Address—D. Rule
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We'll begin our time together this afternoon by singing the 1St 3 verses of #150.
Thou art the everlasting Word, the Father's only Son. God manifests.
God seen and heard the heavens, beloved 1.
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art thou that every knee?
To thee should bow 1St. 3 verses of 150 will need a starter.
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Spray.
Our God and our Father.
Thou hast heard us sing.
These words.
To thy son.
The one whom thou delight us to honor.
And the one our God, at least with our lips, we have given honor to.
In singing to him, worthy art thou, O Lamb of God, and we do pray, our God and Father, that thou would deepen in our souls.
That sense of the greatness, the honor.
That belongs to thy beloved 1.
We do look to Thee to bless Thy word to our souls this afternoon by the power of the Spirit.
For of thee comes the blessing.
We do desire that we may see no man.
Jesus only so we ask our God and Father for the glory.
In the honor of thy Son, and in his name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Turn with me, please, to the first words of the Bible.
Genesis chapter one, verse one.
Genesis 11.
In the beginning, God created.
The heaven and the earth.
And chapter 2.
And verse 7.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.
And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
And man became a living soul.
This afternoon I would like to.
Speak about some beginnings.
And endings.
And some beginnings which have no endings.
So the Word of God starts with the beginning.
But the center of the verse is God, and we would speak about Him first as one who?
Inhabits eternity. He has no beginning. He has no ending.
God is. He is the eternal I am. God stands or exists outside of time and space.
Everything that ever happens or will happen and has happened, God has seen it all.
Right at the same moment of time.
God who is?
But man ourselves.
Our creatures.
And God has created us in the context of space.
And time. And so in this first verse, we have the beginning of time.
In the beginning, we also have the beginning of space.
As it says, he created the heaven and the earth because before God created there was nothing of time or space.
If you look up into the sky.
I think it's between 5 and 10,000 stars.
Of the heavens can be seen by the natural or naked eye.
About 400 years ago.
The telescope was discovered.
And man was able to peer out into space.
That God had created. And see, I don't know at that time, but certainly the thousands became hundreds of thousands.
Of stars.
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We live according to the way man sees things, in a part of space that's called the Milky Way.
Around the year 1900 or thereabouts, man thought that the Milky Way was the extent of the universe.
That's all there was. That was the created.
Space of which this verse speaks.
Now he knows differently.
In the Milky Way.
There are an estimated 200 to 400 billion.
Bodies, stars, planets and so on.
200 to 400 billion.
It's a big number, number that none of us can fully comprehend or get our minds around, I don't think.
I have in my hand 1/4.
And it's about an inch in diameter.
And I want you to think of this quarter as representing.
The Milky Way Galaxy in which you live.
As one of those, I'll just use the word 400.
Billion bodies in this quarter.
The presently understood extent of the universe. If you look at this as.
The Milky Way is approximately 20 miles.
That is, if this represents 200 to 400 billion stars in God's universe that we just read about, the extent of the presently known universe would extend out 20 miles from this point where I'm standing.
That's what he now thinks is the size of it.
At the same time, he has certain calculations as to how much matter there should be in it, and he's only able to figure out about 60% of what he thinks there should be, and he doesn't know where the other 40% is at this point, so he's quite ignorant of a lot of it.
Nor does he know whether it's 1000 miles or 1,000,000 miles in extent in comparison to what he sees.
But turn your perspective around.
And think of God.
God created it all.
And God chose to go to a tiny little.
Insignificant bit of it.
Called Earth.
And there God chose to take a few grains of dust.
And breathe into them the breath of life.
And man.
Became a living soul.
Pretty small.
Pretty tiny, pretty insignificant in comparison to God and what God is.
I look around the faces of this room this afternoon and.
I recognize that as I look on you 100 years ago at most.
No one in this room existed.
You were not.
You had no being.
Some of you a year ago were not.
Or at least two years ago. We're not.
Now you are You had a beginning. Just like God placed in that first little bit of dust, the breath of life, so God conceived you in the womb of your mother.
And approximately 9 months later, we got to see you if we were older than you.
Or you came.
Into the world.
An offspring of Adam, and consequently just a little bit of dust, like he was.
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But in you God placed the breath of life.
You have a beginning.
But consider well the fact that you have no ending.
Pretty significant, isn't it?
Now that you exist, you are forever.
You will have no ending.
Turn over to Chapter 2.
Chapter 3.
Verse nine. Chapter 3. Verse 9.
And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him.
Where art thou?
Verse 13.
And the Lord God said unto the woman.
What is this?
That thou hast done.
These are the first two questions that God.
Raised.
We won't go there. We don't have time to cover it, but it's nice. In the revelation, you might say, well, if that's the beginning, what's the ending? And I look forward to an ending that has no questions.
I believe when we're in heaven we shall know even as we are known and every question will be pre answered.
We'll never have any in heaven anymore necessary questions because it will all be known to us.
But that's not the point here. God.
Took an interest, a personal interest, in that little bit of dust into which he had breathed the breath of life, and he chose to leave.
His own dwelling place, a place outside of time and space, A place of uncreated glory, a place which no man can approach unto, for he cannot approach unto the majesty and the light of it.
We learned from First Timothy 6.
But God left it.
That he might come through that vast universe that he had created into that little speck of it called Earth, and into a little tiny part of that called the Garden of Eden.
To show his interest and care for that creature that he had created called Man.
So he comes into the garden the day in which we just read, and you know the story.
We don't need to tell it.
But the question is important.
Where are you?
He says to Adam.
Are you like Adam this afternoon?
Is that where does God come to you, to your soul this afternoon and say to you, where are you?
Where are you?
And the following question, what is this?
That you have done.
What is this?
That you have done.
It's an incredible thing.
Imagine that little bit of nothing save what God made it to be.
Would dare.
Would dare.
To disobey.
God.
And as a consequence of that disobedience.
He was lost.
He was lost.
You might say had no clue.
Where things were anymore.
What is this?
That thou had stunned.
Spit out, isn't he?
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That place of pleasure is what Eden means, pleasure. It was put out from that place of his pleasure.
He was put out from that place.
Lest he take of the one tree in the midst of the garden that.
Would have made him last on Earth forever, the tree of life there.
We know in the Revelation the Lord Jesus is the true tree of life.
And man has been restored so that he can partake of it. I partake in of it. And so of you. If you know the Lord Jesus, we've partaken of the tree of life.
But in the condition in which he was as a Sinner, he would have been an awful thing to be able to preserve that which he wow was indefinitely or forever.
Turn with me to.
Hebrews chapter one.
Verse one.
God, who at sundry times, and in divers manner spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.
Half in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, by whom He appointed, whom He appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world's, who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the word of His power.
When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
And verse six. And again, when he bringeth in the first born begotten into the world, he saith, Let all the angels of God worship him.
I'll turn over before we comment to Matthew's Gospel chapter.
20.
7.
Matthew, Chapter 27.
Verse 28.
And they stripped him.
And put on him a scarlet robe.
And when they had planted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head.
And to read in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him.
Saying Hail King of the Jews.
And they spit upon him.
And took the Reed and smote him.
On the head.
And after that, they had mocked him. They took the robe off from him.
And put his own raiment upon him, and led him away to crucify him.
Verse 35 And they crucified him.
And parted his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Prophet.
They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.
And sitting down.
They watched him there.
Over to John's Gospel.
Chapter 19.
And verse 34.
But one of the soldiers with a spear.
Pierced his side.
And forthwith came there out blood.
And water.
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God in his essential glory.
As we already referred to in First Timothy 6.
Dwells in unapproachable light.
Which no man can see nor approach unto.
God exists in such majesty.
That in his essential being, man even in heaven.
Will not approach there.
And in that I can't call it a place. I don't have words for it.
I'll just say there.
God looked upon the creature.
That he had created.
To whom he had had to say.
Where are you?
Now I know that God as we already said.
All these things were discussed and considered and determined before time began, but just so for our sake of following it through.
In a way that's easier for us.
We see God.
You might say having to make a decision.
What now?
What now?
God observed the passage of time on earth that became so violent and corrupt.
With lost man, sinful man, that he destroys it.
With the flood.
He allows 8 souls to survive the flood in the provision of the Ark.
The Institute's government on the earth to control man's behavior to some extent.
And things go on.
God himself no longer came in the cool of the day to visit where sin was.
But he did communicate with those called prophets.
Such as Moses and others to speak to the people on his behalf.
And many of them were rejected and refused.
And so a decision is made.
Surely.
They will reverence my son.
Surely.
They will reverence my son.
The son says here am I send me.
The father in his own heart decides to send the son.
But how can it be?
The first step.
Is the sun.
Empties himself.
Empties himself.
He puts aside not his person that could not be.
But he puts aside those things connected with his glory.
As part of the Godhead.
That which was his natural and proper place and right.
He empties himself of it.
God prepares for him a body.
Like unto the creature.
So that he might.
Go where the creature was.
And he comes.
He comes.
An incredible.
Going down.
Having come.
In the form of a man.
Partaking as that body of flesh and blood.
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It goes lower still.
He takes man's place.
As an obedient person.
For that's man's place. That was man's first.
Act against God was an act of disobedience resulting from His unbelief.
And.
He goes to the point of becoming a servant.
The lowest place among men, really.
He becomes a servant.
To do the bidding of God who had sent him.
He goes among men.
You know the story.
And it climaxes at Calvary's Hill.
Man takes a cross.
To put him on.
The Bible, God's Word clear dearly.
Tells us cursed is every man that hangs on a tree.
And so that little bit of God's creation called man.
Makes him a curse.
The Blessed.
One would come from God's highest heights.
Humbled himself.
And there is nailed to that cursed cross.
Hang.
Among men.
Spit on them.
They beat them.
Mock em.
They go so far as to say if you're really who you say you are.
Son of God, come down.
They not only taught him, but they taught God and say.
If you are the Son of God, let God take you down.
Off that curse cross.
Crucified.
I don't know how it affects your soul.
But I'm going to tell you how it affects mine.
Last Lord's Day.
Remembrance of the Lord Jesus.
The first hymn given out was sweet, the moments which in musing.
Or the cross we spend.
Sweet the moments.
Yes, looked at in a certain way, they're incredibly sweet.
But they're also, in another way, bitter.
Incredibly bitter.
And my own soul before the Lord.
Remembering that cross.
It came to me that.
As a creature that would dare do that.
So dishonor God.
The thought was.
I shouldn't exist.
I shouldn't exist.
Have no place.
Such a creature.
Doing such a thing.
Continuing to have any existence.
The cross is an end.
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It's an end of a number of things.
God said now.
Referring to that cross now is the judgment of this world.
The cross was the end for.
As he was.
Every single offspring of that first little speck of dust called Adam.
Dies before God.
Not one of Adam's race has any standing with God.
The Cross is the condemnation of mankind and the whole system that he has developed.
Now it's the judgment of this world.
The Lord Jesus himself, it's the end.
For him.
As associated.
With Adam's race.
He dies.
To it.
The.
In natural ways, we can wonder why God didn't just end it all.
He righteously could have.
He could have in His Holiness.
Wonderfully couldn't in his love.
But.
He does condemn it.
And says, as it were, that's the end.
It has no place that which we read about in Genesis 11. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
And in chapter two, he breathed into man's nostrils, and he becomes.
The breath of life and he becomes a living soul. It's all done.
It's over.
There is no more history there. That's of importance to record.
We all know it's not the end of the story and I don't know how to present it.
Lord knows.
But we also read.
In John.
The very last act of man on the person of the Lord Jesus as a man in flesh and blood. The last act of man.
Rebellious man that's allowed is for this soldier to take that spear and Pierce him after that.
No unbelievers touch him or see him after his death.
Because his history with that.
Race of men is done.
But the soldier takes the spear, and he pierces the side of the Lord Jesus.
And forthwith came their out blood.
And water. God, working all things after the counsel of his own will, takes the last act of man.
And expresses his heart of blessing. The blood flows.
The blood, which is the very foundation of man, being reconciled.
To God.
Peace is made through the blood of His cross.
God is propitiated.
God is satisfied.
With the work that his son came to do.
And all of us who belong to the Lord Jesus.
Recognized in that our salvation.
Through that work that took place in those hours of darkness.
God and all that He is in love was never a greater display of it.
Then on that cross, the worst display of man is the greatest also occasion for the display of God.
All that God is in His Holiness is perfectly expressed as it never will be in a greater way.
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That in what took place at the cross, in the judgment of the Lord Jesus.
As the sin bearer and as the man who stands before God for Adam's race.
And all his guilt and what he is.
And he just made sin.
For us.
You might say, so what's next?
Turn with me to.
John.
17.
John 17 and verse 4.
I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.
And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee.
Before the world was.
Verse 21 That they all may be one.
As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee.
Verse 24 Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.
That they may behold my glory.
Which Thou has given me, for Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
And now again over in Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter one.
Verse 8. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.
This is chapter 2, verse 8.
For in that He put all things in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
But we see Jesus, who has made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.
Crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.
For it became Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory.
To make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, For which 'cause he is not ashamed to call them.
Brethren.
Ephesians, chapter one.
Verse 20. Which the power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, And every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And have put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him.
That filleth All in all.
While that blessed man.
That blessed God.
Who had emptied himself, and came among men.
Was here.
God gave him fellows.
To companion with.
With disciples.
Apostles and so on.
Now the work is done.
And if I will again speaking in time, although the matter was just settled in eternity.
He had a choice to make.
He was free.
He had finished the work.
He was free to return to his previous place.
Incredible place of exaltation.
Which was his eternally.
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And he makes a choice. He says I will not.
I will not go out free.
That is, I will not return to.
To that place which I had before I came to that little tiny place.
Called Earth.
I love those people.
That I lived among.
And some of them God gave to me to be my own.
And I won't leave them.
I love my Master.
That is God, the place that God was to him as a servant on earth.
I love my Master.
And for my master's sake, I will remain with them.
That God's heart might be forever displayed to them.
We can't understand that.
We can't properly appreciate.
Whatever the right word is, I don't know but that he would condescend to remain that way.
Is still God.
But he chooses to remain men. He's always been God and always will be, but he chooses to remain a man.
And to keep in man's place the place of obedience.
Place of subjection.
God accepts that.
But he says.
OK.
But I'm going to take you.
From that little spot on earth.
Little speck of my creation.
And I'm going to raise you, you far above all the heavens.
That you might be where I am.
And so man and the person of the Lord Jesus.
Is taken from where he was, if you will, the place in which he was.
To a place of supreme exaltation for man.
Into the very presence of God, to sit at God's right hand.
When he came to the earth, even in the lowly way he was.
It says let the angels of God worship him.
And they did.
They recognized who He was, they knew Him, and they did worship Him.
But now he's given that place.
Right at God's right hand.
And God says.
Yes.
Son, son of Man.
I want everything that's been created that you created really.
We can't understand His person, God tells us that, but we can enjoy it.
I want everything under you.
I want you to have the supreme place.
Of all things.
So it's his.
Not yet as to its fulfillment as to the earth or even the heavens, because Satan is still in the heavens.
But in purpose, it's there and ready.
But what about those little specks of dust on the earth?
And which is the breath of life?
There's some of those little specks in this room.
What about those specs?
Father.
I will.
That they be with me where I am.
Can anything be denied him now?
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That expresses his wish or will.
Father.
I want them to be where I am.
That they may behold my glory.
They love me. That's assumed in those words, the thought in it, in his heart. They love me and I know they're going to want to see me.
In the my right place.
Turn with me to.
One Corinthians 15.
Pursue this thought a little more.
One Corinthians, chapter 15.
And verse 45.
And so it is written.
The first man Adam was made a living soul.
The last atom was made a quickening spirit.
Albeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural.
And afterward that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthy. The 2nd man is Lord.
From heaven.
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy.
And as is the heavenly, such are they also.
That are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthly.
We also shall bear the image of the heavenly.
As we mentioned earlier.
The race of man and Adam before the eye of God was done the cross.
The Lord Jesus died and rose again.
And when he rose again from the dead.
It was Behold, I make all things new.
He rose in a different character of life.
Not as the life that he had previously lived.
They wanted to take up a relationship with him, according to the old and as he said on the resurrection date of Mary. No, Mary, you can't touch me. You can't take up with me that old relationship in life.
He was truly in that way.
The man who came from heaven.
He descended.
And when he ascended, he ascended far above, as we said, all created things.
To occupy a place that God's right hand.
But.
He's the head of a new race of men.
And Adam had breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul, but the Lord Jesus.
The heavenly man.
Was a life giving spirit.
That is within his own being, his immortality. Nobody in this room has immortal at the present time.
We're all capable and subject to death, and the Lord Jesus is a man on earth was subject to death.
He had to take the low place for the very purpose so that he could die.
But now he's alive forevermore, not only in resurrection, but in his own person.
And.
If there are to be a race.
Just like you and I inherit the likeness to Adam.
So it will be in the new.
We bear the image.
Of the one from whom we come.
The Lord Jesus.
In the act of new birth.
Becomes literally our life.
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We share in his life, somebody said. We're of the same bundle of life.
The very life spiritually that you have this afternoon.
Is the life of Christ. That's why you can have the mind of Christ.
And having the very life of the Lord Jesus.
You are eternally linked to himself and his person and where he is.
There is your place with God.
And so.
You have an earthly body.
Not suited.
To your.
Being a heavenly man. And so it's going to be changed.
To be like unto his bloody of glory.
So that you and I.
When we are taken far above.
Everything connected with this creation.
Will be.
Properly there.
Unable to enjoy it.
What a destiny.
What a purpose and plan of God.
While he's there.
You know, he said in the beginning of the history of man, when Adam was there alone on Earth, he said it's not good for Adam to be alone.
He needs a companion.
The Lord Jesus is to be a man forever. It's not good for him to remain alone.
God says I'll give you a bride.
I'll give you a bride.
I will give you a body.
That completes you in that way.
To be the fullness that bride, To be the fullness of you.
The fulfiller of All in all.
So it shall be.
I want to conclude.
With the testimony.
Of three of our brethren.
First one.
Is James.
I'm sorry, first one I want to give is Thomas.
Thomas looked upon the Lord Jesus in resurrection.
He looked upon those hands.
And upon his side.
And Thomas looked in his face.
And they said.
My Lord.
And my God.
May that be the same response this afternoon in our hearts to that person.
My Lord.
And my God.
The testimony of our brother, the Apostle Paul.
He said.
I count all things but loss.
For the Excellency of the knowledge.
Of Christ Jesus my Lord.
Nothing.
Matters to me, he says.
But knowing him.
Better.
Testimony of Peter.
The last words of Peter to us are.
Grow in grace.
Everything from the cross on is grace.
To us.
Everything was judged there and done with, and every act of God for our blessing since has been an act of His grace.
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And Peter says crow in the enjoyment of that.
Grow in grace and in the knowledge of.
Of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To whom be glory now?
May he find on earth now in your heart and mind.
That which answers to His glory.
To whom be glory now?
And for eternity.
Let's sing the last three verses of 150.
Lord Jesus.
We would in our hearts bow before thee.
To proclaim.
To thee.
My Lord.
And my God.
Amen.
Next meeting is for the reading of God's Word at 3:30.