as ‘exceeding the usual limits.’ When we speak of the transcendence of God we are talking about that sense in which God is above and beyond us. He is higher than the world. He has absolute power over the world. The world has no power over Him. Transcendence describes God in His consuming majesty, His exalted loftiness. He is an infinite cut above everything else. [p. 55]”

This is the second attribute of God I want to talk about this morning: God being transcendent; our God who is above and beyond us.

The prophet Isaiah was pointing to God's transcendence when he wrote in Isaiah 40:18-29, “To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to? Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”

And scripture records God's own testimony in Isaiah 55:8-9,

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

All throughout the Bible we read words like this. They are designed to remind us that God is apart from us. He is over and above what we know and experience.

b.      What difference does it make?- Of course there are many other

illustrations of God's transcendence. But you may be thinking, "Why should I care about this?" "What difference does it make?"

First, since God is transcendent it reminds us that we must describe God carefully. EX. You might have heard the story of the little boy who was working hard at drawing a picture. His mother noticed his hard efforts, and so she went over to him and asked: “What are you drawing, honey?” To which he replied: “I’m drawing a picture of God.” The mother was a little surprised and responded, “But honey, nobody knows what God looks like.” To which the boy said: “They will when I get done!” The truth is, we make a mistake when we seek to draw a picture of God, in that inevitably we will diminish God even though we have the best of intentions.

For example, many of you know that my dad passed away about 8 years ago. If you asked me to tell you about my dad I might tell you that he was a hard worker. It is a  simple and true statement . . . but is it an accurate picture of my father? No. I also need to tell you that he worked as a painter, that he was an active father who coached all my baseball teams from when I was 8 to when I was 16. I would also have to tell you that he served in the Navy. I could go on and on, but the truth is, I would leave out many things about Him, and you could never fully get a true picture of whom he was.

            SO, if it is that difficult to accurately describe my father, should we be

surprised when words fail us when we try to describe God. I’m not trying to say we shouldn’t talk about God to others. Of course, we need to tell others about Him. But we must always do so with a quiet reverence that admits that God is so much bigger than our descriptions of Him.

Listen to St. Augustine's declaration about God: “You are ever active, yet always at rest. You gather all things to yourself, though you suffer no need. . . . You grieve for wrong, but suffer no pain. You can be angry and yet serene. Your works are varied, but your purpose is one and the same. . .You welcome those who come to you, though you never lost them. You are never in need yet are glad to gain, never covetous yet you exact a return for your gifts . . . You release us from our debts, but you lose nothing thereby. You are my God, my Life, my holy Delight, but is this enough to say of you? Can any man say enough when he speaks of you? Yet woe (to) those who are silent about you.” [Confessions p. 21]

Second, since God is transcendent it means we should worship Him passionately. God is unique, spectacular, the One before whom we should bow. EVERY TIME we come to worship. EVERY TIME we bow in prayer, EVERY TIME we open His Word we should do so with a reverence that comes from the fact that He is above and beyond us. But we have lost much of this sense of wonder.

            Let's be painfully honest, we give more intensity to our play than we do our worship. We are more passionate towards our family than we are to the Creator. We give greater priority to our jobs, our hobbies, and all other things, than we do developing our relationship with the Lord. We have lost our sense of awe.

Knowing God should be the joy of life. Knowing Him and being with Him should be our finest and chief pursuit. Our God is not a "run of the mill" Deity. He is the great God of the universe. Keeping a sense of His transcendence is essential for us to truly honor Him and know Him.

III.             God is Infinite- (Romans 12:3, 11:33)

a.      To infinity and beyond- There is a clip from the movie “Toy Story”

where Woody tells Buzz that he can’t fly because he is just a toy. Buzz tries to prove Woody wrong. As Buzz jumps off the bed, he shouts: “To infinity, and beyond.”He then bounces off a ball, lands on a toy skateboard, goes along a hot wheels track, is thrown up to the ceiling fan, which whisks him back onto the bed!

            In this clip, we discover that Buzz believes that he is far more than he truly is. The truth is, Buzz IS just a toy, and limited in what he can do. Buzz is not a space ranger. Buzz is not all-powerful. Buzz is not infinite in his being. Buzz did not fly.  He did as Woody said, he fell with style.

b.      The infinity of God- We, like Buzz, too often think more of

ourselves than we ought. We are warned by the apostle Paul in Romans 12:3, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” When we think too highly of ourselves, we lose sight that God is the only one who is infinite. This is the third attribute of God that I want to talk about; God being infinite.

            What does it mean for God to be infinite? It does not mean that God is everything. God is not found in the trees or in the mountains. These are creations of God, not God.  We see God’s power displayed THROUGH the creation of the trees and mountains and everything else, but those things are not to be worshipped. Only God is to be worshipped, for He created all things in His infinite power with His infinite wisdom.

            For God to be infinite, means that we can’t measure God’s size, or weight, or being. God is beyond measurement. As we talked about last week, God cannot be contained. But beyond that, God has no beginning, no end, and no limits. As Romans 11:33 tells us, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”

    We cannot search God out and find God. We can only know of God, and know God, because God has searched US out. There is no way to fully understand the vast greatness of God. Infinity is the term we use to describe something (or in this case “someone”) that cannot be counted or measured. God is surely immeasurable.

Conclusion: Only what God has chosen to reveal of Himself can be known. The good news is that God has chosen to reveal many of His attributes to us, including His unchanging nature, how He is beyond the created universe, and how He is beyond all measurement. God is the creator, and we are His creation. There is a connection there between us, because God has made it possible, through Jesus Christ. And so as we have learned today, by understanding that God is unchanging, we can have stability in our lives as we place our trust in this God who is to be our rock.

Likewise, we know that God is beyond and above us, but through Christ can impart to us His presence and greatness and wisdom. Even though God exists beyond the created universe, God has found a way to not only come to this earth, but to live within us through His Spirit.

            And finally, God is infinite, which means that God has no limits. We believe in and trust and follow a God that is UNLIMITED! And this God gives us access to His unlimited nature. “All things are possible through God” because when we are in God’s will, filled with God’s Spirit, we can accomplish all that God has for us. Let us leave here today in awe of God, and thankful that this immense God makes Himself so close and personal to us. Amen.