Address—D. Rule
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This afternoon, it's on my heart to speak of the subject of communion.
We hear little sayings sometimes. Some of us have heard them for most of our lives.
And sometimes a little saying doesn't do justice. It isn't adequate really to give us the full thought.
But one of those things that many of us here have heard many times is that there is no substitute.
For Communion and I hope in the next 45 minutes that each one of us will have an increased.
Realization in our hearts and in our souls that there really is no substitute for communion.
We sometimes hear that expression communion, and we hear the terms means common thoughts. And yes, I think it does. I think that's a nice little summary. But there again, I hope this afternoon we will see from the Word of God that the fullness of the thought of communion goes well beyond just a little phrase common thoughts. Would you turn with me first to Genesis chapter one?
God often gives us his mind about something right in the beginning.
Of his word, and then he develops it through his word.
Expands on it gives us a further thought about it here in Genesis chapter one.
And verse 26 it says, And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let us have and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air.
And over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him male and female created he them. Chapter 2 and verse seven. And the Lord God formed a man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
And man became a living soul.
With respect to God's earthly creation, man is unique. I say with respect to earthly because of the angels being heavenly creatures perhaps enter in in some of the same ways of what we're going to say, but.
God.
Desired to have a creature.
With whom he could have communion. God created the fish, God created the birds, God created all the animals of the animal Kingdom. But there's something about every one of them that was different than you and I, and can I say, places a certain limitation upon God with respect to them. And that is they are not creatures with whom he can have communion He cannot enjoy.
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Their company, or putting it another way, they cannot enjoy His company, they cannot share His thoughts because they do not have the capacity to do so. But man, you and I, as the creation of God, are different as to that. We are really unique in that respect because we are made in the image and likeness of God.
And God has so made us that he can have communion, He can have fellowship, He can enjoy common feelings, common thoughts, common interests with us according to his own heart.
Or pretty special with God.
And in fact, I'd like to add just a thought.
For you to meditate upon. I've often heard the statement made man or God is sufficient.
Unto himself in everything except one thing.
And that is to have an object to love.
I would like to suggest to you that we might appropriately add to that statement an object to love and with whom he could have communion.
In Genesis chapter 3, something comes in that is sad.
But important to recognize.
In Genesis chapter 3.
And verse eight it says, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God.
Among the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and he said unto him, Where art thou?
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.
Communion is broken by sin.
Adam enjoyed the fellowship of his Maker, God.
God enjoyed fellowship with his creature Adam. It was so important to God's heart.
That we have suggested here to us that God would come down in the cool of the day.
That he might enjoy that unique creation of his heart, his creature Adam and his wife Eve.
And yet here we find that that.
Fellowship was broken, and it was broken by sin, and we see the characteristic that comes in as a result of broken fellowship. One thing is fear, another is to seek to go out of the presence of the one with whom the fellowship has been broken.
And so it was here in the case of Adam, in the case of Eve.
Not only I'd like to back up and make a comment here too. Not only did God see and in his own heart say I want to have a creature that I can enjoy and that can enjoy me. That we can be together, that we can share those things that are common to us. But also God, in placing man upon the earth, recognize that man himself needed someone with whom he could have.
Fellowship with someone with whom he could have communion with and so God created for Adam. Help me his like it says he creates Eve and is that not true in your life? There's not a person in this room this afternoon that has in any measure a happy life that isn't have that happiness in large measure because of shared communion with others.
And so it was between Adam and Eve, that desire that God put in their hearts for one another.
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And their desire to be together, to share together, to live together.
And as a picture of Christ and his bride to be joined together in one.
And so God saw that need, can I say, in his own soul or in his own being. And he creates man, and he recognizes man as his life. And so he creates man to have that same need, that same desire to have fellowship with others. And so he creates him in the same way. And just as man's fellowship with God was broken, was hindered because of sin.
So sin also has that same characteristic between creatures, between fellow men, that the fellowship can be broken, the enjoyment of one anothers company can be marred and spoiled in measure because of sin. We say sin, but as we meditate upon this subject this afternoon, I believe we'll see that there are other things as well besides positive individual acts of sin that can come in and be a hindrance.
To the enjoyment of this subject of fellowship of which we speak.
But I'd like to turn over now to a verse in John's Gospel, chapter 17.
John's Gospel, chapter 17.
And verse 3.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
To me, there's something.
Fantastic.
I thought it's tremendous to the soul expressed here in this verse.
If you want to really enjoy another person.
Or another being, it's important to have a common kind of life.
And a common kind of nature, we sometimes hear the expression that.
A dog is man's best friend and there are certain characteristics of some dogs that.
Man can get close to there can be a shared affection between a man and a dog. There can be a shared companionship between a man and a dog. But there are also real limitations. Because men and dogs don't share a common nature, they don't share in full extent common thoughts.
And so there are limitations there.
And actually in a certain way.
There were, can I say, certain limitations really between the degree of enjoyment that Adam had with God. It was perfect in its character.
Bought Adam did not have the eternal life that is brought before us in this verse.
And yet, God's desire to have this fellowship with you and I is so strong.
That even though sin came into this creation and interrupted it, God worked in such a way that it's even better than it was in Innocence, in Adam, in the Garden of Eden. It's better because God has now given to each one of us in this room who can I say has restored fellowship with him. He has given to each one of us in this room who is saved.
Eternal life, the same life.
And nature.
That we have in Christ Jesus.
That we why that we might live for a long time no.
That we might know him.
That we might know him.
That we might that God might share to the fullest extent possible with the creature.
All that interests him, all that he cares about.
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All that he delights in, in his own heart.
Why do you think God by the Spirit?
Speaks so much to us of Christ. He wants to share with us.
The delight of his own heart. He wants us to enter in with Him.
Into that which he enjoys.
Don't we understand that? We do?
Have you ever met somebody?
And you said hello, and you talked about the weather and where did you come from and so on. And after not very long, it seemed like the conversation sort of dribbled off to nothing, and you wondered why. And sometimes you thought about it a little bit. And you said, oh, it's because we don't seem to have anything in common.
No common foundation to have communion. There was nothing shared of interest and so there was very little to talk about. There was very little to be excited about.
I hope if you come and visit Addison in the next little while, you like babies.
Because we're expecting seven of them this year.
And there are lots of people who share very common interests, especially at this time in talking about little ones, newborns.
The responsibilities of bringing them up for the Lord, the joy of them.
There is a common interest that produces a common fellowship.
A common bond. And so it is in the things of God. God says to us, I'm giving you eternal life because I want you to have the same life that can enter to the fullest possible extent into that which I enjoy and I want you to enjoy too.
And not only in eternity, but right now, today, right now, today, do you want to have fellowship with the Father and with his Son? It's a practical thing.
Can I say, can I speak of it in a practical way?
I say this to my heart, there's probably something different to yours.
How interested.
Is my father and who wins the Pennant this year?
How interested really, can I say my father is?
And who's going to be the next World champion in basketball?
Or some other?
The last reminiscence of a great entertainer, as he has his last.
Program on television, whatever it is.
If I want to have interest with my Father, with my God.
With my Lord Jesus Christ, it's going to be on those things in which we share a common interest.
And if we have a common interest in other things, then we're going to share it with those that have that interest.
It's not a legal thing, is it? It's not a law. You shouldn't do this and you should do that, and this is right and that's wrong and so on, but it is the result of that sharing between 2:00.
We don't have lots of time, so let's move on to Ephesians, OR.
First John, chapter one.
First John, chapter one.
I'd like to suggest to you this afternoon that the apostle John is, can I say, the apostle of communion. He is a they all enjoyed communion, all the apostles did, all the disciples did with their Lord. But John excels in that way and is given to us perhaps as an object lesson to help us to want to enjoy communion as well with our Father and with his Son.
And so.
John's epistle is an epistle of communion.
It's founded, isn't it, on being, having that same life and nature of being the children of God?
By faith in Christ Jesus. And so they were brought into the fellowship.
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Of the son and the father, they were brought into the family.
That's simple, but that's important.
If you have not been at a dinner table sometime and someone's made a comment and someone else says, oh, maybe you don't understand, I'll have to explain that to you. That's a family joke. And so they explained to us, why is it that we didn't get it or didn't understand it? Because we didn't share in the common experiences of the family up to that point That would make us understand.
That whatever it was that had been said. And so when we are brought into the enjoyment of our fellowship, our true eternal fellowship, then we begin to enjoy the experiences of the family. And John takes us into that line of things. And so he says here in the first chapter.
And.
Verse three. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.
And truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son.
Jesus Christ, these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. You want to be happy. We all do, don't we? There's no substitute for communion.
There is no other way to be properly happy.
Apart from fellowship with God, if you're here this afternoon and you're not in the enjoyment of fellowship with God, you are not truly happy. According to the heart of God. It's impossible.
That fellowship and happiness go together, and they cannot.
Truly be separated.
Just another thought, let's turn over to chapter 3.
And verse 18, chapter 3, verse 18, My little children, let us not love in Word.
Neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemn us.
God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemneth not, then have we confidence toward God, that whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and He in him.
And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us.
Like to notice just three things in this little passage that I believe relate to the subject of fellowship or communion. One is obedience, suggested by the word here of commandments. Another is faith, and the third is love. Faith, love, and obedience, and all of them are connected in important ways with the question of fellowship.
Do you want to have boy or girl here this afternoon? Do you want to have fellowship with your mother and father?
You want to enjoy them and have them enjoy your company. Be obedient. Be obedient.
Parents can't have fellowship with their children if there exists a state of rebellion or disobedience between them. So it is with God our Father as his children for all of us, whether we're teenagers or middle-aged or older here this afternoon. We're all the children of God without distinction in that way.
And everyone of us are present. Enjoyment of God's company this afternoon is directly related to whether or not we are walking in obedience.
It also mentions love here, and if we have time, we're going to go back to what I think of Indiana. The Old Testament is the.
Book of Communion, the Song of Solomon. It's a tremendous.
Lessons there on the subject of communion and we see there the, can I say the foundation.
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Pulp that produces fellowship. The thirst, the desire for it, and the maintenance of it is love. There isn't true fellowship with God apart from.
Reciprocal love, the love of the Father for us and our responsive love.
To God you want to have fellowship with somebody that you don't.
Love them up, love them up. I don't mean setting aside truth. That isn't the point.
But it is that the spring in the heart that produces the desire to have fellowship with another is the heart of love.
There's a marriage here that isn't going happily together before the Lord.
I suggest.
That perhaps part of the difficulty might be that that spring that produces that desire for fellowship is wound down or broken down in some way, that heart of love which seeks the good of its object. And so God in wanting to have fellowship with us for eternity.
Has within him he is love and the motive of his heart.
When Adam sinned, God righteously had to say, all right, Adam, I'm going to have to put you out of this garden. You're going to go through some tough times, Adam.
As a result of your disobedience. But it never changed the heart of God toward Adam. Not one iota was changed in his heart, not one diminishing in his soul or in his being of that desire to have fellowship with Adam.
I dare say it was harder for God to leave the garden than it, or to put Adam out of the garden than it was for Adam to leave. It hurt God more to have to put Adam out than it was for Adam at that time to leave. Adam didn't know what the consequences were really going to be. He hadn't experienced them yet. And so we see here in this book of communion, this first epistle of John.
He was the man of communion and he.
Knew the importance of love.
And the response of love shown to produce a reciprocating love in return.
And then one other thought here.
Obedience and love and faith.
It's important. Faith is so important.
It says without faith it's impossible to please God, without faith it's impossible to have fellowship with God.
Communion is often spoiled to some extent when unbelief. It is when unbelief comes in.
And.
Last night in the prayer meeting at the local hall versus in Matthew 14 were read concerning the disciples on the sea and everything was turbulent. The sea was riled up. The Lord came walking on the water and Peter wanted to go and see him and.
He said if if you're really the Lord, call me.
And the Lord said, come. And so Peter starts out and then unbelief comes in and and his confidence was shattered and he begins to sink and the Lord has to step in. There is a word of comfort here before we pass on and that is verse 21. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence toward God. Many times, many times many of us can say our hearts condemn us.
It isn't that there's necessarily some specific sin on our conscience that's not.
Been dealt with before the Lord, but just a general distance that's come in between our soul and the Lord.
Communion isn't just on or off.
In the full sense of the word, there can be a nearness connected with communion.
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There can be a distance and many times we may not realize it.
In the book of Communion, the Song of Solomon, as you read it through, you realize that between the two people there was a drifting apart, or there was at least on the part of one, there was sort of a drifting away. And they weren't conscious of it at the time. And many times our fellowship with the Lord sort of wanes and we're not conscious of it until the Lord does something that wakes us up and makes us realize that. And yet there's a word of comfort in this here. Well, it's says.
If our heart condemneth not, then have we confidence toward God? He goes on to say. But God is greater than our hearts. God loves us enough, and he cares for us, and he ministers to our needs even when there isn't the nearness of fellowship that he desires and that would please his heart.
And so he But it does say there's confidence.
You know, and then he goes on and talks about asking things. Communion is connected with prayer.
We sometimes hear the statement prayer is based upon the immense.
Privilege of having common interests with God.
We come before God because we share things in common, in interest with Him.
And because we share those things in common with him, we can be intelligent in what we ask.
And so we ask according to his will, when we are in fellowship with Him in our hearts and in communion. Sometimes we don't know what to ask God because we have a conscious sense in our souls about that subject, about that thing that we really don't know what God's mind is.
We're not in the secret of the nearness of the Apostle John.
To fellowship with him.
Was mentioned this morning in the reading when we were talking about Colossians chapter one.
Where it speaks about being in the full knowledge of his will.
If we want to have communion with God, it's important to sit.
At his feet as a learner.
Mary enjoyed communion.
And says she sat at Jesus feet and heard his word.
And when we sit at his feet and we are, You can't separate communion from practice.
From performance, they go together. We're not talking about our position here, we're talking about the practical walk of life.
And it's important, as it was mentioned this morning, we might know the Bible backwards and forwards. We might have even wisdom.
We might have everything that seems necessary, but if we don't have at that moment communion, we're going to miss his mind. We're going to miss his mind. No matter how wise we are, no matter how much knowledge we may have in a general way of God's will, we must have present communion. I don't know if you've experienced this in a practical way. In my own soul, there have been occasions when.
During the day I have done something that was sin and I have realized it was sin and I have told the Lord it was sin. But it wasn't just saying Lord it was sin. It was also the realization that that was just what was on the surface that I had to say. Why did I do that? And I will be honest and say that was necessary to feel a little uncomfortable to make any important decision that day.
Because I realized it was not only the thing itself, but the state of the soul.
That was hiding from God to some extent, and consequently, while there was a confession of the sin, there was still a realization of a heart that had lost its confidence in God.
Perhaps you've experienced that as well. Let's just turn over in the last few moments to the Song of Solomon.
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I encourage you to read it.
And read it. Read it again.
Since being asked to have this meeting, I enjoyed reading it three times through just to let it speak to my heart and.
It's a tremendous.
To see, you know, as you read the Song of Solomon, it's sometimes maybe some here know very clearly, I don't, but it's sometimes hard to even say who's speaking at a certain moment in time. And sometimes one person is speaking in another sort of interrupts and says a word or two. And then the first person goes on. And that's characteristic of a close fellowship. You ever been with two people and, and they're talking and maybe the husband is giving a story and sometimes out of communion, but often in communion, the wife might add a detail to it.
Or vice versa. And so there is that kind of mutual sharing. And you find that in this little love story of communion between 2:00.
And we'll just notice a couple of things here. Verse two, it says let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth with I love is better than wine. Oh, there was a desire for this. There was a thirst for it, Mary.
At the tomb of the Lord Jesus, her fellowship with the Lord and as a natural man had been separated from him, and nothing else would satisfy her but to have himself. She valued that communion. And sometimes we don't have much of it with a person just because we're not interested.
The bond of love that is that spring isn't really there.
And consequently.
We don't care too much perhaps, but with the Lord.
That spring is always there and that desire to have us close to himself. And the point I want to make here in this second verse is let him kiss me. You've got to be pretty close to somebody to kiss him.
You've got to be real close. You don't do that across the room.
You've got to be close. There is communion involves a nearness.
A closeness.
It involves eye contact.
Soul contact with the Lord.
It's important.
I remember a brother that there was something important, a visit that needed to be made. And I suggested the brother, well, it's kind of distance, let's call him. And he said, no brother, we want to see him face to face. We want to see him face to face. That's important. And so here we say, let let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Then verse three, because the savior of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment for, for.
Oh.
It's a wonderful thing to share Christ with God.
There is a joy, there is an ointment, there is a flavor, a savor that has to be experienced, can't be described. You enjoy that.
Does that bring joy to your heart to enjoy the sun, the Lord Jesus and fellowship with the Father? Then it says verse 4, draw me and we will run after. There's no substitute for communion if you don't have it yourself.
You'll never be a positive influence to others to draw them after Christ.
You must, must have it in your own soul, and if you're not enjoying it, you're not going to be able to have that responsive draw to others.
It's been well noted.
But just to me, there's a progression here in the knowledge.
Of affection between these two individuals.
When it says let us grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I believe that knowledge isn't just up here.
It's in the conscience, it's in the heart, it involves the affections, the true knowledge of God.
Involves our affections and if our affections.
If the love of God does not have its proper place, along with God is light.
We're not having the full fellowship with God that he desires. Why does it say what is the first thing that went wrong in the Church of God?
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Thou hast left thy first love.
And what happened when that took place? Why was that important?
Because the fellowship was lost.
With the heart of God, His love.
The truth of measuring up to it was lost. And so it wasn't of God. It wasn't according to his own heart.
Well.
You don't need to turn to it, but just close with.
3 verses here in this Thistle Chapter 2, verse 16 My beloved is mine.
And I am his.
Chapter 6.
And.
Verse.
Three, I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine.
And then Chapter 7, verse 11 or no, verse 10, I am my beloved, and His desire is toward me. There's a progression here in the measure of the fellowship and the measure of the full knowledge of the one for the other. It's tremendously important. In the first case. It's like she said to him.
Your mind, she reaches out and lays hold of him, holds him because she's enjoyed him. And that's the way we are when we first come to the Lord Jesus. Sometimes we just, we just lay out, reach out as it were with our hearts and embrace him. But then there is a sense that grows there that as she begins to know is love better than it's like it reverses. She has a sense of him reaching out to embrace her.
And more than that, she becomes content in his love and in the fellowship with Him, when she drops herself out of the picture altogether. And she says, I am my beloved, and his desire is toward me. Our heart entered in to the love that He had for her. May we each grow in our fellowship with the Lord.
To include.
That so we're great.
Our God and Father.