Sermon Tone Analysis

Our Changeless God

Doctrine of God Series: 1

Text: Ps 90:2; Gen 21:33; Ps 102:26-27; James 1:17

Date: 10~/12~/03 – Tok; 10~/5~/08 - LMB

 

Introduction:

-         Today we are starting a series on Doctrine.

I think it is important that we know the basic truths of the Bible.

We can only act on what we believe and if we do not know the truth, then we cannot possibly act on the truth.

-         We live in a time of change.

The world is changing so fast around us that it is hard or sometimes even impossible to keep up.

The saying, “the only thing certain is change” could be the motto of the times.

-         The problem is that people do not really do well in constant change.

People need stability and consistency if they truly want to function properly.

We are told that Children grow better in stable environments and even if you cannot always give them that, then you need to have certain routines that give them a sense of security.

-         This is great but what stable thing can we as adults rely on for our security?

o       Many of us come to church to find stability and do not find it.

o       Many of us try to read our bibles for stability, but we really do not understand how the Bible relates to our world.

-         The reason this happens is because we keep trying to look at the people and relate to them, but the person we should be relating to is God.

The people may have leprosy, which is rare in the US, and we may not be able to relate, but God is still the God who heals.

The armies may be in chariots and have swords, where our armies have M1 tanks and M-16 rifles, but the victory is still determined by the Lord.

-         The issue is not the lives of the people but how they inter-related with God.

Times have changed and will continue to change it is the nature of time, but God has remanded the same and still deals with us and relates to us the same as He did in ancient times.

Thesis: If we want stable lives, we must base our lives on the only stable thing, the Unchanging God!

 

Text: Ps 102:26-27

 

Opening up the Passage:

-         I want us to focus on Ps 102:27, This verse tells us two things

o       1st – God is always the same – He is Unchanging

o       2nd – God is eternal – He has no beginning or end

 

Doctrinal:

-         There are several doctrines that we are going to deal with today, mainly because this whole series is about doctrine, but I want you to learn some terms and their meanings

Eternality –

-         means God is eternal, He has no beginning or ending

-          Ryrie says, “ means that God exists endlessly.

His existence extends endlessly backward and forward (from our viewpoint of time) without any interruption or limitation caused by succession of events.”

-         The word /eternal/ is used in two senses in the Bible: figuratively, as denoting existence which may have a beginning, but will have no end, e. g., angels, the human soul; literally, denoting an existence which has neither beginning nor ending, like that of God.

Time has past, present, future; eternity has not.

Eternity is infinite duration without any beginning, end, or limit—an ever abiding present.

We can conceive of it only as duration indefinitely extended from the present moment in two directions—as to the past and as to the future.—Great

Doctrines of the Bible, The

-         Other Verses

o       Ps 90:1-2 à 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, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

(NKJ)

o         Rev 4:8-9 àThe four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within.

And they do not rest day or night, saying: "Holy, holy, holy, lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, (NKJ)

o       Exodus 3:14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM."

And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.' "

o       Genesis 21:33 Then /Abraham /planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there called on the name of the LORD, the *Everlasting God*.

-         Hodge says, “Eternity is infinite duration; duration discharged from all limits, without beginning, without succession, and without end”.[1][1]

o       */What relation does time bear to eternity?/*

o       Eternity, the unchanging present, without beginning or end, comprehends all time, and co–exists as an undivided moment, with all the successions of time as they appear and pass in their order.[2][2]

-         This means that God is outside of time.

o       Isa 57:15 à *For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity*, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

-         This is a hard concept to understand and we cannot fully understand it because it is impossible for us to think outside of time.

o       For us, we think in past, present, and future.

o       God thinks in present – AS He watches you in your pew, He is also seeing Cain kill Able, Moses parting the Red Sea, Paul persecuting the early church, and His Son dieing on a cross.

For us this all happens at different times, but for God it all happens at once, but He is also knows that it happens in order in time.

(We have to remember that He created time)

-         God’s attribute of eternity lets us know that God has always and always will exists.

“His sustaining, providential control of all things and events is assured.”

(Ryrie, 37)

-         Genesis 21:33 Then /Abraham /planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.

-         What an encouragement to know “the Everlasting God”!

Wells would disappear, trees would be cut down, ewe lambs would grow up and die, altars would crumble, and treaties would perish; but the Everlasting God would remain.[3]

-         This truth allows us to have something truly stable on which to lean or base our life upon, in a world that everything is unstable.

Self-Existence

-         This doctrine is a product of God’s Eternity.

If something is eternal, then it has to be self-existent.

-         We all know the law of cause and effect.

That everything is has a cause and an effect.

This is true for the created order or for creatures, but it is not true for God.

-         God is not an effect, therefore He has no cause.

-         RC Sproul says, “He has, within Himself, the power of being.

He requires no assistance from the outside sources to continue to exist.

This is what is meant by self-existent.”

(Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, 37)

-         I find it interesting that God is not only self-existent, but He is also the cause of all creation.

See verses below:

o       Col 1:16-17 à For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

All things were created through Him and for Him.

And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

(NKJ)

o       Rev 1:8 à "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

(NKJ)

o       Acts 17:28 à "for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'

(NKJ)

Immutability

-         This basically means that He is unchanging.

-          Hodge says, “By his immutability we mean that it follows from the infinite perfection of God; that he can not be changed by any thing from without himself; and that he will not change from any principle within himself that as to his essence, his will, and his states of existence, he is the same from eternity to eternity”.[4][3]

-         By the Immutability of God is meant that God's nature is absolutely unchangeable.

It is not possible that He should possess one attribute at one time that He does not possess at another.

Nor can there be any change in the Deity for better or for worse.

God remains forever the same.

He is without beginning and without end; the self-existent "I am"; He remains forever the same, and unchangeable.—Great

Doctrines of the Bible, The

-         Verse support

o        Ps 102:26-27 à read text again

o       Mal 3:6 à "For I am the LORD, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.

(NKJ)

-         Problem: KJV says that God repented, this is not possible if He cannot change?