Address—Don Rule
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Right our God, we ask for thy blessing.
I would.
Present.
My beloved son, to each of our hearts in a way that.
Would attach our hearts to His.
Or our God, according to thy perfect will for us.
We seek this and we ask for it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
You turn with me to Genesis chapter 2.
Genesis chapter 2 and verse 18.
And the Lord God said it is not good that a man.
Should be alone.
I will make him and help me for him.
Verse 20 And God gave names to all the cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found, and helped me.
For him.
And Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh, and said thereof, and of the rib which Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman.
And brought her to the man. And Adam said, This is now a bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.
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It is not good.
That man should be alone.
And uh.
Collection of people of this size. Even though it's a Christian gathering, I doubt not that there are individuals in this room that can be characterized as lonely.
People that in the midst of this crowd of people, your heart feels alone.
And here we have a statement from God about the creature man, he said. It's not good.
That man should be alone, and so God has created every one of us with that natural desire given of himself to have companionship.
This afternoon.
I would like to take that up the trust of the Lord.
From his side.
It is not good that he, the man Christ Jesus, be alone.
He is a perfect man.
And as perfect man, he has desires.
That are perfect and right in their place.
And one of the desires of the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ as man, or as we had him this morning, the sun as a man.
Is to have companionship.
Is not to be alone.
Turn with me to.
Mark's Gospel, chapter 4.
Chapter 3.
We're going to trace a little bit of the life.
Of the Lord Jesus to begin with.
And see something of his desire for companionship.
Companionship that includes, of course, fellowship with himself.
So we have here in Mark.
Chapter 3 and verse 13.
And he goes up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would. And they came unto him, and he ordained 12 That they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach. And so he calls what we call the 12 disciples.
But the expression that I want you to notice and enjoy.
Is that little expression in verse 14 that they should be with him?
We will find over and over again in the Word of God when it speaks of desire in the heart.
The blessed Son of Man.
That little expression.
Be with him.
He wants companionship.
He desires souls, men.
To be with him.
To have a fellowship with himself.
And so here the disciples were to become his followers. But the very first thing you might say, the 1St and most important thing to his heart.
Was that they'd be with him.
Yes, he was going to send them forth to preach. Yes, they had to be with him in order to learn from him, to be prepared to go out and fulfill the services that were given to him.
A dear fellow man.
Lord Jesus.
1St at all once your companionship.
He wants to have you be with him in your heart and in your life. And if we're not with him, then there's really no.
Value if I could put it that way and going forward in service.
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Unless your heart and his heart are enjoying the companionship.
Fellowship of one another.
Turn over to John's Gospel.
Chapter 6.
John, Chapter 6.
And verse 64 But there are some of you that believe not.
For Jesus knew from the beginning whom they were that believed on him and should betray him. And he said, therefore I.
Said unto you that no man can come unto me, except that we're giving him of my Father. And from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the 12.
Will you also go away?
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?
Thou has the words of eternal life, and we believe and assure that thou art the Christ, the Son.
Of the living God.
Jesus answered them.
Have not I chosen you 12 and one of you is the devil. He spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for he it was that should betray him, being one of the 12.
There was a price to be paid for a disciple to follow.
And be with.
Is Lord.
There's a price to be paid.
To fulfill the desire of the heart of the Lord Jesus for your companionship.
And so here it comes to a test.
Some of those that were disciples, the life, the the path was getting more difficult for him as he went on in his life.
And consequently some while it says they believed on them.
And, uh, they did. In their measure, in their way.
But when the test came, some turned away.
They wouldn't pay the price that was involved in being with him.
Did he feel it?
I'm not so much this afternoon, but on my heart to.
Emphasize, although we'll bring it out, the responsibility side of it, but more his own heart.
And hear his own heart is what does he say?
Will you also go away?
Does that touch your heart, Brother. Sister.
Does it not give us a little bit of a sense of the person with whom we have to do?
What's in his heart toward us?
He's welcomed us to himself, he said. I won't reject any that want to come and be with me.
Them that come to me, I will not cast out. Not a single one. There's not a single person in this room that the Lord Jesus does not desire.
That you be with him.
And so when there were some that had professed to be with him and and their measure had followed would lead to some degree with him.
Turn away.
His heart opens up.
His feelings come out.
And he says to the 12.
Will you also go away?
May there never be anything in us.
That would result in this.
I'm not bringing out the side of saved or lost here.
But the sense that there might be anything in our lives.
That would cause us to turn aside, to seek to be.
No longer inactive, if I could put it that way. If you're real, no longer an active companion.
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Of this map.
This man who God says it's not good for man to dwell alone.
And as man, he had that.
Pure desire.
To have companionship.
We know in Genesis, particularly speaking about the bride, the Church, and yet before me this afternoon is not so much the collective side of it, but the individual, personal relationship.
That the Lord Jesus wants between each of our hearts and Himself.
And he wants you and he wants me to have that firm fixed.
Sense in our hearts that he personally wants.
Wants us, me, you, to be with him.
There's no substitute for it. The Lord looks at it individually and personally. He doesn't look at some crowd of people and say, well, 90% are and 10% are. That's a pretty good ratio. I'll be satisfied with that.
No, it's not that his heart is too large for that. His heart reaches out to every single living person in this room this afternoon.
With a yearning.
With a desire in his heart for you, will you be with me?
Will you be with me?
Can we walk together?
This fellows companions, friends.
As those who love each other.
We'll walk together.
Stand by one another.
So he says, will you also go away?
Turn over to Chapter 8.
Chapter 8.
And umm, verse 26 I have many things to say and to judge of you, but he that sent me is true, and I speak in the world. Those things which I have heard of Him, they understood not that He speak to them and the Father.
And, umm.
Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself. But as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. He that has sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him.
And as you speak these words, many believed on him.
As he gets nearer to the cross.
The path becomes more difficult for him.
And he felt increasingly alone.
You might say fewer and fewer.
We're able to enter in and even a little measure to what he was going through.
But wonderfully.
To our hearts, appreciation to our God, we say.
The father went with him all the way.
No man did.
There was none that could go all the way with him that he desired and craved their company. But.
The father didn't leave him alone.
So we have in Genesis 22 They went, both of them together.
To Mount Moriah.
He knew what it was.
He knew what it was to enjoy in his life, the fellowship, the companionship of the father.
And he knew what it was in that way to find fullness.
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Joy.
And that's really what's in the heart of the apostle John when he writes his first epistle, and second and third too.
He had learned that truth.
And God had given it to him to share with us.
Say he had been an observer.
Of the fellowship that the son enjoyed with the father in his life.
And he said.
That's fullness of joy.
That's satisfying.
And the Father and the son of chosen to share it with us.
That our joy, too, might be full.
Not only does the Sun want companionship.
But so does the father.
That fellowship and companionship has to be in light, perfect light.
The Father and the Son could walk together with not a cloud between them, not a bit of sin, nothing of darkness. In other words, it was in perfect light.
And John writes to us to encourage us.
To walk and fellowship with the Father and the Son in life, no other way.
The moment, the tiniest little bit of sin.
Comes out in US.
Father doesn't have fellowship with that, the son doesn't have fellowship with that, and we can't have fellowship with them in that thing.
Till it's confessed.
Until fellowship is restored.
But the desire of the heart.
Of the Lord Jesus.
Is.
I want them with me.
We know what it is to love somebody and be at a distance, not out of fellowship with them, but because life is what it is. We're in one place and they're in another, and so our hearts are where they are.
And their hearts are where we are.
But we feel the separation, the physical separation.
It doesn't.
Do it completely.
Doesn't fully satisfy us to know that well, they love me and I love them and they're where they are and I'm where I am.
No.
When the Lord Jesus says that they may be with me, he means it.
Literally.
Physically.
That's the end result of his intent.
Is that we may be with him.
And so he felt it here as the way becomes more difficult.
He recognized it as we, for example, see him later on. Let's turn over to Luke's Gospel the 20.
2nd chapter.
Perhaps a little lesson for us here.
And the desire of the Lord.
Chapter 22 Verse 21. Behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table.
And truly the Son of Man goeth as it was determined, but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed.
And they began to inquire among themselves which of them it was that should do this thing, and there was also a strife among them.
Which of them should be accounted the greatest?
And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercised lordship over them, and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so.
But he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief, as he that does serve. For whether is greater he that sitteth at me, or he that serveth is not he that sitteth at me?
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But I am among you. Is he that service?
This is a verse that I wanna notice especially.
And year they which have continued with me.
In my temptations.
And I appoint unto you a Kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom.
And sit on Thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I'm ready to go with thee.
Both into prison.
And to them.
Amazing Grace here.
There's one who's about to die.
The next day and knows it.
Have these companions who have been with him for approximately 3 1/2 years?
They can't really believe.
Than anything else but the Kingdom is coming.
They're going to have a place in it. They're following the one who is the king.
And so human heart gets to work and.
There's some stripe there among them.
Which is gonna have the best place?
The touching, perfect way in which he deals with it.
So unlike us.
We don't deal with imperfection the way he does, at least not all the time or much of the time. Maybe some of us.
But here.
He just says well.
You talked about the greatest.
Right now, the greatest is the one who serves.
Not the one that sits the table.
Not the one that has the base of authority.
Before he says more, he says, but here they which have continued with me.
He valued.
He valued.
Every one of them.
He appreciated every little bit of the work of God.
The scene in their lives.
And he really commends it here.
In the midst of this thought, so good expression of man, he says, You continued with me.
My temptations.
Someday it's heart's desire will be realized. Perhaps today.
Perhaps not today, we don't know. But.
He's gonna tell you.
Just like he individually said to the disciples here, I appreciate.
The two walked with me.
Lord Jesus is going to tell you personally and individually his appreciation.
For that desire of your heart.
And the measure in which it was carried out.
To be his companion.
Rather amazingly to me, he said. The greater are those that sit down.
An E.
So he says to the disciples, he said, you're going to get to do that.
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You're gonna get down. You're gonna sit down my table and my Kingdom.
With me the honored places.
The first place.
More important than the reigning?
Is sitting at the table.
There are many who serve in a government capacity and have some place of service or honor among men. They don't sit down at the king or the president or whatever he is at the table. No, that's for the that's the honored special place.
I don't know what you're gonna feel like. I don't know what I'm gonna feel like.
But I've got an invitation.
He's going to perhaps delight personally to usher me to my chair at his table.
When he reigns in his Kingdom.
And so are you.
Hope you're enjoying that today or tomorrow you will.
There's a table here as well.
He's invited you to sit down with him at his table.
He's expressed his desire that you will.
You're gonna take your seat.
Well, it says here just again.
You're they that have continued with me.
He values that.
Now let's turn back.
To John's Gospel.
John chapter.
14.
John 14 and verse one. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
In my father's house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am.
There you may be also.
Hold your place there. We'll come back. But before we comment, let's go over to Chapter 17.
Chapter 17 and 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 hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation.
Of the world.
Wonderful here in the 14th of John that.
He addresses a need in the hearts of those that were with him.
On the basis.
Of what he saw was in their heart.
That is, in other words.
He saw.
That they loved him.
He saw that in their way and measure they valued the fellowship of being with him.
And consequently, he recognized the sorrow, the pain the separation was going to cause.
When he returned to the Father's house and they remained on earth.
And so he prepares them for it with comfort.
But isn't it wonderful?
That he saw it, he appreciated it.
The value.
Fact. They loved him.
That they valued being with him.
And they would miss him.
Miss him. Not just casually, but.
They might say their world fell apart for them.
It's perfect love to my heart.
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That's the 14th chapter comes before the 17th.
In this way.
I know it comes before it chronologically and so on, but.
At least an application I wanna say this.
He puts the needs of their heart first.
And then the desires of his own.
In the same subject.
The subject is being together himself with themselves, and he puts their need at least in the way it's presented to us here 1St And he speaks to them about it and he says I'm going away and I'm going to prepare a place for you. Why?
Because then where I am you can be.
With me.
And in the 17th chapter, when speaking to the Father, he expresses his own heart. Father I will that they whom thou hast.
Given may be with me.
Where I am.
I'll just quote the scriptures.
Or at least refer to a few of them.
Here in the 14th chapter.
Speaking on of what's ahead, he says that they be you may be with me.
The 17th chapter that we've read it says that we might be, they might be with me.
First Thessalonians, chapter 4.
Father, I will. Well in First Thessalonians 4, when it speaks of the rapture, it says so Shall we ever be in heaven? Yes. No, no.
So shall we ever be with.
The Lord.
What would heaven be if he wasn't there?
Well, that happened be if he wasn't there.
What would heaven be to him if we weren't there?
Think about that. What would heaven be to him if we weren't there?
Perfect, glorious, wonderful as the place is.
His heart yearns.
And patients waiting.
For the fulfillment of the desire of his heart as a man.
It is not good.
That man should dwell alone, be alone.
What would happen be if he remained a man alone for eternity?
In an otherwise empty house, even, of course, accepting the father.
The Angels.
He longs for it.
Hour or so.
Thank you. I have the time, right?
Would be Ralph Buchanan's funeral.
A few days ago.
Ralph entered that state.
Of being absent from the body.
And what?
Presents with the Lord.
The Apostle Paul says that's far better.
They sometimes try to imagine.
Just for the good of the heart.
What did it mean a few days ago to the Lord Jesus?
When in spirit.
Someone whom he has loved since before the world created.
For whom he died 2000 years ago.
And now he waited 2000 years approximately.
With himself.
What unspeakable joy to the heart of the Lord Jesus.
I have another one of his own.
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With him.
To go in, to go out, no more.
It's it's the better part.
If you're still on Earth as we are, it's because you have the needful part.
But those who are with him have the better part.
He knows what it is to be alone.
He perfectly knows and understands what Carolyn feels.
Buoyed up, perhaps, by the fellowship and companionship of many, but.
Lord Jesus is the only one that will be able to fully fully enter in.
Perhaps others who have passed that way may.
So what it'll mean to sit down at the breakfast table alone?
And yet not alone.
Because the Lord Jesus, who is the only one.
Who could?
Well, I'll put it this way, who the Lord Jesus knew what it was to be forsaken as a man on the cross.
And it was a horrible experience.
Experience beyond comprehension for us.
But having experienced that, he makes this promise, he said. I'll never forsake thee.
Never.
I'll never leave the.
So there's that wonderful comfort of himself.
I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you.
Can always come to me and find the rest that the heart needs.
At whatever time, whatever circumstance.
And so he.
Looks on.
To the fulfillment of the desire of his heart.
That we may be with himself.
Now let's turn over to the first epistle of John.
Chapter 3.
Verse 12312 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him, because his own works were evil, and his brothers righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
Verse 24. He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he and Him, and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us.
Verse 12 of chapter 4.
Hereby.
Umm, first, excuse me, chapter 4, verse 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in US and His love is perfected.
In us, I think most if not all of us at one time or another.
Heard the song Meet companion fit for Jesus.
The two people are going to go together, two people are going to walk together.
There has to be something in common.
When you meet somebody, they almost immediately, the only thing that's known a lot of times to be common is the weather. And so conversations with strangers often talk about the weather or some other such thing. But you know what it is if you.
Start talking about the weather with the stranger, and then the conversation turns to more important things and you find out that you're both.
Fellow children of God, members of the body of Christ and the whole tenor of the conversation changes because you have something wonderful in common, and likewise you know what it's like to turn things to spiritual things and find nothing in common. In fact, the termination even of a friendly conversation sometimes because of the rejection of.
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Demand Christ Jesus.
It is not good that a man should dwell alone.
So God makes a companion for him, His like.
You know if God is purpose that we be with his Son for eternity.
We need something in common.
Is children of Adams Rice were not 5th companions for him, were not his like.
But God takes care of that, doesn't he?
He does a wonderful work.
In US for us.
To produce a result.
That makes us a fit companion for eternity.
Often like example, they kind of fascinate me of ants.
I imagine in front of me here on the lecterns and Ant.
And I can't imagine enjoying fellowship with it forever. It just doesn't work. We don't share much in common and so there isn't a satisfaction in my heart.
Although.
A little aside, but I was talking to somebody at work this week and we were having a conversation in springtime's little Ant time anyways. And typically in the spring, somehow ants find their way into the kitchen area. And we were talking in the kitchen area and we were talking businesses we were talking business with.
My fellow, every once in a while the little finger went out onto the counter top which and 1 amp went out of existence.
Few more minutes and.
Another aunt went out of existence.
I think totally unconsciously, if I were to speak to that person, do you remember that? I doubt that they would even remember. It wasn't any big thing, wasn't a big deal at all.
Just the way life goes, isn't it? Little nuisance that he is.
Didn't go out, put us here to look after those little things.
As part of our responsibility.
I'm not making any moral statements about getting rid of nuisances in the kitchen.
It's not the point here.
But the point is this.
I saw that and I said.
Thank God he doesn't do that with us.
I'm infinitely tinier in this.
Creation than that aunt is to me.
I'm greatly closer to the end than than what I am in creation to God.
What if he was having some conversation with an Angel and he went to me or to you?
That's it.
Blessed be God, he says no, he said.
Jesus is a man.
The sun has become a man.
He is going to remain a man.
It's it's a wonderful mystery.
Why he would ever so do.
But as a man, he wants companionship.
And so God does that mighty work.
It says I have a gift for you.
Mm-hmm. I'm gonna give you the gift of eternal life.
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And having received that gift.
You're gonna be able to.
Enjoy the same things.
Love the same things, turn away from the same things.
Feel the same things?
As the man Christ Jesus.
Christ, who is our life.
While we read in chapter 4 is if that's not enough.
The Father says I want it to be perfect and complete and wonderful between the three of us, you, the Son and I.
So is it where I'm going to open you up and I'm going to pour my lobby in?
Or you can love the same way.
Love of God is perfected in US.
The source of that love is the heart of God, and that love is poured into us.
If you see something of that loving me, you can know that the source of it is God, and God has put it there.
To display it.
And so he says now.
You're fit.
Of course we have these bodies that comment on that.
Citizens in 2nd Corinthians 5.
That while we're present in the body, we're absent from the Lord.
Why is that?
Are we with the Lord if we leave this world? Yes, we are in spirit.
But our bodies aren't suited.
His presence as they are, they have sinned in them.
So the body waits its redemption at the time of the rest, umm, the rapture for us, and it gets changed, and that sin is removed from it. And then physically we are suited to His holy presence in the Father's house.
But as far as the physical thing, it's not ready yet.
So it's with the Lord in spirit and the soul, but not yet in the body.
I'd like to close.
By reading.
A song in the Echoes of Grace hymn book.
You'll most of you will be very familiar with it, but we'd like to read it again and enjoy it together.
#239 and echoes of grace.
Midst the darkness, storm and sorrow.
One bright gleam I see.
Well, I know the blessed Morrow Christ will come for me.
Midst the light and peace and glory of the Father's house.
Think of it. There he is in the midst.
The light and the glory of the Father's house. What's he doing this afternoon?
Christ for me is watching.
Waiting, waiting.
Till I come.
They're amidst the songs of heaven, sweeter to his ear.
Think of it.
Can I have an angelic choir? Yes, I know angels don't sing but.
Let the poet have his license here.
Think of the most beautiful sounds of music that could ever be imagined taking place in heaven but this afternoon.
But what's it say here amidst all that? Is the football through the desert ever drawing near? He's watching you.
Every little step getting near.
There, made ready, are the mansions.
Glorious, bright and fair.
But the bride the Father gave him still is wanting, still is absent there.
He and I together entering.
When the moment comes, he says. I've waited a long time to have you with me. I'm gonna come get you.
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I'll come, right? I can't. It's not time for me to come to the Earth yet.
But I'll come to the clouds and call you up, and I'll usher you home together.
So he says he and I together, sharing all the Father's love.
Back up, He and I together, entering those bright courts above, He and I together, sharing all the Father's love.
Where no shade or stain can enter, nor the gold be dim, and that holiness unsullied.
I shall walk with him.
Meet companion then for Jesus.
From him for him made.
Glory of God's grace forever.
There in me displayed.
He and I in that bright glory.
One deep choice shall share.
Mine to be forever with him.
His that I am there, let's pray.
Lord Jesus.
We look forward to it.
Perhaps today.
Come Lord Jesus, Amen.