Meeting in His name is the central theme, highlighting the importance of spiritual fellowship and warning against leaving God's people. The story of Naomi from the book of Ruth serves as a primary example, contrasting the spiritual decline in Judges with the faithfulness in Ruth's commitment. Leaving God's provision leads to bitterness and loss, while true spiritual sustenance and belonging are found within the community of believers. Straying from this fellowship results in hardship and a loss of precious time and opportunities, but restoration and fruitfulness follow repentance and a return to God's provision.
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I'm not really knowing so well, but I'll tell you what I can do. I believe I could travel from a good distance east to a good distance west. In fact, I might even make it from coast to coast, and I would never have to take a motel one solitary night. Now, I don't do this. This is not the way I take my vacation. Don't get me wrong. But I could. You know why? Because all over Midwest, wherever I have gone in the work of the Lord, there are home after home open to us. And sometimes I say this reverently, God's people almost slayed you with invitations. Come and stay in our home. Now, I say this reverently. I appreciate this. But sometimes it's hard to make a decision between two because of the hospitality that one finds among the Christians, among God's people.
Let me tell you, hospitality is a real good mark of spirituality. When God's people's homes are open and their hearts are open, and they minister to you, they minister of their finances, they slip you that five, that ten, that, well, a little more sometimes. I tell you, this is just a mark of the fellowship and the interest that God's people have in those of us, and I can only speak for myself now, those of us who travel among God's people and minister the word of God from one place to the other, the hospitality and the kindness of God's people. We have a new people on earth. And God's people become our people and God's people are wonderful people. And I tell you, we ought to learn to appreciate them even more than we do.
I remember one time traveling down to the state of Texas. I came to a certain city. The people that I thought I would stay with overnight down in Oklahoma weren't home. And the next day I met them and they said, were you in our city last night? I said, yes, I took a hotel there. Well, why on earth didn't you go get the key? I said, well, I wouldn't have known where it was. Well, you know where it is now. They told me where the key is, so you just come in and stay any old time. Whether we're home or whether we're not. This is just a little bit of the hospitality that we find among God's people. My sometimes you go places for a series of meetings and it's just one place after another that you're invited for meals. That's why we have the battle of the bulge continually. There's no respite. It's because God's people are killing us with kindness.
But this is God's people. God's people have become our people. And I want to tell you, young Christians, You ought to take advantage of the fellowship of God's people, because they're the best people on earth, and they'll be loyal and they'll be faithful to you when other friends have failed you. This is what Ruth said. Thy people shall be my people. She adopted a complete new people in her life. Then she said, I've got a little plan. She says, where thou dieth, I will die. I think in this we have a nice picture of baptism. You know, this is what the child of God does. When he becomes a Christian, the next thing is for him to recognize that becoming a Christian, he comes into a place of death. He's associated with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you don't die with Christ when you get baptized.
I think you know that. You die with Christ only in symbol when you get baptized. You take that symbolic burial with the Lord Jesus Christ just as he died to sin and to the world. So I have died... with him. Where thou diest will I die, there will I be buried. Now, these are just a few things that are involved in the salvation of a soul. I find I have a new path to trod. I find I have a new life to live. I find I have a new place of comfort and repose. I find I have a new people on earth and I find that there is a plan for me to identify myself with the Lord Jesus in his death. Now we want to look at Naomi just for a few minutes.
Poor Naomi. You know, very recently I finished reading the Book of Judges, not at a sitting, but as fastly as I could. When you come to the Book of Judges and get to the end of the book, I say this with all the reverence and respect that I can possibly do it. When you get to the end of the Book of Judges, if it wasn't the Word of God, you'd throw the book down in utter disgust. I really believe one would. I would. If I didn't know it was the word of God, because of the atrocious things that happen in the book of Judges, this is supposed to be God's people. These are the people that God has redeemed with a high hand, and He's brought them out of Egypt on eagle's wings, He says. He's brought them through the wilderness, and He says, Lack she anything.
They lack nothing. God has taken care of these people and marvelously brought them into the land of Canaan and gave it to them for their possessions. God has taken an earthly people. He's given them an earthly inheritance, and he's promised them earthly blessings. When you get to the book of Jews, our judges, look how much they appreciate it. It just seems to be a sad tale of departure and spiritual declension all the way through until finally when you get toward the end, it almost becomes disgusting. You think of a young man taking his concubine and dividing her into twelve pieces, sending her throughout all the coast of Israel. What a disgusting thing. But I'd say you can't throw it down. like you would any other book because it's the word of God.
And we recognize that God has given this to us for a purpose and there's a real purpose behind it. God wants to teach us something. But as I nevertheless sort of feel this way as I come to the end of the book, he tells us in the twenty-fifth verse of the last chapter of Judges, the cause of it all. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. It says there was no king in Israel. That wasn't trouble. Sometimes people say there was no king in Israel. That's why there was lawlessness. It wasn't time for Israel to have a king yet. The problem didn't lie in the first part of the verse. The problem lies in the second part of the verse. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. God said when he brought the people into the land, he says, now you be sure that you do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord.
Not in their own eyes. But the people didn't follow God's word. The people didn't heed God's word. They didn't pay attention as they ought to have, and as a result, they were soon doing things which were right in their own eyes. And because of this, God had to bring chastening into the land, and he withheld the reins of heaven. And there was a famine in the land. When we get to the book of Ruth, however, it's as though God would turn our attention from the sin of the nation. He would turn our attention from the spiritual declension of the nation of Israel. And he says, I want to give you a little peek behind the curtain. I want to show you a family and how they're doing at this time. So he shows us the family of Elimelech. Do you ever feel like these people felt?
You say, well, how did the people feel? Well, I think I can sort of guess how they felt. He says there was a famine in the land. And Elimelech said to Naomi one day, you know, Things aren't going so well here in Bethlehem, Judah, are they? Now, Bethlehem, Judah was the place of praise and the place of bread, the house of bread and the house of praise. That's what the word means. Here were a people who were living in the place where there was supposed to be bread and praise, but the fountain seemed to have dried up, and there was a famine in the land, and instead of praise there was groaning, and instead of bread, there was hunger, and the people were perishing.
The Limelech had the solution to his problem, at least, he thought. Naomi, honey, let's get out of here while getting good. Let's go over to Moab. You know, I hear down in Moab that people are living in Egypt. I hear down in Moab that things are going along pretty well and that people aren't afflicted like we are up here. Don't you think it's time for us to go to Moab? So evidently Naomi agreed to this and the way they went with their two sons who evidently were quite young at this time. There was a terrible condition that existed in Israel. Their own sin brought this famine into the land. And here are some people as a family who are suffering under the spiritual conditions, the spiritual poverty of the land.
I think most of us can recognize that we are living in days of religious confusion today. Of all the confusion in the world, there's probably none that reigns like religious confusion in the world today. And there are many people who are starving for a good healthy spiritual diet. You know the sad thing about it is that there are some people who are complaining even about the place that we like to speak of as the assembly of God's people and they say there's no bread. Sometimes I'm sorry to admit that their complaints are justified. Sometimes there's a lack of bread, a lack of good spiritual wholesome diet.
May I say a little word to those of us who are responsible for teaching the Word of God, not only those of us who are in so-called full-time work, but everyone who has a responsibility of teaching a young people's class, a children's class, any ministry on the assembly platform, let us be sure we make it one business in our life. And I say this to myself, first of all, let us be sure we make it the one business in life is to keep bread before the hearts of God's people, the bread of God's Word. They don't care too much how much eloquence there is. They're not too much interested in the oratory that we give. They're not too much occupied in what marks of education we can impress the people with, but what they really want is bread.
The good bread is the Word of God. Sometimes they're asking for bread and they're receiving a stone. May God help us, everyone who has a share of responsibility in this, to keep the bread before the children in our Sunday school class, to keep the bread before the young people. to keep the bread of the Word of God before the hearts of the Lord's people. They want bread. Sometimes we have to admit that there is an experience of famine in the land because there is a lack of bread, not a good, wholesome diet like there ought to be. Then sometimes people say, well, our assembly is suffering a famine right now. What will we do? Well, let's go to Moab. Let's go see if we can't find bread somewhere else.
Is this a solution to the problem? Some people seem to think they have found the solution to this. I'm not at all sure that this is a solution because I've never tried it. I've never been tempted. Well, maybe I shouldn't say I've never been tempted, but I've never tried this to leave an assembly of God's people and go somewhere else and look for bread, even if I felt there was a lack of it in our own midst. But I do know one thing that here's the people who tried it. Of course, we're using an Old Testament type. Here's the people who went down to sojourn. in the country of Moab. And I want you to notice what it says. They went to sojourn. They didn't go there to stay. They went to sojourn. But look what else it says. And the end of verse two it says, and they continued there. They went there to sojourn.
But then it says they continued there. And then in verse four, at the end of the verse it says, and they dwelt there. Here were a people who just went for the purpose of sojourn. And then it says they continued. And then finally they dwelt there. They stayed much longer than they thought. But they came back. They only came back after some very, very bitter experiences, though, didn't they? You see, here's the people who have left the place where God has placed his name. Now, don't come to me and start arguing with me about where God has placed his name. All I know is what I find out in the New Testament about the place where God has placed his name. It says, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And I can just claim God's promise that this is what he means and this is what he says.
And it isn't particular of interest to me whether the name on the building indicates what I like or whether it does. The thing that I'm interested in is that there is a people upon earth who are still gathered in the name and by the authority and by the word of God. And these are the people that I want to be associated with. I want to go by the book. And in these places where we are truly in a good spiritual condition and not affected by the conditions around us, I'm sure there's going to be bread and there's going to be praise. I've been raised in the assembly of God's people and it's always been a place of bread for me. Well, sometimes the diet may not be quite as rich, but sometimes it's my incapacity to digest a good diet. That's where the trouble lies. And I've always found the place of God's people associated with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and being a place of praise.
And I want to tell you one thing that I really appreciate about the groups of people, call them what you will, assemblies are out. One thing I really appreciate about them and that is The place that the Lord Jesus Christ still has. The place of honor. And as we sung that lovely hymn while ago, my heart was moved about that precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because his name is despised in Christ today. And it's despised in the world today. There's still a group of people on earth who are hoarding bread and praising the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and giving him his rightful honors. When I find them, I thank God for them. This is one of the things that I really appreciate about our worship meetings when we come together to remember the Lord Jesus Christ on Lord's day morning.
It's the way the name of the Lord Jesus is spoken up. And I hope that I never lose my appreciation for that meeting and every other time when the word of God is honored and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is held in highest heat. You know, if I get weary of that, then there's something wrong with me. There was something wrong with these people. Oh, yes, the conditions were not conducive to happiness. I know that. They perhaps had just cause for complaint, but I think I noticed something that was wrong here in the background. You know, these people had two sons, and their name was Melon and Shilion, and the meaning of their name is sick and piny. I wonder what must have been wrong with these people when they named these two sons anyway.
Why would you ever call your sons sick and piny? I believe that when Elimelech and Naomi named their sons, There must have been some reflection of their attitude toward the things of God, even in the naming of their sons. Oftentimes, you know, the trouble goes back further than we may think. There seems to have been a sense of dissatisfaction here, even in the name of their sons. They were sick and piny. Well, they decided to take their sons down to Moab and find a place where it was easier going. My, it certainly looked like a right move, all right, I suppose. This looks like the right thing to do, and Moab is going to be much easier going, you know, and at least we'll have plenty to eat. Well, what happened down there, if you make a long story short, you know what happened.
They were down here in Moab when those three funerals came along in just a short time, death. Ten years down here in Moab. Ten years away from God. Ten years away from fellowship. with God in Bethlehem, Judah, ten years away from the house of bread and praise. The ten years took its toll. God laid his chastening hand upon them. First they bury their husband, then they bury the two sons. Let me say just a little word about chastening this afternoon. You know, the book of Hebrews teaches us practically all that we need to know about the chastening hand of God upon us, whom the Lord loves, He chastens.
I wouldn't want to say at all this afternoon that every time that you experience the chastening hand of God, that it's for a corrected major, I believe that the chastening hand of God can be laid upon us for at least one of three causes. You may be able to think of more. I think of three. When God brings affliction and chastisement into my life as a Christian, it may be, number one, it may be for correction. It was in this case. It may be because... There needs to be some adjustment in my life as a child of God. Since I have come into the family of the Father, he exercises that governmental discipline over my life. The Father chastened us his children. Don't you forget it, dear child of God.
When God lays affliction upon you, it may be because he's correcting you for some error or mistake you've made. It may be some willful disobedience. It may be some acts that you have committed against God willfully. And God has to lay his hand upon you. And thank God when he does. Far better that God should afflict us when we've gone astray than that He should just continue to let us go in our own willful and wayward course. But it isn't always such. Sometimes, you know, afflictions come upon us and chastening can come into our life for an educated purpose. Sometimes it's to teach us things that we couldn't learn any other way. There's real value to God's discipline in our life because this is His school for us.
It's the school of discipline. Then there may be times when God chastens us as a preventive measure to keep us from following a course that we might have pursued otherwise. But I believe in this case, the chastening hand of God was laid upon these people as a corrective measure. I believe it was God's way of dealing with Naomi concerning her own departure from the place where she knew she might have stayed. Well, we've got to hurry along. She comes back. After ten years, you know, it says she arose in verse six. Naomi's going to be restored back to the Lord. She's going to be restored back to the place that she had left so long ago. She arose and she heard, for it says, for she heard in the country of Moab how the Lord had visited his people and giving them bread.
Now I want you to notice how she came back. I suppose if you would have listened to Naomi's story when she went out ten years before this, you would have said, Naomi, why did you come down here to Moab? She could have told you the fault of everyone that ever caused it. She could have given you the whole history of the book of Judges. And she could have said, well, you know the whole land is suffering because of the people's sins. I expect she could have just brought her brethren one by one before us and could have told us all their faults. She could have said, and you know, my brethren are to blame for my coming down here. That's why I'm down here. It's the brethren's fault. The people of Israel's fault. God's people are in such a spiritual condition. I can't stay with them. That's why I'm down here.
If there's any blame, it's on them. Isn't that what you would suppose to hear from Naomi? But listen to what she says. First of all, it says when she came, the whole city was moved about them. You know, I think there's something kind of nice about this. Sometimes God can accomplish more through the restoration of a saint than he can through the preservation of a saint. Now, I'm not advocating by this at all, that we ought to just go off into some willful sin so that God can restore us and bring about some accomplished blessing. But let me say this. For the comfort... of those of us who have had occasion to have fallen by the wayside. Perhaps Naomi's description is a description of us, at least inward feeling.
Maybe we feel like doing just what Naomi did. Just leave it off. Let's go someplace where it's easier. Why not go somewhere where they do have plenty of food? If we have been implying to think this way, or perhaps if we've even taken a step, I'd like to say a little something that I feel would encourage us and comfort us here. You know, God can take most anything and cause it to praise Him in the end. Here was a city who was moved by a woman's restoration. I doubt if she'd moved the city if she'd stayed there. Because she moved the city when she came back. Sometimes when God's people can get away from God. And then there's wonderful restoration effected. Sometimes the city is moved more by the restoration of a thing than by one who had never fallen by the wayside.
So there's comfort in that, isn't there? And then the city said, Is this Naomi? You know, here was a woman that was only ten years gone, and she had changed so much that they didn't recognize her when she came back. Maya, I want to tell you, some big changes can take place in your life when you get away from God. I know because I tried it. I say this once again for the benefit of younger Christians who are here today because my heart goes out for you. Look out for the ten years away from God. I spent my high school days away from God. God had to bring chastisement into my life. I could give you a long story about it, but I'm not going to. I'll just tell you this much. There's a good part of the right side of my faith going because of God's chastisement in my life, and I have plastic to replace it.
And it was part of God's discipline in my life. But the saddest thing I feel is not that I've lost part of the inside of the right side of my faith. I feel the most sad for the time that I lost when I was away from God. You know, I not only lost time. Here's a woman who lost ten years. You can't get that time back once you've lost it ten years. I not only lost time, but I lost opportunities. Do you know why? All the time that I went through my high school days, I was away from God. And I lost opportunities that I've never been able to get back since. I can go to Canada and preach. I can go across the ocean and preach, if you will. But I'll never be able to get the audience back. I lost when I was in high school. Some of those friends, some of my classmates, they're already in eternity.
The rest of them have scattered to the four winds, and I don't know where most of them are. And I'm sure that only on rare occasions do I ever have one of them in an audience where I'm privileged to preach. And even more rare, do I ever have opportunities to speak to them personally. You know what I feel bad about today? I say I lost my opportunities to be a witness to those young people. I lost my opportunities to live for God and to show them what a Christian really was. I was away from God. God had to lay His hand upon me and He brought me back. And this is exactly what He did with Naomi. He brought her back. She was ten years away from the Lord and she was unrecognizable when she came back. Ten years can make a lot of difference.
Even less than that can make a great difference. When you get away from the Lord, tremendous changes take place. You may not be recognized. You can get into difficulty and you can get away from God so far that even the Christians won't recognize you anymore. But here she is coming back. And I want you to listen to what she said. She came back to the skirts of the city. The people said, is this Naomi? And she says, oh, don't call me Naomi. Naomi means pleasant. She says, there's nothing pleasant about it. Call me Merra. It means bitterness. Here was a woman who has come back in bitterness of soul. But I want you to notice something else. She says, I went out full. Who went out full, Naomi? She says, I did.
I thought when you went out ten years ago, Naomi, that you were empty. And I thought you were the one who was blaming the condition of Israel for your going out. I didn't know that you was going to lay the blame on your... Well, she says, I'm ready to now. She says, I found out that when I went out, I wasn't near as empty as I thought I was. She says, I went out full. And it wasn't the Lord who took me out. It was me who went. And she lays the blame on the right person. And she acknowledges the truth of the fact. But I want you to notice something else, she says. She says, the Lord brought me back full. empty. The Lord has brought me back. Yes, you're going to discover oftentimes that you've gone out and your own doings, you went out cool. The Lord will bring you back empty, even divested of her husband and her two sons.
Why then call you me Naomi, seeing the Lord has testified against me in the Almighty has it. Three times she said that in similar words. She says, the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. the Lord God has afflicted me. I come back in bitterness of soul and spirit. But she came back in true repentance and humility. Thank God she came back. Oh, don't you and I realize oftentimes the need of getting back into fellowship with God. Oftentimes that sickness and that pining is so characteristic of us. And I want to tell you, dear child of God, oftentimes it shows up in the family. It did here. It showed up in their children. All they got going down to Moab was two ungodly daughter-in-laws until the one, of course, became converted.
And the other thing that she got was just the flowers from a funeral arrangement. That's all she had as a memory of those who had been taken away from her. Sad experiences, isn't it? Have you ever had an experience like it? Away from God. God laid his hand upon you. You know why he did it? Because he loves you too much to let you stray. God wants to effect your restoration and my restoration. He wants to bring us back. And when he brings us back, thank God there's restoration for our souls. And you'll be surprised how the city, how the people will be moved about it. And then she came back in the beginning of Barley Harvest. There was a great time of fruitfulness following me. Dear child of God, if you feel you're away from the Lord today, there's restoration for you.
You can get back to God. What the Lord would like to do with you and with me is to bring us back to himself. back into fellowship with himself. Let me tell you something, and I believe this with all my heart, that when we get out of fellowship with God's people, it's because we're out of fellowship with God. Let me say something else on top of that. When you get back into fellowship with God, you're going to get back in fellowship with God's people. I do believe. You show me the person who has all kinds of accusations against his brother. He complains about this, and he complains about that, and he complains about the other things. He's unhappy and disgruntled about everything. And the real trouble is there's sickness and timing in the background.
He's gotten unhappy with the Lord. And I tell you, if I ever am inclined to get my eye off of Christ, and I say this from experience again, if I'm ever inclined to get my eyes off of the Lord Jesus, the first effect I feel of it is I get unhappy with my brother. Oh, I get so disgusted at you sometimes. Sometimes you just don't measure up to my specifications at all. I just get so provoked at you. And then I analyze the situation and I find out, to my dismay, it's because I'm out of touch with God. Now I don't mean to say by this that you just overlook everything that's wrong and call everything nice and nice because we have to look at things with a discerning eye. I know that.
Spiritual discernment is needed today. But oh dear child of God, I do believe that the necessary thing for us today, living in days of famine and in days like this, I believe the necessary thing is for us to keep in touch with God, with the Lord Jesus Christ. And when there are tendencies and formless to wonder, let us come back to the place that we left at the beginning, and God will receive us.