Alright brethren, let's go back
to Ruth chapter 1. Before Rob and Kristen married,
Kristen rented that apartment down there close to her work.
and it was far away from where the gospel is preached and it
was far away from her brethren and it scared me to death. And
then they married and they got a place closer and I was very
relieved and very thankful. But when she bought that apartment,
I began to think then A good last message to our marriage
series would be on the subject of where to live. But in the
course of preaching the marriage series, and we had a lot going
on, and I forgot about wanting to preach that. Recently when John and Kelsey
bought a house closer, I was relieved by that too. And when
they bought a house closer to their brethren, closer to the
church, it reminded me of it. And so that's what I want to
deal with tonight. And I can't think of a better passage than
the book of Ruth. And here's what I want us to
see. The best thing for newly married believers, like all believers,
is to live near where the gospel is preached and where our brethren
live. This is very important for all
believers. And so it's important for new
believers. I know young believers may not
understand sometimes the importance of something like this or may
not think about it. but it's very, very important.
We read here in verses 1 and 2 that it came to pass in the
days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land,
and a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the
country of Moab. He and his wife and his two sons,
and the name of the man was Elimelech. Now Bethlehem Judah means the
house of bread. Bethlehem means the house of
bread. It was in Canaan where God had
delivered, you know, we're in Exodus now looking at the children
of Israel in bondage. He delivered them out of bondage,
out of Egypt, and he took them through the wilderness and eventually
he delivered them into the land of Canaan. That's where Bethlehem
is. And he told them when he brought
them there, he told them to dwell there, told them to dwell there
together. And it was there that God raised
up His house, where He promised He would meet with His people. So that's Bethlehem, Judah. This
is where God's house is, it's where God's people are, it's
where God told His people to dwell together, around that temple,
around that place where He would meet with them. And then on the
other hand you have Moab. Moab was a place upon which God
rested His curse. This was a cursed place. God
told His people not to live in Moab. Not to live in any of those
heathen nations around Israel. But He told them not to live
in Moab and He told them not to have anything to do with the
Moabites. There was no place to worship God in Moab. There
was nothing in Moab except for idolaters who hated God. But God gave Emelech a trial. He gave him a test. What God
did is he sent a famine into Bethlehem Judah while he made
Moab to prosper greatly. Now, if Emelech stays in Bethlehem,
it'll be difficult He'll have to deny himself. He's probably
going to have to do without a lot of the things that he's accustomed
to having. But he's going to have to do
those things to live there, but he will be obeying the will of
God. If he moves to Moab, to the Carnal
Eye, it looks easier. It looks like he won't have to
suffer near as much. It looks like he'll make a good
livelihood there. It looks like It's a place he
can prosper. But he will be disobeying the
will of God. Elimelech knew God's will. He
knew what God would have him to do. But Elimelech looked at
this thing by natural sight and he used natural reasoning to
determine what he would do. He walked by sight rather than
faith. And when we do that, it goes something like this. Well,
I know Bethlehem is God's house of bread, but I can make a good
living in Moab. I know it's God's will for His
people to worship in His house of bread and fellowship together
and to be together so they can help one another and bear one
another's burdens and fellowship throughout the week with one
another. If we go to Moab, we can still
come back and worship at Bethlehem Judah. We can visit. We just
won't be there to be able to be near our brethren and to fellowship
with them through the week and we won't be there when they need
us to bear their burden and we won't be there when we need them
to help us bear our burden. Well, I know it's God's will
for us to stay in Bethlehem, but it just makes more sense
to go to Moab. And so Elimelech moved his wife
and his sons to Moab. And therefore, in order to bring
his elect, Naomi and Ruth, these two women who were God's elect,
in order to bring them back to the house of bread, God removed
every obstacle. He killed Elimelech. And he killed her two sons. And
the daughter-in-law, the one daughter-in-law, he let her go
back to her Moabite family. And then the Lord sent word.
He sent word. He sent a gospel word, good news,
that the Lord had visited his people in Bethlehem, Judah, and
given them bread. And with that word, he brought
her out. And he brought her back home
to where she was. Now, what can we learn from this
story of Elimelech? Well, first of all, Elimelech
offended God because everything that God did to bring his people
together and make them one in Bethlehem, Judah. Everything
God did to bring them out of Egypt, to bring them through
the wilderness, to bring them into Bethlehem, Judah, and make
them all one. That all was a picture of what
Christ has done for His people to make us one. It's a picture
of Christ's work in making His people one. Our gospel is the
message of how Christ unites His people together as one. That's our message. Sin separates. Sin divides. When Adam sinned
in the garden and all men sinned in Adam, we were separated. Our sin separated us from God
and separated us from all our brethren. The Lord said through
Isaiah, your iniquities have separated between you and your
God. We have nobody else to blame. He said your iniquities have
separated between you and your God and your sins have hid His
face from you that He will not hear. Sin separates. Sin separates brethren from brethren. Makes them part ways and divides
brethren from brethren. But Christ our righteousness
unites His people. He brings His people together.
Go with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Whenever this whole thing
is finished, when God gets finished and Christ has completed the
whole work fully and it's all done, this is where we're going
to be right here. Ephesians 1.10. This is God's
will. Ephesians 1.10, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one
all things in Christ. He's going to gather together
in one all things in Christ. See, our gospel is the gospel
of unity. It's the gospel of how Christ
makes us one. He's going to gather together
in one all things which are in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth, even in him. So to bring us from our
separation, that's where we're going to end up. So to bring
us from the separation of sin, and bring us into union with
God our Father, and with our brethren, before this world was
made, God trusted that whole work to Christ His Son. Look
down at Ephesians 2.12, this was our case right here. We were
without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God
in the world. That's how we came into this
world, and that was my story as a Gentile, and your story
as a Gentile. Verse 13, But now, in Christ
Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh, you're
made near, by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace who hath
made both one, both Jew and Gentile, His elect from among the Jews
and His elect from among the Gentiles, He made us one. He
broke down the middle wall of partition between us having abolished
in His flesh the enmity. What was it? What was the enmity? What was causing this enmity
between Jew and Gentile? And what was it that was like
a wall dividing us? Even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances. For to make, He broke it down,
He fulfilled it, to make in Himself of two one new man, so making
peace. And that He might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
When Christ bore our sin, when He bore the sin of His people,
He was willingly separated from God. When He took the sin of
His people on Himself, sin separated Him from God. Because God will
not look upon sin. And He came to put away sin.
He came to purge His people of our sins. He came to answer justice
in the place of His people. And when He did, when He bore
our sin, God separated Himself from Him in justice. But by that,
He fulfilled the law for His people and purged us of our sin.
He broke down that middle wall of petition, took it out of the
way, nailed it to His cross, and He's made us one in Him,
justified. But that's not all. We still
in our flesh were enemies in our minds by wicked works. We
were depraved. We came forth from a mother's
womb speaking lies because we conceived of corrupt sin, of
seed, corrupt seed. And so He sent the Gospel to
us and preached the Word to us and through the Spirit He made
us one in a new heart that He gave us. Look here at Ephesians
2.17. And He came and preached peace
to you which were far off, and to them which were nigh. For
through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now go to Ephesians 4. So now
brethren, in our day, what He's just telling us there, in our
day, God's house of bread is His church, it's His people,
where He has united us and fitted us together, fitly framed us
together and united us together through faith in Him. This is
His house of bread. You who believe, who He's joined
together right here, you are the house of bread. And this
house right here that we meet in, is the place that God has
given us to where we can come in and quietly meet together
and worship Him under the preaching of Christ and Him crucified.
And Christ did that. Look here, Ephesians 4.16, from
Christ the whole body is fitly joined together and compacted,
cemented by that which every joint supplies. That means Every
joint means there's a joint, there's a joint, there's a joint,
there's a joint, there's a joint. It's His people. It's like the
joints in your body make all your members join together. Every
member needs every other member because it's through each member
that Christ is cementing us together and supplying what we need. Look
here. According to the effectual working which Christ works in
measure in every part, in each one of us. And so He makes increase
of the body so that the body edifies itself in love. We see the unity. Go over to
Acts 2. I just want to lay this foundation
of how Christ makes His people one. The whole purpose and the
whole message of our gospel is how Christ brings us together.
He makes us one. He unites us together. Acts 2.44,
we see here this was when Christ, Peter said Christ worked this
through the Spirit. And after He called so many to
faith, to the unity of the faith, look at what He worked right
here. Acts 2.44, hadn't been time for anything to corrupt
anything yet. Nobody, no liars had entered
in. This is right when He saved 3,000 people, the first great
Great calling out of His people right here. And look where they
were. Verse 44, And all that believed were together. All that believed were together.
And they had all things common. That is, not one person said
what he owned was his own. They said, just like when you're
at home with your brothers and sisters and you say, you know,
what your father says is his is yours, and what's yours is
his, and what's your brothers and sisters, it all belongs to
you. And he says here, and they sold their possessions and goods
and part of them to all as every man had need. They were ready
to provide for one another, to help one another. And they, continuing
daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from
house to house. They did eat their meat with
gladness and singleness of heart, praising God. See how He brought
them together? Now together, our commission,
that which He has given to us, our commission is to support
this gospel and have it preached here and to send it forth into
all this world because one day our Lord is going to call out
the last one of His redeemed into the unity of the faith.
He said in Ephesians 4 this gospel is going to go forth until they
are all called into the unity of the faith and His body is
complete. So our commission together as
one body is to send forth this gospel and so After the Lord
has united us, the Lord teaches us, because this is our commission,
the Lord teaches us not to separate, but He teaches us this. The psalmist
said, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to
dwell together in unity. Go to Ephesians 4, verse 3. This
is what we are supposed to be always endeavoring to do right
here. Ephesians 4, verse 3. He says, with all loneliness,
meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, we're to endeavor
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Here's
why. We just sang it. There's one
body and one Spirit, even as you called and one hope of your
calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of all who's above all and through all and in you all. So, God's
saints dwell together in unity. That's how we dwell together
because this is the work Christ accomplishes. We dwell together
in unity, in the worship of God, in the Lord's house, and in our
daily lives throughout the week. Fellowshiping together in each
other's homes as often as we can. We dwell near enough so
we can serve each other in love and bear one another's burdens
when any of us has a need. We laugh with one another and
we cry with one another. We pray with one another. We
build each other up in our holy faith. And we stir up one another
to love and to good works and to never forsake assembling together
under the preaching of the Word. So, when Elimelech moved away
from Bethlehem Judah, All that God did to bring Bethlehem, Judah,
bring them together in Bethlehem, Judah. Everything God did to
bring them together pictured this that I've just been declaring
to you, what Christ did. So when Elimelech turned his
back on Bethlehem, Judah and decided to move way away and
live way away, he counted Christ and all this unifying work that
Christ accomplished to be vanity. Here's what he did. He exalted
his carnal reason over God's Word. He put more value on earthly
bread than Christ the bread. And because he chose to go out
and live where there was nothing but unbelievers and there was
no brethren anywhere around him, because he decided to do that,
he exalted the world above his brethren and above Christ's people.
Now brethren, let's not make the same mistake Elimelech made.
This is a grave mistake that he made. I realize that some
believers put down roots far from the gospel and far from
any brethren prior to God saving them. They, before they ever
knew the Lord, they had their home established and they had
plenty of roots and, you know, laid down and then God saved
them. And there they are, they're way away from the gospel, they're
way away from the brethren. And I've known many in that situation
who picked up and moved so they could be under the gospel and
so they could be near their brethren. I've known others and know others
who are working toward that. So they can one day be able to
be under the sound of the gospel near their brethren. And I know
others who it seems near impossible that they'll ever be able to
do so because of things beyond their control that they have
to take care of. I know somebody who has a son who's very sick and They don't know if they can
get the same treatment and their insurance provides the same treatment
where they are if they came here, for example. There are certain
situations like that. But I'll tell you what's impossible
with men is possible with God. And I'd encourage anybody, if
you endeavor to try to obey God's Word and be under the Gospel
and be where the brethren are, God will honor it. God will honor
it. He'll make a way. He'll make
a way. even when it seems impossible.
Now for the rest of us who know this is God's will, we ought
never decide to live away from where the Gospels preach or away
from where our brethren are. Now that's my first point. We
don't want to make this mistake Elimelech made. God, Christ has
brought us together. And quite frankly, I've labored
too much and too hard preaching this word to you. Now for some
jake leg to come in here and take one of our young people
and take them somewhere else, I don't want to see that happen.
The Lord's uniting His people, not dividing His people or separating
His people. Now secondly, we see in Elimelech
some of the dangers of deciding to live far away from where the
gospel is and from where our brethren are. We see some of
the dangers here. Now often what we think is this,
well this will just be temporary, we'll just do this temporarily. But often what we think is going
to be temporary ends up being permanent. Look here in verse
1, it says he went to sojourn. That means somebody who's not
intending to stay there, they just went for a little while,
temporarily. But look at verse 2, at the end
it says, and they came into the country of Moab and continued
there. And then at the end of verse
4, they dwelled there about 10 years. About 10 years. When I was thinking of moving
here, there was just a few families here. There are just a few families
and I can remember asking myself, can I pastor this small of a
number of people from now until the end? It's not easy to do
that. And I asked myself, can I pastor
this small number of people from now to the end in the event the
Lord doesn't add anymore to it? Why did I ask that? Because it
could be permanent. It could be permanent. And brethren,
if we ever think of temporarily living far away from the gospel
and far away from our brethren, we ought to ask ourselves the
same question. Am I willing to live this far
away if it ends up being permanent? Because it might. It might. There's only one who has a sovereign
will and that's God. And you and I, we can make our
plans but we can't say I will do this or that. Our life's a
vapor. We have no power to bring our
will to pass. God's will's sovereign. So we
need to consider this might be permanent. And then here's another
danger. If we decide to live far away
from the gospel, we're going to put our spiritual life and
that of our family in jeopardy. Verse 3, it says, and Elimelech,
Naomi's husband, died. Now by moving away, Elimelech
proved he was a false professor. He proved that his profession
was false. This was a man who, his name
means my God is king, but he proved that he didn't believe
it. Many who live far from the gospel soon begin to absent themselves
from the preaching of the gospel. That's the first step to apostasy. Just absent here, absent there,
absent here, absent there. That's the first step to apostasy.
Before long, they totally forsake the gospel altogether. And here's
the problem. I'll show you Hebrews 10. Here's
why. Here's why they face such a danger. They don't have brethren to do
what Christ assembled us together to do. Christ has made us live
near one another so we can fellowship together through the week and
remind each other what we heard preached so we can do this right
here. Look, Hebrews 10.24, let us consider one another to provoke
unto love and to good works. not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
For if we sin willfully, if we turn from the gospel, after that
we've received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no
more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking
for of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
You see, if you don't live amongst brethren, we encourage one another
by our faithful attendance here, But also then when you're sitting
around the table and you're talking and drinking coffee and you're
talking about what you heard and you're encouraging one another,
you're provoking one another to continue assembling together.
When somebody lives far away from where the brethren are,
they're not able to do that. And they don't have this that
brethren dwelling together have. They don't have somebody provoking
them and encouraging them and exhorting them to continue assembling. And then also, it's easy to become
weak in faith. If I don't totally fall away,
at the very least, it's easy to become weak in faith. By the
time Naomi comes back to Bethlehem Judah, she is so weak. They looked at her coming back.
She's a picture of us after the fall. She came into Bethlehem
Judah and they looked at her and they said, Is this Naomi?
Is this Naomi? Is this the same woman that left?
And when you and I behold ourselves in the mirror and we behold our
sin and we behold what we are, is this Adam? Is this what God
made in the garden? But a believer who's not together
under the gospel and not together with their brethren, fellowshiping
with their brethren, they grow weak in the faith. They grow
weak. In Arkansas, I lived 45 minutes
from the church building. 45 minutes. And I lived further
than that from my brethren. And I promise you, a long drive
makes it extremely difficult to assemble together to hear
the gospel preached. You know, we have a lot of sin,
a lot of this old nature with us that is always pulling at
you and always got some kind of problem, makes it difficult,
you know. You add a long drive on top of that. And it's just
what you need to say, I'll just watch on video. And you won't gather with God's
people during the week because brethren don't want to drive
to your house. and you don't want to drive to their house.
That's just being honest. I've done it. I've been there.
I know how it is. And both are needed. We need
to hear the gospel continually and we need to dwell together
and be with brethren one another to build one another up. But
if we don't hear this gospel consistently and we don't have
those brethren, we're going to grow weak. We're going to grow
weak in the faith, brethren. And we won't even know it. We
won't even know it. You've heard that, I hope maybe
you have. There was Mr. Spurgeon, Charles
Spurgeon. He had somebody that was in his
congregation. They hadn't been attending service. They hadn't been coming to hear
the gospel preach. So he went to his house one day and a man
was sitting by a big roaring fire, you know, and he pulled
up a chair and sat down by the fire with him and he's sitting
there and as they talked, Spurgeon just grabbed a poker and he just
reached over there and pulled one of those red hot fiery coals
out and just pulled it over here by itself and separated that
out on the hearth. They sat there and talked, carried
on talking for a little while and Mr. Spurgeon goes, look at that.
He pointed at that once red hot fiery coal and it's sitting there
now black, burned out, smoking. And the man said, I get your
point. I'll be there Sunday. I get your point. A believer
needs other believers. Sheep needs sheep and a shepherd. And if you separate us out, we're
going to grow cold and lifeless and weak. And that's dangerous,
brethren. Another thing is this. As heads
of our homes, Before deciding to live far away, a husband should
consider, what will it mean for my wife and my children if something
happens to me? Before a man decides he's going
to move his wife and kids out, way out, he ought to think, what's
going to happen to them if something happens to me? Look here in verse
3. And Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died and she was left and her
two sons. And Maelon and Chileon died also,
both of them. And it says, and the woman was
left of her two sons and her husband. She didn't have anybody. Elimelech left his wife with
no husband to provide, no brethren to provide or to even comfort
her, and worst of all, with no gospel. She didn't have anything. She was out there by herself
with nothing. God's people are family. Ephesians
says, the whole family of God in heaven and in earth. We are
all family with God as our father, Christ as our elder brother,
and we are brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters. Our earthly
family will one day be no more. This is a family that will never
end. It has no end. And this is what Christ said.
Go to Mark 10. I want you to see this. This
is what Christ said. This is His promise now. Mark 10. Look at verse 29. Jesus answered and said, Verily
I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands
for my sake and the gospels, but he shall receive a hundredfold
now in this time. Houses, and brethren, and sisters,
and mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions, and
in the world to come eternal How can that be? How can I be
guaranteed that I'm going to always have a house and I'm always
going to have brethren that treat me like I'm their brother or
their sister? How can I know I'm going to have
this? Because Christ works in the hearts of His people. He
works in the hearts of His people. And when Christ works in the
hearts of His people, He's going to see to it that His people
are provided for through His people. And not only that, we
see what Christ gave up and what He was willing to let go of in
order to save His people. And so we see how He provided
for us and we're willing to provide for our brethren, constrained
by His love for us. And besides that, a brother in
Christ, a sister in Christ is the closest thing a believer
has on this earth to Christ Himself. A brother or sister in Christ
is the closest thing you have on this earth to Christ Himself.
If Christ lived here in Ewing, would you decide to buy a house
and live in New York City? I'd be moving right here. I'd
be next door neighbors. Another thing to remember is
this. When we disobey God by separating from His gospel and
our brethren, we're teaching our children that it's okay to
disobey God. Look in verse 4. And they, his
sons, that is, took them wives of the women of Moab. The name
of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. God commanded
Israel that their children were not to marry any of the unbelievers
in those heathen nations around them. They were not to marry
with them. But by disobeying God and moving
away from God's house of bread and moving away from His brethren,
which God also commanded they not do, by doing that, Elimelech
taught his sons, it's okay to disobey God. It's alright to
disobey God. And if I do what Elimelech did,
that's what I'm teaching my children. It's okay to disobey God. And
in case somebody doesn't have children, we ought to consider
this. Wherever I decide to live today, that's going to affect
my children and my children's children. I can prove that to you right
now. You want your children to grow
up and be with God-hating friends who don't know Christ, who are
going to try their best to keep them from believing on Christ? You want your children to grow
up around that? My grandfather was preaching works when God
saved him. And he began preaching the sovereign
grace of God. And when he did, the town he
lived in was a small community in Minden, Louisiana. And they
put in the town paper that he was a heretic. They put it in
the paper, printed it in the paper. And so my mother and my
uncle, both my uncles, one day they had a bunch of friends at
school. The next day they went to school and they didn't have
any friends at school. And so my grandfather had a choice to
make. He could either move to another
school and stay near that community where the church building was
and where the brethren were or he could move 45 minutes away
to family land and it would be much easier on him and cost effective
and all that stuff and that's what he did. And I'm his grandson
and I grew up not near close enough to have
any fellowship whatsoever with people in the church. And all
my friends, none of my friends were believers. None of them. And that was because
of one decision that was made on where to live. Now somebody
might say, well God saved you even though you lived so far
away. Yes He did. God saved Naomi and Ruth too.
God's going to save His elect. Christ paid His precious blood
and it cost too much and He's not going to lose one of His
elect. He saved them. But look how He saved them. Verse
6. She had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had
visited His people and given them bread. He centered the gospel.
Wherefore, she went forth out of the place where she was. She
didn't stay there. And her two daughters-in-law
with her, one of them turned back, and her and Ruth went on
the way to return unto the land of Judah. Yeah, God saved her
and Ruth, but it was through much suffering and much bitterness
that she would not have suffered otherwise if she had stayed in
the house of bread, if her husband would have stayed there. And
I can say the same. By God's grace, He made me hear
the good news that God has sent forth His Son, Christ Jesus,
and visited His people and given us the living bread. He made
me know that and saved me through the Gospel. And about 10 years
later, after me and Melinda were married and we were living in
Nashville and we were trying to live in Nashville and the
church was 45 minutes away and the brethren were 45 minutes,
you know, the building and the brethren were 45 minutes away,
About ten years later, he made me hear a word similar to what
I'm preaching to you now. Just like he made Naomi hear.
And Melinda and I packed up and we moved south and moved closer
to our brethren in Franklin. And God blessed me with fellowship
that I had never known before, ever. And He grew me in grace
more than He'd ever done before. Through the preaching of the
Word and having those brethren there, Scripture says, iron sharpeneth
iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. When
brethren dwell together, brethren, it helps. It helps to hear that
Word preached and to rehearse it to one another and to talk
about it and to talk about things you see in Scripture and these
things. That helps. But it was through much suffering
and much pain the route I had to go. So lastly, let me end
by giving you two words of very practical instruction. Two words. One, walk by faith, not by sight. Judge what you should do in every
situation, not just this subject, but this one and every subject. Judge what you should do, not
by how it looks to you in providence and whether one place looks easier
than another place. Judge by what God says in His
words. Go to God's Word and see what would God have me to do.
If Elimelech stayed in Bethlehem, yeah, it would have been difficult.
There was a famine. He would have had to give up
some of the things he was accustomed to. And you and I, to live with
God's people, we may have to give up some of the things we're
accustomed to. We may have to cut costs. But this is certain,
brethren. If you're obeying God's will,
God will provide. He will provide. And I can tell
you this, we don't read of anybody in this account right here that
died in that famine. Everybody stayed in Bethlehem,
God provided them bread even though there was a famine. And
God's gonna provide His people with what we need. You can just
bank on that. So you may have to deny yourself,
you may have to cut out expenses and pleasures, but walk in God's
light and He'll provide for you in ways that you never imagined
He could provide for you. And not just for you, but for
your children and your children's children. Whenever, not long
after Melinda and I moved from Nashville to Franklin, You know,
we made this move and we're just so blessed and we get to be with
brethren and have them over to our house and go to their house
and then we all go to the Lord's house and worship together, you
know, and go bowling during the week and, you know, just together
all the time. And not long after that, my job
moved to North Nashville. Which was, we're on the south
of Nashville. We're south of the southern suburbs
of Nashville. We're way out there. My job moved
20, 30 minutes on the north side of Nashville. But you know what? God blessed me so much being
with my brethren. That drive didn't bother me.
That drive didn't bother me. All I was doing was driving anyway.
I was in sales. That drive didn't bother me.
And not only that, the Lord provided me with a gas card through the
company that I was working with so it didn't even touch my finances. And here's the second thing. Obey God by dwelling together
with your brethren under the sound of the gospel and live
near where your brethren live. See, we need to experience forgiveness
to appreciate forgiveness. You need to experience offending
somebody, your brethren, and them forgiving you for Christ's
sake. To make you really appreciate
God's free forgiveness for the sake of Christ. That's something
you won't experience if you're not with brethren. You mean,
I need to be around my brethren so I can offend them? Yeah, you're
going to. But it's so you can experience
that forgiveness. He tells us, bear one another's
burden, carry one another's load. How are we going to do that if
I'm not with my brethren to be able to do that for them? These
are things we need to experience to make us appreciate what Christ
did for us. And God will provide. I promise
you that. God will provide. You think moving south of Nashville
in my job moving north was something? We moved here brethren. And our
mortgage tripled. Our taxes went up ten times.
And our income went down over half. And God has provided. We haven't missed a thing. We
haven't missed a thing. We need to suffer together. We
need to rejoice together. We need to cry together. We need
to see God supply what this brother needs so that he can be supplying
what I need and find out that Ephesians 4 is true. You see,
these are things you want. I tell you, I try to tell this
to folks and it's just like a man who hasn't been under the sound
of the preaching of the gospel. You can't tell him what he's
missing. If he's watching videos or whatever and he thinks, well,
I got what I need. You can't explain to him the
difference until he's under the sound of the gospel and experienced
it. Well, the same is true with dwelling
near your brethren. You can't explain it to somebody
until they do it and they find out, they see what they've been
missing. It's night and dark. I mean night and day. Night and day. And here is something
else and one last thing. Don't wait on your brethren to
invite you to their table. You invite them to your table.
You young people, you young believers, take these that are younger than
you bowling or take them ice skating or roller skating or
something like that. Don't take me. But take them. And if they know you care about
them, they'll open up to you about the Scriptures and ask
you questions about the Scriptures and be ready to answer them.
Scripture says, "...oughtn't one in perfume rejoice the heart,
so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel." Two
are better than one. Two are better than one because
they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the
one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him that's alone when
he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up. And if one prevail
against him, two shall withstand him. And a threefold cord is
not quickly broken. He's saying you're better off
dwelling with your brethren together. I pray God will bless that. Amen.