Genesis chapter 2 for a Bible reading. Genesis chapter 2. We'll begin our reading at the 15th verse of the chapter. Genesis chapter number 2, and commencing our reading at the verse 15 of the chapter. The Lord took the man, speaking of Adam, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. The Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air, brought them on to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh, and stayed thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she hath been taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife. and we're not ashamed. Amen. And we'll end our reading here. This passage, it speaks to us of many things. It speaks to us concerning the gender issue with respect to male and female. God's creative purpose was to create two genders, male and female, and we live in a society where there is gender flavility, as it were, there is a change. You can be a man one day, a woman the next day. Well, the Scriptures tell us that that's not to be the case. There's also a passage that speaks to us of marriage being a divine institution ordained by God, God bringing a man and a woman together in holy matrimony. Not a man and a man, not a woman and a woman, but a man and a woman brought together in holy marriage. And so these portions of God's word are very relevant even in this generation. But we're not going to speak about gender today and we're not going to speak about marriage. I'm gonna speak about another issue that has brought to our attention through our Bible reading, but let's unite in prayer, and let's just ask God to help us even today. Our loving Father, we thank Thee, O God, for all that has proceeded in this service, worship that has been given to Thee, and it is our prayer as a psalmist that the meditations of our heart, Lord, the praise of our lips, the worship, O God, that we have given to Thee, be found to be acceptable in thy sight. We pray that we may have engaged our hearts as we have sang thy praise. Grant, O God, therefore, grant, O God, the blessing of heaven to be upon this meeting. We look to thee Look for Thy blessing. Fill me with Thy Spirit, dear God, I pray. Give understanding to the congregation. May Thy blessing be upon us, even in these moments, around Thy precious Word. We offer prayer in through Jesus' precious name. Amen. Over the next number of weeks, it is my intention to deal with certain life issues. I find myself confronted with as the minister and the pastor of this congregation. Now I know that what I have experienced as a minister is no different than what every minister and what every pastor, they experience as they labor among a congregation, as they interact with the families that God has placed under their care. As I minister From time to time to the saints of God, I find that God's people, they get to a point in their lives that they feel that their struggles and they feel that their difficulties, they feel that their troubles and the trials that they are going through are unique only to themselves, but that is simply not the case. Rest assured that what you're going through is what others will face. Rest assured that what you're experiencing is more common than you would even care to think. I've given this little series of messages, Life Issues, and I want us to look, obviously, at these issues of life through the lens of Holy Scripture. These life issues are not restricted to the people of God alone, but these issues are prevalent within society at large and in the lives of humanity in general as a result of us living in a fallen, sinful, corrupt, and wicked world. Today I want us to look at the issue of loneliness. Loneliness. At the very outset of the message, I want to say that there is a difference between loneliness and solitude. Solitude is a voluntary withdrawing from people. The Lord Jesus Christ had times of solitude. He would separate himself from his own disciples. He would go into the mountains and pray all night at times. He would separate himself from his friends. He would go into the garden of Gethsemane, leaving seven at the gate, and then three just on through the gate. And then he would go a little further, and in the solitude of that place, he would cry to God in prayer. Christ knew what it was to have times of solitude, but I'm not speaking about solitude. For solitude is something that is done voluntarily by an individual. Loneliness instead is something that is forced upon a person against their will. You see, solitude can be refreshing. Solitude can be a rejuvenating thing, an enjoyable thing to just get away from everyone around you and just to get your mind in a right position again before God. But loneliness is something that is painful, something that is mentally draining, something that is unpleasant. It was Vance Havner who said, one of the worst things about loneliness is that you can't run away from it. And many have found that to be so in their lives. There is that inability to run away from this overwhelming sense of loneliness that can come upon our lives at times. Even some of the most famous people in the world have known what it is to have felt lonely. Albert Einstein, the great physicist, said, it is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely. Marilyn Monroe, the Hollywood actress, she said, out of a sense of loneliness, sometimes I think the only people who stay with me and really listen are people I hire and people I pay. An English writer, HG Wells, on his 65th birthday was reported to have said, I am 65 and I am lonely. and I've never found peace. Ernest Hemingway, the 20th century American novelist said, he said, I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead and there is no current to plug into. These celebrated persons looked to by millions, some of them multimillionaires and had all that the earth had to offer them, fame and fortune, they experienced loneliness in their lives. According to Age UK, 1.9 million older people feel ignored or invisible. Over 1 million older people say that always or often they feel lonely. 36% of people age 65 and over feel out of touch with the modern pace of life, and 9% say that they feel themselves to be totally cut off from society altogether. And we know that persistent loneliness can have a profound impact upon the physical and the mental health and quality of life of individuals. Loneliness is associated with sleep problems, impaired health, heightened vascular resistance, hypertension, psychological stress, and mental health problems. Now, you may think that loneliness is something that the older age group or the older age bracket, they suffer from, but loneliness is a feeling that affects just as much the middle-aged and the youth. I read a BBC online article dated the 10th of April just this year that reported on a study that was carried out by the Office of National Statistics. The study concluded that young adults are more likely to feel lonely than the older age groups. Research found that 10% of people aged between 16 and 24 are always or often lonely. That is one in 10 young person that you meet that they feel lonely. Research also found that they were three times to feel more lonely than those that were age 65 and over. The Guardian newspaper reported on Monday the 30th of this year that according to a recent study by the Red Cross and the Co-op, that more than nine million adults in the UK feel always or often lonely. Children can feel lonely. when they have no friends to play with in the playground, when they're last to be picked for the football team at PE, and I had that on many, many occasions. I was never a great sportsman. When others go out on a school trip to the cinema or attend a school disco and they refuse to go as a Christian, a feeling of loneliness can fall upon that particular child. So concerned is the British government and Downing Street about the issue of loneliness that just this year, 2018, they appointed Tracy Crouch as the world's first minister for loneliness. A minister for loneliness. Maybe you've come to God's house feeling lonely. You feel all alone. If that be the case, I trust that at least this message will help you. I was watching something concerning one of those programs, 999, and they find that a percentage of those calls are just from lonely people who just need someone to speak to and someone to talk to. And so they ring 999. We live in a very unsociable world. We live in a very unfriendly world. And we want to think about what the Bible says about loneliness. And there are a number of points with respect to that. I want you to see and consider, firstly, the biblical cases of loneliness. Biblical cases for loneliness. If you think that no one in the Bible experienced loneliness, then you certainly haven't studied the Bible to any great depth. Even some of the most godliest individuals experience loneliness or a time of loneliness in their lives. And I want to give you just a few examples just to let you know that you're not alone. You're not alone in feeling lonely. Others have experienced it. Even the godliest of saints at times have experienced a sense of loneliness coming in upon the soul. Now, it's not long into the Bible's narrative before we encounter this problem of loneliness. You may never have thought of this. We have the six days of creation. God makes heaven and earth and everything within, and then he rests our Sabbaths on the Sabbath day, and that's what we ought to do. God has decreed it before even the law. God, in creation, had decreed a day set aside for the worship and for the rest of the human body. From my reading in Genesis chapter 2, and Genesis chapter 2, by the way, is but an expansion of day six of creation that we have recorded in Genesis 1, verses 24 to 31. We find that Adam is first created on that day. As God looks at his creation, man, he says this in Genesis 2, verse 18, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a help, meat for him. You know, sometimes we think that the first expression of God's judgment in the Bible was his pronouncement on the serpent. Whenever the serpent beguiled Eve, remember that God pronounced a judgment on the serpent with respect to him crawling on his belly. Some believe that the serpent before that was upright, perpendicular to the ground, but as a result off. As it were, sin entering into the world, the serpent was now made to crawl upon his belly. And some would suggest and some think that that's the first pronouncement of God's judgment upon this world, but you would be wrong in such thinking. The first negative of judgment that we find in Scripture is God's judgment on loneliness. It is not good that man should be alone. Now everything up until that moment of time was good. You'll read that at the end of each of the days of creation, that it was good. But here we find God saying that there is something that is not good. There is something that is not right. It is not good that man should be alone. No creature, whether it was fish, whether it was bird, whether it was insect, whether it was any other animal that you care to mention, no animal was found among the created universe to be a suitable, a fitting, a meet companion for Adam. And so God takes to creating a woman, a help, help that was meet or suitable for him. He puts Adam to sleep. He takes from him a rib and as a result he makes a woman and then he brings the woman to the man. He brought her on to the man. Verse 22. As a result Adam's loneliness was over. He had an earthly companion now. Yes, God he talked to, but now he's got someone to confide in, someone to love, someone to love him in return, someone to speak to, someone to pour out his heart to in those lonely times that he would have experienced. God provides a friend, a human companion, a family, as it were, for Adam in order that he might triumph over this loneliness. You see, it could never be met in an animal. This loneliness could only be satisfied in a relationship with another human being, at least for Adam, and we're speaking about Adam in his innocent state. He had his fellowship with his maker, yes. What I see from this account of loneliness in Genesis chapter two, I find this truth, that long-term loneliness And I speak about long-term loneliness. Long-term loneliness was not God's original intention for anyone within the human race. It was never God's intention that any person would walk through this world as a lonely being. It's not good that a man should be alone. Human beings were created as sociable beings. who need some form of companionship and friendship in this world. And so we're only in two chapters before we are confronted with this thought of loneliness. And thank God, God meets that need, and God deals with loneliness, and we thank God for that. We continue in the Old Testament, and I suppose we could say that no one in the Old Testament felt loneliness more keenly at times than King David. In Psalm chapter 25, we see the earnest and the heartfelt appeals to God by David as he cries out of his loneliness and despair. If you want to look there, Psalm 25, the verse number 16, David cries out, turn thee on to me. and have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and afflicted." That word desolate that we have there is lonely. I am lonely and afflicted. The word also translates one alone. I'm one alone. Lord, it's only me, just me. I feel desolate. Albert Barnes made this comment in the verse, there is no deeper sadness that ever comes over the mind than the idea that we are alone in the world, that we do not have a friend, that no one cares for us, that no one is concerned about anything that might happen to us, that no one would care if we were to die, that no one would shed a tear over our grave. And brethren and sisters, you may think, how could that ever be? Oh, go beyond the four walls of this house. You'll find lonely people, people who are afraid of dying alone, with no one to attend their funeral, no one to care for them, even with respect to the day of their death. There is a loneliness within society. David articulated this feeling of loneliness elsewhere within the Psalms. I think of those great words, they'll be known to you when I repeat them. They're found in Psalm 142 in the verse number four. David's inside a cave on that occasion and he said, I looked on my right hand and I beheld, but there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul. No man cared for my soul. That's how David felt. He had many a servant, he had many a man around him, but even in the midst of the crowd, he felt a loneliness. And that can happen in our lives. We can feel, yes, we're in a crowd, but we feel so alone. Oh, David experienced this, the man after God's own heart. What does David do? lonely and all alone and afflicted. David's only recourse in his loneliness was to turn to God and to plead with God for intervention and mercy. We find him doing that in the verse 16 there of Psalm 25, "'Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me. Lord, turn, turn unto me, Oh God, thy friendship, thy companionship, thy presence is all that I need in this lonely world. Yes, David felt lonely. I think of the prophet Elijah. Another man in Scripture who knew what it was to feel lonely, he flees from Jezebel after the victory of Mount Carmel. God's servant is found himself in a state of mind where he wrongly believes that he is the only defender of the faith. That's where he has got to in his own human thinking. He was the sole defender of the faith. If you turn to Romans chapter 11, you'll find God's servant and what he says. He articulates the feeling that he has with respect to where he presently is. Romans chapter 11 and the verse number 3. Verse number two, how maketh, speaking of Elias, what ye not that the scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets and dug down thine altars, and I am left alone. I am left alone, and they seek my life. Now, we know that he wasn't alone. We understand that because the next verse tells us that there are yet 7,000 men that have not bowed the knee to Baal, and yet, despite that, there is a sense of loneliness that sweeps over the mind and the heart and the life of God's servant. We move into the New Testament. We find the apostle Paul experienced loneliness in his life. Yes, life for Paul was coming to its inevitable end. He's found in the city of Rome. He's making his way to answer the charges that were put against him in front of Nero, the emperor. We understand how lonely he feels because he writes of that loneliness as he takes Ned to parchment and writes to Timothy, his beloved son in the faith. In 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 16, he said these words at my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. And my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me." We can only imagine how lonely the apostle must have felt as he stood for God. He speaks here of his first answer. That is a legal term. It's really speaking about his first defense. It is believed that Paul stood before Nero on a number of occasions, or at least before the Roman authorities. He's giving defense, his first answer, his first defense of the charges laid against him. And it was on that occasion that he found no one there to support him. He was left alone in his hour of crisis, in his hour of need. There was no friend, no friend whatsoever. And do we not find that in our lives as we go through the trials of life? There's no one to call. There's no one to lean on. It seems to be that we've been abandoned by all, and there is a sense of loneliness. And so we find Paul, we find him expressing this loneliness. No one to encourage him in the hour of testing. I believe that that was partly the sense of loneliness that caused Paul to write the letter to Timothy. Remember what he said to Timothy? Do thy diligence to come before winter. Maybe one reason, maybe not every, the whole reason, but part of the reason was that he just needed a friend. He just needed someone to confide in. He just needed someone to break the loneliness. Someone just to pray with him, to read the scriptures to him, to minister to him. He just needed a companion and a friend. Now while all of these examples bring to our attention various Bible personalities, we felt a sense of loneliness to at least some degree. I believe they all pale into insignificance when compared to the loneliness of the Savior. The Savior went through when he was here on this earth. You'll recall that whenever The Son of God was arrested by the Roman authorities with the help of Judas Iscariot that Mark, the gospel writer, informs us over there in Mark chapter 14 verse 50. They, speaking of his disciples, they all forsook him and fled. They all forsook him and fled. Now this abandonment of Christ did not come as a surprise to him. Never think of that. He knew all that was before him. He understood that all had been determined by the determined counsel of God. And even this forsaking, and as a consequence, the loneliness that I'm sure attended that forsaking, that was already known to him. Because we read of the Savior informing the disciples just prior to this, that this is going to happen. In John chapter 16 verse 32 we read, behold, this is Christ speaking, behold the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. And shall leave me alone. This lonely hour. This walking through a lonely pathway was known by Christ. He has walked the lonely path. He knows what it is to feel loneliness from a human perspective, I speak of. The Son of God was left alone, alone just when most as a man, he needed human sympathy. alone just when as a man he needed human companionship, alone when just as a man he needed human friendship, he was left alone. But what was their abandonment of him compared to the forsaking of his father, the darkness of Calvary's hillside? Listen to that lamentable cry. that arises from a desolate heart and life and soul. And God the Son would cry, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now he still had faith in God, because he did not say, God, God. He said, my God, my God. And so faith is still within his soul, of course it is. But he cries, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, O the loneliness of dark Golgotha? But again, this comes as no surprise to the Savior, because in Isaiah chapter 63, speaking of the one who is mighty to save, we read there prophetically that he would have to tread the winepress alone, and there would be none to help, and therefore his own arm would have to bring salvation. And so we understand, Christ understood, that there would be loneliness at the cross. The single-handed conquest of Calvary required the Son of God to go into the loneliness of Calvary's darkness in order to secure eternal redemption for us. The loneliness, brethren and sisters, the loneliness of the cross was part of the cup that Christ had to drink on our behalf. One preacher put it, desertion was a necessary ingredient in that cup. the vicarious suffering which he had covenanted to drink for us. He said we deserve to be forsaken and therefore he must be. Since our sins against man as well as our sins against God deserve that we should be forsaken of men, he bearing our sins against God and man is forsaken. He is forsaken so that we might be brought nigh to God. He is forsaken so that we don't endure the loneliness of a Christless eternity. He takes the loneliness. He takes the abandonment for my sin on His body and in His own soul. He becomes cast away. On my behalf, what a mystery, what a marvel, forsaken of the Father, withdrawing of the Father's conscious presence from His own beloved Son. O child of God today, consider these examples, for these things are written for your learning, And for your instruction and for your encouragement, consider these and contemplate these cases within the Bible and understand that your loneliness is not something that is unique to you. Many have trodden the lonely path. You're not the first, and you'll certainly never be the last. And having considered these men, Freele weak man, then consider your God in the person of Jesus Christ. And consider the loneliness that he endured to save you from sin and hell. We are told by the writer of the book of Hebrews that he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. And could I suggest to you that loneliness would have been one of the points by which he was tempted? What was he going to do in his loneliness? Was he going to hold on his way? Was he going to do the Father's will, even though he felt a lonely, desolate soul? This is part of the temptations of Christ, we believe. He went into the wilderness alone. Matthew chapter number four, chapter number five, Christ going, chapter four, going into the wilderness, he went alone. No human companion. And He triumphed there in the wilderness over loneliness. He triumphed over that loneliness on the cross. And through Him, through Him we triumph over our loneliness. The second thing I want you to consider, and my final points are not as long, I don't think they are anyway, the causes of loneliness. The causes of loneliness, there are many things. There are many things even when we are a Christian that can lead to a sense of loneliness in our lives. And remember, I speak as a pastor and as a minister today. I think first of all that loneliness can be experienced when death takes from us a precious loved one. That loved one may be a mother, might be a father, might be a husband, might be a wife, might be a brother, a sister, of even a child. Their departure from this world has caused you to miss their tender touch, caused you to miss their sympathetic ear, their wise counsel, their laughter. The voice of that precious loved one no longer is heard by you. The death of a loved one can can cause, I believe, a sense of great loneliness in the life. Death is the last enemy. And what an enemy it is. It robs us from the companionship and friendship of our loved ones. When Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria reported to have said that there was no one left to call me Victoria. With that intimate one now gone, the Queen of England, with all of her possessions, there was no one left intimate enough to call her Victoria. The death of her husband, Albert, brought such a sense of loneliness that Victoria never recovered from the death of her husband. She became isolated. She dressed in black from that moment on. She was a woman who could not see through the loneliness of widowhood. And I know that there are widows here today, and they greatly miss their husbands, mothers who miss their children, children who miss mom and dad, sisters who miss their sisters, brothers who miss their brothers. And you go home, and there's no one there. And then whenever the family gather, the vacant seat is still there, And as you sit and look at the rest of the family, though they be around you, you still feel lonely. There's a loneliness comes over, and there's a sadness that fills the heart, and there's tears that fill the eyes. Because death, death of the loved one can bring a sense of loneliness. And death certainly does bring a sense of loneliness to those who are left on earth. But as I thought of that, I thought about you, the sinner. I thought about your death. And I thought about how lonely your death is going to be for you. Because you know not Christ as your Savior. Who will guide you through death's valley? Who will transport you safely over death's cold river? For you do not know the shepherd. And certainly you know not the Savior, who conveys all of his children safely over to the heavenly land. You see, the believer has the triune Godhead and the holy angels to convey them, to convey them over to heaven. God and the angels are the Christian's convoy to the better land, but the unbeliever will be left alone, alone to die, alone to perish, alone to be swept out into the endless abyss and abyss of an everlasting loneliness, of an eternal and Christless hell. Oh, that today, sinner, you would consider your death, and what a lonely experience that will be, and be the friend of sinners. who will ensure your safe arrival to heaven. Loneliness can also be experienced when you hold to biblical convictions. When you hold to biblical convictions. Blend in with the crowd. Live like the world. Keep silent about sin in your place of education and employment, and you can almost be certain that you'll have plenty of friends in this world. But hold to biblical convictions. call sin for what it is, stand up for Christ, witness a good confession before others, live a life that is conformed to the standards of God's word, and you can almost be certain to have few or no friends. We find that in scripture. I think of Joseph there within the household when he told about his brother's sin to his father. Joseph had no friends in the family circle. He believed God. He believed sin was sin. And whenever he spoke against his brothers, there was no one to stand with him. I think of Daniel. He didn't have too many friends. Now he did have Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but compared to the multitudes that had come out of Israel in the captivity and had now taken up residency in the land of Babylon, there were not too many, just four. who stood with Daniel, because he refused to defile himself with the Kingsmeek. Again, Elijah, he is no companion with him there on Mount Carmel as he confronts the prophets of Baal. Oh yes, there are 7,000, but we don't find them rallying to Elijah. Oh, they're wanting to see how it's all going to fall out. They're going to jump on the bandwagon whenever God wins the victory, but they're not willing to stand up for Christ. I think of Jeremiah, he's placed in the stocks by who? His family. He's placed at the very gate that his family would walk through into the Jerusalem temple. And he's been placed in the stocks because he has confronted the nation with his sin. You can be very sure that if you stand for God, and if you stand for righteousness, and if you stand for truth in the 21st century, that you're not going to have too many friends. It's going to be very lonely to be a Christian in coming days. Very lonely. And yet God would have us to stand for Him. Loneliness can be experienced when you are the only Christian in your family. You come to church alone. You sit in the pew alone. You pray at home alone. You read the Bible alone. There's no family altar in your home because you're the only believer. Yes. And when you come home from the meeting, there's no one to talk to you about the meeting, no one to talk to you about the message. No one to sharpen you, as iron sharpeneth iron, because you go home alone. And I know that such is the case for some here today. And that makes you feel terribly lonely. I could go on. Singleness, the singled life, can cause loneliness. Sickness can cause loneliness. Trouble, alienation from our friends, separation, divorce, family disputes, all of these things can add to the sense of loneliness. And I'm sure that you could add to this very list. Loneliness is real. But I need to quickly come to consider finding the cure for loneliness. There are various cures or at least coping methods when we come and we employ, that we can employ when we deal with our loneliness. This is the first. First of all, remember that you're not alone. Remember that you're not alone. At times, the Christian can feel alone. That is not the case. It is not the case that you are completely alone. Yes, earthly friends and loved ones may not be present, but God is with his people. Think of one of his names, Emmanuel, God with us. He's with us. He's with us day by day. You'll recall Paul's lament, I spoke of it with respect to his first answer there in 2 Timothy 4 verse 16, where he said that no man stood with him, all men forsake him. But Paul goes on to say in the very next verse, the verse 17, notwithstanding the Lord stood with me. The Lord stood with me and strengthened me. Yes, I was alone with respect to human companions and with respect to human friends, but God was with me. Friends forsook me. God stood with me. You'll recall again that verse that I said with respect to the Savior, John 16 verse 32, But the hour cometh yea, and now is come, that ye shall be scattered every one to his own, and shall leave me alone. But the Savior goes on to say, And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. Oh, I'm going to be left alone, but I'm not alone, because God the Father is with me. Once again, the ever-abiding presence of God sustained the Son of God in His loneliness. Can I say, if you're a lonely individual here today, that's what will sustain you if you're a believer in your lonely hours, a conscious sense of the ever-abiding presence of God. Think of the many promises, and they're so familiar, so familiar that you miss the import and the impact of those very texts of Scripture. But think of them just for a moment of God's unwillingness to forsake His people and His ever-abiding presence with His people. Psalm 37, verse 28, for the Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not His saints. He forsaketh not his saints. Psalm 46, 7, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge, Selah. Isaiah 41, verse 10, fear not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, I am thy God. Matthew 28, 20, though I am with you, or you all, way even unto the end of the world. Hebrews 13, 5, he has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. This is your God. He speaks to you today, lonely Christian, and he says, I am with you. I am with you. I understand what you're going through. The second cure or coping method is to accept what you cannot change and alter what you can change. We have to come to realize that the times of loneliness in the believer's life are as much ordered by a sovereign God than days when friends flock around us. All events in life are ordered by the sovereign God of heaven, including times of loneliness. What did the Apostle Paul say? He said in Philippians 4 verse 11, For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Whatever state I am, whether I have friends or whether I am alone, I have learned to be content. You see, Paul at this juncture in his life had come to realize that he could not change what God had ordered. He just had to accept that this is what God has ordered for me, and I am to live in the joy of God even in my loneliness, even in my singleness, even in my widowhood. I am to live in the joy of God until God orders my life in another direction. The sovereignty of God is a pillow that we can often rest upon in many matters of life. Now we understand that loneliness brought about by death cannot be changed, that is most obvious. We cannot bring the loved one back again, but loneliness that comes about by isolating ourselves from other people, that can be changed. Proverbs 18.24, a man that hath friends must show himself friendly. A man that hath friends must show himself to be friendly. Oh, no one bothers with me in the church. Do you bother with others? Do you befriend others? If you are to have friends, all we find ourselves, we must show ourselves to be friendly. And so there are things that we can do. But the third and final cure, coping method, we could say is that understand that you belong to God's family. You belong to God's family. Psalm 68.4, sorry, Psalm 68.6, God saideth the solitary in families. God said of the Saldrian families, and today you may feel that there's no one else in this world that cares for you, there's no one else in this world that loves you, and yet you've got the family of God, and as God's family, let me remind myself, as well as I'm reminding God's people, that the second great commandment is to love thy neighbor as thyself. That's the second great commandment. When a person becomes a Christian, they become a member of the household of faith, Galatians 6 verse 10. God becomes their father, Christ their elder brother, and the saints of God become their spiritual siblings, brothers and sisters in Christ. And can I say that there is to be a duty of care among the family of God for every member, every member. Paul speaks of the sympathy that should exist in the body of Christ. In Romans chapter 12 verse 15, Rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep. James 1 verse 27 says what pure religion is. What is it? Is it knowing the confession of faith? Is that pure religion? Is pure religion standing by the doctrines of God's word? Well James says by inspiration, this is what pure religion is, to visit the fatherless. and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. That's pure religion. In other words, relieve the loneliness and the isolation that some of God's people can feel. In the family of God, we are to make sure that the lonely are supported, visited, befriended and made to feel part of the family of God. Now, why the minister and elders are to lead in that. I understand that. It is not to be exclusively their ministry. All in God's family are to care for the other members of the family. And you're to play your role in it. I wonder, do you? Do you play your role with respect to the lonely members of this congregation? Because I go about and I asked, has anyone been here to see you? No. And they're sitting there lonely. And yet they're part of the family of God. God's hidden ones. I am God's forgotten ones by His people. This world is unsociable. This world is unfriendly. This world is a world where people care only for me, my, and mine. But in such a world, the family of God of which I am a part of and I trust you are a part of. The family of God is to be at the fore of combating the problem of loneliness. And I speak among the saints of God, the household of faith. We are to do good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of faith. Are you lonely? Do you feel lonely today? Yes, so let me remind you that there's a loving Heavenly Father who cares for His children, and that there is a friend that sticketh closer than any brother in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that there is a comforter in the Holy Spirit who will come and aid in our days of loneliness and abandonment. Go to this God today. and cast your care upon Him, even the care of loneliness, and you will find that He careth for you. May God help us, and may God assist us in this very matter. And may, if you know not Christ, you be brought to know Jesus Christ as your friend. and as your Savior. Let's bow in prayer. I said this morning that it was a little lengthy. I'm very sure, I'm very sure that the Lord has given me this message, very sure of that. Throughout the last number of weeks in preparation, God has been bringing this very matter of loneliness to my attention, and I trust that that it'll help you and assist you in all matters pertaining to life. Yes, we thank God for the doctrine of God, and what a great subject matter that is. But Christianity is a practical religion as well. The Bible speaks on every matter, and every matter that we care to think of. So may God help us, even with respect to the loneliness of many in this world. May God help us to introduce them to the friend of sinners. Our loving Father, we cry to Thee that Thou wilt bless, O God Thy Word. We pray, Father, that we might be at the very forefront when it comes to individuals within even the family of God that feel themselves to be abandoned, abandoned by the church, abandoned by the people of God, forgotten. Yes, a mother may forget her suckling child, yet will I not forget thee. For I have graven thee, God has said, upon the palms of my hands. We thank thee that we're not forgotten by thee. We can dwell in the very presence of God day by day, and if no one else looks the road that we're on, we thank thee that God counts our steps. numbers the hairs on our head and is deeply concerned about our lives. Oh God answer our prayers and help us to live out the gospel and help us as we continue to worship thee even now where we pray these our prayers in through Jesus precious name. Amen and amen.