by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Romans 11:25-36<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nI. Imagine going back to the early days of this country and trying to explain the marvels of\nour time to someone living then.\n A. Explain how we get around by automobiles: “Well, they are kind-of like carriages,\nbut there are no horses. They have a motor in them to make them go. Oh, what a\nminute, you don’t know what a motor is …”\n B. Worse, try explaining an airplane: “Well they are big metal contraptions with wings\nlike a bird, but they don’t flap. …”\n C. How about the now common cell phone: “We can talk over large distances using\nelectricity. What is electricity? Ah, ..”\n D. We grew up with these things or saw them being developed. We might not fully\nunderstand everything about them, but we accept that they are there.\n
E. But trying to explain it to someone without some similar experience is hard.<\/p>\n
II. God is Eternal – Genesis 21:33; Deuteronomy 33:27<\/p>\n A. How do you explain eternity to people stuck in the passage of time? – Proverbs\n8:22-26\n
1. God has been around for an eternity – Psalm 93:1-2<\/p>\n
2. God will be around for eternity as well – Psalm 90:2<\/p>\n
3. God inhabits eternity – Isaiah 57:15<\/p>\n B. God gave us a grasp of eternity, but it doesn’t mean we fully understand –\nEcclesiastes 3:11\n C. When people face the incomprehensible, we try to redefine it into terms that we\ncan understand\n
1. In dealing with God, this has often gotten man into trouble – Romans 1:20-23<\/p>\n 2. God’s eternal power is clearly seen, but we have a hard time putting our\narms around eternity\n
3. So man redefines his concept of God into things he understands and sees.<\/p>\n
D. We tend to oversimplify<\/p>\n 1. Definition: “to simplify to the point of causing misrepresentation,\nmisconception, or error. To cause distortion or error by extreme\nsimplification of a subject.”\n 2. When a person says a plane is like a bird, does that give an accurate\ndescription of a plane? Why not? Because it is too simple.\n
III. The vastness of God<\/p>\n
A. God has eternal power. There is no limit on what He can do – Romans 1:20<\/p>\n
1. His greatness is unsearchable – Psalm 145:3<\/p>\n
2. He doesn’t wear out or gets tired – Isaiah 40:28<\/p>\n
B. All of God’s works cannot be recorded in order or even counted – Psalm 40:5<\/p>\n
1. God’s works are great and His thoughts are deep – Psalm 92:5<\/p>\n 2. Though Job’s friends misunderstood many things, they perceived the\ngreatness of God – Job 5:8-9; 11:7-9\n
3. Job understood as well – Job 9:10-12<\/p>\n 4. Job’s description is perhaps best. We only see a minute portion of God’s\nways and His power – Job 26:14\n
5. So who can speak of His deeds? – Psalm 106:2<\/p>\n
C. God’s knowledge is vast – Psalm 139:1-6<\/p>\n
1. His understanding is infinite – Psalm 147:5<\/p>\n
2. They are past finding out – Romans 11:33-36<\/p>\n
3. So who can teach God? – Job 36:22<\/p>\n
4. Who could even think about giving God advice – Isaiah 40:13<\/p>\n
D. God’s faithfulness reaches to the clouds – Psalms 36:5-6<\/p>\n
E. God’s mercy is beyond our comprehension – Psalm 103:11<\/p>\n
F. We cannot comprehend the dimensions of God’s love – Ephesians 3:17-21<\/p>\n
G. God is far above us – Isaiah 55:8-9<\/p>\n
H. God is unstoppable – Daniel 4:35<\/p>\n
IV. The limitation of man<\/p>\n A. I Samuel 15:29 – God is not a man, but we tend to think and deal with him as if He\nwere a man\n
B. We live our lives bounded by time. We do not live all that long – Psalm 90:12<\/p>\n
C. Our plans can be interrupt by our short life – James 4:13-14<\/p>\n D. We cannot see the spiritual realm, so we don’t know everything that is going on –\nColossians 1:20\n E. We have limited capacity to understand or even remember, that is why we need\nconstant reminders – Deuteronomy 4:9\n F. We don’t have time enough to even learn a fraction of what God has done –\nEcclesiastes 12:12\n
V. The “I Am”<\/p>\n
A. God calls Himself “I Am that I Am” – Exodus 3:14<\/p>\n
1. God always exists<\/p>\n
2. God is self-sustaining<\/p>\n
B. We need to appreciate the vastness of God without trying to pigeonhole Him<\/p>\n C. This is one reason so many false doctrines exist. People latching on one aspect of\nGod and thereby thinking they fulling understand God – I Corinthians 2:11\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Romans 11:25-36 I. Imagine going back to the early days of this country and trying to explain the marvels of our time to someone living then. A. Explain how we get around by automobiles: “Well, they are kind-of like carriages, but there are no horses. They have a motor in them…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32],"tags":[693,90],"class_list":["post-62324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","tag-eternal","tag-god"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28828,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-god-be-eternal-if-eternity-is-like-a-circle\/","url_meta":{"origin":62324,"position":0},"title":"How can God be eternal if eternity is like a circle?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Eternity is like a circle (no beginning or end). This is an issue that I have pointed out time and again and still have not received an answer to me that is logical or even answers the question I'm about to ask: God gave us brains to use, so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48088,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-god-die\/","url_meta":{"origin":62324,"position":1},"title":"How can God die?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What if a Muslim asks you, can God die? Jesus died and was resurrected, just like the myths of the Greeks, India, Roman, and the dark ages. What will you say? Answer: The ancient myths took their inspiration from the seasons. They saw the cycles of winter and spring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89080,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/johns-proposition-and-proof\/","url_meta":{"origin":62324,"position":2},"title":"John’s Proposition and Proof","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The gospel of John is very unique in that it sets forth a proposition as in a debate, and then seeks to present evidence to prove the proposition is true. The proposition is stated in the first 18 verses that Jesus was actually God with God\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14518,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-gods-foreknowledge-only-apply-to-groups\/","url_meta":{"origin":62324,"position":3},"title":"Does God’s foreknowledge only apply to groups?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just read your article on the subject of predestination and foreknowledge. I very well understood the difficulties and struggle of trying to explain subjects like these and wish to appreciate your efforts I just want you to look at Acts 13:48 and Ephesians 2:10. I will like to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94231,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-created-god-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":62324,"position":4},"title":"Who Created God? (Hall)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Perry Hall In \"The God Delusion\", Richard Dawkins asks the question, \"Who created God?\" This is a favorite \"gotcha\" question of atheists. This is ironic because atheists often believe in abiogenesis, the scientific theory that life originated from non-living matter through natural chemical processes. I say ironic because theists\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62225,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-hell-exist\/","url_meta":{"origin":62324,"position":5},"title":"Does Hell Exist?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Mark 9:42-48 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Generally people prefer to think upon pleasant things, so when talking to people about the need to become a Christian, we put emphasis on reaching heaven. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0People focus on the love of God - Romans 5:8 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But they don\u2019t want to think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}