“Omnipresence” 8-7-22
Overview
God Is Both Near and Far: The Comfort of His Omnipresence
For forty years, Jeremiah—the weeping prophet—faithfully called God's people to repent, even as false prophets soothed the crowds with dreams of their own invention. The temptation then is the temptation now: to gravitate toward teachers who tickle our ears rather than speak the truth. Into that conflict, the Lord reveals something foundational about Himself: "Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth?" Jeremiah 23:23-24. God is transcendent and immanent. He is everywhere, and He sees everything.
David sings of this same reality in Psalm 139:7-10—there is no height, no depth, no distant sea where God's presence does not already hold us fast. Yet because we are finite and often spread thin, we are tempted to project our limitations onto God, imagining Him as occasionally absent, distracted, or running between rooms. Honest believers feel this tension. Even David cried, "How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?" Psalm 13:1. Romans warns where this drift leads: exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images shaped to our liking Romans 1:22-23.
A common picture compares God's omnipresence to oxygen filling a room—but that image falls short. Oxygen is distributed; its full quantity is never concentrated at any single point. God, however, is fully present at every point. There is never more of Him "over there" and less of Him "right here." His whole presence is with you now, and the promise stands: "I will never leave you nor forsake you" Hebrews 13:5.
This changes how we receive what God allows in our lives. He is not an absentee Father whose attention wavers; whatever He permits is shaped by His full, attentive presence for His glory and our good. The same God who fills heaven and earth was fully present 2,000 years ago at the cross, where Jesus—seeing the full extent of our sin and not turning away in horror—bore God's wrath to reconcile us to Himself. The God who could not be contained by a tomb cannot be kept from you now. When you feel stretched thin, remember: God never is. He is fully with you, in every place, in every moment.
Transcript
Would you open your Bibles please with me this morning for our study to the Old Testament 2s
to the book of Jeremiah. 7s
If you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture this morning, you're going to find Jeremiah 10s
page 685 in the Old Testament. 14s
But 685. 18s
Jeremiah was known as the Weeping Prophet for 40 years of his ministry. 22s
Jeremiah called the people of God to repent. 33s
As we've studied with regard to repentance, repentance mean that you're going one way and 36s
then you turn around and you go the other way. 42s
But 40 years Jeremiah called the people of God to repent of their sins. 45s
The sins of the people broke as heart. 54s
But faithfully he kept on proclaiming. 58s
And he was given a hard word to proclaim. 62s
He was given a word to tell the people that because of their disobedience, because of their 66s
sin. 71s
God was going to punish them. 73s
The discipline of God was going to come upon them. 76s
Jerusalem would be destroyed and the people would be taken away into captivity and the weeping 80s
Prophet faithfully proclaimed. 91s
He also faced a challenge. 97s
There were false prophets in the day. 99s
Those that conjured up their own supposed messages from God that had dreamed dreams 103s
and supposedly God had given them a message. 110s
And the message that supposedly they were given from God was that what Jeremiah was prophesying 114s
wasn't going to be so bad. 123s
Things weren't going to be that bad. 125s
Don't worry about it. 126s
So on the one hand you had Jeremiah giving the thus sayeth the Lord of God. 130s
And then you had the prophets giving their own word. 137s
Where do you think the people would be pulled? 145s
See, would they be attracted to the message of Jeremiah saying that Jerusalem is going 149s
to be destroyed and you're going to be taken into captivity or is there going to be a natural 155s
poll to the message of the false prophets who were telling their lie, the false prophets 162s
that simply said, it's not going to be that bad. 170s
Don't worry about it. 175s
So there was then the dichotomy, thus sayeth the Lord and we like what he says. 180s
To use a new testament image, part of our sinfulness is that we can seek out teachers that 191s
tickle our ears. 197s
In other words, we want to hear what it is. 199s
We want to hear even though what we might want to hear isn't the truth. 202s
It's a lie, but yet we can gravitate toward it because it's how the ears are tickled. 211s
And there's Jeremiah faithfully proclaiming the weeping. 224s
Prophet. 233s
As Jeremiah proclaims, it is God that is speaking through him and so God weighs in. 237s
And God says, looking at verse 25, I've heard what the prophets has said, 245s
who prophesied lies in my name saying, I've dreamed, I have dreamed, how long will the hearts 250s
of the prophets ever turn back those who prophesied lies and to prophesy the deceit of their own heart? 259s
And his God weighs in on the matter. 270s
What has revealed is one of his attributes. 275s
One of his attributes that we're going to study today. 280s
Look, please, at verse 23. 285s
Am I a God nearby, says the Lord, and not a God far off? 289s
Such an important revelation here that God is giving us, that God is both transcendent and he is both 296s
imminent. In other words, he is everywhere. He is far away and he is close. 303s
Verse 24, who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them says the Lord, 310s
do I not fill heaven and earth says the Lord? 317s
What God is revealing here is his attribute of omnipresence, that God is everywhere. 324s
David gets at this. When he writes in Psalm 139, 334s
where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 338s
If I ascend to heaven you're there, if I make my bed and shield you're there, 343s
if I take the wings of the morning and settle it the farthest limits of the sea, even there, 347s
your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me fast. God is omnipresence. 354s
God is everywhere. Omni-presence is really appealing to us, isn't it? 362s
It's really, really appealing to us. I think of South Eastern London. There's a de-markation line. 377s
If you put your foot on one side of the line, you are in the Western Hemisphere. 388s
You put your foot on the other side of the line, you're in the Eastern Hemisphere. That's a very popular spot. 393s
People will go to have their picture taken there on what's called the prime meridian. 398s
One foot in the Western Hemisphere and one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere. What's the appeal there? 405s
You can be in two places at one time. Is it child? I remember a family trip in the way way back 412s
of the station wagon with no air conditioning but stopping at this one spot for a drink. 423s
It was called the four corners. And they're at the four corners. Four states come and they touch 429s
Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. They all touch. So you can stand right at the spot where they all touch. 437s
And you can be in four states in one time. Omni-presence. There's an appeal, isn't there. 447s
For who of us here have never said, I need to be in two places at one time. Or I need to be in three places at one time. 462s
I need to be there and there. And there. So how is this going to work? 480s
Omni-presence is so appealing because sometimes we can feel so spread out thin. 488s
And we are reminded when we need to be here and here and maybe even there at the same time, 498s
we are reminded that we are finite, that we're limited, that we can, 505s
despite perhaps all of our scheduling or desires, we can't be in more than one place 516s
at one time. Here's the thing. We can attribute to God or being finite and limited. 525s
We can attribute to the one who said he is omnipresent, he is everywhere at the same time. 546s
We can attribute to him or limitations. And can start to believe that God is finite. 552s
And God is limited. That God, we can start to believe, isn't quite as omnipresent 566s
as he says he is. Look, please, at verse 23, once again, 580s
my God nearby says the Lord, and not a God far off. 590s
Well, we certainly understand his transcendence, right? But when it comes to his 598s
definition of near God, because it doesn't, it doesn't feel sometimes, that's your near. 609s
It doesn't feel sometimes. I'm it's the problem that perplexes or the challenge that just keeps going on 619s
and on and it just never seems to resolve, it doesn't seem that you're near. 625s
God says, verse 24, who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them says the Lord? 634s
Do I not fill heaven and earth says the Lord? 644s
And yet this God who fills the heavens and the earth, this God who sees us all the times, 653s
sometimes we can feel as if we are in plain view, but God doesn't see us. 660s
Almost like someone that looks right through you or doesn't quite see you, but now we're talking 666s
with the Almighty here and we can feel at times. Even though God says he's omnipresent, even though 671s
God says, I see you at all times, sometimes we can feel, but I, 679s
I just need more of your presence than God for where are you? 689s
Hebrews 13th chapter, the promises given, I will never leave you or forsake you. 699s
And yet the words of David in Psalm 13 can resonate with us, right? 709s
We're David writes, how long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? 718s
How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul and have sorrow in my heart, 727s
all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? God says he's far off, but also near 735s
God says that he sees all, that he fills heaven and earth, but sometimes, right? 749s
Then feel that way. So what do we tend to do? We're tempted to take our understanding of how 758s
finite we are because we're reminded of that reality every single week as we go to write down our 771s
reality of being finite and foisted upon God. And we can wind up living out Romans, 785s
chapter 1, claiming to be wise, they became fools and they exchanged the glory of the immortal 802s
God, catches for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or forforated animals or reptiles. 814s
You see when it feels as if God isn't all that present, we can start forming our own God 831s
in our own image and foisted upon God are limited nature. 842s
We're God may say he's omnipresent, but God that can't be because that's sometimes, it's not how I feel. 854s
And so then foisted upon God becomes our limitations. As if when it comes to the omnipresence of God, 866s
God must be on high edus sometimes. The word of old comes to us today, verse 23, 877s
in my a God nearby says the Lord, and not a God far off, who can hide in secret places so they cannot see them, says the Lord. 901s
Do I not fill heaven and earth says the Lord? 915s
Ponder his omnipresence this way. Sometimes when it comes to that attribute of God, you hear 925s
it associated with oxygen. And so the image will be that just as oxygen is, for example, 931s
filling this sanctuary here today, that's like God who is omnipresent. Just as the oxygen is everywhere here 940s
in this sanctuary, so also God is everywhere. Problem with that, it's too simplistic. 948s
It's too simplistic to equate the omnipresence of God with the omnipresence of oxygen in the sanctuary. 957s
Why is that? Because the full quantity of oxygen is not concentrated ever in one point. 967s
But with God and his omnipresence, the full presence of God is always at every point. 983s
That's why God says, I'm transcendent, I'm imminent. I fill the heaven and the earth. 1000s
That means that the full presence of God is constantly with you. It's not a situation where 1009s
there's ever a, you have more of God over here and less of God over here. 1023s
No God is fully present everywhere. The air in the room, the quantity of it is not localized to one specific spot with God. 1030s
God is present everywhere with his full presence. God is present everywhere. 1044s
With his full presence. Again, at verse 24, do I not fill heaven and earth says the Lord? 1059s
So because God is fully present right with you now, that means then. 1078s
That means then that whatever God allows in your life is ultimately for his glory and for your good. 1086s
Because it is not an understanding of God where God is somehow not present at times or God runs into the room at times, 1097s
but then leaves or that God somehow is attention kind of waivers off of you because after all he's got the whole creation to care for. 1105s
No, it's not that at all. It's God is fully present with all of us. He's fully present in the reality of heaven and he's fully present here. 1114s
He never leaves you or forsake you. 1133s
And he has fully present in every moment with you. 1139s
And just as God is always fully present in every place with every one of us, fully present. 1153s
He was also fully present in a certain place some 2,000 years ago at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1165s
Fully present. 1178s
The Lord Jesus Christ going to the cross and bearing the sin of the world. God's wrath for sin. 1181s
God nearby. God transcendent and nearby. The second member of the Trinity, the God man, the Lord Jesus Christ, 1191s
walking this earth ministering, teaching, and willingly going to the cross to bear our sins, 1201s
to reconcile us to God Almighty. Even though God sees us, 1208s
He sees all of our sin because as the scripture says in our text for today, there is no place that we can run away 1215s
that somehow he doesn't see us. He sees the full extent of our sin and yet he comes to us to redeem us. 1223s
Not turning his back on us in horror because of the repulsiveness of the depth and the breath of our sin, 1237s
but present with us on the cross. God who fills heaven and earth cannot be contained by the walls 1246s
of a tomb, but Jesus rises from the dead. We can sometimes feel like we are just spread to thin. 1263s
We're spread to thin and we're reminded at those times where we say, you know, we like, 1282s
nice to be in two or three places at the same time. When we reminded that we're not omnipresent, 1289s
we're reminded that we are finite. God comes to remind us with His word. That it doesn't matter what 1295s
kind of false thoughts you've got with regard to me. I am always fully present. Not running in and out. 1311s
Not a little more me here and sometimes a little more me there. 1330s
I'm fully present. We can spread ourselves to thin. God doesn't have that problem. God never 1336s
can spread himself to thin. Because He's fully present everywhere. And He's fully present 1355s
with you. 1381s