Eternity

Psalm 90:1-6

Introduction:

A traveling salesman drove all night long to meet a client in a small town in Alabama. He arrived two hours early, so he decided to top in the local park and catch a nap. Just as he dozed off, there was a knock on the window. Outside the car, the salesman saw a jogger.

“Excuse me, can you tell me the time?”

“Yeah, it’s 6:27.”

The man settled back and was almost asleep when there was another knock on the window. Another jogger.

“I’m sorry to disturb you. Do you have the time?”

“Yeah, it’s 6:34.”

The salesman rolled up the window and realized this could go on indefinitely. So he took paper and pen and made a sign that read: “I DO NOT KNOW THE TIME.” He stuck the sign in the window and again nestled down in the seat, relaxed.

Then…another tap at the window. The man looked and sure enough, another jogger. He disgustedly rolled down the window and said, “Yeah, what is it?”

The jogger replied, “It’s 6:42.”

1. We live in a clock-eyed world with schedules and time frames. It is pretty hard to escape the urgency of time.

2. Jesus said, "We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day; night is coming, when no man can work.” (John 9:4)

3. For this reason, it is pretty hard to comprehend the timeless nature of eternity.

I. God is Infinite and We are Finite

1. God is unlimited but space and time limit us.

2. 1 Tim. 1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

3. Rom. 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

a. it is hard to imagine the enormity of space or even the earth

b. I cannot fathom either the wisdom or the power of God

4. 2 Cor. 4:18 we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

5. 2 Cor. 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight--

6. 2 Pet. 3:8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

a. if you lived to be a hundred, that is only one tenth of a thousand

b. but a thousand years is as if it were nothing to God—time does not have a lock on God

II. How Long Is Eternity?

1. Psalm 90:1,2 Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

2. “The sand of the sea, the drops of rain, and the days of eternity—who can count them?” (Sirach 1:2)

3. Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”

4. When ten thousand times ten thousand times ten thousand years have passed, eternity will have just begun.

5. Suppose you could suspend a rope from here to the moon, some 221,000 to 253,000 miles from the earth. Let’s send an ant on that rope all the way to the moon and let him pick up one grain of soil from the moon and bring it back. In the time it would take for an ant to bring back the entire moon grain by grain, that’s just the beginning.

6. Eternity: “infinite time, without beginning or end”

7. We might speak of something we experience that goes on and on, lasting an “eternity”; but that is only a figure of speech. Eternal things have no end.

III. The Choices of Time Are Binding in Eternity

1. Matt. 6:14,15 "For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

2. Luke 6:36-37 "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. And do not judge and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon and you will be pardoned.”

3. Luke 6:38 "Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."

4. Matthew 25:31-46

· "And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

· to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

· 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'

· 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

· 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

· for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.'

· 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'

· "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

· Eternal punishment lasts as long as eternal life.

5. Rom. 8:12,13 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

6. Gal. 6:7,8 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.

a. Do you believe this?

b. Some people think they can feed their pet sin, and there will be no consequences to their actions.

c. Some people think because no one knows about their pet sin, there are no consequences.

· A little drink à drunkenness

· A little flirt à fornication, adultery, divorce

· A little lie à major conflict

d. The old song “heaven’s just a sin away” can be true.

e. The passing pleasures of sin are just not worth an eternity in hell, separated from God.

f. Rev. 20:10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Conclusion:

A prominent citizen in town was dying. As he lay in his lovely home, the best doctors surrounding him, he whispered, with a note of despair, “I’m leaving home, I’m leaving home.”

Across time there lay a solitary figure in surroundings bare. Her modest home contained only the most threadbare of life’s essentials. In her eye was a gleam. Before she died, she was heard to say, “I’m going home, I’m going home.”

Where you and I will spend eternity has much to do with whether we have lived close to God or not, whether the blood of Jesus has cleansed us or not, whether we have believed and repented or not.

There is a life beyond this life. If we become so attached to the present, we may miss the true beauties and joy of an eternal heaven.