The Infinite Nature of God

God is not like us. We are finite because we are created individuals. We have limits and we have ends. But God has no such limits and He has no such ends. He is what we call an infinite being. So let's get started looking at Bible point number one on our outline. It has several blanks, so I'm going to read them slowly. The first blank is infinite. Our infinite God has no limits, that's the second blank, or bounds, that's the third blank. Our infinite God has no limits or bounds. Infinity is not a number, that's the fourth blank, or place, that's the fifth blank. Infinity is not a number or place, but boundless supply from within. Within is a sixth blank. All creation is finite, limited, and dependent. The seventh blank is finite, eighth blank is limited, the ninth blank is dependent. So let me reread that. Our infinite God has no limit or bounds. Infinity is not a number or place, but boundless supply from within. All creation is finite, limited, and dependent.

When we say that infinity is not a number, that's normally how we talk about infinity. When I was a kid, we used to argue what was the greatest number. And we would say among our friends, "Well, it's got to be a bazillion," or "It's got to be a gazillion." These aren't even numbers, right? Those are not true numbers. Even numbers that we could actually conceptualize — a trillion is so far beyond us. If we were to count right now slowly one, two, three, all the way to a trillion, it takes about 31,000 years to actually count it out. But we could actually get there because a trillion is a natural number. It has a real end to it, but not infinity. Sometimes we'd say, "Well, infinity is our trump card." That's the biggest number. And then that would lead to infinity plus one, or infinity, infinity. But again, that's not a real number that you can reach an end to.

So infinity is not a number, nor is infinity a place. We often think of infinity as a place that you could get to. For example, we may say, "Our poor old dog, Spot, he's out there somewhere in the infinite fields chasing squirrels." Or we maybe watch Toy Story, the children's movie. And what does Buzz Lightyear say? To infinity and beyond. If it's a place that you could actually go, we give directions and we'll say, "Hey, go out of town past the first light, past infinity, and hook a right, and there's a great barbecue place right there." But you could go forever and ever and ever and never reach infinity because it's not a place.

But what infinity is — it's not a number, it's not a place, but it is a quality. It's a quality that only our infinite God possesses. It speaks of boundless supply from within, a never-ending supply. And that's hard for us to grasp because we only have so much energy, we only have so much strength, we only have so much vigor, but God is infinite in all of His attributes. It says, "All creation is finite, limited, and dependent." It's all that we know. We're dependent on God and we're limited, but God knows no such limitations.

Look at Isaiah, Isaiah 40, 28 through 29. This is one of the most beautiful verses and one of the most beautiful chapters in the entire Bible. "Have you not known? Have you not heard?" He begins addressing us as limited beings, right? We only know what a small amount is, and don't you know? And haven't you heard? Only what we can hear of God — we can't see God. It says, "The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might, He increases strength." It speaks of God as the everlasting God.

In our Nature and Attribute Study, the attributes of God that we'll be studying is the eternality of God or the eternity of God. And that's simply infinity in relation to time. We'll also be studying in the Nature and Attributes of God what we call the immensity of God, which is infinity in relation to space. God is infinite in all of His attributes. He's infinite in His knowledge. Is there anything that God doesn't know? He's infinite in His power. Is there anything God cannot do? He's infinite in His presence. He's always present at all times and in every place. He's infinite in His love. Does God just have a little love? He's infinite in His truth. Is God just a little true?

He's infinite in His holiness. Does He have just a little perfection? No, He's got boundless supply from within. That one attribute, His infinity, colors and shapes all of our understanding of His other attributes. The application is this — wait, that's the first blank for application number one, wait on God, who alone is infinite. That's the second blank. Wait on God, who alone is infinite. Isaiah 40 continues in verse 30 and 31, "Even the youths shall faint and be weary." We see our young ones running around here in church. This is a family discipleship church where we welcome our young ones that come into worship. It seems like they have almost a boundless supply of energy, don't they? But even they get tuckered out, right? As a parent, you know that if you remember back to when your kids were little, what a blessing it was when they wore themselves out and they finally laid down for a nap, right? Because it gave you a break. But here it says, "Even the youth shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall." The young men speaks of battle-aged men, men who are in their prime and in their vigor and in their strength. And even they fail, right? "But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint." When we wait on God, that is to rely on His strength, to rely on His infinite power, and therefore we can have the strength to run because we're resting on God's strength.

To wait on God simply means to trust in God. It means to depend on God. It means to lean on God. And if I may get on a little soapbox here, one thing I'd like to point out is in modern evangelicalism, there is a very heretical thing called contemplative prayer, and that is not waiting on God. It started off with the New Age movement and it worked its way through the charismatic movement, and it's now broadly embraced in many evangelical churches. And the idea of contemplative prayer is you get alone and you wait for things to get quiet, and you wait for a feeling of centeredness, a feeling of peace, a feeling where you empty your mind, and at that point you feel an at-oneness with God, and that's called contemplative prayer. But that's not waiting on the Lord.

Waiting on the Lord in Scripture is calling out to God when everything around you is chaotic. It's calling on God when the hounds of hell are chewing at your legs, when this world is pushing in against you, when you're hard pressed if you will, when you're in the middle of affliction, and you have no place else to go — that's when you call upon the Lord. That's waiting on the Lord because your strength has failed you and everything around you is against you, and you call out to the Lord. Waiting on the Lord is when the sinner realizes his smallness, realizes that his righteousness is small and he cannot merit salvation. And so he calls out to the Lord, he says, "Lord, save me." Calling on the Lord is those of us who have experienced maybe a sick one in our family, and you do all you can to ease their pain. Take them to the doctor, you give them medicine, you try to comfort them, but you can't take that pain away and you feel helpless.

So what do you do? It drives you to your knees. You pour out your heart to God and you say, "Lord, please heal my loved one. I have no place else to go." That's waiting on the Lord. Waiting on the Lord — I've spoken out before about a good example — are the women in Nigeria. Many of them, their husbands, their brothers, their fathers have been slain because they are Christian. And the Fulani herdsmen are chasing them. And so they run. They run with their children because they know that the second that they're caught, unspeakable things will be done to them.

So what do they do? They call out to the Lord. These are the ones who say like Job, "Naked I came into this world and naked I will leave. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, but blessed be the name of the Lord." That's waiting on the Lord when you're at your own end and your strength fails and you rely on the one who has all strength. So that is what it means to wait on our infinite God.

Let's look at Bible point number two. God is never wholly absorbed by His activities. That's the first blank. Or unable, that's the second blank, unable to know, the third blank is know. The fourth blank is act. God is never wholly absorbed by His activities or unable to know us or to act on our behalf. There's only so many things that we can do and do well, right?

Many of you in your lives juggle so much. You have work responsibilities. You have marriage responsibilities. You have family responsibilities, maybe towards your children or your grandchildren. You have church responsibilities and you're trying to juggle them all, right? And sometimes you say, "I'm at my wit's end. I can't do it anymore." But God is never unable to act. He's never unable to help because again, He has boundless supply from within.

Psalm 147, 4 through 6 says this, "He counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by name." Have you ever been outside and seen the Milky Way on a night when maybe there's not a full moon and it's pretty black outside and you see this big band that goes down the center of the sky? It's pretty amazing. It's hard to see when you're in the city, but you get a little bit out in the country and away from the lights where there's no light pollution. You can see the Milky Way up above you. It's quite an amazing sight. Scientists estimate that in the Milky Way there are somewhere around 400 billion visible stars. There may be more than that that we can't see, right? And they estimate that there's at least that many additional planets in the Milky Way galaxy. And that's just our own galaxy where Earth resides. We now have telescopes that can see far beyond the Milky Way galaxy. And we have no clue how many galaxies there are other than the Milky Way galaxy, but most scientists put that number anywhere between 200 billion to 2 trillion galaxies that are out there. And each of those holds billions of stars and billions of planets.

But what does it say about God here? He counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by name. If He knows their number and He knows their name, doesn't He know your name? Doesn't He know your number? Can God forget you whom He has created in His own image? No, a thousand times no. This is great — our Lord's power. His understanding is what? Infinite, yes. So He has no limits to His understanding. That's why we say that He is the one who's omniscient. The Lord lifts up the humble and He casts the wicked down to the ground. In our lives sometimes we can't pick ourselves up. We're just too weak. But what does it say the Lord lifts up? He lifts up the humble, right? How about our adversaries? Sometimes those who are against us seem too great in this world. We see evil seems to prevail. Evil seems to triumph. But what does this say? That God can cast them down, right? Nothing's too hard for Him.

Look at the application. Trust that God is never overwhelmed, that's the first blank, or spent, that's the second blank. Trust that God is never overwhelmed or spent. Psalm 115, verses 12 through 14 says this, "The Lord has been mindful of us." Isn't that amazing? He upholds the universe. He tells the sun when to rise and when to go down. He spins the earth, makes the rain to come. He feeds the lions and directs the winds. And He still has time to be mindful of us because He has no limits and no bounds. "He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great. May the Lord give you increase more and more, you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth." So may the Lord give you increase more and more.

When we want to bless others, isn't there a limit to what we can bless others? Right? Those of you who have kids or grandkids, you want to give them the best, right? But you can't always do that, right? Those of you who do charitable acts for others — maybe you can afford to give someone some money for some groceries or maybe pay their rent for a month, something like that. But there's a limit, right? You can't do that forever. You have to take care of your own responsibilities too. But God has no such limits. He can bless us more and more because He is the God who's infinite in His nature.

Flip over on the back. We'll look at Bible point number two on the back. Reference is Psalm 36, 5 through 9. The psalmist writes, "Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds." So is there any limit to His mercy? It reaches to the heavens. His faithfulness reaches to the clouds. He says, "Your righteousness is like a great mountain. Your judgments are a great deep. O Lord, You preserve man and beast. How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God. Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house. You give them drink from Your rivers of pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life. In Your light we see light." He's a fountain of light. He has evermore to give. He has evermore light to share with His creatures, right? That is our God who is infinite and who's always fully engaged but never absorbed in His activities and unable to know or act on our behalf.

But point number three, God's infinity, that's the first blank for number three, qualifies all His attributes, that's the second blank, and is representative of His majesty and glory. Third blank is majesty, the fourth blank is glory. Let me reread that. God's infinity qualifies all His attributes and is representative of His majesty and glory. Because God is infinite in His nature, therefore it's a way of describing His majesty, His regalness, His otherness to us.

My family's had the pleasure of going and vacationing in Colonial Williamsburg many times; it's a beautiful place. Colonial Williamsburg is a city that the Rockefellers gave money to many, many years ago and they've remade the city, they've restored it back to the condition it was in during Colonial times before we actually declared our independence. And there in Colonial Williamsburg, one of the neat things you can see is the governor's palace. The governor was the one who was a representative of the King of England and he was the governor in Virginia's colony and they set up the house and decorate it just as the way it was in his day. And when you go into the first room, it's a giant rotunda — a very large round room with a high ceiling. Covering its walls is nothing but ornate firearms and swords. Covering the ceiling is a round of nothing but firearms and swords. They're all engraved, they're all very costly, and the idea is when you walk in there, you're to feel like you're surrounded, you're to feel like you are small, you're to feel the King's power because what is the emblem of the King's power but the sword and the gun, right? If you cross the King, you may get the pointed sword or you may get the blast of the gun, and that's what that room was designed to make you feel.

Well, God doesn't need a room to declare His majesty, right? He's infinite in all of His works, in His creation, in salvation that He provides for His people. Look at Psalm 145, 1 through 3. "I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. His greatness is..." What? Unsearchable. You could think of something to praise God every second of the day and you would never stop because you cannot come to the limits of His greatness. It's unsearchable.

The application is this, "Exalt God," that's the first blank, "Exalt," who works, works is the second blank, "in us by Christ," the third blank. "Exalt God who works in us by Christ, the same God who created the heavens and the earth and who's inexhaustible in majesty and glory. He is at work in us through His blessed Son, Christ Jesus." Look at Ephesians 3, 20 through 21. "Now to Him," speaking of God, "who is able to do exceedingly abundantly." This word, "exceedingly abundantly," is a word that Paul has coined. It means hyper abundantly. It means beyond what you can imagine. "Above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." Saying the power of God, His unbounded power is at work inside of us because we have been united to Christ, His Son. We are one spirit with Christ, is what the Bible says. Verse 21, "To Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever." He is working the power of Christ — the same power that raised Christ from the dead is at work inside of us. He has resurrected us and has given us new life and is at work within us for His glory. That's what verse 21 says, "To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus." This power is not for our self-aggrandizement. The power is not to puff us up, but the power is to reflect His glory, to be a shining light, to say, "God alone is worthy. He alone is infinite."

Flip over on the back. Let's look at Psalm 71. It says, "But I will hope continually and will praise You yet more and more. My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and Your salvation all the day, for I do not know their..." what? There's no limits to His salvation. "I will go in the strength of the Lord. I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only." God saves us that we may praise Him. God saves us that we may bring Him glory, and His glory knows no limits.

Let's look at Bible point number four. "Our infinite," that's the first blank, "our infinite God is above us and in no necessary relation," that's the second blank, "to us, yet He condescends," that's the third blank, "to us." Let me reread that. "Our infinite God is above us and in no necessary relation to us, yet He condescends to us."

In the Nature and Attributes of God study, we studied the triunity of God, meaning that from eternity past before God created anything, God existed in three persons — God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And before anything was created, God had no need because He was eternally blessed in Himself. In His own relation to Himself, between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, there was perfect love. There was perfect blessedness. There's perfect satisfaction. There's perfect self-communication, perfect self-impartation — things that we lack, right? Why do our relationships fail? Oftentimes because there's no transparency, right? We don't give ourselves perfectly to one another. We don't love one another as we should, right? But with God, there was perfect satisfaction, perfect blessedness from the beginning of time. So our infinite God is above us and in no necessary relation to us. He doesn't need us. However, it says yet He condescends to us.

Now in modern terminology, the way that we use the word condescending is a very negative thing. When we say someone's condescending, we mean that they are arrogant, that they are putting you down. These are people who will tear you down in order to build themselves up. These are people who will denigrate you to make themselves appear higher or more exalted. But that's not the way that condescending is when we speak of God. Originally, condescending is a very positive term. Speaking of God, it comes from the Latin word con, which means with, okay? My wife and I enjoy getting Mexican food, as many of you do. When you do, you may get chili con queso, right? Chili with cheese — nothing like a warm cheese dip, right? I get to enjoy that. Well, when we say that God condescends to us, I mean that God has come down in order to be with us, okay?

Let's look at Psalm 113, verses 4 through 6. "The Lord is high above all nations. His glory above the heavens" — He's above us — "and glory" — He's infinite. "Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and on the earth?" Even though God is high, He condescends to us, He humbles Himself. When we talk to our children and our grandchildren, do we not stoop down to their level to kind of get to look them in the eye, to show them that they have our attention, that they are important to us, that we are not standing high and above them? We get down to show them that we love them, right? To be able to embrace them. In the same way, our infinite God condescends to us in Christ Jesus.

The application is this — humbly, that's the first blank, humbly rejoice that our infinite, that's the second blank, God makes Himself little, the third blank, so that He can make us great. That's the fourth blank. "Humbly rejoice that our infinite God makes Himself little so that He can make us great." God makes Himself little, He stoops down to man to redeem man, to lift man up out of the miry clay, right?

Psalm 113, 7 through 8, same Psalm that we were reading, but just the next two verses, says this, "He raises the poor out of the dust and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes, with the princes of His people." Is not Christ the prince of peace? Is He not the true Israel, the prince of God, right? He sent His Son. So the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 1 that we can sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And one day when we leave this world, we will be forever with Him there, right? Jesus in His high priestly prayer in John chapter 17 — doesn't He say, "Father, I want them to be where I am, right? That they may behold Your glory, the same glory that I've had with You from the beginning of time." So Christ even now is preparing a place for His people that we can be with Him. That's His glorious condescension.

Flip over on the back. A great example of God's condescension is David. King David was just a lowly shepherd boy, right? God exalted him. He raised up that humble shepherd boy to be a king, the greatest king of Israel, right? Apart from Christ, of course. Psalm 18, 35 through 36, "You have also given me the shield of Your salvation." These are David's own words. "Your right hand has held me up." It's a beautiful picture. He's saying, "God's very right hand has supported me. Your gentleness has made me great. You enlarged my path under me so my feet did not slip." God, even though He's almighty in power, He's able to at the same time have power over His power and to be gentle to David in order to make him great.

Psalm 78, 37 through 42 also speaks of God's condescension to man. Here He's speaking to unfaithful and rebellious Israel and yet He still condescends to them. He says, "For their heart was not steadfast with Him, nor were they faithful in His covenant. But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. Yes, many a time He turned His anger away and He did not stir up all His wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a breath that passes away and does not come again." He remembers that we're finite, that we're limited — and praise God that He does. Verse 40, "How often they provoked Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert. Yes, again and again they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember His power the day when He redeemed them from the enemy." Which says that they limited the Holy One. It doesn't mean they actually limited Him, because God doesn't have limits except for His self-limitations. But they limited Him by their distrust, by their lack of faith, by forgetting that He's the one who by strong hand had led them out of Egypt, out of slavery, through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, and into the promised land. Again and again God had been faithful to them when they were unfaithful to God.

Let's flip back on the front. Bible point number five, "Our great," that's the first blank, "and high," that's the second blank, "God is with us," that's the third blank, "to save us," that's the fourth blank. "Our great and high God is with us to save us." God came down in the person of Jesus Christ. He took on flesh, humbled Himself, took on a limited human nature, added to His divine nature, in order to suffer for us, to perfectly obey the Father, to be our substitute, to die in our place so that we might be reconciled to God.

"Our great and high God is with us to save us." Matthew 1, 21 through 23, this is the gospel proclamation concerning the incarnation of Christ. It says, "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus," which means Savior, "for He will save His people from their sins. So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying, 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel,'" which is translated, "God with us." Could you believe that God would limit Himself into the form of the Christ child? A little baby — great, infinite God would come into this world in that form in order to save us, to fulfill the salvation that He had long ago promised.

Thomas Watson, who was one of the Puritan preachers, he taught through the Westminster Shorter Catechism to his congregation, did about 170 sermons off of it, and he wrote a great book from those sermons called A Body of Divinity, and in pages 196 and 198, this is the way he describes the condescension of God to us in Christ: "He was poor that He might make us rich. He was born of a virgin that we might be born of God. He took our flesh that He might give us His spirit. He lay in the manger that we might lie in paradise. He came down from heaven that He might bring us to heaven, that the Ancient of Days should be born, that He who thunders in heaven should cry in the cradle, that He who rules the stars should nurse, that a virgin should conceive, that Christ should be made of a woman, and that of a woman which He Himself made, that the branch should bear the vine, that the mother should be younger than the child she bears, and the child in the womb bigger than the mother, that the human nature should not be God, yet one with God — come and worship." It blows your mind to think that the great and high God is with us to save us.

The application is this — believe, that's the first blank, on Christ who gave Himself for us. Believe on Christ who gave, that's the second blank, who gave Himself for us. Ephesians 1, 7 says, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace." God is infinite riches. He is infinite grace. So in Christ we can partake in those riches. 1 Corinthians 6, 20 says, "For you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's." The price was infinite. It was Christ's life being laid down for ours, and praise God that His infinite life covers a multitude of sins.

Flip over on the back. 1 John chapter 1, verse 14 and then 16 through 17 says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And of His fullness we have all received, grace for grace. And the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." He's the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And how much is His fullness but His infinite fullness, right? Full of grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.

Number six, our infinite God supplies all our needs. The first blank is infinite, second blank is supply, and third blank is all. Our infinite God supplies all our needs. Because God is infinite in everything that He is, He can give us His infinite self. There's no lack to what God can give. Philippians 4:19 says, "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus." Because He's infinite, He can supply all your needs according to His riches and glory.

You know, I serve a swimming pool, and this is a hot summer, and whenever I swing by a Circle K, I go in there for their big drink. You get a 44-ounce styrofoam cup, filled with soda, and I drink it down pretty fast, and it is refreshing. But as much as 44 ounces, that's just a little bit. Those of you who've been to Niagara Falls, you know that the summertime is their peak season. If you go right now to Niagara Falls, on any given day, over 700,000 gallons of water cascade over it every second. It's about 700 swimming pools every second coming over there. If I could go to Niagara Falls and take a spigot and turn it off, and race under there and take my 44-ounce cup and put it underneath there, and say, "Turn it on!" Would that cup last? No, that cup would be obliterated, right? Because it cannot contain God. The theologian Calvin said that the finite — meaning us, the created, the limited — cannot contain the infinite. His blessings are more than we could ever hold, right? So our God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.

The application is this — serve, that's the first blank, God in His sufficiency, that's the second blank, and abundance, the third blank. Serve God in His sufficiency and abundance. God will never call you to do a task in which He is not giving you sufficient means to do it, where He's not giving you an abundant supply of the Holy Spirit to obey Him, right? You can't say, "Well, God, I can't keep this commandment. It's too hard for me. You just don't understand. I don't have the willpower." It's not about your willpower, right? It's about the sufficiency of Christ. It's about the abundance of His grace and His mercy and the outpouring of His Holy Spirit. The Spirit was given to Christ without measure. And in the same way, the Bible says that He pours out His Spirit upon us, right?

Philippians 4:20 says, "Now to our God and Father, be glory forever and ever. Amen." Because He's the one who supplies all of our needs. Therefore, we give Him glory. Because He supplies all of our needs, we serve Him for His glory. 2 Corinthians 9, verses 7 through 8 says, "So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work." Look at verse 8 there again. "God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things" — you see all, three or four times there — "may have an abundance for every good work." It describes God's abundance perfectly: abundance for every good work.

Let's flip over on the back. Romans chapter 8, verse 32 — we're going to close with this. "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" If God gave His Son for you, can He not supply all your needs, everything you need to serve Him for His glory? That is our infinite God. Thanks for coming out today.