Ruth chapter 1. We'll have a scripture reading
and prayer and then the message. Turn to Ruth chapter 1 and let's
just read the first five verses of Ruth chapter 1. Now 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, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the
name of his two sons Malon and Chilon, Ephrathites of Bethlehem
Judah. And they came into the country
of Moab and continued there. And Elimelech and Naomi's husband
died. and she was left and her two
sons. And they took them wives of the women of Moab. The name
of the one was Orpah, the name of the other Ruth, and they dwelled
there about ten years. And Malon and Chilon died, also
both of them, and the woman was left with her two sons and her
husband. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
Thee this morning that you brought us here to worship thee. We're
grateful for every opportunity that you give us to worship thee,
to bow at the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ and praise his name.
Lord, we beg that you'll bless your word this morning and your
people, cause us to hear your word and to rejoice in it, to
profit by it, to learn from it, and to leave this place saying
it was good to be in the house of our God. Lord we pray for
Chris and Vicki and it's their way and ask that you bless him
in the preaching of the gospel and may they have a refreshing
time and bring them home safely. Now Lord meet with us we pray
and bless your word for Christ's sake. Amen. Turn to, you can mark Ruth 1,
we're going to come back to that, but then turn to the book of
Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 13. In studying for this message,
I have come to the conclusion, one I should have come to a long
time ago. Those of you who know me best
will recognize the absolute truth about what I'm going to say to
you right now and confess to you, and it's embarrassing. I am quick to give advice and
very slow to take it. I want to hear that again. I
am very quick to give advice and oh so slow to take it. And
if you must have proof of that, you can come up to me and mention
any controversial topic you want or even one that's a simple topic.
And I will not only have an opinion, but I'll be quick to advise on
the solution or at least a course of action that's best for you. And for that, I ask your forgiveness.
I'm sure I've done it to most of you, that I've been around
very much. And that's because I'm a foolish
man. I have no doubt, had I been in
the garden, I would have been advising Eve Why don't you eat
of that fruit? You stay away from that tree.
I would have boldly advised Adam to not dare go near that tree,
much less eat of it. All the while, I was partaking
of it with both hands. God forgive me. What a hypocrite
I am and I can be. And it's because I'm a foolish
man. What does God's word say about
advice? Well, the answer is, not a lot,
not very much. And you know why? Because God
doesn't generally give advice, he gives commands. He gives commands which reflect
his will and are to be obeyed. When Adam disobeyed, he began
And we follow in a long line of simply not caring what God
commands. By nature, we simply don't care.
Because that's become our nature. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. No amount of sound advice will help us if we don't care
what the right thing is to do, much less the wise and prudent
thing. Our basic need, you see, is not advice. First, we need
a new heart and a new mind that even cares what God's Word declares. We died when Adam died spiritually. When he ate the fruit, we were
right there eating it with him. And what we need is not so much
advice. First, we need life. Listen to
this carefully. No amount of advice will help
a dead man. He can't hear it, can he? He's laying there in a coffin,
you can go up and raise the lid and say, you know, y'all not
smoked all those. Y'all not ate all that stuff.
Y'all not drank all that stuff. You know what? He's not hearing
a word of it. Why? He's dead. It's not going to
do him any good then, is it? And you see we're the same way.
Giving advice to somebody who's dead in trespasses and sin, somebody
who's dead spiritually, won't do any good. But if God gives
us a new heart and a new mind, if he rebirths us spiritually,
now that's a different thing. But even though our children,
even our children are born the way they are, dead in trespasses
and sin, Even so, we do teach them, don't we? We do advise
them. We can't give them life, so we
give them what we can, don't we? In hopes they'll get life. They're alive physically, yet
they're young and foolish, and dead in trespasses and sin. God
teaches and provides advice to His children. How? First he gives them life
and then they can hear the truth and receive wisdom through his
word and receive wisdom through the counsel of those whom he
has already taught. Don't misunderstand. Most things
are clearly taught in the word. Most of the time we don't need
advice. We just need to do what this
word says. That'll solve most of the problems.
The answers are all here. if we can but hear them. But
that's a problem for us, isn't it? Why? We're foolish. We're
foolish. We'll look everywhere but the
right place. Let me give this illustration. You children can understand this.
You're in the grocery store. And man, when you get to that
checkout counter, what's there? Racks and racks and racks of
candy. Nobody needs to tell you that
it is wrong for you just to reach over there and take a candy bar
and unwrap it and eat it. You know that's wrong, don't
you? That's ill-advised. It's also, in God's word, called
stealing. Now, sometimes you're in the
supermarket and you're walking down one of these aisles and
here's a lady behind a little booth and you know what she's
doing? She's taking a big old candy
bar and she's cutting it in pieces When you stop and look up at
her, she takes one of those little paper things and puts a piece
of candy in it and holds it out there. Now you know it's okay
to take that, isn't it? But let me tell you where wisdom
and advice would come in. You need to stop and go, Mom,
may I have one of those? You know by teaching of your
parents and God's word, you know it's wrong just to take something
and steal it and eat it. But you see, wisdom would be,
even if someone's offering you that and there's nothing wrong
with taking it, okay, you might be ill-advised because your mom
might know that kind of candy is gonna make you sick, is not
gonna be good for you, and therefore you shouldn't have it. So you
see how you can benefit from advice and wisdom that somebody
else has. You know, God teaches his children
much the same way. Why? Why? Turn to Proverbs 13. Have you
got it there? We would do well to seek and
follow mom's advice, dad's advice, and there's others you'll come
along in life and learn Oh, they have wisdom also and they can
give good advice because they've gained wisdom and can now pass
it along to you. Look what Proverbs 13.10 says,
only by pride cometh contention. I believe I preached on that
verse the last time I was here. Here's the second half. But with
the well-advised is wisdom. Those who are well-advised They've
gotten wisdom. And there are those here who
has wisdom. Your pastors gained wisdom. There
are folks who gained wisdom. Now, hear me on this. Don't seek human advice when
God's word clearly defines what our action ought to be. I don't
have to tell anybody here, don't steal, don't kill. There's things we just don't
have to be told. We know that they're on our conscious,
they're in our heart, God puts them there. And if the word is
clear about it, we don't need to go, mommy, is it okay if I
steal my friend's book? Because I like it better than
the one I have. You don't need to ask that, do you? You don't
need advice about that. You know the answer to that.
But if we're not sure about something, we need to ask. And you say,
well, ask who? Well, if you need a cabinet maker,
I mean if you need a cabinet, you better ask a carpenter. If
your faucet leaks, I'd call the plumber. If the lights go out,
how about an electrician? That'd be a good person to get
advice from, wouldn't it? Don't seek spiritual advice from
a worldly source. Chances are, Jimmy, your boss
doesn't have a clue about what's in this book. Don't ask him about it. Not gonna
help you at all. If, on the other hand, our parents
or family member or friends or brethren show spiritual maturity
and spiritual discernment, spiritual wisdom, seek their advice. Seek
their advice. And if we're still uncertain,
or even if we just prefer, you know what you can always do if
you're in a quandary about something? Ask your pastor. You say, oh,
he's mighty busy. Well, he's not that busy. You
got something bothering you, you don't know what to do? Ask
him. Ask him. That said, we best have
a good reason, a scriptural reason, if we go to our pastor for advice
and then choose not to do what he says. You want to get in a real jam
in a hurry, that might be a good way to do it. But now, if at
any point, let me say this, what I'm talking about is a situation
where we're faced with something and we don't know what to do.
We might think about it, pray about it, we just don't know
what to do. I will say this, if at any point, and we go, oh,
I'm gonna do this, this is what I'm gonna do. If at any point
our conscience bothers us about what we're fixing to do, That
is reason enough to stop. Don't do that. Don't do anything
until the Spirit of God makes it clear. It's better to stand
still than to walk off a cliff. I want us to see one more thing
about seeking advice and counsel when we're uncertain what to
do. But first, let's consider a most practical and needful
lesson that's taught in God's about doing something that is
not well advised. Turn back to the book of Ruth. Any man or woman who has a godly
spouse is the recipient of one of God's most choice blessings. Do I have to tell anybody here?
If you have one or if you don't, it's one of God's choice blessings.
And the evil that men and women do We usually do it willingly. And a spouse not only can be,
but is often the instrument used or the means by which that evil
is either avoided, our spouse will go, well, I'm not sure about
that. And we'll avoid the problem. Or our spouse is going, come
on, let's do this. And we just blunder right on
into it. He can either be avoided or he can overcome us. And up
to this point, this is a very sad and heartbreaking story as
we read in Ruth here. Read it with me again in chapter
one of Ruth. Now 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, and the name of his wife, Naomi, and
the name of his two sons, Malon and Chilon, Ephrathites of Bethlehem
Judah. And they came into the country
of Moab and continued there. And Elimelech, Naomi's husband,
died, and she was left with her two sons. And they took them
wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Vorpah,
the name of the other Ruth, and they dwell there about 10 years.
And Maelon and Chilon died, also both of them, and the woman was
left of her two sons and her husband. Now this is a sad story,
isn't it? It's very sad. But I want us to notice in verse
one, it says there was a famine. Now, that's a physical lack of
food, is what a famine is. Now it does not say how extreme
this famine was, so we don't know. There is no indication,
listen to me, this is key to this whole thing. Is there any
indication given here that there was a spiritual famine in the
land? I don't read that, do you? You
know where they were? They were in a town called Bethlehem. You know what that means? That's
a land of bread. We know what our Lord intended
for this town. it would be the birthplace of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That'd be a pretty good place
to be, wouldn't you think? So there's no indication that there
was a spiritual famine here. And if there were, I'm telling
you right now, if there's ever a spiritual famine in this place,
you know what to do? Back up and get out. We think
it'll never come here, don't we? And I hope it doesn't. But
if it ever should, back up and get out. You don't need me to
tell you that. God's word makes it clear. Go
where the gospel's preached. And I understand, you know, despite
the physical consequences or the lack of natural prosperity,
get out. You say, I'll lose my job. Well,
God's got jobs everywhere. He's got plenty of jobs. But if there's a spiritual famine,
it's okay to go, all right? Now we're not told who wanted
to go. Who y'all think it was? You think
Ruth wanted to go? You think a limb like one go?
You think they both wanted to go? We're not told. But verse one says, it was to
be a sojourn. You know what a sojourn is? That's
a, we're walking down the road and we see something over here
and we go, I'm gonna go over that way. And check that out. It's a going out of the way. We all know who the way is, don't
we? If we leave one place where there's spiritual prosperity
to go to a place where there's physical prosperity and not any
spiritual prosperity, we're taking ourselves out of the way. Christ
is the way. And I tell you what, he wasn't
in Moab. He was not there. You can look up the definition
of that place. It's not a good thing. Moab was a bad place. And Moab, there was no Christ
being preached there. Departure from the gospel usually
begins as what? A sojourn. Let's go see what
that's, let's go visit there and see what's there. I'll tell
you something about the gospel. If we never leave it at all,
it's not ever a problem finding our way back to it. Do I need
to say that again? If we never depart from it, it's
not a problem trying to find our way back to it. What began
as a visit or a sojourn became in verse 2. Do you see what it
says there? They continued there. Well, ten
years is not a visit, folks. Is it? And what happened? They continued there, and what
was the consequences as a result of that? Elimelech died. He died
there. And in plain terms, folks, they
hadn't visited from Bethlehem to Moab, they'd moved. They were
there. They were there to stay. And
you know what the consequences of that was? Her two sons died. You say, man, sounds like you're
saying God punished them. No. No, I'll deal with that in
a minute. There's much we're not told.
Did they both want to go to Moab, or did Naomi want to go to Moab?
And listen to me, and she said, I want to go to Moab. So she advised and persuaded
Elimelech to go there. Is that what happened? Or did
Elimelech want to go to Moab, and he advised her, we're going
to Moab. How did this happen, you think? Or did they both want
to go? What can you and I learn from
this? This is a Sunday school lesson. Practical things can
be dealt with. We realize that, right? Let me
give you some practical things. Fellas, you first. God has given
us, if we have a wife, he's given us authority over our wives.
And a wife can be her husband's best and first natural advisor
if he will but listen. If necessary, there are times
when we ought, as husbands and head of the house, to use our
authority. Don't ever be advised, persuaded, cajoled, or even seduced
into something we are certain is not God's will or way. Fellas,
you gotta stand up tall sometimes. You just gotta do it. Use that authority, but use it
wisely and with love and kindness. Never use it just to insist on
our way. We're going down to Moab. That will lead to heartache beyond
all imagination. Sorrow's ahead for that. Okay,
ladies. Here's the other side of that
coin. Your husband, if he is a believer, is your first human
advisor. You have great power in persuading
your husband. You ladies know that, don't you?
You have great power to persuade them. Use that power very carefully. Use it wisely and responsibly. Great good can come from using
that power for the glory of God. Great harm can come from using
it for selfish means. You can use it and get your way,
just about always. You ladies know that? You can
get your way almost every time. However, if your way is not God's
way, it will lead to heartache and sorrow beyond your farthest
imagination. You know, you can get your way
and sometimes you should use it to get your way when you know
it's the right way. It's the way. Am I saying God
punishes his people if they don't seek and follow his will? If
they don't seek wise advice? That's not what I'm saying. Listen
carefully. That's what Naomi was saying. She told her daughters-in-law
she was going back to Bethlehem, Judah. Look at the last line
of verse 13 in Ruth 1. She said, it grieves me, it grieves
me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out
against me. Do we understand for God's people,
he never puts his hand out against his children. Sometimes you have
to take your children in hand, don't you? But you're not against
them. You're for them. We see the difference
there. And she's wrong here. God wasn't
punishing her. No, sir. That's what the matrimine
thinks, isn't it? Something's not going our way.
No, no. He's not against us. He's not
against us. I'll tell you what he will do.
He does not punish his children. And we'd be wise to learn this
in dealing with our children. We don't punish him, you know
what we do? The same thing God does. He said, I'll chasten you.
I'll chasten you. There's a big difference. You
know what God, all he has to do to chasten us, you don't have
to take a hand and do that. All he's got to do is do this,
look. Just lift it. All he's got to do is lift it.
We'll punish ourselves. All he's got to do is they're
talking about going down there to that pagan Moab place Man,
they're going down there. All he has to do is go. You want
to go? You want to go? I'm just saying what God's Word
says. He whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. When we don't
seek our Lord's will and don't seek the wisdom from the well-advised,
we expose ourselves to be sorely chastened. It's painful and heartbreaking. Look what Naomi said in verse
19. And my heart goes out to her.
She's heartbroken. Do we see her in verse 19? So
they too went until they came to Bethlehem. They left the place
they never should have gone to. And it came to pass when they
were come to Bethlehem that all the city was moved about them
And they said, is this Naomi? Is this Naomi? And she said to them, call me
not Naomi, call me Mara. That means bitter. She was bitter. For the Almighty had dealt very
bitterly with me. Now is that true? It's what she
thought at the time, because she said it, right? But now is
that true? Is that what happened? God was
dealing bitterly with her? The thing is, these folks didn't
recognize her from how she went out to how she came back. What happened to her? Well, first
of all, she went out well-to-do. She came back a beggar. She went out with a husband and
two boys. She came back a widow and childless. But, this means this. She had plenty when she left,
and she thought nothing when she came back. And that means
that the famine had not yet affected them. If they'd stayed there, the famine
would not have touched them. It was fear of something that
they thought was out of their control, which was. But in whose
control was it? When the first sign of trouble
comes, don't run from God. Stand still. Stand still in His
strength. She left well-clothed, returned
starving and poor, a beggar, as well as withered and childless.
And except for the grace of God, we'll all do the same thing.
May God give us wisdom, keep us well advised to seek His will
and not our own. Look at verse 21. It says here in verse 21, the first
line, and Ruth the Moabitess said, he said unto me, keep fast
by my young men until they have ended all my harvest. Who said
that to her? A fellow named Boaz. How did
she find him? Her mother said, gave her some
advice. She said, go glean, go glean. And she went out and gleaned
and she came back and she carried, she was carrying back more than,
you know, gleaners came back with a little bit of stuff. Ruth
went there and came back like this, could barely cut, and she
said, where you been? She said, I was in a field by
a man named Boaz. And you know what Ruth had learned?
You go there and that's where you stay. Don't glean in anybody
else's field. You see, Ruth had learned something
by all that she'd been through. Does that sound like the Lord's
bitter with you? The Lord's hard on you? No, it
just shows he did this for a while and then he went like this again.
He brought her back. May God give us wisdom, keep
us well advised. Listen, our Lord is able to overcome
all our foolishness. Ruth found grace and wisdom. She went and gleaned where Ruth
told her to. Now look at chapter 3 with me. Look at verse 5. You see where, here's the evidence
that she did what she was advised. Ruth said to her mother Naomi,
all that thou sayest to me, that's what I'll do. Boy, if I could
just get that, all that thou sayest to me, that's what I'll
do. I'd never have another problem. I'd never need to be chastened
ever again if I could just do all it says here for me to do.
Thank God somebody did it for me, the Lord Jesus Christ. But how did this all work out? Well, she went and gleaned in
Boaz's field. And Boaz, up on that horse, that
stallion, looked over. She's beautiful. She's beautiful. And you know the rest of the
story, don't you? She married him. He took her
to be wife. Boaz loved Ruth, married her.
She had a son. And who was that son? Look at
chapter four real quick. Who was that son? Chapter four,
verse 16. And Naomi took the child and
laid it to her bosom and became nurse unto it. Boy, she was bitter,
and now you know what she is? She's got that grandbaby there,
and boy, life is sweet. She's got the charge over that
grandchild. And who is this grandchild? Verse
17, and the women, her neighbors gave it a name saying, there's
a son born to Naomi and they called his name Obed. Now who's
that? He is the father of Jesse and
the father of David. And who's the great, great, great,
great, great, great grandson of David? The Lord Jesus Christ,
and where was he born? Bethlehem. Oh, she had to go
out, but he brought her back. We see that, and this is part
of the good news. You know, despite what we ought
to do and what we should do and what we're advised to do, even
when we don't do it, you know what God does? He brings us back. If we're determined to wander
out that way, good ways are way, way away. He's gonna go, come
on, come on back, right here. He's so good, isn't he? He's
so good. Let me show you one other thing.
Turn to Luke 8. I have to show you this. Luke chapter 8. The last thing
I want us to see about advice and counsel, I want to show you
the worst advice ever given to anybody in the entire Bible.
I think that's the case. Maybe I guess Satan telling Adam,
eat the fruit. Or I mean Eve telling her husband,
eat the fruit. There's an example for you, isn't
it? She said, honey, this is good.
We're all prone to do that sort of thing. But in Luke 8 verse
41, we see Behold, there came a man named
Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue, and he fell down
at Jesus' feet, and besought him that he would come to his
house. Why? For he had only one daughter,
about 12 years of age, and she lay there dying. But as he went,
the people thronged him. This man came to our Lord, and
he said, my daughter's dying. It's the only one I got. Help
me, help me. And the Lord said, well, let's
go there, On the way, the mobs thronging him, and you know the
story, the woman with the issue of blood came through, crawling,
and touched the hem of his garment, and everybody stopped. He said,
virtue's gone out of me. Don't you know this man's heart
is pounding? The only one who can fix this
problem is right here, and we're going to my house, and what's
this about? I can see me doing that. Why
are we stopping for her? My daughter's dying. Well, what
happened? He healed her. He healed her. And you see that in verse 48.
And he said to her, Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith
has made thee whole. Go in peace. And while he yet
spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's
house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead. We understand that? Some servant of this man's house
came up. Can you imagine what he's thinking?
If he's like me, he's thinking this. If you hadn't stopped for
that woman, we could have got there in time, but she's dead.
Isn't that how we think? And look at the advice this servant
gave this man. He said, that daughter is dead,
trouble not the master. Folks, that's the worst advice
anybody ever gave anybody. Trouble the Lord Jesus Christ?
Really? Really? What'd our Lord do? He said, but when Jesus heard
it, he answered him saying, he answered the man who said, don't
you come to me, don't trouble the master. And our Lord said
to him, fear not, believe only and she'll be made whole. And
you know the rest of the story. They went there and the Lord,
even when they were laughing at him, He raised that girl from
the dead. And verse 56, and her parents
were astonished. Why? Why should we be astonished
that the Lord Jesus Christ can save one of our children? Why
should we be astonished at that? Do you know, I know folks, He
saved all their children. Why not yours? Why not yours? Why shouldn't He save them all?
You're bringing them, aren't you? That's the best you can
do for them, by the way. Kids would be very well advised
when their parents say, get up, get up, we're going to the house
of the Lord. Get up and go. It's the best advice anybody
ever gave you. And her parents were astonished
that he charged them that they should tell no man what was done.
Let me give you this and I'll quit. Is anything too hard for our
God? That's ridiculous, isn't it? Seek the advice of pastors,
elders, husbands, wives, children, even out of the mouth of babes
sometimes. Ever had one of your children go, I don't think we
ought to do that, Mommy. Maybe we ought to listen. Maybe
we ought to listen. But seek ye first the aid of
the one who can do anything. He can solve all our problems.
Why do we wait to seek our Lord? Why must we be made up to our
chin and alligators before we think about draining the swamp?
Why do we wait until it has rained so many days that it is up to
here before we seek and cry for help? The Master ought to be
our first cry. We can seek the counsel of men
and seek Him in his word, our first cry should be on our face,
at his feet, God show me, show me, teach me. Stop this foolishness
and give me some wisdom. He may answer directly and quickly.
Or he may, for his own purposes, set in motion the answer through
one of his whom he has given some wisdom, and has made an
advisor, either way calling him. The problem is not that we trouble
him too much and too often. The problem is we seek him too
little and too late, or as late as the last resort. The Lord may send his word, send
the answer through his word and the words of one of his children. He made himself the answer before
we ever had a question. He made himself the solution
before we ever had a problem. You want the proof of that? Before
Adam and Eve ever ate of the fruit, he created a lamb. For what purpose? After they
ate, he shed the blood, took the coat, and covered them. That's
a picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He solved all our
problems. He's taken care of our trouble. When he lived 33
years, he made the coat we needed. When he walked up that hill and
was crucified, his blood covered all the messes we've made. That's
what's pictured here. He solved our greatest need before
the foundation of the world. Christ became the lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. Will he not also provide
every need of those who wait upon him? The trouble of the
Lord, what is trouble to us is no trouble to him. He is able
to deliver thee. What's the song say? Reach out
and touch the Lord. As he passes by, you'll find
he's not too busy to hear your hearts cry. Reach out and touch
the Lord as he goes by. All right, we'll take our break.