Alright brethren, let's go back
here now to Ruth chapter 1. I, Lord willing, plan to preach
Sunday out of John 14. on our Lord's word to Philip
and to his apostles when they were troubled and became full
of unbelief and doubts and fears set in. And Philip asked the
Lord to show him the Father. Remember that? And our Lord made
a statement. And this is what I want to try
to preach on Sunday. He said, believe me that I am
in the Father and the Father in me. Believe me. The only cure
for a troubled heart is to believe Christ. Whatever He's teaching
us, whatever His Word declares, believe Him. Believe Him. But
there are times when we're troubled and we begin to look at ourselves,
and we begin to look at our past, and we begin to look at our circumstances,
and that just compounds our unbelief. So this second part of that statement
will help us. Listen to the second part of
this statement our Lord made. He said, or else believe me for
the very works sake. You know, child of God, when
you're troubled, rather than focusing on self and these other
things, focus on what the Lord has worked for you and in you. There was a time you couldn't
believe. There was a time you did not believe. And then there
came a time when you believed the Lord. You just found yourself
believing Him and you could not do otherwise. That's the Lord's
working. And there's been times when He's
had to correct you and He's had to work things in your life to
show you, turn you back to Him. And the only way you have persevered
from then till now in faith is the work of the Lord. Focus on
his work. Focus on him and his works. And as I began to look at this
and try to prepare a message for Sunday, I kept coming back
to Ruth. I used it, first of all, for
an illustration, and I kept looking at it, kept looking at it, and
I thought, I got to preach on this because it illustrates it.
So maybe I'm doing this backwards. Maybe I should preach that for
other ones first and then preach this second. But this will illustrate.
what I hopefully will preach Sunday. Now let's see this with
Naomi and Ruth. Verse 19, Ruth 119. So they too
went until they came to Bethlehem. 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?
It means pleasant. And she said unto them, Call
me not Naomi. Call me Mara. Call me Mary. It
means bitterness. For the Almighty hath dealt very
bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord
hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Naomi, seeing
the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted
me? So Naomi returned, and Ruth the
Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, which returned out
of the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning
of barley harvest. Now Naomi's not murmuring here
against the Lord. She's acknowledging the hand
of God, His works, and what He has done in bringing her home. She's patiently bearing what
the Lord has done for her. What a blessing of God to recognize
that what has come to pass in our life is the Lord's work.
It's God's hand. That's a blessing. That's a blessing. Not to attribute it to luck or
fate or whatever, but to acknowledge the Lord did this. She said,
the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. Yes, it was
bitter. He took her husband. He took
her two sons. It was bitter. Took one of her
daughter-in-laws. But here's the blessing in it.
The Lord hath. The Lord hath. The Lord's done
this. the Lord Almighty, the Almighty. It's not by might nor
by power, it's by the Spirit of the Almighty, the Almighty. And look at the grace of God
in this next statement, verse 21. I went out full, and the
Lord hath brought me home empty. She went out, but from where
did she go out, and to where did she go? She went out from
Bethlehem, Judah, the house of bread. She went out from the
place God said, I will visit you here and provide bread for
you. I'll give you my gospel in this
place. She went out from there. She went to Moab, cursed Moab,
a cursed land where the gospel was not. She went out. And the Lord brought
me home, she said. See the blessing there, and the
Lord brought me home again. He brought me home again. The
Lord brought her home to the house of bread. He brought her
to the Lord's house. He brought her home again to
the place where He promised to bless His people. That's where
He brought her to. She went out full, but what was she full of
when she went out? Carnal blessings. Temporal blessings. Carnal wisdom. Carnal wisdom. Thinking it was the best thing
to do, to go to Moab. She went out full. She came home
empty. Emptied of that carnal, those
carnal blessings. Empty of all that temporal good
she had. She came home empty. But you
got to be emptied before you can be filled. I think it's interesting
that she was full and she left the house of bread. When God
emptied her, he brought her back to the house of bread. You've
got to be emptied for the Lord to make you to know the love
of Christ which passeth all knowledge that you might be filled with
all the fullness of God. You've got to be emptied. Who
did this for Naomi? Who did all this? All of this
was the work of the Lord blessing Naomi. We just sang, teach me
thy way, O Lord. Break every tender tie. All these
things we sang. That's what the Lord was doing
for Naomi. She was a chosen child of God our Father. She was somebody
Christ had entered covenant to redeem and bring to the Father
righteous and holy. She was one who had already been
regenerated in her heart and given faith when as yet she still
was at Bethlehem, Judah, before she ever left. The Lord had done
this for her. She's a regenerated child of God. And this is what
the Scripture says. Look to your right, just a few
pages to 1 Samuel chapter 2 and look at verse 9. This is the Lord's word, He will
keep the feet of His saints, and the wicked shall be silent
in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. Now if we judged by providence, and we judged by Naomi leaving
the house of bread, and going down to this cursed land of Moab,
we might judge that she was one of the wicked. But she's not. She's a child
of God, loved of God from eternity. She didn't come home alone either.
She didn't come home alone either. She came home with a daughter-in-law
named Ruth, a Moabitess. This was one of God's elect children.
God's elect children. The Lord ruled everything that
took place in Naomi's life. overruled everything, overruled
all providence, so that she goes to Moab, her son meets Ruth,
and they get married, and the Lord used Naomi to teach Ruth
the gospel, and he saved her. She was an elect child. This
had to take place because he's going to call that elect to himself.
So the Lord overruled the unbelief and the sin and the error of
judgment that took place here to go to Moab. In the first place,
the Lord ruled it all because He's bringing one of His elect
child to Him. And He did that. He taught her
the gospel and by God's grace, she was steadfastly minded to
stay with Naomi and worship the Lord. Now, her Redeemer, Our
Redeemer, God our Savior, worked it all. He worked this to bring
them to know Him more and more. He had revealed Himself to Naomi. She knew Him. He revealed Himself
to Ruth. She believed Him. But the Lord
is going to reveal Himself to them more and more. And everything
He worked in this whole affair was to teach them His faithfulness,
who He is, more and more. their kinsmen Redeemer to teach
you more and more of Him. Everything we're going to behold
here pictures Christ Jesus, our kinsmen Redeemer. And here's
what we need to remember. Everything we're going to see
here about Christ, Christ was this already to Naomi and Ruth
before Naomi ever went down into Moab. And before Ruth ever even
was called to the Lord and knew Him. Everything we're going to
see about Christ, He already was for Naomi and Ruth from the
foundation of the world. And so it is for all His people.
And this is why He wouldn't allow Naomi to perish. This is why
He wouldn't allow Ruth to go on in unbelief down there in
Moab. This is why He did everything He did to remove every obstacle
to bring them back to the house of bread. Now, let's look at
this. First of all, we see the Redeemer
and His work for His people. Now, this book right here is
not about Naomi and Ruth. They are not the focus of this
book. This book is all about Christ, our kinsman Redeemer.
Our Kinsman Redeemer. Verse 1, Ruth 2, 1. He's pictured
in this man named Boaz. It says, And Naomi had a kinsman
of her husband, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech,
and his name was Boaz. It means strength. Boaz typifies
the Lord Jesus Christ, our Kinsman Redeemer. In his law, when God
gave the law, he gave an illustration, a picture, a type of our Lord
Jesus, the Redeemer. And here's what God gave in the
law. He said after that a man had
sold himself in debt. He's just over his eyeballs in
debt. And he sold himself as a servant
to have to try to work as a servant because he's indebted. So he's
in bondage. And after he sold himself, God
said he can be redeemed again. One of his brethren may redeem
him. Either his uncle or his uncle's
son may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his
family may redeem him. And if he's able, he can redeem
himself, God said. He wouldn't be there in bondage
if he could. But the Lord provided in Leviticus
25 there, 48 through 50, He provided a kinsman redeemer for the man
that sold himself into debt. Now the one who's fallen into
poverty and bondage, he's all God's elect. We fell into poverty
and sin and bondage when we sinned in Adam and became guilty before
God. We fell into the bankrupt of
all righteousness, bankrupt of all ability, unable, incapable,
with nothing of which to pay to redeem ourselves from our
debtor, which is the law of God. The holy, just, good law of God. We had no way to redeem ourselves
from the curse and condemnation of the law, nor from the bondage
of our sin nature. And as we see with Naomi, even
after faith is given, we still need our Redeemer so often to
deliver us. To deliver us, just like He did
Naomi and Ruth. So the Redeemer now, what about
this Redeemer? Well, there's three requirements
for a Redeemer. Number one, He had to be near
Ken. That's the first thing, He had
to be near Ken. The second thing is, He had to be able to redeem. And the third thing is he had
to be willing to redeem. He had to be near of kin, he
had to be able, and he had to be willing. Boaz was near kin. This was the near kin of Elimelech,
Naomi's husband who had died. So he's near of kin. Now the
Lord Jesus Christ is called in scripture the firstborn among
many brethren. He's the firstborn son among
many brethren. He's the near kinsman. In fact,
before you and I ever knew Him to be the near kinsman, before
we ever knew our own selves to be a child of God, Christ was
the near kinsman of all His people. Remember Paul said in Galatians,
because you are sons, there you are dead in your sin, but because
you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
heart so that you call on Him as Father. Because you are son. So we had a kinsman redeemer
before we ever knew we had a kinsman redeemer. Before we knew we needed
a redeemer. We had a kinsman redeemer. So
he was near kin and then Boaz was able to redeem. He's a man
of great wealth. A man of great wealth. His name
means strength. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a man
of great wealth. He's the God-man. He's both God
and man. All God and all man. He's of
great wealth. Everything belongs to Him. But
as the God-man, He took flesh and He walked in this earth spotless,
without sin, holy, so that He's fit to go to the cross in place
of His people. He is a wealthy man and He's
a strong man. He prayed to the Father, and
he said, Father, Thou hast given me power over all flesh, that
I might give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given me.
That's who Christ is, the kinsman redeemer. Near of kin, he's all
powerful, able to redeem, and Boaz was willing to redeem. He
fell in love with Ruth. He fell in love with Ruth, and
he was willing, it didn't matter what it cost him, he was willing
to purchase her. by her out of debt, by her to
himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ was willing.
He willingly entered covenant with the Father. He willingly
came down to take flesh. He willingly walked among these
sinners in this life. He willingly went to that cross
and laid down his life for his people. He is a willing Redeemer. A willing Redeemer. Now, why
would Christ be so willing? Ruth, we're going to see here,
Boaz fell in love with Ruth. Why was Christ so willing? Well,
one, he's willing to glorify the Father who he loved, but
two, the joy that was set before him was redeeming all his elect
church, his bride, that he might marry us to himself. That was
the joy. And that was the joy set before
Boaz here, as we'll see. Now, but why, here's the second
thing, why must we be redeemed by Christ? And we must. It's
a must. Why must we be redeemed by Christ? There's three kinds of redemption.
There's redemption at the cross, there's redemption from our sin
nature when he brings us out of bondage in the new birth,
and there's going to be redemption when he takes us out of this
world into his glory. The full redemption of our body.
And Christ is the Redeemer. He's the only Redeemer. Why do
we need a Redeemer? Well, we see it in that there
was one of nearer kin than Boaz, one nearer kin than Boaz who
had first claim on his right to redeem. Now look over at Ruth
3 and look at verse 12. Ruth 3 and verse 12. Boaz said to Ruth, Now it is
true that I am thy near kinsman, howbeit there is a kinsman nearer
than I. This nearer kinsman represents
the law of God. That's who he represents, the
law of God. And here's why. The law had first
claim on all God's elect. We broke the law. We broke it. We broke it. And the law demands
death. And we could not pay what we
owed. The law had to be honored because
God's holy. Now, Christ had to uphold God's
law. He had to. It's a must. He had
to uphold the law that He might lawfully redeem us and give us
all the blessings of God's grace and mercy. God couldn't just
give you His blessings of grace and mercy. That law's got to
be dealt with. And the whole point of that is
to teach us God is righteous. And in the light of His righteousness,
you know what we learn? We are by nature unrighteous. And the more you see Him righteous,
and what that means, how strictly righteous He is, the more we'll
trust Christ, the less we'll trust ourselves. So Christ alone must work this
work in order for God to be holy, but also for God to get all the
glory. Scripture said in Isaiah 42 21, the Lord is well pleased
for His righteousness sake. Speaking of Christ, He will magnify
the law and make it honorable. The Lord never looked to His
people, He always looked to Christ. And he said that, Isaiah 42.
He will magnify the law and make it honorable. So Boaz, here's
the picture. Boaz goes to the place of judgment
where judgment was settled in the cities. That's where he went.
He went to the gate. Look here in Ruth 4 verse 1. Then went Boaz up to the gate. This gate was the public entrance. It's the place where judgment
was settled. This is where judgment was settled.
Matters of the law were settled. And if there was somebody they
were going to execute, that's where God said to execute them,
at the gate, before everybody. So that's where they would execute
them. The law would be poured out on them in the ultimate degree,
right there at the gate. And Boaz, when he gets there,
he calls this near kinsman and he calls, there's ten judges
there, and they represent the law. This nearer kinsman had
first right on Naomi and these ten judges represent the whole
law. And the nearer kinsman was willing to buy Naomi. When he
heard what Boaz said about redeeming, he was willing to buy Naomi,
buy the whole estate. But there was a stipulation.
Look down at Ruth 4 or 5. It said, then said Boaz, what
day thou buys the field, what day you buy the estate, all the
land that belongs to Naomi, thou must buy also of Ruth the Moabitess,
this Gentile woman, the wife of the dead. She's already been
the wife of somebody. You're going to have to buy her
too. And you have to raise up the name of the dead upon his
inheritance. You're going to have to raise
up some children. Whoever redeemed Naomi and her
estate must marry Ruth and must raise up children. But this Nero Kinsman, he would
not do that and he could not do that without marring his inheritance. Look here in verse 6, And the
kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar my
own inheritance. Redeem thou my right to thyself,
for I cannot redeem it. Now here's what you're going
to learn from this. The law could not redeem God's select Jews,
and it certainly could not redeem God's select Gentiles. Here you
have a Naomi who's a Jew and you got Ruth who's a Gentile.
This man was willing to redeem Naomi and her estate, but he
wasn't willing to redeem Ruth. And he certainly wasn't willing
to take her to wife and raise up children to her. The law could
not redeem God's elect, Jew or Gentile. It's not by the works
of the law that were justified. And here's the other thing, this
man would not produce fruit in Ruth. He wouldn't produce children.
The law couldn't produce fruit in us either. The law couldn't justify us,
couldn't save us, and the law couldn't produce fruit in us
either. Neither one by the law. The law can only declare us guilty. Guilty. The law can only execute
justice upon us. you know Galatians chapter 3
verse 21, he said, is the law then against the promises of
God? If the law can't help us, is
it against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law which could have given life, verily righteousness should
have been by the law. Always get, when he talks about
giving life, he connects righteousness with it. Because if you are righteous,
you have eternal life. You are alive if you're righteous. If you're not righteous, you're
not alive. Sin's death. Righteousness is life. But if
this life could have been given by the law, then it would have
come by the law. But listen, but the scripture
hath concluded all under sin, all under sin, that the promise,
it's God's promise, by faith of Jesus Christ, by His faithful
doing, by Him being the Redeemer, by Him fulfilling the law, might
be given to them that believe, that trust Him, that rest in
Him, that believe Him. But what the law could not do,
Christ our King and Redeemer can do, and He did do. What does
the scripture say? By one man's obedience, many
shall be made righteous. By one man's obedience, one man's
obedience, He made His people righteous. Boaz went up to that
gate to settle this matter. Our Lord Jesus Christ went to
Calvary's cross. There's what the gate picture
is. He goes to Calvary's cross to settle judgment for all His
people. for all His people. Now here,
let me stop a minute. I don't want to lose you from
where I started. When you're troubled and you're doubting
and you're looking this way and that way into this and that other
thing and you just can't get any peace, I hope you don't get
any looking in those places. Look to Calvary Scrolls and remember
what Christ has accomplished for His people. But I just don't
feel, it ain't about what you feel. It ain't. When you was head over heels
in love with your false God and felt all good inside that you
was righteous, was you righteous? It didn't matter that you felt
that way, you wasn't. Well, it don't matter if you
don't feel that way. Your righteousness is Christ. Boaz went up there and settled
judgment. Christ went to the cross and
He settled judgment for His people. He took the place of His people
and bore our sin and bore the wrath of God in place of His
people and settled judgment. We died in Christ. We died in
Him. He settled. He settled. And doing so, he's the justifier
of his people. He declared God just, and he's
the justifier of his people. So now God is just to be merciful
to his people. He had made him sin for us who
knew no sin. What up? You know why that's
so amazing? He knew no sin, and he didn't
have to be made sin. He did it willingly. That's the
love he had for his people. He did it willingly. That we
might be made, made, made the righteousness of God in him. And that's what he accomplished.
That's what he accomplished. He did it to declare the righteousness
of God. That God might be just and the
justifier of them that believe. That's what this gospel is all
about. That's what Christ coming into the world is all about.
To declare the righteousness of God. How He had to kill you
that believe in order to be just. And He did it. And He's just.
To be nothing but merciful to you all your days. Because He satisfied His justice.
You can't get more dead than dead. You can't get more justified
than justified. You can't get more perfected
than perfected. That's what Christ accomplished.
That's what he accomplished. He said, there's no God else
beside me. a just God and a Savior, there
is none beside me." And every time men try to act like they
got a righteousness they've worked out or something they've done
to make themselves righteous, they're saying, that's not true,
I'm God. There is no God but God our Savior
and the glory belongs to Him. He alone justified His people,
made us the righteousness of God. There was a joy set before
Christ. And just like there was Boaz,
having fulfilled the law, he marries his bride, his church,
and he produces children. Look down at verse 10, Ruth 4
verse 10. It says, Moabarutha, Boaz declared
here, after he had said this and settled this case, he said,
Moabarutha Moabitis, the wife of Malon, have I purchased to
be my wife. He's declaring this before all.
I have purchased her to be my wife, to raise up the name of
the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be
not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place.
Ye are witnesses this day." And all the people that were in the
gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. Christ purchased
all God's elect. He bought us with His own blood.
And because He fulfilled the law in perfection, our Lord comes
and He takes His bride to Himself and makes us His. And now here's
the thing, just like all these witnesses, He declared this before
them and all these witnesses said, yes, He did this. Boaz accomplished this. Well,
brethren, this is what the Scripture says. Now the righteousness of
God without the law, without you doing a thing, now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness which
is by the faith of Christ. It's his righteousness that is
imputed to you who believe, and it's his righteousness that's
upon you that believe, clothing you completely before God. That's
so. That's so. And so Boaz took Ruth. Why do we, let me ask you, why
do you preach Christ from the text like this? Why do you preach
Christ every time you go through the law? Why do you preach Christ
and all the prophets? Why? Because the law and the
prophets bear witness of Christ. This whole book bears witness
of Christ. That's the purpose. That's the purpose. So Boaz took
Ruth to be his lawful bride and he produced some children. Now
listen, this is what Romans 7 verse 4 says, Wherefore my brethren,
you that believe, now here's what you think on. You think
on the works of the Lord. Here's what you think on when
you're troubled. Remember this, Wherefore my brethren, You that
believe, you also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ. No more condemnation. No more
condemnation. That you should be married to
another, even to him who's raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God. And we're living in a crazy time.
I was about to say, have you ever seen a woman produce a child
by herself? But we're living in a crazy time. But ordinarily, that can't happen.
And you and I can't produce fruit of ourselves. We've never produced
one fruit. We're married to Christ that
the fruit might be produced by Christ. The fruits of righteousness
which are by Christ Jesus. By Christ Jesus. Now, knowing
that, if you want to start inspecting the fruit in your brethren, and
you want to inspect Christ's work and be critical of it, you
go right ahead. I'm going to leave that to him. I'm going to leave that to your
husband. Now, think back to the beginning. We've been talking about the
works that we need to focus on. Now, think back to the beginning.
From the beginning, Naomi and Ruth belonged to Christ, their
Redeemer. They had been given faith in
the Lord, and they were being taught Christ more and more.
And it was Christ who was working everything that took place in
their life. God, our Savior, our kinsman,
Redeemer, was working everything that took place in their life.
Where do you think that famine came from in the first place?
He sent it. The clouds are his chariot. He
can withhold the rain. He can make the crops stop producing. It's all of him. He sent the
famine. Couldn't he have just kept Elimelech
from deciding, I need to move my family to a God-forsaken land
and let them dwell amongst a bunch of Moabitess heathens? Couldn't
God have turned him from that? He let him go. Let him go. and he took off down there with
his whole family. It was an error in judgment to
judge by providence and go to Moab rather than believe God
that he'd provide bread in Bethlehem. That was God's promise. I will
provide you bread in Bethlehem. We can make a lot of justifications
for going to Moab and turning out of the way and all this other,
but all it is when it comes down to it is not believing the word
of the Lord. That's all it is. That's so of
you. That's so of you. That's so of
you. That's so of me. That's all it is. Just flat out
unbelief. Flat out unbelief. And we're
prone, oh, we're prone to judge by providence. To judge by providence. And that's the essence of a health
and wealth prosperity gospel. A false gospel is to judge by
providence. You do this, that, this, and
the other, and God will bless you. And so if you're not doing
this, that, and the other, you don't have enough faith. You
don't have enough this or that or the other. There's a whole
lot of believers in this book that suffered, that was obeying
the will of the God. As far as I can tell, Job wasn't
doing a thing, except worshiping the Lord. But our kinsman redeemer was
overruling everything that took place. Because he was going to
bring his elect Ruth to hear the gospel and bring her to faith.
If Naomi had never gone down there, that wouldn't have happened.
Don't make going down there right. It was wrong. But if she hadn't
went down there, she would have never heard the gospel. And that's
the power and sovereignty of God to overrule our sin and our
ignorance. to call out his people and save
his people. And he was going to empty Naomi
of all her carnal fullness. She had some security. She's got to be shown that her
husband is Christ. She's got to be shown that her
brethren are not them two boys but the brethren God's provided. She got to be finding all her
fullness in Christ. Break every tender tie if it's
going to separate me from Christ. And that's what she's got to
be shown, and that's what the Lord was doing. Child of God,
you believe Christ, believe Him, trust Christ, trust His Word,
whatever He said, or else believe Him for His work's sake. Has
He not worked this in you? Has He not worked these things
for you? Naomi said, I went out full and the Lord brought me
home again empty. We have to be empty. We have
to be empty. Emptied of all our carnal refuge,
emptied of our self-righteousness, emptied of our self-holiness,
emptied of our self-made ways, emptied of our sins and rebellion
and everything that would separate us from God. We have to be brought
not to trust ourselves. That's what it is to be empty.
and to be filled with the fullness of God so that whatever He is
pleased to do, I am trusting Him, trusting Him. And the Lord
Jesus is teaching us, He is teaching us not to glean anywhere else
but in His field. That is what He is teaching us.
Look back up there at Ruth 2 verse 8. I'm in a hurry. Boaz said to Ruth, Hearest thou
not, my daughter, go not glean in another field, neither go
from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens. Let thine eyes
be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them.
Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch
thee? And when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink
of that which the young men have drawn. Brethren, this word right
here is the field we're to glean in. Don't go off social media
to try to get advice. Get it right here. Get good counsel
right here. And this gospel we're preaching,
assembling with God's people, this is how the means he's going
to use to bless his people. This is the field. This is the
field. Don't forsake it. Don't leave. Don't forsake assembling with
your people, with the brethren, and come and hear this gospel. No matter how tired you are,
no matter how weary you are, come hear this gospel, because
it just might be that's the night God solves your problems. And
this is how he's going to do it. This is how he's going to
do it. And leave not the house of bread for the carnal webs
of Moab. Believe the Lord. Abide in Christ
by faith. Walk by faith. Abide with his
people in his house, even when carnal sight makes it appear
more reasonable to do otherwise. That's what it appeared to them.
It appeared more reasonable to go to Moab. Even when your carnal
sight says this is the most unreasonable thing to trust the Lord in, trust
Him anyway. Trust Him anyway. Don't judge by providence. That's
feeble sense. Judge by the word of the Lord.
He said, I'll give you bread in Bethlehem. He said, I won't
forsake my people. I'll preserve them. I'll keep
them. It won't be by strength or might, it will be by my power,
saith the Lord. Now, let me end with this. So
the Lord emptied Naomi, He emptied Ruth, but He filled them. He
filled them. And all this that He worked,
now look back at Ruth 4, verse 14. And the women said to Naomi,
Blessed be the Lord which hath not left thee this day without
a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel, There's
the reason Christ is working what he's working in his people,
that his name might be famous in Israel, not mine and yours,
his. Now watch this, and he shall
be unto thee a restorer of thy life and a nourisher of thine
old age, for thy daughter-in-law which loveth thee, which is better
to thee than seven sons, hath borne him. They probably really
did think this was the Messiah. That's what they're saying. Here's
your Redeemer. And all the women in Israel were
looking for Christ to be born at any time, and they thought
this was Him. But the Spirit of God put that
in their mouth because here's the truth of it. Christ came
right through them. Ruth is the great, great, great,
great, great, great grandmother of our Lord according to the
flesh. This Moabite named Ruth. There's only two women in the
genealogy, a harlot and a Moabite woman. It wasn't even of Israel. He associates with sinners, doesn't
he? He saves sinners. Watch this. And Naomi took the
child and she laid it in her bosom and she became nurse to
it. She got a grandchild. He produced
fruit, Boaz did, and Ruth. And she's got this child now
in her arms. Now watch. And the women, her
neighbors, gave it a name saying there's a son born to Naomi and
they called his name Obed. He's the father of Jesse, the
father of David, and the reason that genealogy is given is It
goes right to Christ. Brethren, Christ is the end for
every bitter suffering we have to go through. He's the end. That's where God's bringing you.
To know Him better, to believe Him more, to trust yourself less,
to look nowhere but to Him. So believe Him. Believe Him. This is the fruit He produces
when He does this. Faith in Him. And love for your
brethren. And He makes you follow Him.
He makes you glean in His field. He makes you obey Him and stay
nearer to Him when you before didn't even know you wasn't. more and more to know him so
that Christ's name might be famous. And when he does this, they were
glorifying the Lord. They said, blessed be the name
of the Lord. And that's the end purpose. We're
going to glorify him whose name is famous. That's it. That's it. That's why he redeemed
his people. That's what he teaches the first
hour of faith. And the lesson don't change. It just keeps on. Same lesson. Amen.