Bibleline Radio Show – 2012-10-29 – The Infinite God, The Finite Man Pt.1
Transcription:
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.
Take your Bible and turn to the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis. We’ll go from generation to revolution. Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1. Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. I want to cover what I believe to be seven of the greatest facts in all the world. You know, you can live long enough and learn a lot of things. You go to all the colleges and universities and get degrees after your name. But if you don’t know these seven things, you missed it, you missed it.
So there’s seven of the greatest facts I believe that a man can know in this life. And if you look there in verse one, it says, in the beginning, God. In the beginning, God, it doesn’t spend any time trying to prove that there is a God, because the natural man knows that the world is here and he didn’t make it, and he knows it, no other man made it, but it’s here. When you consider all the power that’s in all the world, and all the universes, and all these things.
Whoever created it had to have that much power at the beginning without losing power. You see, if I had a hundred dollars and I gave you fifty, then I just gave up fifty dollars. So I’m less than what I had. But God can’t be less than what He ever was at any be given time. Now that blows my mind and it will take much to blow my mind. But sometimes I said and I think about things and my wife says, I don’t believe you or I don’t think like that.
But I do. But in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now to believe that is a great thing to believe because the world is here. I’ll take your Bible looking Isaiah 45, the book of Isaiah chapter 45, Isaiah and chapter 45. And chapter 45, look there in verse five. I am the Lord. there is none else. There is no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hath not known me. I am God. I am the Lord.”
Now, that’s who he says he is, but look there in verse 22, look unto me be, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth? So is he telling everybody in the whole world that wants to be saved to look to him, for I am God, there is none else. There is only the one true and living God’s. Now some religions have a lot of God that are subject to the main God. Well, we believe there’s one God.
I’ve often wondered in my Christian life, since I’ve trusted Christ as my Savior and I’m going to heaven when I die, I wondered how much am I like God? How much am I like God? And I thought, and I thought… And I thought, and I had to stop thinking, I couldn’t think of too many ways that me and God was really alike. So I thought, I wonder in what ways am I not like God? Boy did I come up with a lot.
The ways in which I am not like God. Now we know that God is infinite, and I’m a finite individual. It means that I am limited and he is unlimited. Isn’t that a wonderful thing to know about God? God is infinite. He is unlimited. Unlimited in what? Well, just about everything. He only has chosen to limit himself in any area that he is limited. I’ve thought about, you know, if you could go as far as you can go in this world, in the universe as far as the telescopes can take you.
And to the end of the galaxies, what else is there on the other side of it? If there’s nothing on the other side, did we come to the end of something? And if God is infinite, is there no end to it? That’s hard for me to I’ve also thought about here’s God, and God has always been. He has no beginning. He has no ending. He is forever. Well what about man? When did I first come into his mind? Or have I always been in his mind?
That would blow your mind. You mean there’s a time when God did not know me? And now he does? Well, if he’s God, then he would have always known me. Am I as old as God in the mind of God? You say, you’re messing with my mind. I know. But it shows you how little we really know. You know the Bible talks about immortality. immortality. The Bible makes his statement and I want you to see this verse. Look over there in 1 Timothy chapter 6.
1 Timothy and chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6. Let’s just look there in verse 15, which in his times he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate. That means the sovereign, the supreme sovereign. Nobody over him. Nobody’s over him. The king of kings and Lord of lords, verse 16. And you ought to underline the second word there who only, only had immortality. Dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man has seen nor can see to whom be honor and power everlasting?
Maybe sounds like God is God. And if you were going to describe God, you would have to say, well, he’s always been. We said, well, who made God? You ever thought about that? Well, whoever made God then would have been God. Well, who made him? Well, whoever made him. So otherwise you had to keep going back and back and, or God never had a beginning. And he’s always been, can you figure this out? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
God did that. Now I believe that’s one of the greatest facts known to man is to know and to believe there is a God. Now the Bible says that God only hath immortality. In the words he has no beginning, no ending. Immortally, he’s not subject to death. We talk about mankind, we are mortal. Means we’re subject to die. And because of that, we have limitations. We had a beginning and we have an ending in time concerning you and I.
Mankind is very limited. We don’t know how long we’re going to live, but God will always be. You and I, we come and we go. We’re here today and gone tomorrow. It’s wonderful to try to think upon some of these things. The Bible talks about God, how he is omnipresent. Unnipresent. That means being everywhere. All at the same time. Try it. Have you really understood how much you and I are not like God? Are we immortal? No, we’re immortal.
We’re going to die. We have limitations. He has none. He is on my present. I mean, he can be everywhere all at the same time. Not just the ability to be everywhere or anywhere, but everywhere at the same time. He says, if you were to climb into heaven, he said, well, God’s there. Climb into hell. God’s there. Where can you go where there is no God? God is God and God is real. God has a purpose. Now when you talk about you and I, how finite we are, how limited we really are.
You’re heard about the omniscience of God. In other words, the wisdom of God. Talk about the knowledge of God. Not only that he knows everything, He is so wise and that there’s no one wiser than God. Nobody wiser than God. I told him in Ranch One Night, I thought about, I’d love to be the wisest man that ever lived. Solomon’s already got that. I’d love to be the strongest man that’s ever lived. That’s Samson already doesn’t beat me on air.
Surely there’s something that I can do. I want to be the biggest fool that the world has ever known. Hey, I bet that’s still open. I want to find something that I will be different, unique in, you know? And the Bible says a fool has said in his heart there is no God. I really don’t want to be that kind of a fool. The Bible talks about a man who had the ability to make great wealth. I’ll tear down these barns and build me some bigger barns and say to my soul, soul, they’ll have much goods.
Eat, drink, and then be merry for tomorrow we diet. Diet. And God says, this night, thou fool, thy soul shall be required of thee. I don’t want to be that kind of a fool. But when I read in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 4, where the Apostle Paul was talking about how that God has set forth us, the apostles last, how that we’re the the off scouring of the world that despised the garbage of the world. He says we are fools for Christ’s sake.
I said I can head on that. I want to be a fool for Christ. In fact, in case I want to be the biggest fool the world has ever known for Christ’s sake. In the eyes of the world they may think you’re foolish for trusting Jesus Christ. Believe in a God that you cannot see. Believe in a person that came into the world from out of space and paid for the sins of the whole world and will give you eternal life as a gift, they may think you’re a fool.
So I guess if I’m going to be one, I might would just go all the way and be the biggest fool I could be. I’ve been told by some that just to serve a Lord, you ain’t you’re a fool. You’re throwing away your life. But Christ says if I will lose my life for His sake, I will save it. I’m going to take that risk. If there is a risk, I’ll take that chance. But I don’t want to be like millions and millions millions of people who live and die and are real fools.
I’d rather be a fool for Christ’s thing. You know the Bible says in the book of Psalms 139th. I taught it one night. Talking about how that God is everywhere and He’s everywhere at the same time. You and I are limited to the sole body of flesh were prisoners, bars of bones that hold my soul so limited. And as we get older, we find out that the body is harder and more difficult to move around. Have you noticed any of that?
And sometimes it don’t want to go. I woke up one morning and I said, body, get up and it says I will not. I said, get out of this bed. He says, I’m not moving. Can you believe it? My body almost won. It was so easy to stay there. Have you ever had a fight with the covers and lose? It’s a wonderful thing to know that yes, I do have some things I can do, but I am limited. So in the eyes of God, I am not much like God.
I am more not like God. When you look at me and I look at you, because there’s so many things that we do. Is God perfect? Do you live perfectly? God never does anything wrong. Do you ever do anything wrong? Just once in a while, huh? A little here, a little there. But He is all wise. He knows everything. Jesus Christ, when He was here, He says that Christ, the wisdom of God, the righteousness of God, He is the wisdom of God.
The book of Proverbs talked about searching for this wisdom as a man would search for hidden gold or silver, that the wisdom of God can make a man very wise. And so the Word of God is the mind of God on paper and how wise we could be if we only believed and looked at the Word. Now, the Bible says that God is omnipotent. It means that He has all power. If he has all power, I mean, there’s nothing God cannot do.
He is so powerful, so great. He has limited himself only when he chose to limit himself. Can you do everything? No, you can’t. Can you accomplish everything you want? No, you can’t. Regardless of what you have been able to do, when you look in that mirror, you’re still just a man, man, or just a woman. You’re nothing more than a man. There’s God. You ain’t God and I’m not God. And we will learn a great lesson if we’ll understand that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, not man.
God did it. And that there is a true and living God. And I don’t believe that I’m a fool, maybe in the eyes of the world. But the second thing I want you to give is this. God created man. God. Second thing, God made man. He formed him out of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. a living soul and the Word of God tells us that God made the man. The man did not make himself.
Man did not get here by the process of evolution. God holds man responsible. God holds us accountable. So there is a God, and everybody needs to know that. God made the man, everybody needs to understand that. God holds the man responsible, accountable, because He says there is going to be a judgment. And if there’s going to be a judgment, every man shall die. After this the judgment, what’s the purpose of a judgment? of a judgment? Is there something that God required of the man that God is going to hold the man accountable for?
What’s the purpose of a judgment? Is something right? Is something wrong? Is it because something that I said? Is it something that I did? Is it something that I thought? What’s he gonna hold me accountable for? Every idle word, every deed, every thought? All of my actions. It means that if God is God and God made the man and God’s going to hold the man responsible, and you and I would be very wise to believe that. Because it makes a difference on what we do with our lives.
Just believe in the simple basic things. I think after a while when we get away from the things of the Lord, things seem to be running together. Life gets complicated. The economy’s sour. Your health goes. Your money goes. The security in the world goes. And you don’t know what’s going on. And you lose sight of the most important things. See, the most important thing in your life is not the provision of all those things. things, because sooner or later they’re going to die anyway, right?
One of these days you’re leaving here, because it’s appointed into every man who wants to die after that, the judgment. So there is accountability, things that will have to count to the Lord for him. You know One of the greatest things in all the world is to believe that this God that made the man that holds him accountable wrote a book. Have you realized what the world would be like? Life would be like if there was no Bible. If this Bible did not exist, what would this world be like?
What would people really believe? You know, the truth of this book is the restraint upon a man’s sinful nature. But who’s to say he has a sinful nature? It would just be our instinct. We’d be no different than animals. It’s just the west the way we are. And that would never change. But isn’t it wonderful to know what God says about everything? It’s all in this book. This book tells us who we are, where we came from, what we’re doing here, where we’re going.
You see, God wrote a book, and that’s why we call this the Word of God. It’s called Bible, bibblows, but it’s a book written by God. It’s divine. It’s inspired. We believe this every word to be the word of God. And we look to it, we read it, and we trust it. So God has given to us a book. And he says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Means that it’s God breathed. Now I talk about that for a long time if I wanted to.
But I think you get the point. If we have the Word of God, then we have the mind of God on paper. So as we read the book, we’re putting the mind of God into our minds. And it says, be not conformed to this world, but be it transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove or discover. Where is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God? So that’s why God is given to us His Word.
His Word reveals His will. And the man that knows the Word knows the will of God. The man that does not know the Word does not know His will. Therefore a man who does not know the Word doesn’t know the will and he cannot know the way. So God has given to us the answers that we’re seeking. When you study the book of Job and he finds out that what is man and how that God gave him the right to life.
And if a man die, shall he live again? And what happens to him? Where did he go? And how can a man be just with God? Well, when Christ came, He answered all of those questions when a man dies, where does he go? There’s only two places, heaven and hell. And it’s good for you and I to know the difference between the two. So as we live life, we have a little bit of heaven here and a little bit of hell here, but that is not heaven and that is not hell.
But we have a little bit of things that we enjoy and a few things that we don’t enjoy. To help us to be wise because we do not want to go to a place that is pain forever. But to go to a place that is joy forever, if there was none of that in this life, you and I would not know the difference between joy or pain. Therefore, we will not be able to make a wise decision. Aren’t you glad for a little joy in life and a little pain?
Because that’s how we learn. But the Bible says that he is infinite. No limitation. I am so much not like God, the whole human race. And yet, the Bible says that God created man in his image. Something must have gone wrong. Something must have gone wrong. Well the word of God tells us what went wrong. Man sinned against God. And because of that, sin separated us from God. Why? Because we were not like God anymore. To be Godly is to be like God.
To be ungodly is not to be like God. And so you and I with our sinful natures causes us to do and to think and to say and to believe things that are not like God. So God gave us a book. great thing for us to realize is that God gave us His Son. And of all the things that a man may know, and it doesn’t matter if you know how to get a man to the moon or the Mars, but you can’t get him to heaven, you’re still missed out.
And there’s a lot of people with a lot of wisdom and knowledge of the world, but they They don’t know the simple, basic things that God has given to us and what God wants us to know. So yes, I believe there’s a God. And I believe that God made man. And I believe God holds man responsible, accountable. So he gave us his word so that we would know just how much God expects. What’s the purpose of all of this?
And I believe it’s all revealed in his word, and that you and I, because of sin, God wants us to know how much God loves us. And God found a way to show you and I just how much He loves us. By doing something for us, no one else could do. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Part 2 of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast.
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