Everlasting God

Children—John Kaiser
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Rich man and Lazarus and then I you know, I always pictured it that the two of them went to sleep one night and.
It says of the rich man. He lifted up his eyes.
In hell being in torment now if he went to sleep that night and died in the night.
That was a bad morning.
And so we have all this morning. Got a good morning.
A little bit rainy out there.
It's cooler.
And you know something else? God wants to bless us today.
God's heart is toward us, He loves us, and that's why we're here.
All right.
Who has a song we're we're primarily off the back of the new sheet? Does anyone need a hidden sheet? I guess I could just hear it.
How about a choice? Yes. What number?
46.
We just said no, we sang now.
Because right now we're occupied with time. A few minutes ago, I walked around the room to see if my watch agreed with these two clocks here. And I discovered these two clocks don't agree. But it's always now.
It's time to be saved right now. We're going to be talking about time and the absence of time this morning. Because someday time will end and there'll be no more clocks. And I'll be so glad.
That would be too bad for some people.
It'll be too late for them. All right, How about another choice?
I got bad eyesight. So if I miss somebody, somebody else help? Yes. What number 13?
13 All right, let's look at #13 That's a nice, that's a wonderful song. I don't know if I've ever heard a song in the Sunday School before, but it's what we're here for. Number 13.
Man of Sorrows.
Was running.
Lord of the God who came.
Fruiting.
All right, how about another show?
Yes.
#4.
All right, I think we'll sing the 1St and the last verse of #4 Her eyes is the Savior of the Savior.
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For me.
Afraid.
This is the savior for me.
Save your Sinner Savior. Say you're a Sinner like me.
Sharing his life for my life long. This is the danger for me.
Notice.
Saying it says love with a love that's unchanging. Remember that expression, love with a love that's unchanging because that's going to be important in our lesson this morning. All right, Anybody else?
I don't get a choice from the front front row. We'll take a choice from.
A different row.
No choice.
Are we sung out already?
About 4747 all right #47.
When he comes, when he comes in, Jules on his jewel. France is gold. Here's life and hit along.
Right. And for him?
Is there anybody here this morning who won't be in Jesus Gem collection?
Are you all going to be there? Are you? We just said little children who love their Redeemer are the jewels. Are you a jewel this morning?
You know what a jewel does?
Jewel reflects light. People like jewels because they're nice to look at. They reflect light. And if we're one of Jesus jewels, we reflect his life.
Think about that. All right, We have time for one more 40.
40 Good, we got one. I got a choice in the front row and it's on the back, on the back of the hymn sheet. Good #40 We'll sing the whole thing.
Jesus belongs me, the final.
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For the Bible, does it go, little one, to him being wrong? Then I think I'm here strong, yes.
I don't know when you have Jesus.
Laughing.
Yes, in the last day. The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loved me all. I'm fat and get away to make me laugh.
From here shining.
Into what she where I lie?
Young is not laughing.
Young Jesus, love me.
Yes, you thought the light was made. Oh, my Lord tells me so.
It will Take Me Home on my way.
Yes, she's got a lot of weird.
Yeah, she's not one. Being young Jesus who always lost the Bible tells me so.
You know, I was looking around as I was singing this and I saw some people saying, yes, Jesus loves me in the waving him cheat around, looking at the sky or the ceiling or whatever. And.
You know, I've seen some people really in love.
They were focused and they were excited.
If you realized how much Jesus loves you.
You'd be excited.
You should be overwhelmed.
He loves you so much.
That's thanking.
Our God and Father.
We thank you this morning that we are.
Assembled together.
By thy goodness and in thy love.
We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, who lives for us, who's coming for us.
We ask you this day that we might appreciate more your goodness, your faithfulness.
And all that you've done for us, we ask in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
Now there was a memory verse.
Anybody learn the memory verse for this Sunday? You know, every week you get a Sunday. Most of you anyway get a Sunday full paper and there is a memory verse. How many learn the memory verse for this Sunday? Anybody. Anybody know it? Anybody want to say it?
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I don't see volunteers.
Very good. Can you say the verse?
Very good. I am the Lord, I change. Not Malachi 36. Anybody else? That's an easy verse. Good.
I am the Lord, I change, not my own Tie 36. OK, OK, go ahead. I will not change, not Malachi to use it right? Anybody else?
No, I'll be. That's good. Yeah. I am the Lord. I change. Not now I.
Very good. Anybody else? I mean, I I remember when I was young, if I went to the trouble of learning the verse, I expected to get a chance to say it. But I understand some people don't value those things.
Quite the same way.
This is a wonderful verse. I remember when I first noticed it was in the Sunday school paper. It was about a month ago, and I was thinking about this conference and I thought, wow, wonder if I'm going to get asked to take the funny score. And I looked at that verse and I thought, hmm, what I'm going to say about that verse. I never talked about that verse before, never considered it, never seen it in a in a Sunday school paper before.
But let's look at it. It's a wonderful verse, and I hope before we leave here this morning that we'll all agree that it is a wonderful verse. Malachi, by the way, this book is just full of wonderful verses.
Malachi.
Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament that makes it easy to find Malachi chapter 3 and verse 6. And I'm gonna read the whole verse because if we understand it, understand this verse, the whole verse, it makes a lot more sense. I am the Lord, for I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Now when God speaks of Jacob.
To Israel, he's reminding them of their failure and his faithfulness.
He says, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
What God is talking about is His mercy. You know Malachi is the last book in the Bible.
And God had been speaking to his people for hundreds of years, and had had the people of God always been obedient to God?
Who knows the answer to that?
Have God's people always been obedient? What do you think?
Have God's people, the people of God, always been obedient? No, no, Oh no, not any better than us.
Have we always been obedient? Well, you know, God said.
I am the Lord, the reason God had not wiped his people out, consumed them because of what he was. And so we want to talk about what God is and he's unchanged. He says I am the Lord, I change, not now. I'm going to give you a little illustration this morning.
Have you ever seen that character before?
That you recognize that person.
No, you recognize that person.
You think so?
No, no.
OK.
OK, who did recognize that person you think you did? Yeah. Who is it?
Yeah.
60 years ago.
I changed and the number most people who didn't recognize it was the people on the front row here didn't recognize me. I don't blame them. I've changed in 60 years. Do you realize that your parents and your grandparents used to look sort of like you?
They've changed, too.
With everything in this life changes, let me give you some more examples of change.
Now we all like these things, apples and bananas. Suppose I put this apple and banana. Suppose I put them up here on the stage here, and I just let them sit there for a year.
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We just leave the apple and the banana on the stage to sit for a year. Are they going to look the same?
No, the apple is going to shrivel up and turn brown and.
The banana, what? They'll get worse than that. It'll turn black and after a while start getting attracting flies and the skin will split and it'll rot. Bananas. Bananas don't last well at all. They're called perishables. They're things that don't last, that don't change. I mean, they do change. They change quickly sometimes. Now I've got something else here. This is a local product.
Picked up on the road down there. If I put this up on the stage and we leave it on the stage for a year.
What's it going to look like?
It's the same, yeah. Rocks don't change much. They have a reputation that way. People build things of rocks. They build roads out of rocks. They build buildings out of rocks. Because rocks are considered to be stable. They don't change much. Actually. You something about rocks, rocks can change. You put this in a really hot fire. Really, really hot fire. You could actually burn it up.
It would change into whatever rocks change into when they're burning, you know?
I don't know what.
It all depends what's in it, you know, but it would change. Rocks can be vaporized, they can be exploded, but they're considered pretty stable now. God says I am the Lord, I don't change, and that's nice. Let's look at a verse here to start with.
We talked about.
Rocks. We say a rock, by the way. Before we go any further, we'll say rock is It's not. Rocks aren't everlasting and eternal, but they are enduring.
Enduring rocks do endure, and so let's turn to some interesting verses in Deuteronomy chapter 33.
Here is a verse.
Umm, let's take a look. First look at yeah, Deuteronomy chapter 33 and verse 27. Deuteronomy 33 and verse 27.
It says the eternal God is thy refuge, or what's a refuge is another word for a shelter. Right now we're in a refuge from rain. It's raining a little bit outside, or it wasn't for a while anyway. We got a roof over us. We're in a refuge here. We're in a shelter. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.
Now, when God met Moses out in the wilderness.
He introduced himself as the I am that I am.
The one who doesn't change. A God who is eternal and so.
Moses here is speaking to his to the people of God, and he says the eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And so we've got two more things to put up on the board here.
Eternal.
And everlasting.
OK.
Eternal and everlasting. Now there's things that go with that. God says the eternal God is.
Your refuge, your shelter. Now if if I have an eternal God for my shelter, what kind of a shelter have I got? Do I have a temporary shelter or internal shelter?
Which kind?
Come on, eternal. Of course it's because God's eternal. I have an eternal shelter. So I'm gonna put this word up here. I have an eternal shelter.
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Or refuge.
But it says underneath are the everlasting arms.
Now you know.
Umm, some people saw me last night walking around with a cat.
I found a cat out by the motel out there and I was carrying it around. I was supporting it in my arms.
So we have an everlasting support.
All because.
All because of.
God being eternal and everlasting now.
A few days ago I got a word through the Grapevine, so to speak, that I was going to be asked to speak about this verse. And I started thinking about all the things that we have from God, which are everlasting, eternal, enduring. I'm putting another word up here. Endless.
And there's other ways. There's other ways to describe them.
And so I want to start going through scripture and I came up with a list of.
Over 40 things that we have we're told about in the Bible.
That are eternal. That belong to us who belong to God. Eternal, everlasting. I'm not going to tell you what they are. I'm going to ask somebody to suggest what they might be who can think of something else in the Bible that's eternal.
What?
Eternal life. I was sure that somebody's going to mention that. You're right. Eternal life. We get eternal life because God doesn't change. He's eternal. We get eternal life. So I'll put that down here. Eternal life, That was the easy one.
I'm glad you thought of it. OK, well, what's by the way, who knows the verse we need, We need to have scriptures for these things. Who knows a verse about eternal life?
John 316 Very good everlasting life, eternal life. Same thing. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Or if you were to say that verse in another language, language like French or Spanish, the word would be eternal. Matter of fact, I'm going to show you something.
In our Bible, in the Old Testament, we use the word Lord for Jehovah, where God had revealed himself to Moses.
But when I was up in Montreal some years ago, I I wanted a souvenir and I bought, I bought this. Who can read this?
Who can read this?
I know Jim Holly can read it.
That's right.
There, get somebody else back and out Of Montreal for years.
Right here, John. OK, go ahead. Great.
Well, this is Luigi Leternal.
That means praise the Lord. Let's say that together, Louis Leternal. Louis Leternal because in French the name for the Lord is lay Ternal. You get a French Bible and it says Leighturnal, a Montbage. The Lord is my shepherd, the eternal one, the one that doesn't change.
Just think what it is. Have a shepherd that never changes. He's always good, always watching le turn LA Monsieur. That's what David says in the French Bible.
Lil Wayne, eternal praise the Lord. Well, so we have an eternal God and we read about that, by the way, and I didn't put it down, it says the eternal God is your refuge. So of course we have eternal God, eternal shelter, eternal support.
Eternal life. What else do we have that's eternal or everlasting or endless or never ends?
I'm just going to get a short list here, yeah.
You said you give up. OK, I'll I'll take suggestions for the older ones.
Eternal Spirit, absolutely. It comes from the book of Hebrews, the Eternal Spirit.
Eternal day. Eternal what day? Day. All right, that's one that was not on my list. Congratulations.
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Well, suggested by this one, yes. What's that?
Death, yes, in the sense that.
The Bible doesn't speak it that way, but it does talk about eternal destruction and eternal, eternal punishment. So maybe we'll put down eternal punishment because that's the idea of between death.
Eternal power. The other one's not. It wasn't on my list. Thank you.
Eternal power and Godhead, the Scripture says. How about another one?
Oh, that's wonderful, you know. And Jeremiah says, behold, I have loved you with him ever Lasting love. And we sang about it this morning. I'm surprised somebody didn't mention it sooner. Unchanging love, remember? Eternal love, Absolutely.
What else?
Eternal redemption. Oh, is that wonderful? What's that mean? Eternal redemption. The Bible tells us we're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
He has bought us, he has paid for us with his blood and he's done it forever.
That's what eternal redemption is. Did it once for all. Finished. He did it before I was born. He did it before I sinned. Eternal redemption for us. All right. Wonderful. How about another one? Just call it out.
Strength. Absolutely. The Bible talks in a couple of places about eternal strength. Absolutely.
Eternal home, Absolutely. That's in Scripture as well.
I'm getting ahead of myself down here.
Eternal home, wasn't it wonderful? We have eternal strength. Sometimes we feel pretty, pretty weak, but the Bible talks about us having eternal strength in God, and that's in the book of Isaiah. We have an eternal home. I will take one or two more because I got more things to talk about. My glory, Eternal glory, absolutely. It's mentioned several couple times of Scripture. Eternal glory.
What else?
The general inheritance inheritance and there was one else I missed here.
Eternal grace, pray absolutely OK, and we'll stop there. We don't mean we're on the board here anyway. Inheritance.
Now you say eternal praise. You know something?
Praise is a wonderful thing. We all like to get praise, don't we? And matter of fact, if we're in a good situation, we like to give praise. It's enjoyable, it does something for us. But let me sometimes we appreciate things by contrast.
How many here would like to be around eternal rumbling or eternal complaining or eternal screaming?
That's what Hell's gonna be like.
Eternal praise. Your praise isn't always noisy. Some praise is quiet. Praise can be beautiful.
In the in heaven, it is of course, eternal praise. These are the wonderful things that belong to us who believe because God is everlasting, eternal, enduring and you know.
I'm gonna tell you about a story about a man. This is a sad story. Let's let's read it in Luke chapter.
Luke We'll read it very quickly, though.
Luke chapter 12 I think it is.
Look Luke chapter, umm yes, Luke chapter 12.
Verse 16 And Jesus spoke a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
And he said, This will I do, I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I be so all my fruit and my goods, and I will say to my soul, soul thou as much goods laid up.
For many years, take thy knees, eat, drink and be merry.
But God said to him, Thou fool.
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This night shall thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall these things be which thou hast providing? You know, people spend so much time and energy trying to get things in this life.
And then they lose it.
I'm gonna ask you, what are you living for today? Are you living for now or for eternity? Are you living in appreciation of, in anticipation of, in enjoyment of these wonderful things that belong to the children of God forever? Or are you just like a person with his nose to the floor looking at the stuff down this world? That's what this man was. And his neighbors probably thought he was Wonderful man. That guy's a good businessman. He's diligent. He thinks they had he plans ahead.
But he didn't plan for eternity.
Now I have something else here to show you.
You know what that man got for all his planning?
What's that?
What is it? Yeah, what is it?
It's great. Yeah. That's a great story.
Gravestone. That's my representation for gravestone anyway. That's all that man. I don't even know if man got that, frankly. He planned and planned and planned and he had this all this property and these crops and all these wonderful plans and he died. And you know, people in this world, they work for so many things. They say I'm going to be great and do great things and.
And they die, as the poet says, and lie embalmed and prayed a lot of good. It doesn't.
What was the man's name?
What was his name? Well, I don't know if he had a gravestone, but I know I can tell you what is what God called him.
Would you like that on your gravestone if you ever died?
The fool. He was a man who lived for just the things of this world. He didn't pay attention to the eternal God. He wasn't concerned with what was eternal Live for eternity. That man made a big mistake. He forgot about something.
He forgot about eternity.
Boys and girls, men and women.
This life is just the beginning.
This is the seed plot of Eternity.
Live for eternity. Enjoy what is really life, what is really yours.
Live for eternity. This poor man, the poor fool, he died and he lost it all forever. He lost all of this and more. I told you there were 40 things in my list and I'm we got two more added this morning I hadn't remembered.
There's only a 5-10 about 151617 up there.
God has so much for us, you know, I think of the.
When I got married.
People gave us wedding gifts and.
One person gave us a text that hung in our ro, our house for many years. I'll show it to you. It's not the same text, by the way, because the text they gave us faded. It looked terrible. It was hand done and uh, as it faded, the paint got splotchy and so on. And I finally took it down. But I recreated it just last week.
Thou remains we. That's this text hung in our home for years. Not this this, not this physical, but one like it, only bigger.
And it was a big comfort to me because a lot of things in our lives didn't seem to go right, but we have one who always remains.
God remains he Cha, he doesn't change. You know what's interesting back in Deuteronomy? The children we if you have still have your Bible there. It took look real briefly. Deuteronomy chapter 32 is another interesting expression.
Deuteronomy 32, verse 29.
Deuteronomy 3229.
All that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter and their final ends. Where's your final end going to be? It's going to be an eternity. Where are you going to spend eternity? Consider your final end and consider the one who determines it. What's it say next? The next verse here.
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How should one chase 1000? This is Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 30. How should one chase 1002 put 10,000 to flight? Except they're rock.
Had sold them and the Lord had shut them up, for their rock is not our rock. You know, even then the children of Israel could rejoice in a God who didn't change and they didn't know the hundreds of years later, God would say to them, I am the Lord, I change not. He was reminding them of who he was and why they had not been consumed. I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Here it says their rock is not our rock. Even our enemies themselves being judges. You know, there's lots of people who envy Christian security, but they don't want Christ.
A lot of people, I've had people say to me, I wish I had your faith, and I say I wish you had my Savior.
Because it's not our faith. The faith is not no good without an object. We have somebody we can trust forever, trustee in the Lord forever. For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Now our time is about up. I want to tell you another story.
About 100 years ago. 110 years ago.
There was a mission over in China called the China Inland Mission.
And they had missionaries in a lot of places in China.
And the government in China decided that missionaries were bad. By the way, what is a missionary?
You know, I'm afraid sometimes missionaries, we talk about them so rarely and people don't know what missionaries are. What's a missionary?
People who go out work, I know.
Around the world and talk about the gospel. Absolutely right. Very good. That's what a missionary is.
Uh.
One day, Sir. Wilford Grenfell.
Was at a dinner. I Wilfred Grenfell was a missionary and he was a missionary up in the north, umm, northern, eastern Canada, Newfoundland, Labrador. In that area he was at a dinner.
And this is a pretty fancy dinner. And he was sitting at the table, and the lady next to him looked at him and says, do I understand, Sir, that you are a missionary?
And he said, do I understand that you're not?
I hope we have a room full of missionaries. They go out and tell people about the Lord Jesus.
You can go where he sends you.
Anyway, there are missionaries in China with the China Inland Missionary Emissions Association and the government said kill the missionaries. There was a boxer box called the Boxer Rebellion or the Boxer Uprising. And so they started to hunt out the Christians and particularly the missionaries and kill them. Now I want to show you the text that was hanging at that time. I believe in the office of the China Emission, not the exact same text. And then obviously the.
Plastic frames and then plastic frames back then. But this is a wonderful text.
Read this for us louder. Can you read that kind of funny writing?
Iron, iron, iron is one.
This God is our God, forever and ever.
Gives a stricter references at the bottom you know in the Bible we read about a time when the sun says still God did it for his people. Another time when when an axe, an iron axe head was lost in the water and.
God made it to come to the top floor. Do you ever see iron?
Accent float I never have.
But God can do those things. And it says the sun stood still. The iron didn't swim.
This God is our God forever.
And ever can you say that this morning? This God is my God, forever and ever.
By the way, these texts are for sale.
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And I can make more.
Our time is up.
Our time is up, time goes some time, there will be no more time. We will be with God forever. And by the way, about this word enduring this word enduring here. I believe you know God calls on us to endure things in this life.
Paul said to Timothy, my son, endure hardness. As a soldier of Jesus Christ, it's a good thing to endure. We appreciate things that have shelf life that are good longer than maybe we expect them to be. It's a wonderful thing just to endure because a God, that's one of God's characteristics. He makes things that endure and he can make us to endure as well.
Keep that in mind. God appreciates endurance.
Let's thank him now for this time. Our God and Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, our eternal Savior, our eternal shepherd.