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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Siegfried Roeske

God’s Loneliness

Behold, what men of love the Lord has bestowed upon us.

That we should be called the children of God.

I thank God for the privilege on this beautiful Sabbath morning to be at Advent Hope.

I'm filling in for someone, but I believe I made a commitment years ago that whenever I was asked to do something for the Lord and I'm still in my right mind and in health of body and soul that I would do it.

And I'm always happy to be here at Advent Hope because this is a special place.

The Holy Spirit is in this place and it's joy for me to come and share the blessings that you are receiving here and to speak for the Lord.

I remember well that beautiful May Day in 1957.

Long time ago, many of you were still in anticipatory oblivion, but you're here now.

Our family had come early to the harbor where the Arbrosa sky was preparing to sail for America.

With a little time on our hands, my brother and I looked around the harbor.

Not too far from the dock, we saw a scene that I shall never forget.

It was that of a young sailor and his beloved saying goodbye.

Now sometimes we may be amused by the departure of loved ones, 1 from the other, but I want to tell you, I will never forget, the agony and the despair on those 2 tear-stained faces.

And you could read it in the tears, the questions that they had.

Would a love hold true and strong in 1 another's absence?

A short time later, with Hundreds of people on the pier, waving amid sobs and sadness mixed with shouts and laughter, this huge 18, 000 ton ocean liner moved away from the dock.

And just about that time, the band began to play Auf Wiedersehen, my heart was torn, because those sentiments were in my heart as well.

Will I ever see my sister, my 2 brothers who were waving at us goodbye, would I ever see them again.

There is a loneliness and a pain in separation.

And there are so many lonely people in the sinful world.

Perhaps some right here on campus at Loma Linda.

Separated from friends, families, perhaps even the homeland.

Separated by distance, sickness, death perhaps, broken relationships.

Now if you're 1 of these people, or in the past have been, this morning you will better understand the topic that we would like to think about.

God's loneliness, perhaps somewhat of a strange thought.

But as you think about it and meditate upon it, it becomes very meaningful in the light of the songs we sang this morning.

That night, that holy night, what a holy night it was and will always remain when divinity condescended in its very depths of sin to assume the body of the sinful race.

He has the stars, the constellations, including all the angelic hosts and all other beings.

Love has a very inherent creative nature.

Love was the reason for creation and love was the goal.

The heavenly council got together and said, let us love again.

In Colossians 1, 16 it says, for by him were all the things created in the heaven and the earth.

All things were created by him and for him.

So he'd have someone more to love and be loved.

In Isaiah 54 it says, I have loved you as a husband loves his wife.

And we are told that man was a very unique order of being in the universe to answer the challenge of Lucifer regarding the character of God.

And so now God went a step further in creating this planet and creating family relationships and procreation and all these other things that are involved in order to demonstrate the nature of his character, which is love.

No doubt in the mind of God there was a beautiful picture of a richer and fuller love because of these new beings that he had just created.

Perhaps in them he could reflect aspects of his character that he had not revealed in quite the same way.

Man gave God the unique pleasure as somehow God's big heart of love could share itself in new and exciting ways.

And now he could watch man grow and develop his capacities, becoming more and more like his father, the creator, his Lord.

He could share more of his divine secrets with these objects of his supreme love.

These beings who would understand more and more and enter more and more into his feelings and into his being.

I remember he used to say, oh Zeke, I can hardly wait for my boys to grow up.

I like for them to share my life, my feelings, my dreams.

So when God and man walked and talked in the Garden of Eden, It was the beginning of the fulfillment of a beautiful dream.

Isaiah 43, 7 says, I have created him for my glory.

And I have an exciting future for the children of my birth and my creation.

Well, we know it was a terrible disappointment for God.

Adam and Eve were not the only ones who suffered because of sin.

God's heart right from the beginning because now his dreams were shattered for the time being, at least temporarily reversed God's original plan.

And if we compare the beautiful situation, you know, pitiful situation we find ourselves as Compared to God's original plan, it shall help us to remember that sin is a monster.

Sin is a terrible thing disintegrating the very heart and purposes of God, Destroying not only the happiness of man but destroying the happiness of God which He was dreaming about and has planned for.

We are separated from God not because of God.

We are separated from God because of sin.

Isaiah 59 too says, your iniquities have separated between you and your God and Your sins have hid his face from you.

Oh, isolation, separation is a terrible thing.

And it's interesting to note that on this planet, we use this phenomenon for punishment Because it hurts so much.

People are punished with separation and isolation.

I, my college students have been able to care on prison ministry for 20 years in Lincoln.

And many times I come to the Bible study in the evening, somebody be missing.

Well, the hole means extreme solitary confinement.

I read recently in Sunshine Magazine of a father complained to his neighbor.

He said, Things are a lot different now than they used to be.

My son, he has a color TV, home movie set, stereo, radio, 4 of his own phone, even a computer in his room.

When I want to punish him, I have to send him to my room.

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God’s Loneliness

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