Good morning. Take your Bibles and turn to
the book of Ruth. Ruth chapter 1. I want to cover
verses 7 through 18 with you this morning. Now, we were looking
at the first six verses last week and we see an allegory. We see a picture where the Lord
teaches us of man's sin and ruin and his fall and rebellion against
the true and living God. And Elimelech, who's the husband
of Naomi, Elimelech, like Adam, rebelled against God. And he
carried his wife and children into bondage, into ruin. He left Israel. And during the time of that providential
famine that the Lord had brought, he left Israel and he went down
to Moab. And it pictures Adam bringing
all of his posterity, all of mankind into sin and rebellion
against God. And Elimelech did this by living
in Moab with his wife and children. He separated himself from the
people of the Lord. And then we saw how a limeleck
died in unbelief. And it speaks of the children
that they had, of Milan and Chilean. And these two were the fruit
between Naomi and Elimelech. But we see how their fruit, it
didn't do anything good for Naomi. Those sons didn't rise up and
say, you know, mom, let's go back to Israel. Let's go back
and seek the Lord again. We've sinned. and being here,
let's go back home and be with the people of God and hear his
word. They didn't do that. And it's
a picture of our sin, showing how nothing we do, nothing we
bring forth of this flesh is fruit unto the praise and glory
of God. It's not righteous fruit. It
doesn't bring us near to our God. It doesn't please our God. And so they also sinned in taking
wives from themselves for themselves from Moab, and they too died
in rebellion against the Lord. And Naomi is left alone. But
the Lord was gracious to Naomi. The Lord was gracious to Naomi.
While she was yet living in Moab, while she was yet in bondage
to her sin and in unbelief and having done nothing good, God
graciously sent her the gospel. He sent her the word of God,
and he declared to her how that the Lord had visited his people
in giving them bread. And this is what the Lord does
for his people. In power and in grace, he's merciful
to his people who are undeserving, who are sinners. And in rebellion
against him, God is merciful to his people. And so he brings
that word, and he bears forth the fruit in her of the spirit,
whereby she hears the word. She receives the word. She believes
the word. And we see a picture of what
faith does in the believer, the gift of God, that gift of faith,
in that she arose. She arose with her daughters-in-law
that she might return from the country of Moab. based on that
report that she heard in the country of Moab while she was
yet in the wilderness, how that the Lord had visited his people
and giving them bread. And that's what faith does. Faith
rises and follows the Lord. Rises and follows the Lord. Today,
we're going to look at the picture that the Lord gives us here of
true faith. Faith that endures. Faith Endures
is the title of the message and so let's begin here where we
see that the Lord is showing us what he's unfolding here in
this text is that we see the expression of faith we see the
profession of faith that that people make that people that
people make in claiming, in declaring that they believe the Lord. And we have that expression of
faith in Naomi. We see what Naomi does, but what
about her two daughters-in-law? And that's the focus of this
passage here for us, of these two daughters-in-law, Orpah and
Ruth. So verse seven now, Ruth 1, verse
seven. Wherefore, Naomi went forth out
of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with
her. And they went on in the way to return unto the land of
Judah." Now here, these two daughters-in-law are following Naomi. They're following the faith of
Naomi at this point. But them following Naomi, that's
not a confession of faith. They haven't professed faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ here. And we have pictures of that.
We bring our children to services with us. We bring them to hear
the gospel. We bring them where the Lord
has brought us, where he's teaching us the gospel. And in like manner,
we bring our children to hear that gospel. And why do we do
that? Because faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10, 17. We know that this
is how the Lord reveals faith in his people. He brings them,
he causes them to hear the gospel, and many hear the gospel, but
he calls out his chosen elect children. He gives them an ear
of faith to hear what's being said, and they believe it. And
so that's why we bring our children to hear the gospel. But children
coming with their parents to hear the gospel, that's not the
same as coming to Christ. That's not looking to Christ
by faith. And there's a lot of people in
the churches, in the so-called churches, who come to services
and they equate that with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They
think that that is salvation, that that means that God is pleased
with them in their works. But the Lord shows his children
that our salvation is much more than
just doing religious services and religious works. We believe
Christ. We believe that Christ is our
Christ, that He's my Savior. because I'm the sinner. He's
shown, he shows his children that we are the sinners, that
we have offended holy God and we can't clean our hands. We're
the filthy sinners worthy of death and damnation and Christ
is the savior and he's the salvation. We need his blood. His blood
cleansing us from all sin. And so that's what the Lord does
for His people. He reveals faith in them that
looks to Christ as their Savior. We don't simply believe that
Christ is God and that He is the Savior. You know, the devils
believe the same thing. They know that Christ is God.
The devils know that Christ is the Savior. They know what He
did there on the cross was accomplish the salvation of His people.
But it's not for them. They believe it, and it means
nothing to them. And that's as far as most people
ever go. They understand. They realize,
oh, yep, that's Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He's the Savior
of men. And that's all they know. But
they don't ever see him as their Savior. They don't need him.
They don't need his salvation, his blood. They're not looking
to Him in that way. And so, believers know, if I
have not Christ, I shall perish in my sins. I have no hope with
God, except Christ wash me with His blood. Ruth 1, 8 and the
beginning of 9 says, Naomi said unto her daughters, her two daughters-in-law,
go, return, each to her mother's house, The Lord deal kindly with
you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant
you that ye may find rest each of you in the house of her husband. Is God really going to bless
these women in their idolatry if they go back to their mother's
house and live under the house of their husbands? Is God really
going to bless these two women in idolatry like that? Well,
we know the answer. No, he's not. So what is Naomi
doing? Why is she saying this to these
two young women? Why is she sending them back
to idolatry when they seem willing to go with her? We know that
Naomi is a godly woman. Naomi is a woman of faith, and
she's been recovered by her Lord, and now she's heading back to
Judah. That place where God is meeting
with his people and feeding them the bread of heaven. So why is
Naomi tempting these girls to turn back? Well, it helps us
to recognize and understand that this is an allegory. This is
a true story. This really happened to these
women. This really happened, but there's
an allegory. There's a teaching for us in
the gospel. It says, Paul writes to us in
Romans 15 verse 4, For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience
and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. And so the Lord is setting forth
here these gospel truths. This is an allegory, and he's
teaching us the gospel. He's teaching us how that he
saves his people by faith, and there are many who have a profession,
but they don't endure. and they do fall away, so that
we don't presume and we cry out and seek the Lord, have mercy
on me, Lord, save me, let that not become so of me. Because I see so many make a
profession and so many fall away and die in their sins. Lord, I need Christ, I need your
salvation, I need your mercy. He teaches his children that,
that we ever hunger and thirst for his righteousness and find
satisfaction in Jesus Christ alone and not the things of this
world, and not other ways and lies and idolatry. And so we're
told here, so when you see it's an allegory, we'll pick up so
much more. We'll understand why is Naomi
doing this? It's a picture, and I'll show
you that in a moment. So they went on the way to return
unto the land of Judah. And there's many people that
set off for the land of Judah looking for eternal life. There's
many people that begin to set off for the land of Judah looking
for eternal life. A lot of people do that. We grew
up with many people that seemed to have a real interest in the
Lord and they began to seek the Lord early in life like some
of us did. But the way the Lord is using
Naomi here is a picture or a type of the hand of God's providence. She's a type here of God's hand
of providence in the life of the people, especially his children. And that providence, we know
God's providence tries the faith or the profession of faith of
many. child of God is going to be tried
by Providence. Our faith is going to be tried. It will be proved to be false
or genuine. It will be proved by the Lord.
It's either, as Peter said, found unto praise and honor and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ, or it's not found and is discovered
to be nothing more than the flesh. And so providences of life, they
arise and they try that faith of many. There's trials from
one's parents. Parents can be a trial to a young
professing believer when their parents hear of it and they don't
believe. And they discourage their children from continuing
on. And they tell them, oh, that's
just fairy tales. That's just meant to give you good moral
character. But don't take it too seriously.
Don't listen to what they're saying there. And there's other
kinds of trials from family, from spouses, or from children
when they get sick. When they get sick, that could
be a real trial of faith and cause you to wonder, Lord, What's
going on? Why aren't you taking care of
me? Why are you allowing this to happen? And there's a lot
of people that will get put into that difficulty and really feel
that in their heart if they don't say it out loud. And they're
tried with the providences. There's trials through jobs,
difficulties on the job. or sometimes great success on
the job that leads to a career. And that can be a real trial
for someone's faith. To suddenly have all this opportunity
come before you and the opportunity of great riches, even schooling,
right? And wanting to, you know, putting
before anything else, the need for a certain type of education
or to go to a certain place, even though there's no gospel
church there for the child to go to. And that can be a great
difficulty, especially when that child is just out of the home
and now having all these opportunities to do things that they never
would have done while in the house. And so friends and peer
pressures, boyfriends, girlfriends, all these things can really try
the faith of the professing believer. And even as we see here, believers
can try the faith of others. You know, it's not a small thing
that sometimes We fail, and we disappoint, and we stumble. And others see that, and they
get discouraged. And there are some people that
have called attention to the hypocrisy of another and use
that to justify their own sins and their own rebellion. And
so even believers, true believers, fall into sin. Just look at David,
a man after God's own heart, had a man murdered, and took
his wife and committed adultery with her, and murdered him to
cover it up, to try and cover it up. And so there's all kinds
of providential trials that try the faith of God's people. It's just so. And Peter says
in 1 Peter 5, verses 8 and 9, be sober. Be vigilant, because your adversary
the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he
may devour, whom resists steadfast in the faith, knowing that the
same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world. We all go through the trial of
faith. It's being accomplished in you. You're not alone. It's
being accomplished in your brethren as well. And the Lord is teaching
them, and keeping them, and proving that which is His, to the praise,
glory, and honor of His name at His appearing. And so these
women were tried, and they could have departed. But instead, we
see them press on. They press on in faith. And Naomi
here, as the hand of providence so often is, she challenged their
faith. She challenged their profession.
She challenged their following in the Lord. So let's pick up
in verse 9 and 10. Then she kissed them, and they
lifted up their voice and wept. And they said unto her, surely
we will return with thee unto thy people. What an encouragement. The trial seemed to be sanctified
to their hearts. It seemed that all seemed to
be well and going good. And so they're continuing on
in their profession. And so, you know, there's a similarity
here to what we see in the parable that our Lord gave us, the parable
of the sower, the sower of the seed, where the seed was received
into different ground, into different places. And so we see here how
these two have endured the first two the first two places where
the seed had fallen in the parable that our Lord gives. The first
seed was taken away by the fowls of the air. And that's because
that gospel seed fell by the wayside. And the way the Lord
describes that is those who hear that word and don't understand
it, they just push it aside. There's nothing there to receive
it. They don't understand it. They just look at it and say,
That's foolishness. There's nothing there for me.
And that word is taken away. Well, clearly, these two young
women have endured that and gone further than that. And then the
second one that we see these women doing is they endured the
temptation. And that first temptation came
to them by Naomi saying, go and return. Go back. Be turned back. Don't go any further than this.
You sure you wanna do this? There's gonna be difficulties.
There's gonna be trials. This is gonna not be easy. You
sure you wanna do this? Why don't you just go and return
now? And that's the way that persecution
and offenses come to us. We that believe, when we begin
to profess Christ, and suddenly you receive, you hear how others
react to it and say, what? You're a believer now? I don't
like that. What are you doing? Why are you
doing that? Put that foolishness away. Stop that now. And they
persecute you. They try to make you feel small
and try and belittle that which is your hope. And many get offended
in themselves who are professing this faith in Christ. They get
offended at the persecution and the difficulties that they begin
to receive from others. And this is like those that receive
that gospel seed, but have no root in Christ. And our Lord
describes that as he that received the seed into stony places. And because there's no root in
Christ, when the scorching heat comes, whether by persecution
or that burning sensation of offense. I've been offended.
And they turn back because of the word. By and by, he is offended. And so many go and return, and
they go back to their previous profession. And oftentimes, if
you've spoken to others about the truth and they've heard it
to a degree, How often do they actually not only go back, but
they actually are worse going forward. They just go full bore
in living in sin and in unrighteousness. And many do that. who are turned
away, but instead of being offended by this trial here, we see that
it brought about tears, it brought about words and hugging and being
encouraged, and they agreed to continue on in faith. But it
was a very emotional decision. It was an emotional decision. And all of us knows that those
decisions that often we make in emotion, in high emotion situations,
we often don't follow through with those things that we said
we would do. And high emotion decisions often
become nothing. We don't follow through. And
one man I heard say, anything born in the storm dies in the
calm. Anything born in the storm dies
in the calm. Because, yeah, we say we're going
to do a lot of things when the heat's on and when there's difficulties. And we say, Lord, I'll do anything
you want. Just save me from this. And then
as soon as things calm down, many people forget anything they
said and said they were going to do. But these women, they
endure a little longer, only the trials didn't stop. The trials
continued to come against them. Look at verse 11. Naomi says,
here she says again, turn again, my daughters, why will ye go
with me? Why will you go with me? That's
actually a faithful question. And it is a question that oftentimes
we hear. When we're in the trial, and
when things are hard, and there's difficulties, and we ask, Lord,
what's going on? And will I endure? Lord, help. And it's a faithful question,
because it does bring us to ask, what do we love more? Do we love
this world? Do we want these things just
to go away? Or do we love Christ? And is this what he calls me
to? If he's calling me to this, and these are the trials that
he's bringing by his hand, Lord help me. Help me, Lord, keep
me, keep my wandering heart, keep my filthy heart, cleanse
me, Lord. Deliver me and help me to follow
after you and forsaking all these things and these difficulties,
let me not worry about them or fear them or be turned away from
you because of them. And so these questions, these
trials that bring up this question, it serves as a reminder of him
whom we love. And it confirms to us, you that
endure, it confirms to us that he is more precious than this
world. I need him more than all these
other things. Sure, I could do things that
would take away the heat and the difficulty now, but I love
you, Lord. Where else can I go? To whom
can we turn? You alone have the words of eternal
life, Lord. And that's what he brings his
children to see. That's why you've continued and
why you're not turned away. Because He's precious to you,
more precious than life itself to you. And that's what He's
revealing to His children. So, next we see as we go on in
verse 11 through 13, these young women begin to be troubled with
the cares of this life. They've gone through the disregarding
the word. They understood something, and
they followed. And they endured the persecution and the offenses. But now they're going to be tried
with the cares of this world. Naomi asks, are there yet any
more sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? Turn again,
my daughters. Go your way, for I am too old
to have a husband. If I should say I have hope,
if I should have a husband also tonight, and should also bear
sons, would ye tarry for them till they were grown? Would ye
stay for them from having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for it grieveth
me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out
against me. Now this is the trial that proves
that that faith, that profession that Orpah had, that God was
not the author of her faith. That faith was of her flesh.
That was of her own profession. And she was tried with the cares
of this life. And under that trial, she fell
short of eternal life. She didn't endure. Orpah wanted
a husband, and she wanted children. And she decided, that's too much
for me. I'm not giving that up. That's what I need. So she turned back. And it says,
verse 14, they lifted up their voice and wept again, and Orpah
kissed her mother-in-law. In other words, she was turned
back. And Orpah was saying there, Christ can have everything, but
he can't have that. You can take anything you want,
Lord, but don't you touch that. That's too important to me. I'm not going to accept that
and so she was turned away and that's a picture of that seed
falling among thorns and the thorns sprung up and choked them
out and it's as our Lord said in Matthew 13 22 because that's
where you can find that parable of the seed and the sower, Matthew
13, 22. He also that received seed among
the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this
world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he
becometh unfruitful. And so Orpah was turned from
the Lord and she turned back to this world. And that often
is the one that takes a lot longer in people's lives, in our profession,
before we're turned away. It's just those cares. It's that
job and that success. Or something happens that we
think can't possibly happen to a believer, and we fall away
because of those cares and wants more than the Lord. But the Lord's
people will endure. He keeps us. He keeps us because
he shows us that he's more precious than those things. All right,
verse 14. They lifted up their voice and
wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth clave unto her. And Naomi said, behold, thy sister-in-law
has gone back unto her people and unto her gods. Return thou
after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, entreat me not
to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For whither
thou goest, I will go. You know, before I go on there,
isn't that the prayer that the Lord teaches us? Lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Lord, please don't
let me fall away. Don't turn me. Don't let me be
turned away like so many. I know my own wandering heart.
I know I have no strength. I have no ability, Lord, to stay
upon you and to love you. But Lord, you've done this work
in me and I do love you and I need you. Don't turn me away, Lord.
Don't let me be turned away by these things." And that's what
Ruth is saying here. And Ruth, what she confesses
here, is more than just a love for Naomi. She really does love
the God that Naomi worships. She loves the promise of God
to save his people and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so she says,
and treat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after
thee. For whither thou goest, I will
go. And where thou lodgest or live, I will live. Thy people
shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will
I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more
also, if ought but death part thee and me." And when Naomi
saw that Ruth was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she
left speaking unto her. The Lord brought forth a true
confession, a true need, a breathing after Christ. It was more than
just Naomi. She understood that she was going
to be among that people, that this is her God. He is the salvation. He is the Savior of all His people. And she wasn't a neglectful hearer. She was willing to face those
difficulties. She was willing to endure the
persecutions that she was surely going to receive there in the
land of Judah because she was a Moabite. But she didn't care
for those things. She wasn't worried about that.
She said, if that's what I need to go through, that's what I'm
going through because I need the Lord. And she had it in her. The Lord gave her that. that
profession which endures to the end. And what we see there is
that Ruth is a pattern of all who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. She's a pattern of you that believe. You whom the Lord has sent his
word and fixed his word in your heart in the good ground prepared
by him, by his spirit, in which you've heard that word and received
that word. And it's settled in there and
it's born roots, rooted in Christ and endures the heat and the
persecutions and rises up through the thorns and all the other
things that come to take away, to sweep you away in the flood,
but the Lord has kept you. And Ruth's a pattern there because
she's heard that report But it's more than just be a report. It's
the truth. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
she sees that Christ alone is salvation, whom God has provided
for His people freely, sending Him in the likeness of the sinful
flesh, but without sin. And He, having fulfilled all
righteousness for His people, went willingly to the cross as
our sacrifice to be our propitiation, to be the means of our forgiveness
with God and reconciliation to Him. He gave His life. bearing our sin, dying our death
to put away our sin forever that we might know the true living
God in peace and in joy and in rejoicing with him through the
blood of Christ. And he sends his spirit which
sought you out and separated you unto this Word, and revealed
faith in your hearts, and proves that faith to you continually
to this day, so that you endure, ever looking to Christ, making
Him most precious to you, showing you the weakness of your own
heart. It's not that we know the weakness
of this flesh, we know the enmity of this flesh, but He keeps you.
ever looking to Christ, ever crying out to him, Lord, forgive
me for my unbelief, forgive me for my shameful thoughts, my
shameful deeds, my foolishness, but thank you, Lord, for keeping
me, and that you've made Christ precious to me above all other
things. And so our Lord, that's his work. He's keeping you. He's revealing
that that work which is in you was begun by the Lord and therefore
He'll complete it. He'll bring it to fruition. He'll
complete it to the end and you shall awake in glory in that
day and see your Savior, your Lord and Savior who will receive
you into His arms in peace and in love. So, bless your God. Continue on Him. Continue in
Him. Don't be turned away. Don't be
like foolish Orpah. And since we have no strength
to do that, keep looking to Him, cry out to Him, beg Him for mercy. And that is the cry of the child
of God. And we rest in Him and rejoice
in Him. I pray the Lord bless that word to your hearts, brethren.
Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy.
We thank you, Lord, for this picture here that we see of Ruth
and Orpah, how that you preserve your child of grace, and Lord,
We see how so many fall away like Orpah. Keep us, Lord, because
we have no strength, no power, and no ability of ourselves to
keep ourselves. But Lord, we depend upon your
grace and mercy for all things. Save us, Lord. Keep us, just
like you did for Ruth here. Cover us with the blood of Jesus
Christ, and let us never leave from you. It's in the name of
our Lord and Savior we pray this. Amen. All right, we'll take.