Morning.
No.
Are we working on that? Or do I need to just talk really loud.
Now can you hear me? Oh, my.
Alright
I feel a need to introduce myself a little bit. I've gotten to know.
Fair amount of you, but there are others that I haven't. My name is Matthews, not Matt.
Nyhoos, and I'm sorry that's Dutch.
I I'm.
Told Kadim this morning. My daughter and I are going to Amsterdam at the end of the month.
And we were looking at a map and there's no shortage of vowels in.
The Netherlands.
And they they 00's, and they double use, and they double this and that, but lots and lots of owls. So I'm sorry it's it's hard to pronounce, and all that. But.
Been coming here for about a little over a year and a quarter.
So I'm surprised to be up here at this point, but.
Anyway, I have just loved being here, and.
Probably a lot of you know. My wife died 6 years ago 6 years last Sunday, and
Came here with a very heavy heart.
And got us really lifted that from me, being here.
I'd like to tell people solves everything.
And there's 1 thing this church does really well is worship.
You would be surprised.
In some churches worship is considered to be singing.
And not the outpouring of the heart.
But I just really love being here.
Just a little story to tell you about myself a little bit.
A couple of years ago I took the trip of a lifetime, and I went to Israel, and Jordan spent a week in in each. It was a secular tour. It was not a Christian tour.
And after a week in Israel we, the bus crossed over into Jordan, and half the people that were in the tour left us, for whatever reason and a new half joined us, and in that.
New half was this family from Guatemala?
And there was the parents and 4 children. The youngest was named, and he.
Recognize my name and became my little buddy through this, but I really didn't talk much to them until.
The last night.
Our flight.
My flight went out very early in the morning, and they hit a bus that would take me to the airport at 2 in the morning, so I dare not go to bed.
And was just sitting down in the lobby and.
This family came in, and their their flight must have been early, too, and.
We were talking, and as we talked.
We became aware that we were fellow believers.
And just.
Became the highlight of the trip for me, and at 1 point the wife said to me.
We knew there was something different about you.
To which I said, usually people don't mean that in a good way when they say that to me.
I I am a self, proclaimed odd Person.
And
One of the things.
And the reason why I bring that up is one of the things that is probably odd about me at this point in my life is one of the things that I just absolutely.
Love.
Students, you'll.
Enjoy this.
Is math.
I.
Love, numbers.
I love the way numbers.
Work together. I love the I.
Just seeing them.
Do what they do. I considered a search for truth.
Usually math has one correct answer.
I know the quadratic equation will tell you otherwise sometimes, but even then, usually there's only one.
Correct answer.
I am constantly.
Counting and calculating things that have no business being counted and calculated.
For instance.
When I leave my home.
And get on the interstate at exit 1, 23.
On i. 43. It's 51 miles to exit 72, where a turn at the market, and those little green signs that most of you to pay no attention to.
I am watching those things.
Carefully, so that I can count how many miles I have.
Past, and how many are left in it? The speed I'm going. How long will it take to get there? It doesn't matter.
But I do these things.
When I pick up a book, 1st thing I do is I turn to the back of the book, see how many pages are in it. So at the end of the night I can sit there and calculate how many pages.
I have read, and the average number of pages I've read per day, and how many days it'll take to complete the book.
So there's a love of math there, and perhaps a little Ocd. Involved in that.
But when I come to the Bible.
I see math all over it. I see numbers.
I see.
That that God uses math in? In a variety of ways, and that's not surprising, because where does math come from?
Math.
Along with all the other natural sciences, comes from God.
God is established.
That.
2 plus 2 equals, 4, etc.
There is a little.
Thought and math.
That maybe that isn't sold.
That.
2 plus 2 equals, 4, because we have somewhere along the line decided that 2 plus 2 equals, 4.
We know that is not true.
God is established, map.
And we so we see in in the Bible that God uses numbers.
And.
For instance, I'm just gonna try and.
Go through these quickly. But one of the things that I enjoy.
Is in Genesis.
God gives some genealogies which.
Oh, boy!
But in in Genesis, chapter 6, we get the genealogy of.
From Adam to Noah.
And.
To my delight.
He tells us how long it's been for.
Each.
Father? How long until these.
So the the sons were born, and for some reason I'm not finding this.
But.
Oh, it's in Chapter 5. That's why.
I got the number wrong.
But you know, how long has it been? And so I see a bunch of numbers, and of course I wanna add them up.
And I found something a little interesting in there.
When when you get down to Noah and the flood.
You find that.
All of his ancestors.
The the more recent ones die rather rapidly right before the flood.
Methuselah dies the year of the flood. If we.
Assume that accurately. I don't know if it.
That accurate noah's father died 5 years before.
And the thought that I get out of that is.
Why were there just these.
8 people on on the ark, and it's because the the other believers.
Died off shortly before.
Makes me wonder where.
Noah's brothers and their children were.
Probably.
Rather sad story in that.
Even more interesting to me is the the genealogy in Chapter 11, which takes us from Shem to Abram.
And
This is not going to be the point of when I'm talking about. But
When you look at those, it starts at sham, and it goes to our facts. At Serena. You probably want to pay attention. A lot of good names here.
Not enough. Our fax in the world.
But if you add these up.
You see something very interesting.
Shem was a hundred years old when he became the father of our facts, and then he lived 500 more years. So if you add these all up, you find that Shem is still alive.
When Abram is born.
In fact, he's still alive. But Isaac is born.
In fact, he's still alive when Jacob is born.
As is.
True, of.
The next 3.
So.
They are around, and I wonder if.
When Ibran goes back to the land, if he doesn't run into some of these people, and that God doesn't mentor him through.
His great great, great.
Great great great grandparents.
Because they're still around.
In fact.
Any of them change their name and.
Moved to a city named Salem.
But then we have some common numbers in the Bible, for instance, the number 40 shows up over and over again. It's the number of days that Noah's, or that the rains come down on Noaa.
It's the number of years that the Israelites.
Spy, Arts.
The number of days the Israelite is going to.
The land to spy out the land, and when the people they wonder and.
In the wilderness for 40 years.
Jesus goes off, and fasts and.
Goes into the wilderness for 40 days. So there's something about the number. 40 is a number of trial.
Number 12.
We have the 12 tribes of Israel.
And you say, Well, that's easy. There was.
12 sons of Jacob, and that's why there's 12 tribes. That is true.
But.
One of the tribes.
Is not Levi.
Levi.
Is pull out because of their.
Actions on behalf of God at the.
At the the golden calf.
And so how do we get to 12?
2 of Joseph's sons.
Ephraim and Manasseh.
Are 2 of the tribes. So God wanted that number 12. For some reason.
And did it by bringing in a double portion for Joseph.
In the New Testament we have 12 disciples.
And.
That's pretty obvious.
Except one of them is Judas.
And Judas goes and kills himself afterwards.
And the 1st thing the disciples do.
Is they pick.
A replacement, because we have to have 12. For some reason. I don't know why that is, but I but I certainly wonder.
By the way, the guy picked is Matthias.
And he sat next to Matthew. So
That there that must have been important in some way.
But
The number that catches my attention.
Most in the Bible.
Is a number that is never named.
But shows up over and over and over again.
And
We. We talked a little bit about it this morning even, and it is the number infinity.
It is the number of God.
Number of God is not 7.
That's the number of days of.
The day that.
God rested after creation.
God. God's number is infinity, and it is a number.
And it is used in math.
Infinity.
Is.
That is just beyond all the other numbers.
If you can.
Add to it. You haven't reached it yet. It goes on and on and on.
And
Some of the ways that it shows up.
What am I doing for time.
Probably. Okay.
We'll just look at some of these real quickly. Exodus 15.
And this.
I, I.
Labeled God's sovereign.
Sovereignty, says the Lord rains forever and ever, and one of the ways that infinity shows up.
In the Bible this forever and ever. It is without end.
And that is one good way of putting infinity. God is sovereign forever, is understanding in.
Psalm 147.
And verse 5.
Great as our Lord, and mighty in power, which.
You know it's pretty close to describing affinity, but his understanding has no limit.
Another way of describing infinity.
His greatness in Psalm 145, just backup page in verse 3.
Great as the Lord, and most worthy appraise his greatness. No one can fathom.
You can't measure it.
Omnipresence.
Omni is a word that means all. I don't like it as much. I'm in the glass business. There's.
A.
Company up in Oshkosh called Omni Glass, so I try not to use that word.
But
By the way, we have a project coming up at Ethno 3 60, so I will be down there for that.
Looking forward to.
Seeing somebody down there. Maybe
So Jeremiah, 23.
Probably should have.
Tagged all these, but didn't.
And verse 23.
I am only a God nearby, declares the Lord, and not a God far away. Who can.
Others who can hide in secret places, so that I cannot see them? Declares the Lord. Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? Declares the Lord.
God is everywhere.
And if the the heavens and the earth were bigger, God would fill that too.
Use, everywhere.
Infinitely present.
Is power in job.
42.
And.
And verse 2.
I. I know that you can do all things of yours can be thwarted. There's nothing that God sets out to do that can be stopped by anyone.
His mercy in Psalm 136.
And.
This one.
Was probably the 1st one that came to mind, because.
Of the way. This
Is written.
Well, it's his.
In this version it says, his love endures forever. So, but there are other versions where it says, His mercy endures forever.
But over and over and over again it endures forever, is without limit.
We talked this morning about God's love.
And.
Bob got a little dangerously close to what I wanted to say, and so I was thankful for what he said, but thankful for when he stopped.
But in enrollments.
38 and 39.
Or I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, nor the present, nor the future, nor any powers, nor heighten, or death, nor anything.
Else in all creation we'll be able to separate us from the love of God that is, in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is nothing that can get in the way of God's love.
And I would ask the question.
Is God's infinite nature, His most significant attribute. And I do that saying that if we look at God and we try to take anything away from him, he he becomes less than who he is.
And that becomes idolatry. So we don't want to do that. But.
His.
Infinite nature applies to all of his other.
Attributes.
What Bob said this morning.
About God's love.
Is.
I can't quote you exactly, but essentially.
What if God's love was not infinite?
What if it stops somewhere.
What if we never knew?
If we had gotten to the end of God's love.
If we have seen so much.
Or we have been, whatever we are, to the, to.
Some point where God's love ran out.
One of his mercy, ran out.
And you just I'm sorry, but you know I gave it all to.
Somebody else.
And I don't have any for you.
What, what.
One of his understanding or anything ran out.
And it doesn't, because it's infinite.
Everything about God is infinite.
So.
I want to.
This point, do a little math with you, or discuss a little math with you.
And 1st thing I will do is give you an example of how infinity actually works.
We don't. We don't.
Deal with infinity.
In in this.
World.
Ray talked a little bit about the stars.
And the star there one thing that they appear infinite to us, but we don't really know that they are.
Would you say? 10,000 back at the time that that was written?
I saw recently. They sent a new telescope up into space.
And I saw a picture of it, and you know.
Just filled with stars and galaxies and things like that.
And as I read they said that if you took a pencil.
You held it at arm's length.
The eraser would block.
That.
That view.
That was in that picture. And.
Should have brought it along. That would have been little more meaningful, but.
The.
Are the closest thing that we have to infinity here.
Everything else in this world can be measured.
You have the time, you can go down to the beach and count all the.
All the sand on the beach. You don't have the time, but you could.
Certainly calculate it, and.
You can look.
In Wikipedia, and it'll tell you.
The volume of the of the oceans that they can calculate these things.
These things can be measured.
But.
Infinity cannot be measured.
One of the.
The rare ways that we deal with. Infinity is in math.
For instance, the number pi that you're probably all somewhat familiar with is the ratio of.
The radius of a circle to its circumference 3.1 4 1 5, etc.
That's a number that goes on forever. It never stops.
It's called your rational number meaning that can never be.
Simplified down to anything. It never stops, it never repeats.
There are numbers that go on forever.
But they repeat.
Pie does not.
I, in looking this up, in in preparing for this.
I looked up that somebody back in March of this year.
Calculated the digits of pi to.
105 trillion.
Digits.
It took.
75 days to compute this, using 1 million gigabytes of data.
And way way too much time on their hands.
But.
If we were to look at the number pi.
And if we could look at the whole thing.
You could go through there, and you could find your social security number.
And you could find your phone number and you could find your social security number.
Right next to your phone number, and you could find your social security number right next to your spouses. Social security number right next to your kids, social security numbers, and on and on and on. And if we.
Could convert it to.
Text.
We could find the works of Shakespeare in there.
And we could find the entire text of the Bible in there.
Now, if I sound like.
I'm getting.
Dangerously close to what the evolution is like to.
Say
What they're saying is not necessarily wrong.
That if you have enough time.
Virtually anything is possible, no matter how improbable.
It's what's called the theory of large numbers.
They're.
That doesn't make them right, though.
And I will come to them in due time. And, by the way, their thing of.
You know, if you put a monkey in front of a typewriter and give it enough time.
You know you can get the works of Shakespeare. More likely you'll get the typewriter thrown across the room.
Or you will just get. And and parents that have these little computerized things that like do the alphabet with your your 2 year old. What you get is a a a, you get.
Alright, so
Math and infinity. We can do some math with infinity.
Person.
Are you familiar with the symbol of infinity? It's like an aid on a side. And you know that kind of thing. And the idea is that it goes on forever.
Infinity plus anything.
Equals infinity.
That just means you started with a number too small.
Because if you can add to it, you can. You wind up with infinity. But the
The more interesting one.
Is infinity minus anything.
Equals infinity.
Because whatever you're subtracting from it.
Is so insignificant.
To.
To the, to infinity.
That it doesn't matter.
Just familiar to you.
We sing about this.
Maybe we don't sing about this.
You sing songs that I'm used to sometimes, but I think you know this one.
So.
I hate to do this.
But I'm gonna sing.
And I asked that if you know this song that you join in.
So the song goes like this.
When we've been there 10,000 years.
Bright, shiny as the sun.
We know last days.
To sing God's praise.
Then, when we first.st
Begun.
That's math.
That's infinity minus 10,000 equals infinity.
That's what that song is saying.
You cannot take away from infinity. It doesn't matter.
It won't matter when we're in heaven.
How long we've been there we will have an infinite amount of days left.
Building off of addition and subtraction, multiplying and dividing.
You can't affect an infinity that way.
You can't multiply infinity by anything, get anything but.
Infinity.
You can't divide by infinity, by anything.
And get anything but infinity, because whatever number you apply.
Is not big enough to affect it.
Alright!
Been building towards something.
And I want to look at one particular.
Way, that God's.
Infinite nature, of.
Is displayed.
And that's in his relationship to time.
And we would call that His eternal.
Nature.
I did a rather extensive study on Ghazal.
Nature, and.
I don't speak Greek or Hebrew, but I speak strongs.
And
Strong's numbers, all the.
All the words in Greek and Hebrew.
So, for instance,
In the New Testament. The word for eternal is strongest ones.
G. 166.
It's pronounced. G. 1, 66.
I was surprised by a few things.
1st of all, there is one word.
In Greek, and one word in Hebrew.
Or eternal.
There's not multiple ways.
Of saying it.
There are things like, you know. It goes on. It goes on forever and ever. That is said a little differently. But when we see the word eternal.
In the New Testament. Old Testament is one of 2 words.
And so I thought, well.
There, there's God's eternal nature, and there's our.
Nature.
Perhaps.
There's some.
Distinguishing in that. And there is not. It's the same words.
And I I wondered why that would be. Why wouldn't God use a different word to describe himself than he uses for us?
And I. The only conclusion I can give you is that.
Again.
Eternity has no meaning to us.
Outside of God.
That.
There is nothing that lasts forever.
James is. Our our lives are like a vapor.
And talks about. You know the grass of the.
Withering a way that there is nothing.
That lasts.
But.
God.
And.
Our souls.
Will go on forever.
Then I thought, Well, Ok.
I looked at these words, and I saw.
Not only are these same 2 words interpreted, but also interpreted, everlasting.
And I thought, Well, probably we will find that.
Eternal refers to God, and everlasting refers to man, and that is not so.
That for whatever reason, the.
The the interpreters.
Flipped a coin or something when they picked which word they were gonna use.
There. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why they use eternal on one and everlasting on the other. So we have, for instance, in John 3, 16. I don't need to look it up, but.
You know it talks about that. We may have everlasting life, or in some.
versions, it'll say eternal life.
But in in second Corinthians, 5.
Don't necessarily need to look it up with me.
5 1. We know that if the earthly bottle, if the earthly tint we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands, that eternal house in heaven that is the same.
Word that is used to describe our.
Everlasting life. In John 3, 16.
So there!
Isn't any distinction in that.
Why?
Again. I can only.
Venture to guess that.
If if God tried to describe his own nature.
It wouldn't make any sense to us.
Because we have no frame of reference for it.
And the only way that he can then go on to
Describe ours is to compare it to hiss.
As something that goes on forever and ever.
So when I look at God's eternal nature.
The standard view that I've.
That I've heard, and I think.
I have believe most of my life.
Is that God's.
Existence.
His unending time in the past, in the future, and if.
We had a number, or, you know, sort of a number line. We'd see this line with the arrows going off in both directions.
And God is eternally in the, in the past and eternally in the future, and we hear references to eternity, past and eternity, future.
Just by the way, off the point.
Have you noticed.
That our society is quietly changing the labels on the timeline.
And we.
And we we still do.
Have that timeline at your 0. That's.
Theoretically when Jesus was born, and we have.
Going off into the future, we'd have what we called for.
It's a Latin term, Dominey, or something like that.
Means you're of our Lord.
And in the past we'd have BC. Before Christ.
Why one is Latin, and one is English I don't know, but.
Those labels are being.
And the ad is being changed to.
Ce.
The stands for common area.
Common Era.
Because we cannot reference Jesus in our time.
And then.
Before.
That would be BCE.
Or before the common era.
A number of years ago, probably 15 years ago, I did a project down at Nicola High School.
And
We had a job meeting.
In one of the classrooms, and they had a timeline up above the.
The door, and I was looking at it as somebody was talking about something that I wasn't interested in.
And my mind was wandering and.
I looked up this timeline, and you know.
Shakespeare.
And here's Mohammed.
And here's this person and that person.
And at the year 0 was.
Nothing.
I thought what a.
But a sad commentary that.
They cannot even.
Historically, credit.
Jesus.
For being.
The, the.
Source of our our labeling of time. Even.
But anyway, back to that, that view of the standard view of God's eternity. Again, the arrows going off, both directions.
There's a problem with that.
The problem is going backwards.
Time doesn't go that way.
Time always goes.
That way.
And if we can go back in time, which we.
Frequently. Here we turn the pages in our Bible back.
And we get to a story of.
Abraham.
Sacrificing Isaac, and we turn back 4,000 years in time.
We start reading, and we immediately start going forward.
We don't go backwards.
Time doesn't go backwards, and if it did, things wouldn't make any sense to us.
Time always goes forward.
But here's why.
That.
Cannot work.
And it has to do with math.
Because if we start.
Internally or infinitely out in the past.
And we start moving forward.
And we subtract off.
10,000 years. What is left?
Infinity.
And we subtract, and we say that didn't work. Let's take a million years off.
What's left? Infinity.
Well, let's divide it in half.
Still got infinity, and what happens is, if you start at infinity and start moving forward, you never arrive.
You can never get.
To 0.
So mathematically that does not make.
Sense.
So what does.
I'm not here to tell you that God is not eternal.
I'm here to tell you that God is something.
Quite.
Quite different from us.
God is not subject to time.
God? Does not each.
God is outside of time.
So when we come to Genesis one, and we.
We read in the beginning.
Beginning of.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And there were.
I can't quote it, especially not when I'm nervous.
But.
It goes on, and it says, the 1st day.
I believe that is literally.
The first.st
Day.
That there was no time before that. In the beginning.
References, the beginning of time.
1st thing God creates is time.
Because God is not subject to time.
So God.
Looks at all of human existence.
And because he's not a part of this time.
He's.
Sees it all.
From the beginning to the end.
And we.
Now. I don't want to go there yet.
If.
That is not so.
Then God is something.
That we can't even recognize.
He's not subject to math.
Not subject to the laws that He created.
Which.
God has gone.
To very specific.
Efforts to to say to us.
I want you to know me.
Philippians, 3 10.
Really quiet.
Philippians, 3 10.
I want to know Christ. Yes, to know the part of His resurrection and participations, and His sufferings becoming like Him and His death. I want to know him.
That's our goal.
We.
For us to know Him.
John 17.
This is the prayer of Jesus.
At the Last Supper.
Now this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
God wants us to know Him.
That he would be something that we cannot even comprehend.
Would make no sense.
So.
God being outside of time.
Yeah, that's hard to understand.
But I think we can.
We can sort of understand it, and.
Thankfully.
God gives us.
Some clues to that.
John. 1 1 in the beginning was the word.
In the beginning God existed.
At the beginning.
Revelation, 1, 4.
And wishing I tagged all these, but I didn't.
One for John to the 7 churches in the province of Asia. Grace and peace to you.
To you from Him who is and who was, and who is to come.
Use all those things.
At once.
How can you be that.
All at once.
We exist in the present.
We refer to yesterday as the past, we refer to Marrow as the the future. God is never.
Not.
In the present.
Exit is 3.
One of the more significant.
Things of God.
Probably know where I'm going, which I apparently don't.
Do I keep pointing up at Joshua.
Exodus.
3, 13, and 14.
Molis said to God, Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, The God of your father's has sent me to you, and they ask me what is his name, and what shall I tell them?
God said to Moses, I am who I am.
This is what you are to see. The Israelites I am, has sent you.
Sent me to you. I am.
Is Jehovah.
That's his name.
He identifies himself as the.
Ever existing, one.
Always in the present.
No matter where God goes in time, he is in the present.
Never in the past.
Never in the future.
Always in the present. That's who he is.
The, the.
Phrase, I am.
I read is, I didn't look these up is used more than 5,000 times in the Old Testament.
I'll have to look those up and count them.
Jesus.
You know we. We refer to the IM statements of Jesus.
7.
Things where he says. You know I am.
The bread of life. I am, you know this and that, and.
It's a reference back to that.
I wonder if the the Jews.
Recognized.
His claim to Deity, or if.
I am.
Sort of gets blurred in the.
In the process, but.
In 8, 28.
No.
Oh, Matthew! Sorry.
Yeah. John.
Nothing, I fear, more here than.
Coming to an important point, and having the wrong reference.
Which I apparently do.
Jesus says to them, and I cannot see it here.
Before Abraham was.
I am.
Put.
Yeah. John, 8, somewhere.
I've got 28, and that's.
Unless I just can't get to it.
58. I wrote 28.
No, I wrote 58. I just can't read my own.
Yeah.
Yeah, you're you are not yet 50 years old, they said to him.
And you have seen Abraham.
This is very truly, I tell you, she's answered before Abraham was born. I am.
Terrible dramatic statement for any of us.
But it's accurate for Jesus.
Because Jesus was in the present before Abraham, and in the present at this moment, because he is always in the present.
Now Jesus as part of his.
You go into Philippines, too, and it talks about him. Setting aside his deity.
And and are some of his did.
And.
One of the things that he set aside was his eternal nature, and became.
Subject to time.
And he aged, and he grew.
And we're told that.
And.
So this is a different point in his life, but as God, he existed in the present.
Before Abraham.
In revelation.
1 4. Again did I do that? I did that.
2213.
I wrote it down twice, just to make sure I got it. Apparently.
2213.
I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the 1st and the last, the beginning and the end.
I am the beginning and the end.
And my favorites.
Is.
Second, Peter.
You'll never look at this verse the same way again. You always remember that.
Crazy guy.
Yes.
Took you to.
Second, Peter, 3, 8.
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends, with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
I see that, and I see a mathematical equation.
That can be solved.
And it can be solved.
When time equals 0.
Because that's how God looks at it. Time is 0.
Time is.
Not significant to God.
So.
What's the point of all this.
I went to a more conventional church for 20 years.
And.
They always wanted to end with.
Some sort of.
Application.
And you know, go out and don't lie anymore.
That's that's our application. It's it's bad to lie.
And again. I'm very thankful to be here.
Because the center of this church is worshipped.
So if we learn something new about God, and we can worship Him for it which we can. Anytime, we learn something new about God.
That's worth the effort.
But.
There is something else.
And I'm now going to scare the elders by taking you to Ephesians 1, 6.
Be okay.
Bayesians. 1, 6, if you're not familiar, is a verse that is.
Filled with controversy.
And there's arguments going on, and I've been called names over this verse, and.
Things, and.
It misses the point of the verse.
Because when we look at this verse in.
The view of an eternal God, who is outside of time.
We get a different view of it.
To the praise of His glorious grace.
Which he is.
Really, that's not it.
Oh, my!
First.st
1, st 5, 4.
I'm gonna back up to 3. Praise be to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms, with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
We chose us in Him before the creation of the world.
To be wholly and blameless in his sight.
The the controversy in this verse is.
Did God choose us, or did we choose him?
In light of an eternal outside of time. God.
What's the difference?
What this verse is saying is, that before the creation of the world.
God set up His plan of salvation.
Before. I I like to call it Genesis. One.
Because before God created the heavens on the earth.
He created His plan of salvation.
Now think about that.
Before God, created.
The planets before God, created the earth before God, created the waters and the animals and the birds.
And man.
He created His plan of salvation.
God, knew.
Long before.
I'm not much long, but.
Before he created Adam.
He knew the day would.
When Adam.
Would disobe.
And rebel.
And sent.
And that in doing.
He would need a Savior.
God, knew.
Before He created anything.
That Jesus would have to come and die.
So let me ask you.
Fathers.
Mothers.
Grandparents.
What, what good goal would you pursue?
It's good. What you want to do is good.
But you knew your child.
Would need to die.
To get that.
I can't imagine what I would do.
If if one of my children had to die in order to.
Accomplish what it was that I set out to do.
And I had the ability.
To say, Yeah, I'm just not gonna do that.
Or.
Could we not, or could God not, have changed the rules.
Created the rules.
Could have changed them.
Why, why put that tree in the middle of the garden.
Didn't have to.
Chose to.
This was set up.
All of this was set up.
So that Jesus would come and die for us.
I.
I shudder a little bit.
When I hear people talking about.
Going back.
To Eden.
Eden was never our destination.
Eden was always a step on the journey.
God put them there!
Knowing that they would disobey.
Knowing.
That it would then start the chain of events where.
Chooses would come and die.
It's it's not like.
If God is subject to time.
And he gets there, and he looks down at him, and he.
What what are you doing?
No, no, I said, don't touch the tree.
Are you doing?
He knew they would.
He knew it, and he did it, anyway.
Why did he do it?
That's.
That's an interesting question.
They're.
There is a verse, and I'm.
Badly out of time here.
But there is a verse, and I didn't look it up, and I'm sorry, but it talks about.
Angels long in to look into.
Things that we know.
And what do we know that the angels don't know.
Angels are in the presence of God all the time.
And yet we know things they don't know.
What do the angels know of God's mercy?
I forget who it is.
Here. That's from Egypt.
And met him once about a year ago, and I've never seen him since. What's.
Isaac.
I haven't. If you if you hear Isaac, I'm sorry, but I don't recognize you, but.
I'm going to Egypt in.
January.
And and am very excited about that.
I've read a lot about Egypt.
I've watched shows on TV about Egypt.
I talked to Isaac one time realized. I don't know much about Egypt.
Isaac knows Egypt.
I don't.
I know about it.
The angels know about God's mercy.
They don't know it.
They know something about God's love.
They don't know it like we do.
We've experienced the love of God.
That.
Loves us despite who we are.
Angels are always obedient.
They don't. They don't.
The love of God, like the Prodigal Son, knows.
The love of the Father coming back.
And being forgiven. The angels don't know anything about God's forgiveness.
Except to to see it in action. They've never experienced it.
This is why I believe God.
Set things up the way he set them up.
So that.
Knowing.
That it would be man's nature to disobe.
And rebel.
And want to be.
His own God.
That's what Satan comes with.
You can be like God, you can be your own God.
You don't need that one.
God knew that.
And yet did it, anyway.
And that's worth worshipping.
Let's close.
Our father. We thank you.
For who you are. We thank you that you are infinite in all your ways, and that your level never run out. Your forgiveness will never run out.
And that we can trust your word in every way, because you are infinitely trustworthy.
Father, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you for your.
Great Plan of Salvation.
That was set up before the foundation of the world.
So that we can.
Be here today and worship you for who you are.
And what you have done for us.
Never chooses. I pray.
Amen!