Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with the hymn from our Spiral Gospel Hymns
hymn book, number 38. Let's all stand together, number
38. Come, every sinner saved by grace,
You who by faith God's Son embrace, Tell all who hear your voice
below The debt of love to Christ you owe. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee All that I am, Lord, owe to Thee I owe alone,
O Christ, to Thee He left His Father's throne above And came
to earth on wings above Thus he lived, the perfect man, And
so fulfilled the lost demand. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee, All that I am, Lord, owe to Thee. I owe a loan, O Christ,
to Thee. Jesus endured His Father's ire,
And died at the appointed hour. What He endured, no tongue can
tell, To save our souls from death and hell. Dear Lord, I
lift my praise to Thee, all that I ever more hope to be. I go alone, O Christ, to Thee. Ah, death's dark grave our King
arose, And triumphed over all our foes. Ah, through the skies
the victor rose, And reigns on high our Savior God. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee, All that I am, for hope to Thee, I owe of all, O Christ,
to Thee. From heaven Christ will quickly
come, And bring His ransomed people home. We shall see his
lovely face and chant the praises of his race. Dear Lord, I lift
my praise to thee. All that I am, Lord, owe to thee. I owe alone, O Christ, to thee. Please be seated. That hymn reminds me of what
the Apostle Paul said when he said, I am what I am by the grace
of God. And we have reason to rejoice
in being the children of God by the grace of God. And that's
what we've come here to do this morning, to praise Him, to worship
Him. Pray the Lord will give us that
spirit of grace that we're able to worship. We're going to be in the first
chapter of the book of Ruth, which is right after the book
of Judges, where we've been the last several months, Ruth chapter
one. Deanna has been in the hospital
this week. She had a blockage in one of
the stents that she had had put in years ago and they were able
to repair that and she went home Friday evening and is recovering
with a lot of weakness from that. So I want us to pray for for
Deanna this morning. Let's let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
we come into thy holy presence thanking
you that we have thy dear son, our savior, our substitute, our
surety, our sin bearer, to rejoice in and to look to for the hope
of all of our salvation truly Truly, we are what we are by
your free grace. Lord, we ask that we might experience
the fulfillment of your promises this morning, that you would
meet here with us and that you would manifest in our hearts
your grace and your glory, that you would open what no man can
shut. Lord, open your word, open the
windows of heaven, open our hearts. Give to us a spirit of worship
that we might come and worship you in spirit and in truth. Father, we thank you for Robert,
Indiana, and we ask Lord for your hand of strength and grace
to be upon them Pray that you give Deanne a full recovery,
that they'd be able to return here and worship and fellowship
with the brethren. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Those that have been following
us through our study of the book of Judges, we looked at the wayfaring
man in chapter 19, Wednesday night, and And I looked at chapters 20 and
21 and the Lord just didn't give me a message from either one
of those chapters. And that's his prerogative to
give messages from his word as he sees fit. And so I was looking
at the book of Ruth and I thought, what a glorious type. We saw some types of the gospel
in the book of Judges, and we're greatly encouraged by the revelation
that the Lord gave us of Christ and his work of redemption for
his people. The theme throughout the book
of Judges was that the people did that which was right in their
own eyes. when the Lord turns anyone over
to do that which is right in their own eyes, then there's
destruction that comes, and that's what happened. to the children
of Israel. And the lesson that we learned
was that the Lord, in his mercy, sent a Savior and delivered them
from themselves. And that's what he's done for
us. If the Lord ever left us to ourselves, we would be left
to do what was right in our own eyes. And we do that on a pretty
regular basis. But by God's grace, he restrains
us and he recovers us and he sends Christ again and again
and again to our hearts to bring us back to himself. That's the
continual work of redemption that the Lord does for his people. and how very thankful we are
for that. The book of Ruth, the scripture
tells us from the very beginning that the book of Ruth took place
during the same period of time that the book of Judges took
place. You remember Joshua brought the
children of Israel into the promised land across the Jordan. Moses
wasn't able to do that. Joshua being a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ and Moses being a picture of the law. The law
can't save. only the Lord Jesus Christ is able to save and so
he brings them in successfully and they divide up the land and
each of the tribes in the book of Joshua take their appointed
lot of property and And then Joshua dies, and we have a 300-year
period of time between Joshua and the period of the kings.
Samuel, the Lord raises up Samuel, which is the next book after
the book of Ruth. And and Samuel anoints Saul first
and then David and then you have the lineage of the kings that
lead the children of Israel after David in the line of David. But
here in the book of Ruth we have a very glorious gospel type I've titled this message, Leaving
and Returning to Bethlehem, Judah. Leaving and Returning to Bethlehem,
Judah. The story of Ruth and Naomi and
ultimately the picture of Christ that we see in Boaz, their kinsman
redeemer, don't know of a clearer gospel
message in the Old Testament types that there are than this
book. And it's a picture of our fall
in Adam. We see how Elimelech, Naomi's
husband, can represent for us the rebellion of our father,
Adam, and how he left the house of bread, which is what Bethlehem
means, and the subsequent fall that
took place in the human race, and the children of Adam. Notice,
notice in, in verse five of chapter one
of Ruth. And Malon and Chilion, those
are the two sons of Elimelech. And Malon's name translated means
sick. And Chilion's name translated
means pining or wanting. And they both died in the land
of Moab. We see in the opening of this
book a picture of what has happened as a result of of Adam raising
his hand in rebellion against God and us in Adam and how we
chose the land of Moab and how we've been sickly and pining
and wanting ever since. We are the children of Adam,
and sin has brought great distress and great pain and death. Sin's brought death to the human
race. And yet, the Lord in his mercy
has delivered us. Our kinsman redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ, pictured in Boaz, has come and paid the ransom
price, which was his own precious blood, in order to redeem us
from our fallen state. That's That's the gospel message
of this entire book, and that message is clearly illustrated in the book of Ruth. And I hope
that it will be a great encouragement to us as we're able to, by God's
grace and by His Spirit, make application of these pictures,
these types, to our own experience. You have your Bibles open to
the book of Ruth. We'll begin in verse one. Now, it came to
pass in the days when the judges ruled. You see, this is the same
time. This is that 300 year period
of time. When during the time of the judges
it took place, we don't know for sure. But it was between
Joshua and Samuel when men were left time and time again to do
that which was right in their own eyes. And as a result of
doing that which was right in their own eyes, they brought
They brought great suffering and famine was the judgment of
God. In the Old Testament, the Lord
makes it clear that when the children of Israel were disobedient,
that he brought famine to the land. And that was their corrective
punishment for their disobedience. And as a result of the famine,
they would cry out to the Lord to save them, and the Lord would
send a deliverer. Let me ask you a question. We're
not talking about physical famine. We got plenty to eat. But Amos says it like this. Amos
says there's a famine in the land, Not a famine of bread or
of lack of water, but a famine of hearing the word of God. Hearing the word of God. You
see, this is our experience, isn't it? We're just like the
children of Israel, just like when they were murmuring in the
wilderness. We choose Moab over Bethlehem. We choose to do that
which is right in our own eyes. And the Lord sends famine to
our souls. All of a sudden we find ourselves
unable to hear from God. We find ourselves lost and undone. We find ourselves in trouble. We find ourselves starving in
our souls for life and for truth and for Christ. And we cry out. Just like Naomi did, Naomi cries
out and the Lord brings her back to Bethlehem. Back to Bethlehem. The Lord brought me and you back
to Bethlehem today. And we rejoice in these opportunities
when we're able to gather together and hear the word of God. But
I hope that this is not the only time we we feast on the bread
of life. I was thinking recently, I thought,
you know, if you were sickly and you went to a doctor and
oftentimes the first visit with a doctor is they want to evaluate
your lifestyle. And so the doctor begins to ask
you questions about your lifestyle and particularly about your eating
habits. And you say, well, you know, I fast six days a week
and I eat once on Sunday. And the doctor looks at you and
says, well, no wonder you're sick. Is that your problem? What
are you coming to me for? That's oftentimes how things
work for us, isn't it? The Lord instructs us to ask
him for our daily bread, daily bread. And, uh, that manna that
fell from heaven fell every day. And, uh, the manna they tried
to, you remember the Lord told him, he said, don't, don't save
any for tomorrow, but they had fear in fear that the Lord wouldn't
provide for tomorrow. Uh, initially they saved some
of the manna and they got up the next morning and it was full
of worms. You know, that's the manna that God feeds you with
today will not be sufficient for tomorrow. It won't be sufficient
for tomorrow. We have to go back to him every
day. As sweet and satisfying as this
bread I hope will be to our souls today, it will not sustain us
for tomorrow. And if we find ourselves doing
that which is right on our own eyes and forgetting the Lord,
the Lord will send a famine. hearing the word of God and he'll
make us desperate to cry out again and to return we don't
have to come back to this place to be back in Bethlehem we rejoice
that the Lord has provided us this place and there is a very
very special blessing that the Lord has promised when his people
gather together and his gospel is preached and his word is read
and voices and hearts are joined together in prayer and worship
and song. There's a very, very special
blessing in this place. Public worship, there's nothing
like it. And yet the Lord has given us
opportunity to come before the throne of grace daily, hourly,
often. Seek his face continually, is
what the Lord said, continually. So this story is my story. And I pray that it will be your
story. And the Lord will encourage each
of us to seek his face. whenever we find ourselves losing
sight of Him and not feasting on Christ as we ought. 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, Bethlehem, Judah, Bethlehem, the house of
bread. We saw that Wednesday night with
the wayfaring man, how he had left Bethlehem and he was going
to the house of the Lord. This is the house of bread. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
was born in Bethlehem as the bread of life. He said, my body
is your meat indeed. And when the Bible speaks of
bread, it's not just talking about what we would refer to
as a loaf of bread. It's talking about food, sustenance
for our souls. And so here the Lord Jesus Christ
says, my body is your meat indeed, and my blood is your drink indeed.
Unless you eat of my body and drink of my blood, there's no
life in you. And so here's where we feast on the body of Christ. What is it to eat his body? The Jews thought he was talking
about cannibalism, and they were greatly offended. But we know
this is a spiritual message. We look to the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ, his incarnation and his perfect life of obedience
as the hope of all our righteousness before God. We are feasting on
his body when we look to his person and his life of righteousness and obedience as
our acceptance before God. What is it to drink his blood?
To drink his blood means that we're looking to his sacrificial
death and the shedding of his precious blood on Calvary's cross
as the only covering for our sins, the only hope of redemption,
the only justification that we have before God. And so we look
to his life and to his death. And that's Bethlehem, the house
of bread. Judah is the same name that we
get Jew from, and it means to rejoice. And so Elimelech was
from the house of bread where there was rejoicing. And there's
always rejoicing. There's always rejoicing when
God, by His grace, whether it be here or whether it be in your
private devotion time, there's always a rejoicing when God enables
us by His Spirit to come into His presence and feast on the
body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rejoicing in the
house of bread. But because there was a famine
in Bethlehem, Judah, because Elimelech, you remember Amos? I quoted that verse of Amos,
that I will send a famine into the land, not a famine of bread
and water, but a famine of hearing the word of God. That's what
this is a picture of. And when you and I are not able to hear
from God, we're often tempted to find our comforts and our
hope and our pleasures in Moab. Now, who was Moab? Well, you remember when Lot was
delivered from Sodom before the fire fell and destroyed that
city? And Lot found himself in a cave with his two daughters. And Lot, who the scripture says,
was a righteous man. He was a believer. Was led through intoxication
to have an incestuous relationship with his two daughters. And the
two sons that were born by those two daughters was Moab and Ammon. And the Moabites and the Ammonites
became bitter and continual enemies to Israel for the rest of their
life. You know, I see in that, I see
in that a picture of mixing law and grace. Mixing law and grace,
an illicit relationship that produced an enemy of God by a
righteous man, mixing together. Isn't that what happens when
God sends a famine to our hearts and we're not able to hear the
word of God? We oftentimes find ourselves
going back to the Lord, trying to mix law and grace. We go to
Moab. We try to find some comfort and
some hope in our works and in some you know, difference and
change that's in our lives. Rather than feasting on Christ
alone, we're tempted to mix our works and the pleasures of this
world with the grace of God. And we find ourselves leaving
the house of bread where there is nothing but rejoicing and
living in the land of Moab. This is what our father Adam
did. This is what he did. He forsook
the Lord and thought, you know, I'm sure Elimelech thought, well,
we'll just go over there. We'll just go over to Moab for
just a little while. And until, you know, until the famine's
over, He stayed there for 10 years. Well, it was 10 years
later before Naomi ever came back to Bethlehem. And his children,
he died there and his children died there. And what a picture
of our corruption and of our fall in our father, Adam. And yet the Lord in his mercy,
brings Naomi to the end of herself. Sin has left her wasted. When she comes back to Bethlehem
and they say, oh, look, this is Naomi. And Naomi's name means
one to be delighted in. And she says, oh, don't call
me Naomi. Call me Mara. For the Lord has
dealt with me bitterly. And she came back. sin having
left her wanting and yet the Lord brings her back to Bethlehem
and he brings into her life a kinsman redeemer by the name of Boaz
and he redeems her here's this is our life this is our life
in our father Adam As a race, this is our daily walk of faith
as we struggle with sin and with works and with taking our eyes
off of Christ. But this is a message of redemption,
brethren. This is a message of love. This
is a message of grace. This is a message of hope. But
this redemption and this grace and this hope is for sinners. It's for sinners. Alemelech left Bethlehem for
greener pastures only to find out what Adam found out and what
you and I find out. That what we thought was going
to be greener pastures produces nothing but thorns and thistles. How many times we find ourselves,
like the children of Israel, loathing the light bread and
wanting something, something more. Alemalek died. Notice, notice in our text and
the name, I'm sorry, where did we leave off? He went to sojourn
in the country of Moab. he and his wife and his two sons,
verse two. And the name of the man was Elimelech. El being God, Molech being king. Elimelech's name translated means
God is my king. God is my king. And every child
of God can say that. The Lord has brought me by his
grace to bow. to bow to the Lord. He's my king. And yet, like a
limeleck, here we are again. Here we are again. Finding our
need to keep coming. To whom? Coming to whom? Coming. And the name of his wife was
Naomi, one to be delighted in. And the name of his two sons, Malon,
sick, and Chilion, wanting or pining away. Here's the children
of Elimelech, the children of our father Adam, after having
left Bethlehem, Judah. Oh, that was how long Adam was
in the garden before the fall. We don't know. We know that he
walked with the Lord in the cool of the day. We know the Lord
spoke to him. We know that he rejoiced in those
times that he had with the Lord and being tempted to think that
there was something better. He openly disobeyed God. And we are his children. We are
his children. Malon and Chilion. Ephrathites of Bethlehem Judah. And they came into the country
of Moab and continued there. And Lamelech, Naomi's husband,
died and she was left and her two sons. Just like Adam died
and just like you and I will die, the wages of sin is death. The Lord told Adam in the day
in which you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, you shall surely die. The land of Moab knows nothing
but death. Romans chapter 5 verse 12 says,
sin hath entered the world and death by sin and so death passed
upon all men for all have sinned. We've done exactly what Elimelech
did. Here's the good news. Since by man came death, so by
man came the resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam all
died, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. We have a Redeemer. We have a
Redeemer. Lord, I've fallen in my father
Adam. I look away from you every day.
I find enticements in the land of Moab. I need for you to redeem
me. I need the life that can only
be found in Christ. I need Christ. I love what the
Lord tells us in the book of Colossians. Christ, who is our
life? There's no life outside of Him. Now, we know that this is a gospel
story, as are all the stories in the Bible, first and foremost. They teach us about who God is.
They teach us about who we are. They teach us about how it is
that God is pleased to save sinners and how he accomplished their
salvation in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, in
the volume of the book it is written of me. Does that mean
that there aren't precepts and principles to be learned from
the scriptures? No, it doesn't mean that. There
are plenty of precepts and principles to be learned from God's word.
But here's the problem with those precepts and principles. If we're
looking just for them and divorce them from the truth of the gospel,
then those precepts and principles will become our damnation. We will find ourselves doing
what Lot did. having an illicit relationship,
mixing law and grace. You know, every religion of the
world, even Islam, which is probably one of the most legalistic religions
of the world, Islam, the Muslims, they speak of the mercy of Allah. So what I'm saying to you is
that every religion of the world mixes law and grace. They all
do. They all say, well, you know,
we're dependent upon a God who is merciful and gracious, and
yet there's these things we have to do. And so if we take the
word of God, and we think that we're following the precepts
and principles in a way that's somehow going to benefit us and
reward us with salvation or with grace, and we do it outside of
the gospel, then all we've done is mix law and grace. And when
you mix law and grace, you are under the law. You're under the
law when you mix law and grace. So are these precepts to be taken
and learned from? Yes, but only in light of the
gospel. only in light of the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, only in light of the accomplished
redemptive work of the Son of God, who himself and all by himself
establishes all of our righteousness before God. Most folks just take the Bible
and use it as a rule book for Christian living. Well, if I
can just find a little aid here, a little help there and put this
into practice and follow this principle and this precept, you
know, make my life better. And that's how they use the Bible.
We are not denying that there are principles and precepts in
God's word that ought to be heeded. But we are saying that they have
to be understood only and always in light of the gospel. Let me
show you that. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
28. Isaiah chapter 28. We'll begin reading in verse
nine. And the reason I'm bringing this
out is because there are some precepts and principles to be
learned from the book of Ruth. And particularly in this first
chapter, leaving Bethlehem Judah, We've seen it happen time and
time again over the years, where, you know, the grass is greener
on the other side, only to find that Moab's not what it promised
to be. Young people, young people, the
world will entice you with job opportunities in Moab that will
require you to forsake the assembling of God's people in Bethlehem,
Judah. And over the years, we've seen
young people do it. There's nothing in Moab but death. Elimelech had an influence on
his children, didn't he? These are the precepts and principles. Parents never underestimate the
influence that you have on your children. You are the most influential
person in their life. And I want to say, as your pastor,
how encouraged I am with the young couples that we have in
our fellowship that have their children here every Wednesday
night and every Sunday. From the time that they were
born, they're hearing the gospel. What a blessing that is. And
how necessary that is. And what a lesson we learn from
Alemalek in taking his children away from the gospel, and they
all die in my lap. Verse nine of Isaiah chapter
28. Whom shall he teach knowledge and whom shall he make to understand
the gospel? I know your Bible says doctrine,
but that's the question here. Who's gonna really understand
the gospel? Who's gonna understand who Christ
is and what he accomplished? Who's gonna understand who God
is and who they are? Them that are weaned from milk
and drawn from the breast. Those that are maturing in Christ. Four, precept must be upon precept,
precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, and here
a little and there a little. Yes, that's the way God's Word
is written. That's the way we study it. That's the way we preach
it. Verse by verse, here a little, there a little. Precept upon
precept, line upon line. For with stammering lips and
another tongue will he speak to this people. God's going to
send someone like me, a stammering lip to declare these precepts
and these truths. To whom he said, this is the
rest wherewith he may cause the weary to rest. And this is the
refreshing, yet they would not hear. These stammering lips are lifting
up Christ. They're calling God's people
through the precepts of God's word to come to faith in Christ,
to rest in Christ, to rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ for all
their righteousness and all their acceptance before God and all
their hope of salvation. That's who we preach. But the word of the Lord was
unto them And I'm adding a couple words here, but this is the meaning
of this verse. The word of the Lord was unto
them nothing more than just precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,
that they may go and fall backwards and be broken and snared and
taken. Now that is works religion. That is mixing long grace. That
is Lot and his daughters producing Moab. That is Elimelech leaving
Bethlehem Judah and thinking, well, if I can just apply these
precepts and these principles, I don't need no about Christ. All the blessings Listen to this
and I'll close. All the blessings that men so
desperately want. Peace? Who doesn't want peace?
Righteousness? Who doesn't want a right standing
with God? Joy? Hope? Love? These are not assets that God
deposits into your account to be withdrawn at your pleasure. These things come with the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But men want the benefits without
the person. We'll not have that man reign
over us. I want what he has to offer me,
but he's not gonna be my Lord. He's not gonna reign over me. That's, that's, that's what the Lord's saying
here. I'll take the Bible for its precepts and its line upon
line, but to rest in Christ? No, I'm going to work for my
salvation. I'm going to work for my salvation. Wherefore, verse 14, wherefore,
hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men that rule this people,
which is in Jerusalem. You see, these were the preachers
that were telling them this. These were the religious leaders
that were telling them just, you know, how to live, just live
a better life. And you know, you be a good person
and you'll make it. Just do this and don't do that. Because you have said, We have
made a covenant with death and with hell. We are in agreement
when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall
not come upon us. For we have made lies our refuge
and under falsehoods we have hid ourselves. Therefore, thus
saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone,
a tried stone. The Lord Jesus Christ was tried. He was tried by the ever seeing
unbending word of God. The law of God oversaw everything
in his life and could never find a charge against him. Can you
say that? No. Christ Jesus, the Lord himself
is the tried stone. He's the precious stone. That
word means priceless. A sure foundation. He that believeth
on him shall not make haste. You see, it's believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Well, We need to be brought again and
again and again. Not looking for greener pastures
in Moab. There's pleasure in sin for a
season, but in the end it leads to death, doesn't it? Leads to
death. What a blessed thing it is. When
even after death has come forth. The Lord in his mercy brings
us back to Bethlehem, Judah, where there's life, where there's
life. And he keeps doing that. He's
faithful. It's called the perseverance
of the saints. It's called the preservation
of the spirit of God. He will not allow his children
to remain in Moab. Aren't you glad? Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for thy dear son, our Boaz, our Kinsman Redeemer. And thank you for bringing us
back again to the place where we can feast on the bread of
life. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen.