Go ahead and turn with me again
tonight to Ruth chapter 1. Begin reading in verse 19. Ruth chapter 1 verse 19. till 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? And she said unto them, Call
me not Naomi, call me Myra, 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 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 I know that we say we do,
but do we really know and believe that all things, all things,
I reiterate that, not just some things, not just most things,
but all things work together for us who love the Lord, who
are they called according to His purpose. Do we really believe
that in trials and in troubles and in tribulations, times that
we call terrible, that it's really for our good? Well, if you're
one of God's sheep, if you're one of God's elect, I can assure
you that it is. To take it a step further, do
we really believe that it is God who's working all these things
together for our good? It's easy to say and believe
that when everything's going well. We say that often. But
it's a whole different matter altogether when things are not. And we've all been faced with
times like that. And there are many in this world
think that they have God figured out. Yeah, they couldn't be further
from the truth. And you say, well, how so? Well,
who can figure God out? Oh, the depths of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are
His judgments and His ways past finding out. For who hath known
the mind of the Lord or who hath been His counselor? for who at
first given to him. and it shall be recompensed unto
him again. For of him and through him and
to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. Now that's the God of the Bible
and that's the God with whom we have to do. That is the God
whom we'll have to stand before one day and give an account of
the things done in this body. A sovereign God, an omnipotent
God, a God who does what he wills in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, the God whom no man can stay
his hand or question him as to what he does." These things are
true in every sense of the word, especially true in the matter
of salvation. Understanding how God, by His
foreknowledge, by His predestination and His election, His calling
of the Gentiles and His rejection of the Jews, and the saving of
some and the passing by of others, Him loving some and Him hating
others. God Almighty is past finding
out. Who's capable of knowing God's
mind? Who's capable of knowing God's
thought? Who's ever taught or counseled God? Who's ever given
anything to Him first? Who can recompense? That word
means make amends or compensate or repay or reward God. When we have absolutely nothing
to give God that's worthy of acceptance, His acceptance. Because
it's got to be perfect to be accepted. We know that. And we've
never done anything perfect. We've never done anything good.
There's none that do it good. No, not one. God's wisdom, God's
knowledge, God's judgments are unsearchable. And the things
of creation, the things of nature, the things of providence, he
being the maker and the first cause of everything can't be
understood by mortal men and women, but he must be believed. Christ, the preserver, the supporter,
the sustainer of all things. He who causes all things to spring
forth by His sovereign will and purpose and for the glory of
His grace. According to His will and purpose,
He can't be figured out. Naomi, I said all that to say
this, Naomi, excuse me, Naomi was not a victim of circumstance. She wasn't a recipient of the
dark hand of fate. She was not a casualty of misfortune
and bad luck. She was the object of divine
love, mercy, and grace. We say, well, Brother David,
how can that be? She lost her husband. She lost
her two sons. She was left without nothing.
I'm telling you, God was behind it all. Yes, sir. All of it. Her trouble was sovereignly purposed
by an almighty God who brought her to an expected end. Yes,
sir. Concerning all His chosen people, God said, for I know
the thoughts that I think toward you, said the Lord, thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. What is our expected end? Everything's
gonna be good. It's gonna be good. He's working
all things together for our good. Then shall you call upon me and
you shall go and pray unto me and I'll hearken unto you. And
you shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me
with all your heart. Jeremiah 29, 11 through 13. Now I want you to get the picture
here. Here we have two women. entering into Bethlehem. I want
you to try to imagine them, picture them entering the gate of the
city as they walk down Main Street. They're dirty from their long
trip. Their dresses are ragged and
torn. They're famished. They look like
beggars. Do you know why? Because that's
what they were. That's what God had reduced them
to, beggars. That's the place where God brings
all his people. The place of a mercy beggar. Pretty quickly, a crowd gathers,
and one in the crowd of people asks, is that Naomi? Is this Naomi? Could 10 years
have done this to her? I haven't seen her for 10 years,
is that her? You know, sin changes you and
I so drastically that we're unrecognizable. It doesn't take long for one
dead to start looking bad and one looking different. The question
asked here, is this Naomi? Now that question doesn't suggest
that they didn't know that this was Naomi, but rather the question, suggest that they were actually
asking, can this be Naomi? Can this be Naomi? In Naomi,
we see a picture of the whole human race in Adam. You know,
Adam's story was Naomi's story, and Naomi's story is our story.
Verse 20 again, and she said unto them, and they said, is
this Naomi? She said, call me not Naomi.
If you have a margin of Bible, you notice that name means pleasant. Call me Myra, bitter. Call me bitter. For the Almighty
hath dealt very bitterly with me. Who dealt with her bitterly?
The Almighty. What did this to Naomi? Sin. Who did this to Naomi? God Almighty. Naomi here is not murmuring against
the Lord. She's not saying, I'm bitter
because I've been through all this. She's acknowledging the
hand of the Lord in the trouble that came her way. She said, in verse 21, her testimony
is, well in 20, the Lord hath dealt very bitterly with me.
And in 21, she said, I went out full. And she went out of Bethlehem,
Judah, having full confidence in the world, providing for her
what she needed. That's the reason they went to
Moab. They were confident they could make a go of it on their
own because of the famine in Bethlehem. How did the Lord bring her back
home again? She credits the Lord for it. He brought her back empty. He brought her back needy. He
brought her back hungry. The Lord had dealt very bitterly
with her. Why, he took her husband, he
took her two sons. So she says in the last part
of verse 21, the Almighty hath afflicted me. The Almighty did. The Lord did
all these things. God's testimony of Himself is
just that. I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. The Lord did all these things
to Naomi and He did them to bless her. What? He did them to comfort her. He
did them to feed her. He did them to fill her and to
redeem her. The Almighty had done all these
things. Now, there are people that'll
take opposition with you on that. Oh, the Lord's too good to do
that. No, the Lord's too holy not to. She said, I went out full, I,
I. We're full of ourselves. I went
out full. She acknowledges that it was
her doing. She had no one to blame but herself.
She said, the Lord had brought me home again empty. She had no one to thank but God.
And she had no one to blame but herself. It's the same with us. The Lord stripped her of the
world and its so-called blessings. There are no blessings in this
world. We might think they're blessings, but they're not. She left the house of bread full,
and God returned her to the house of bread empty. We're responsible
for our sin, and God is responsible for our redemption. You see,
dear sinner, in order to know the love of Christ, we've got
to be emptied. Paul wrote in Ephesians 3.19
that we might be filled with the fullness of God. Make me
empty then. Make me empty. If I be filled
with the fullness of God, what a blessing it is to be made empty. Has the Lord emptied you? He'll keep the feet of His saints,
and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by strength
shall no man prevail." We have no strength. We're without strength.
But thank God that when we were yet without strength, Christ
died for the ungodly. We're dead. We can't save ourselves. We cannot keep ourselves. What's
our hope? That God save us and keep us. When Adam ate the fruit in the
garden, he expected to profit by it. He wouldn't have done
it if he didn't. The woman had been tempted by
Satan, saying, well, you shall not surely die. You'll be as
God. You'll know good from evil. That sounded good. He went out full, yet all he
gained was loss. He was now full of sin. The pleasant,
sweet world that he once enjoyed was turned to thorns and briars.
He gained the bitterness of conscience and the knowledge of good and
evil. All the good that he had once possessed was now corrupted
with the evil of sin. Call him no more Adam. Call him
sinner. Naomi is saying, this was the
fruit of my doing. And the Almighty dealt bitterly
with her. The Almighty afflicted her. The
Almighty was the first cause of this. But understand this,
Naomi was a child of God. When was she made so? When was
she made a child of God? Was it when she turned home hungry? Was it when Boaz, picturing Christ,
redeemed her? No. From the foundation of the
world. In a time before time that we
call eternity. Was her returning home the cause
and the reason for her redemption? No. It was the result of her
redemption. She was foreknown of God. She
was predestinated by God. She was elected of God. And then
she was called and justified in time. It's the same with us. There was a time when I lived
in this world without God, without Christ, without hope, the Scripture
says. And one day God crossed my path
with the Gospel, with a Gospel preacher, and I heard, and God
called me, and God justified me, He saved me by His grace. redeemed and saved before time
ever was. But in the course of time, God
called me and he saved me. And beloved, one day soon, all
who trust in Christ are going to be glorified and forever be
face to face with Christ who loved us and gave himself for
us. We hear it all the time. It's
so true that we were saved, we are saved, and we're being saved.
And those who endure to the end shall be saved. And the good
news about that is, is that our enduring to the end is not by
any doing of our own, but we're kept by the power of God. We
endure to the end because having loved His own until the end.
Having loved His own, He loved them until the end. And what a blessing here we see
that Naomi didn't come alone. Ruth the Moabite returned with
her. The Lord in His sovereign purpose
and will sent Naomi to Moab to fetch one of His chosen elect.
As wrong as it was for Elimelech and Naomi with their two sons
to leave Bethlehem, Judah, for which they were responsible,
Yet the Almighty Lord and God of heaven and earth overruled
everything in Naomi's life. Everything. He does so in ours
too. Those that love Him, trust Him,
and believe in Him. Those that He saved by His grace.
The one that He called and justified, that He knew before time ever
was. You know, it was no mistake that her son met Ruth. No mistake. It was not chance that her son
married Ruth. It was not misfortune that her
son died. It was not bad luck that she
lost her husband and both sons and is left with nothing. She
lost everything. It was the overruling power and
purpose of God. And it was by the divine love,
mercy, and grace of God. As we mentioned last study in
the purpose of God, Naomi taught Ruth the gospel. And Ruth believed
it. Was it because Naomi was so persuasive? No. It was because God had chosen
her before the foundation of the world too. She said, your
God's my God. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to her. Naomi didn't reveal it to her. Who did? God did. She said, your people are my
people. Friends, we know that we've passed from death to life.
How? By our love for the brethren.
She said, your people are my people. I love you, I love your
people. I hope that none of you ladies
ever get discouraged to hold back or restrain from sharing
the gospel with others. It could be the very means that
God uses to save them who believe. The Lord overruled this mistake
of Naomi and her husband, and he did so to bring one of his
sheep into the fold. I have no doubt that the Lord
used Timothy's grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice, to teach
him the gospel. Matter of fact, that's pretty
well told to us in 2 Timothy 1, verse 5. There's no doubt
that the Lord used Miriam, Moses' sister. There's no doubt that
He used Deborah, one of the judges. No doubt that He used Naomi,
and even Rahab the harlot. Rahab was Boaz's mother. Boaz was a God-fearing man. You know the Lord used her. Just as He, in the New Testament,
used Mary, and Anna, and Martha, and Mary, and Mary Magdalene,
and Phoebe, and Priscilla, and Lydia in New Testament times. All these things that we find
in the book of Ruth must take place. God had willed and purposed
to fetch Ruth out of Moab and bring her to Christ, who is the
house of bread. And now we see her coming there. How often God overrules our ignorance
and our disobedience and our unbelief and causes it to work
for our good. I tell you, we'd be doomed if
he didn't. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. God. Joseph told his brothers
in Genesis 50 verse 20 when he revealed himself to them, he
said, but as for you, you thought evil against me. You hated me. You hated me without a cause.
You threw me in that pit and left me to die. But God meant
it unto good. And to bring to pass as it is
this day to save much people alive. God's in the saving of
sinner business. Remember, that God sovereignly uses men
and women's natural wickedness to accomplish His will and it's
all designed to save His people from their sin. Remember the
former things of old. For I am God and there is none
else. I am God and there's none like me. God declares the end
from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not
yet done. God says my counsel shall stand. And I will do all
my pleasure. God can call a ravenous bird
from the east. God can cause a man to execute
his counsel from a far country. No big thing for God. He can do anything. He can do
everything. And God says of Himself, yea,
have I spoken it? I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it. I will also do it. None of us
can say that. We have good intentions. I always heard good intentions
pave the road to hell. That's about the truth. Good
intentions don't do anything for anybody. But God can do anything and God
can do everything. And that's what makes him God.
And a God that's any less than that is no God at all. Redemption
is why he wouldn't let Naomi perish, and redemption is why
he wouldn't allow Ruth to continue in unbelief. He bringing Ruth
out in Moab, and he bringing her to the house of bread, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He removed every obstacle to
bring these two women back to the house of bread, and he did
so at harvest time. Did you notice that in the last
verse there? They came to Bethlehem in the
beginning of barley harvest. That's when all the elect of
God returned. The time of the barley harvest
was the time of the feast of the first fruits. And how beautifully
this barley harvest points to the work of Christ and the salvation
of His people. You see, the barley was the first
grain harvested, and it was not considered the best grain for
making bread anyway. It was often used to feed the
beast, the animals. The bread made from this grain
was flatbread. It was considered of no great
value. by the world, yet it was often
the only sustenance that there was for the poor. Barley wheat
pictures Christ as he's perceived by the world of little or no
value. They cannot see Christ's value,
and neither do we until God revealed it to us. The world sees Christ to be the
bread of the poor and the ignorant. but to the poor, the wretched,
the outcast, those who were once ignorant of God's righteousness
and went about to establish their own, those that are dying of
hunger, this flat bread, barley bread, is the feast of kings. Christ is the bread of heaven
who feeds His sheep until they want no more. They want nothing
else. They want more of Him. but they
don't want anything else but Him. He's enough. Christ is all sufficient. Nothing
more than He is needed. A barley harvest is the good
news to the poor in spirit. It tells them that the famine
has ended. There's bread in Jerusalem. There's bread in Bethlehem, Judah.
The elect don't come home in the time of plowing. They don't
come home in the time of sowing. They don't come home in the time
of planting. They come home at harvest time. That's when the bread is there. And Naomi came home because the
Lord brought her home. Her plan was to go out full,
but the Lord's purpose was to bring her home empty. And that's
what he did. The entire matter of Naomi and
Ruth's salvation from ruin to recovery was a divine, predestinated,
and appointed course. And you know who appointed it.
God's predestination and election doesn't shut the door of salvation
on anyone. I can't imagine people saying
that, and there's plenty that say it. Well, you can't preach
election and predestination. That shuts people out. Doesn't
shut any of God's people out. Matter of fact, it guarantees
the redemption of all whom Christ died for. Were there not handfuls of purpose
awaiting Ruth in the land of promise? For Naomi too. That's right. It was the Lord's
will that she went out full and the Lord brought her home again
empty. Notice that Ruth doesn't say in verse 21, I went out full,
but the Lord brought me home empty. She said, I went out full
and the Lord brought me home empty. The going out and the
coming back are both of the Lord. God doesn't have any backup plans. When Adam sinned in the garden,
God didn't have a backup plan. Salvation's of the Lord from
start to finish. It's of the Lord. If it's of
the Lord, it has to be. The Lord doesn't need our help
to save us. So, what can we learn from these
few verses? Well, I'll be brief. First, the world will never satisfy
the true believer. You'll never be satisfied in
and with this world. Not God's people. They may seem
to be full for time, but what advantage is it to gain the whole
world and lose your own soul? Like the prodigal son, God's
people come to their senses only because God causes them to. That prodigal, he was out there
eating a corn husk of pigs. He said, even servants in my
father's house have it better than I. I'll go home to my father. I'm gonna go home. I'm going
home empty. But I'm going home to my father. Because even his servants are
better off than I am. And I'll just throw myself upon
his mercy and grace and say, I'll be your servant, Lord. Much
better than, I'd do much better by being that than what I'm experiencing
now. Brought to our senses. Can only
be accomplished by divine revelation and a divine intervention. When the child of God's brought
home again, they're not gonna bring anything of the world with
them. Naked we came into the world,
naked we're gonna leave. The gate and the road to eternal
life is so narrow that there's not room for any baggage of our
own works and our own merit and our own value, our own worth. That's what Hannah said in 1
Samuel 2, verse five. She said, the bowels of the mighty
men are broken. Who broke them? God did. You're
not going to get to heaven by your righteousness, by your works. And they that stumbled are girded
with strength. That's something about God's
people. Those that are full of their own doing in the world
have hard themselves out for bread, she said. Those full of
the good things of this life have been stripped of all, and
will have to hire out themselves to labor for bread. And they that were hungry ceased. Ceased what? Ceased to hunger.
The hungry ceased from being hungry because God filled them
with the good things. All the people of God have a
large and sufficient supply of good things in Christ alone.
The barren, she said, void of life, shall born seven, meaning
God will give life in abundance to those who are in Christ. And
she that hath many children is waxed, excuse me, feeble. The
lost and unbelieving will be incapable of bearing more life,
and what they have will be stripped from them." See what Hannah was
saying in her prayer? She's saying salvation's of the
Lord. He's the one that gives life.
The Lord killeth and maketh alive. That's what she said. He bringeth
down to the grave and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and
maketh rich. Who does? The Lord does. He bringeth
low and lifteth up. The Lord raiseth up the poor
out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill
to set them among princes and to make them inherit. the throne of glory, for the
pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He has set the world
upon them." What's that mean? That means that God has the right
to kill and make alive. God has the right to bring down
and to bring up. The Lord's got the right to make
poor and make rich. The Lord has the right to bring
low and lifteth up. He's the Lord. He does what He
wills. All the time, everywhere. Amen. "'The Lord will keep the feet
of his saints, "'and the wicked shall be silent in darkness,
"'for by strength shall no man prevail. "'The Lord must first
deal very bitterly with us.'" You see that? You've experienced
that. The Lord dealt bitterly with
me. But it was for my good. His rod of correction always
corrects. He turns us from our way to Christ
who is the way. The Lord has to kill us before
he gives us life. The Lord must bring us down before
he lifts us up. The Lord must make us poor in
spirit before we become rich in grace. The Lord must bring us low into
the dunghill before he lifts us up and sets us among princes. There's no salvation but for
those who have great need. There's no bread of heaven but
for those whom He has made hungry. We cannot bring with us what
is not in us. No room, no room. That being
Christ in you, the hope of glory. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth
away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God
abideth for it." Christ is the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Him. God's going to empty us of self. Self-righteousness, self-holiness,
all self-made religion. I was talking to someone a while
back, and I forget what got brought up, but he said, Where's that
in the Bible? I said it's not in the Bible. It's self-made religion. That's all it is. If it's not
in the Bible, it's a doctrine of man, not a doctrine of God. God's going to bring His people
home Secondly, God gonna see to it
that our painful experiences be laid at the door of our own
disobedience and failures. You're not gonna blame it on
God. You're not gonna blame God for your sin. Nope. You're not gonna say the woman
thou gavest me. You're not going to be able to
say, the serpent that you put in the garden begal me. No, not
going to do it. Our recovery belongs entirely
of God. The Lord had brought me home
empty. What beauty is found in knowing
something about the sovereign providence of God. When we're made by God to see
the Lord's hand in our afflictions. We are by divine revelation made
to see God overriding our selfishness and our poor decisions. We make
poor decisions. You know you do, and I know I
do. But God makes our selfishness and our poor decisions, He overrides
them, and He makes them work together for our spiritual good. And He causes us to pray for
His will to be done, not ours. Now, I haven't always known this,
but by God's grace, I've learned that I don't want my will to
be done. Not my will. Knowing this, why would we pray
otherwise? Why would we pray for our will?
Our will, our decisions are influenced by our nature. Our will and desires
are in bondage to our sin. We don't know what's best for
us. Someone say, I know what's best for me. No, you don't. No,
you don't. We're so depraved that naturally
speaking, we don't want what's best for us. We're self-righteous and we're
self-destructive. We say it all the time, but this
is what it means to take sides with God against ourselves. Lord,
deliver me from me. Not my will, but Thine be done. Don't let me have my way. Sin will not keep us from Christ,
but our self-righteousness sure will. Naomi said, the Lord hath
testified against me. You see that? That word testified
means witnessed. Job said, thou renewest thy witnesses
against me. Thou increaseth thine indignation
upon me. Job wasn't talking to the devil
when he said that. He's talking to the Lord. All
sin is against God and God only. And God is justified when He
testifies against us. He's clear of any wrongdoing
when He judges us. That's what David said. Against
thee and thee only have I sinned. That thou mayest be justified
when you speak against us. Clear when you judge us. We're
shaping in iniquity. We're conceived in sin. We've
done evil. And like the prodigal, we've
sinned against heaven and in God's sight, we're not worthy
to be called his children. When Naomi left Bethlehem Judah
with her husband, they thought they could provide themselves
bread, but they couldn't. That's exactly what this religious
world today thinks. There was a famine, and Naomi
and her husband thought they could provide themselves with
what they needed in Moab, but they can't. They couldn't. We are in famine of bread today,
and men and women alike think that they can provide for themselves
what God requires of them. They can't. Can't do it. God alone saves. You can't serve
God and mammon. You can't serve two masters.
You will not share your love. God will not share your love
for Him with another. You cannot. You're unable. You
don't have the ability to serve two masters. One ceases to be
master if you do. If a master is everything, then
there's no room for anything else. He ceases to be your master when
you do. To every one of His elect, God's going to testify against
them, and God's going to send them to a preacher, a messenger,
to reveal that to them. And every believer's going to
understand that it was the Almighty who has afflicted them for their
good and His glory. And it's the same outcome for
every child of God. Look at verse 22 again. 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. There's no bread in Moab. There's
no bread in this world. Bread is given in the house of
bread, and Christ is the house of bread. Christ is the bread
from heaven. This is God's testimony against
His people and to His people. Our Lord said, for the bread
of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto
the world. He didn't come to save the world. He came to save
His people out of the world. That's who He calls home empty. Christ declared, I am the bread
of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that
believeth on me shall never thirst. Naomi spoke the truth about herself. And Naomi spoke the truth about
her God. And this is where God will bring
each one of His own to the end of themselves and to Himself. Salvations of the Lord. It's
always been and it always will be. The Almighty brought me home
empty and then filled me to the brim. He gave me a near kinsman
Redeemer, and He's my Boaz, whose name means strength." Christ
is my strength. When we were without strength
in due time, according to the time in time, Christ died for
the ungodly. God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And here's a faithful saying
that's worthy of our acceptance. Christ came into the world to
save sinners. And every believer will confess that they are the
cheap. One last verse of scripture,
chapter two, verse one. And Naomi had a kinsman of her
husband's, a mighty man of wealth. of the family of the Limelech,
and his name was Boaz." That's what this book is about. It's
not about Ruth. It's got her name on it because
she's the recipient. She's the object of God's mercy
and grace. But it's not about her. This
book that you hold in your lap, it's not about you. It's about
the God who brought you home empty and then filled you to
the brim. It's about the God of our strength,
our mighty Boaz.