I wonder what you would have told them if they called you up. What is your reason for going to church? At the most fundamental level, this study wanted to know if people went to church because they loved religion or because they loved God.
The results were split right down the middle:
- About 50% responded that they went to church to know God and to grow in their faith. These people went to church because they loved God.
- The other half attended for other reasons. These people went to church because they loved religion.
I believe that at the most fundamental level, the purpose of Christianity is to know God. It’s not about religion. It is a gateway that leads us to God. We are all on an everlasting journey and the heart of this church is to help direct your steps toward a deeper relationship with God and to help you avoid the things that might draw you away from Him.
Christianity is so much more than a conversion experience. It is a never ending journey that begins now and extends into eternity. It is more than delivering us from Hell. It’s more than a religion.
The greatest aspect of our faith is that it gives us the tools to know God in a deeper way. God is of never-ending worth and we have the opportunity to dive into the depths of who He is through the study of His Word. The greatest joy in Christianity is finding that God is always truly satisfying.
Dozens of times throughout scripture, the Christian life is referred to as a walk. Romans 8:3-4 is a great example: 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Here’s a list of references: Rom. 6:4, 8:1, 4; Gal. 5:16, 25; Eph. 4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15; Phil. 3:16-18; Col.1:10, 2:6, 4:5; 1 Jn. 1:6-7, 2:6; 2 Jn. 6; 3 Jn. 4)
One reason the Bible calls the Christian life “a walk” is because our lives are constantly moving, changing, and growing. The Christian “walk” is full of peaks and pits., mountains and valleys, moments of great joy and deep sorrow.
This “walk” gives us opportunity after opportunity to see God at work in our lives. Every turn in the road gives us a chance to know God more. There is no end to this journey because our lives are never-ending and our God is infinite.
Infinity is impossible for us to grasp. In his book, Math for God’s Glory, Dr. Ron uses the concept of infinity to prove mathematically that, “finite humans cannot fully understand the infinite.”[2] So, today I’m going to set out to explain something that you and I are unable to grasp. As we journey a few steps down the road leading to infinity, my greatest desire is that you and I will behold our infinite God and turn into better worshippers of Him.
#1 Infinity Cannot be Measured or Fully Comprehend
Our culture is often careless with words like “infinite” and “boundless” and “unlimited.”
- We talk about a child having “boundless” energy. Compared to my energy level, their energy might seem boundless, but it will eventually run out. You can measure a person’s energy. It’s not boundless.
- Phone Companies often offer “unlimited” minutes on cell phones. In reality, the minutes are limited to the maximum number of minutes there are in a month, about 44,000. That’s a lot of cell phone calls, but is far short of unlimited.
- People talk about “unlimited” wealth, but there is no such thing. Even if a person is a multi-trillionaire and could never live long enough to spend all their money, that money still could be counted. It’s not unlimited or boundless.
- There is even a car brand named Infinity. We all know that no car goes on forever without eventually stopping. An Infinity is not infinite.
We have to be careful not to misuse words like “boundless,” “unlimited” and “infinite.” These words describe God and they only describe God. Any other created thing – be it space, matter, time, motion, energy, children, phones, wealth, or cars – have a limit. Even mind-blowing, large numbers fall significantly short of infinity.
- Take, for example, the number of the grains of sand. There is a lot of sand on the earth, but it’s not unlimited. It can be numbered. The number of grains of sand is high. Some estimate it to be over 7 quintillion. (That’s a 7 with about 18 0’s). That is a big number but it is overtaken by the number of stars.[3]
- A little over a decade ago, scientists calculated that stars do officially outnumber the grains of sand on earth. They come in over 70 sextillion (a 7 with 22 zeros). That’s a lot of stars, but it is not even a fraction of infinity. Nor does it outnumber the molecules in just one tenth of an ounce of water.[4]
- If you were to count the number of molecules in .1 oz of water (3ml or about 60 drops), it would be over 100 sextillion and that would outnumber the stars in the known universe. Now imagine if you were to try to count the number of molecules in the ocean, on Earth, or in the entire universe? It would be a number so large that it is inconceivable to us and yet, it still does not approach infinity.[5]
Everything in creation can be measured, so nothing in creation is boundless. There is nothing boundless but God and nothing infinite but God. He’s not just big. He defies measurement. Too many idolatrous pictures have been drawn depicting God as an old man in the sky. Nothing could be further from the Bible’s description of Him.
Our God defies portraits and silly illustrations. The Bible says that God is self-existent and complete in Himself. Nothing can get outside of God. He has no edge and no boundary. That makes Him impossible to paint or draw with any accuracy!
Paul said that in God we ‘live and move and have our being…’[6] We can’t escape Him. We can’t get a look at Him from a distance. We can’t get in a space ship and travel to the edge of God. He’s boundless. Everything that exists, exists in the context of God. Every created thing is dependent on Him and is infinitely smaller than He is.
- A genius might be smart, but He’s not smarter than God.
- The universe might be large, but it’s not larger than God.
One of my favorite descriptions of God is in Isaiah 40. It says:
“12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand”
Our God is so big, He can scoop up an Ocean in His palm
and marked off the heavens with a span,
Our God is so big that He can measure the entire universe between His fingertips. It’s weightless and insignificant compared to His greatness.
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?
For God, measuring a mountain is like me measuring a teaspoon of salt. It’s nothing to Him. A mountain is of no significance to an infinite God.
13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel?
He can’t be measured because He knows no bounds! God is perfect in every way. Psalm 18:30 says, “This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. “ He has no limits. He has no boundaries. He has no end. There is no point where God stops short. If God stopped short in any aspect of His being, then he wouldn’t be perfect. For example:
- If a god knew almost everything, but not quite everything, then he wouldn’t be perfect in knowledge. That god would not be the God of the Bible.
- If a god was very powerful and had more power than everybody else combined, but didn’t quite have all power, then he wouldn’t be perfect in power. That god would not be the God of the Bible.
- If a god was mostly everywhere, but absent in some places some of the time, then that god could not perfectly know and love his worshippers. That god would not be the God of the Bible.
God’s infinite power, knowledge, and love for His people are illustrated, side by side, in our text today: Psalm 147:1-6. Let me give you a brief context for this passage.
Background
The Israelites disobeyed God and found themselves enslaved to the Babylonians. The Medes and Persians captured Babylon in 539 BC and a couple years later, Cyrus issued a decree permitting the Jews to return to their homeland. Led by a man maned Zerubbabel, a large band of exiles went back to Judah and rebuilt the temple.
About ninety years later, Nehemiah learned that the walls of Jerusalem were still in ruins. He received permission from the king to travel to Jerusalem and fix the walls. Nehemiah and his people finished rebuilding the walls and gates of Jerusalem. People began to return to Jerusalem and resettle it. It was a cause for great celebration. It is likely that this Psalm was penned for that occasion.
Upon their return to Jerusalem, there was quite a mix of emotions.
- They saw God’s hand of discipline. They had disobeyed God and their captivity was God’s punishment on their nation.
- They saw His protection. While in captivity, they retained their beliefs, their scriptures, and their culture. God had tenderly cared for them while He was disciplining them.
- They saw His provision. It is only by the Lord’s grace that they were allowed to have another chance. God gave them back their freedom and their homeland.
Their time in captivity made them all the more aware of God’s great blessings upon them.
- They were blessed with walls and protection from their enemies.
- They had been protected from the schemes of the pagan nations that surrounded Jerusalem while they were rebuilding the walls.
- They were re-establishing farms.
- They had new gates in the walls.
The best thing of all is that they had preserved the Holy Scriptures. More valuable to them than the gifts that God provided was the opportunity to know God better. The purpose of Christianity is to know God better!
In that context, let’s begin reading Psalm 147:1-2
147 Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. 2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
#2 God is so Infinitely Good that He is Worthy of Praise
It is good to sing praises to God because God is infinitely good! One 16th century theologian said, “[God] is so infinitely good that we are infinitely honored simply in being reckoned worthy to worship One so great.”[7]
It is good because praise is the right response to God, who powerfully provides and overcomes our deficiencies. It is good to praise God because God accepts it, it benefits us, and it stimulates others to see how great our God really is. The great orator and preacher Charles Spurgeon said, “Singing the divine praises is the best possible use of speech: it speaks of God, for God and to God and it does this in a joyful and reverent manner. Singing with the heart is good, but singing with the heart and voice is better, for it allows others to join with us.”[8]
God is gracious and happy. He loves to hear His people expressing their love for Him in song. God was worthy of praise from the Israelites because he provided them with Jerusalem. Better yet, he provided for their spiritual life. God intervened and the scriptures were not lost nor did they ever lose their power to save.
The Lord brought his banished people back together and was building them both spiritually and physically in Jerusalem. The next line speaks of how intimate and involved God was in the process. Verse 3 says:
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
#3 God is so Infinitely Personal that He’s Worthy of Praise
God was restoring broken hearts as well as broken walls. He is not just a builder, but also a healer. The kings of the earth think they are great because they rule over the people and above the people. They live in palaces in order to keep a good distance from the people.
God proves that He is great because He comes down, or condescends, to the people. God has every right to keep His distance from us, but that’s not His character:
- He loves His people.
- He dwells with the sick and the sorry.
- He is a companion to the wounded.
- He watches over hospitals as the Good Physician.
- He hurts with those in mourning and stays with them until they are restored by His comforts.
His compassion knows no limit. He can hear trillions of prayers at a time and never be confused. He responds to every request completely, compassionately, and correctly without tiring. He can feel a whole range of emotions from grief to joy, from to anger to love simultaneously and never wear out.
He is a God of infinite intimacy. He knows completely the heart of every single person. He knows each person better than they know themselves. He knows us. He made us and each person is of tremendous value to Him.
Then the psalm makes a jump and talks about His knowledge and power over the stars. Look at verse 4:
He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.
#4 God is so Infinitely Powerful that He’s Worthy of Praise
Don’t get a picture of God as only a caring, soft spoken counselor. Our God is one of infinite power. The same God who binds up our wounds also commands stars and galaxies.
Canis Majoris is a hypergiant star, over 1,400 times larger than our sun. It’s one of the largest stars ever discovered. It’s so big, that it defies all the evolutionary models. It is controversial because evolutionists can’t totally explain it. It could only have been created, controlled and sustained by a very powerful God.
It burns at around 5000 degrees Fahrenheit. It is a massive raging fireball that does exactly what our God tells it to do. Not one star rises, falls, rotates, burns, or explodes without explicit commands from our God to do so.
God knows, names, and sustains every star… and there are billions of them! If we wanted to count to a billion, it would take over 90 years of counting day and night to reach that number, yet our God knows and names billions and billions of stars. If He named inanimate stars, then surely He knows His worshippers.
Let’s read those verses again without a break so we can see the great contract between God’s power and God’s care for His people:
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. 4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.
What a change from one verse to the next! God knows worlds and He knows wounds. That is a span of knowledge and compassion that only an infinite God could bridge. He acts with a surgeon’s care towards wounded people and with the power and authority of the King of Kings in relation to galaxies and heavenly bodies.
We praise the Lord for ruling stars and then we can praise the Lord for healing broken hearts. Our God is unlimited in power and knowledge. Look at verse 5:
Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
The NKJV translates verse 5 like this:
Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.
#4 God is so Infinitely Knowledgeable that He’s Worthy of Praise
There is no way to fathom God’s wisdom or measure His knowledge. These few verses from the psalms teach us that God is infinite in existence, power, and knowledge. Your brain might be about ready to explode at this point. Mine is. My view of God just got a whole lot bigger!
When we take a long, steady look at what the Bible actually says about God, it becomes a great cure for the cheap god that our culture has fabricated. They have devised a tiny god that is mostly good for helping them win a baseball game. They refer to Him flippantly as the “man upstairs.” This small god of our culture is not the powerful, almighty giant who was the Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In chapter 40, Isaiah describes God and then asks,
“18 To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? 19 An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.”
We educated Americans can create idols just like pagan cultures did in the Old Testament. An idol is anything that you esteem more highly than God.
- In biblical times, they made idols out of stone, wood, or gold.
- Today, people in our culture make idols of their cars, homes, jobs, savings account, or even out of their own imagination.
- Either way, it’s an idol.
Application
The god being worshipped by many Christians is a god of imagination, not the God of the Bible. He is not the infinite, perfect, all-knowing, all-wise, all-loving, boundless, perfect God. He’s something that falls far short of that.
One reason why Christianity is in decay right now is because too many people have lost sight of the God of the Bible. They go to church to worship a god who is small or to socialize with friends. Too many people love religion and not God.
Perhaps they go to church and ask, “What’s in this for me?” instead of, “Teach me about how to know God.” They might pray, but their prayers are small because they don’t really understand what God is like.
Dwelling on the infinite God of the Bible is the cure for the cheap, man-made gods of our culture.
How do you know if you are God-focused or self-focused in your Christianity? I was very convicted this week when I realized that my focus in my faith is made the most clear during my prayer time.
- A self-focused person with a small view of God will tend to focus on a long list of prayers for themselves.
- On the other hand, a God-focused person – with a large view of God – finds their heart filled with God’s attributes during their prayer time. They want to sit and dwell on God. They ponder His attributes and forget about themselves. They say, “Lord I want to know You more. Teach me about yourself.”
So how do we get to know the God of the Bible? By being in the Word!
- Get into the word: On the back table, we always have some Bible study books available. Studies show that people without a Bible study plan are far less likely to get around to reading the Bible during the week.
- Connect to other believers in a fellowship: Sunday morning worship is critical to your spiritual growth. Another great way to connect is our small group ministry. Small groups are a great way to fellowship around the word and get into the discipline of being in the word regularly.
- Pray with a renewed reverential awe. Those who spend the most time looking at God are those who are most blown away by who God is. As we know more about God, it changes the way we pray.
I’m not suggesting that you change your prayer life as much as I’m suggesting that you and I need a larger view of God. Don’t settle for the small gods of our culture. The purpose of Christianity is to know God. Don’t stop short and settle for something less than the infinite, glorious, powerful, and intimate God of the Bible.
Let’s get to know the God of the Bible by looking inside the Bible. What you find there about God will absolutely blow your mind!
[1] http://www.gallup.com/poll/27124/just-why-americans-attend-church.aspx
[2] Tagliapietra, Ron, “Math for God’s Glory” pg. 122
[3] http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/09/17/161096233/which-is-greater-the-number-of-sand-grains-on-earth-or-stars-in-the-sky
[4] http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/09/17/161096233/which-is-greater-the-number-of-sand-grains-on-earth-or-stars-in-the-sky
[5] http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/09/17/161096233/which-is-greater-the-number-of-sand-grains-on-earth-or-stars-in-the-sky
[6] Acts 17:28
[7] John Lorinus in Spurgeon’s “Treasury of David – Vol 3” page 421
[8] Charles Spurgeon “Treasury of David – Vol 3” page 414
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