You will take your Bibles and
turn with me to Ruth chapter 1. Ruth chapter 1. We'll be looking at verses 6
through 19 this morning. The title of the message this
morning is, True Faith is Prevailing Faith. True faith is prevailing
faith. Last week we looked at the very
costly move of this man Elimelech in verses 1 through 5. And how
he had left Bethlehem, Judah, which means house of bread, during
the midst of a famine, he left the house of bread to go to Moab,
which was God's washpot. And because of his disobedience,
he lost his life. His sons and his wife was left
devastated, a widow penniless in the land of Moab. This man
who determined to better his family by moving away from where
God had placed his name, only destroyed it. Only destroyed
it. And we also saw that if we are
disobedient in the same way, that God will chasten His people. God will chasten His people.
And here is where our text begins with the history of these three
women now, Naomi, Orpha, and Ruth. And I'm going to give us
a brief synopsis of this. There she is, Naomi. She is destitute. She is impoverished. Her sons
are dead. And possibly, most likely, they
are dead in their sins. They died in their sins and disobedience
to God. There is never a more devastating
thing to a parent than to watch their children living in sin
and die in sin. She watched her husband die in
this place of Moab. And now she is alone. She is
without help. The only thing she has are these
two idolatrous women that were married to her sons. And truly,
they were affectionate to one another. They were close to one
another. Maybe drawn close by the death
of these two young men in the land of Moab. And so she hears
a word from the Lord. She hears a message in Moab that
God had visited His people. And so she heeds the Word of
the Lord and she now is turning back to go to Jerusalem. And
her daughters-in-law, they are so affectionate to her that they
are making a pact, an emotional pact together. They said, where
you go, we want to go with you. Imagine the love and affection
they must have had for this woman to leave their own homes and
families to follow after her to another country. That was
great affection, wasn't it? They loved her. And they said,
we want to go with you. And Naomi, being the honest woman
that she was, she said, look, you don't need to go with me.
There's nothing for you there. There's nothing for me but the
Word of God. There's nothing for you. If I
were to have a husband even tonight, she said, and I were to bear
sons even Because of this, will you wait for them till they're
grown? Will you wait for them? You know you won't. You'd be
an older woman by then. You'd be too old for them by
then. And she said, this is not going to happen. You guys have
no reason to go with me. There's no reason for you to
go. No earthly, physical, tangible reason. And so Orpha, in great
emotion and love, she kissed Naomi and she went back. And Naomi looked around and says,
Ruth, your sister-in-law is gone. Why haven't you gone? And she
said, Don't tell me to go away anymore. Don't do that! Where you go, I'll go. Where
you live, I'll live. And your God shall be my God.
And your people shall be my people. And where you die, I'll die."
And she said, Lord, so help me if I don't do that. I swear,
she's making a vow, she's making a confession here that she's
going to follow Naomi. And so then they come around
and they turn and go back to Bethlehem, and then all of Bethlehem
is astir, and they come in and say, is this Naomi? Is this Naomi? They moved in on her and her
daughter-in-law. Well, friend, we know that this
is more of a history, not just a history, but rather it is a
story, it is a character study of these three women. Character
studies are very important in Scripture, and if you haven't
done them, you should. The characters in Scripture are not there just
to fill space, and their names have meaning. These characters,
they were men and women just like you and just like me. There
was no difference in these people. These people were flesh. These
people understood pain. These people understood hurt
and sorrow just like we do. They understood joy and happiness
like we do. But these characters here, a
character study is profitable. And God always, if you'll notice
this when you study characters, that God always exposes the truth
about these people. He never holds anything back,
does He? If you were Lot, do you suppose you would have included
the incestuous relationship with your daughter in your history? No. Abraham, do you suppose that
you would have included the adulterous relationship with her maidservant? No. If you were David, would you
include the murder of that man for the adultery that you committed?
No, you wouldn't put that in there, would you? God does. God
reveals His saints' warts and all. He exposes them. And I'll
tell you what, that is a great comfort to me. Isn't it to you
to know that these men weren't super saints? That they weren't
something so great? That they were men at their best? They were just only men. And
these women here, they have a reason for being in the Scriptures here.
God paints in the Scriptures for us the picture of these three
women. The Holy Spirit has it here for
our learning. Why? Because they are types of
every, get this word, professing believer. Do you profess faith
in Christ this morning? Then you are one of these types
that I'm going to bring out today. You fall into one of these categories. Professing believers in Christ.
Friends, true faith, there's only true faith and no faith.
There is no middle ground. You either have faith, Or you
don't. Now you may have faith in something
else, but that's not true faith. True faith may be weak faith,
but it's still faith, isn't it? True faith may be strong faith,
but it's still faith. But false faith is no faith at
all because it will never last. This is the problem with false
faith. It only endures for a little
while and it goes away. It goes away. Naomi here in this passage of
Scripture, she represents every type of believer who is chased
of the Lord. Every believer who is chastened
of the Lord, Naomi here is a type. Orpha, she is a type of every
false professor of faith in Christ. Why? Because that faith did not
prevail. That faith did not persevere.
That faith went back. And Ruth is a type of every elect
sinner saved by the grace of God. In that her faith, like
Naomi's, persevered. It prevailed. It prevailed all
the obstacles. It persevered to the end. First of all, let's look at Naomi.
Naomi. This name Naomi in our character
study means sweet or pleasant. She was taken away from Bethlehem
to Moab by her husband Elimelech. Is that not true then of each
and every one of God's saints by nature? Were we not taken
from God into Moab by our father Adam? Yes, we were. We were taken
in death and sin by our father Adam. When he died, all of his
posterity died with him. When he sinned, we all sinned
in Adam. Adam was created holy and righteous
and enjoyed the presence of God, but because of his sin, we all
died in trespasses and sin. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin." So then death is passed upon
every man for all have sinned." That death of our Father has
been passed to us. Just like Elimelech took his
wife out of the house of bread and went to God's washpot, even
so our Father took us out and left us in Moab. This is what we call original
sin. that it was received of Adam,
that man is not born wounded, he is not born spiritually bruised,
he is not born good and then turns bad, he is born absolutely
corrupt and evil and dead in his trespasses and sins. But friends, I want us to notice
this about Naomi. It was not only a limalex sin. She can't put it all on Elimelech.
You know why? She stayed there. And we can't
put it all on Adam because we sinned ourselves. We continued. He brought us to sin, but we
continued in sin. Our sin cannot be blamed on anyone
else but us. It's our sin. We disobeyed God. If you'll notice Naomi, she stayed
there 10 years in verse 4. And it says, and they dwelled
there about 10 years. Why didn't she just return? Why
didn't she just come back? What was the problem? What kept
her there? Sin. Sin. Disobedience. We were sinners not only by birth,
but by choice. Naomi could have went back when
her husband died, but she refused to follow after God and chose
to follow after her sons. Naomi knew better because she
was truly a saved woman. She came from Bethlehem, she
knew what it was to be saved, she knew what it was to know
the Word of God, and yet here she is, she is living in rebellion,
following after her sons rather than following after God. You see, Naomi had a heart for
Bethlehem. Naomi had a heart for Bethlehem,
and when her sons were dead, guess where her heart turned?
Right back to where it was. to begin with. It turned back
to Bethlehem. Back to where God was. It's not like Lot's wife. If
you remember Lot's wife, when she escaped, she turned back,
but she didn't turn toward where God sent them. She turned back
to Sodom. Why? Because her heart was there.
And as soon as the obstacle was removed, where did Naomi's heart
go? Back to Bethlehem. That's where
her heart was, Bethlehem. Naomi was one whose heart was
in Bethlehem, but in disobedience. She knew to be God's will. She still remained in Moab. And instead of returning to where
her heart was, she continued in this place. And she put her
sons in the place of God. Many believers in Christ make
this devastating error to place our children, to place our family,
to place our jobs, to place our own selves in the place of God. Believer in Christ, let us not
leave our first love. Let us not in disobedience please
our flesh, but rather worship and serve God where He has placed
His name." Where is that? In His church. In His church,
among His people. That's where God is to be praised.
Believer, behold the results of willful unbelief. We who are
pleasant, truly righteous in the sight of God, yet we are
not free from the consequences of our sins. If we are in rebellion
and we place anything above God, then we are going to face consequences
for our sins. You can't escape it. God's men
didn't escape it. We have no evidence in Scripture
of them escaping the consequences of their sins. If we neglect God and His worship,
friends, there are consequences to that. You know what the first thought
is? That can't happen to me. Oh, I know God will chasten somebody,
but it just won't be me. Whatever God has for me, I can
endure that. And so we weigh it out, don't
we? We say, well, I like this sin, so what do I think God's
consequences are? And we start balancing them out
and we say, well, I'll just do it. I'll just take the consequences.
You better be careful. You don't know how tight God
can close the vice grip on us. He knows exactly where to put
the pin to make it hurt. This woman, friends, was devastated
and lost everything. Now, I've never lost everything.
And believe me, I don't want to. I don't want to lose everything. But if we're in disobedience,
don't expect that you won't. You know that God chastens His
children. And I'll tell you this, if you
are in rebellion against God and God doesn't chasten you,
the Scripture says, then are you bastards and not sons. The
Father, whomsoever the Father loveth, He chasteneth and scourgeth
every son. Every son. Don't despise His chastening.
You know what, Naomi, when she was chastened of the Lord, she
didn't despise it. What did she do? She yielded
to it. If we are in disobedience, let
us yield to God. Yield to His chastening hand.
She said, the hand of the Lord is upon me. I know who's done
this to me. It was God, and He is still worthy
of my praise. I'm going back. I'm going back. You know, the very thing that
we set above God, God usually uses that to be the greatest
pain, doesn't He? Why does He do this? Because
there is no peace, no joy, no life in the things of this world. Our spouses, our children, Our
very lives themselves, they can provide no lasting joy
or peace. Why then would we put them in
the place of God? That is a foolish thing to do. Foolish. The only joy and the
only peace that can ever come to a believer's heart is in Christ
alone. In hearing the gospel of Christ
alone. Believer, leave not thy first
love. Hold fast to His Word. Hold fast to His worship. Hold
fast to His service. Let us forsake all and follow
Christ. Let us return to our God and
He will abundantly pardon. Now, is that not a message of
great comfort? God will pardon our sins. That's good news. That's good
news. Why would a believer in Christ
ever forsake, when he hears that message, forsake God and continue
in his sin? God's people won't. God's people
won't. And notice this, it was the Word
that moved her. Look at that in verse 6, "...she
arose with her daughter-in-law." Why? "...For she had heard in
the country of Moab how the Lord visited His people in giving
them bread." She heard the Gospel. She heard the gospel. Believers,
it is the message of Jesus Christ visiting His people, being the
bread of life, and regenerating the souls of men. That's the
message that brings us back from our rebellion. That's the message
of grace. It's the message of forgiveness.
It is the message of redemption. It is the message of justification,
of righteousness, eternal life, the Holy Spirit, Friends, forget not all of his
benefits. Isn't that what the Scripture
says in Psalm 103? Forget not all his benefits.
You know why we've drifted away? Because we forgot his benefits.
We've left off seeing the benefits of being in the presence of God,
hearing the gospel of God's grace. This is the only joy of the believer's
heart, and to go anywhere else is foolishness. To go away from
that is foolishness. And it is still the message of
God that feeds and satisfies the souls of His people with
good things. Come, the Scripture says, delight
thyself in fatness. That's not good for nowadays,
is it? That doesn't sound too good. Delight yourself in fatness. But I'll tell you what, in that
day it meant a lot. Fat is the best part of the meat.
It is. It's the best part. Scriptures, they speak of Christ
and He is the best part. Come, delight yourself in the
feast that God has spread before you. Why would you neglect a
feast in the midst of a world of famine? Why? And she went
back, verse 7, Wherefore, she went forth out of the place where
she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the
way to return to the land of Judah. Every true believer in Christ
who is chastened with the Lord shall return." Naomi was bitter, Naomi was desolate,
Naomi was devastated, yet her troubles were in the hand of
God, and she did not blame Him, but rather returned to Him."
Every believer that comes away from the gospel of Christ, God
will chasten them, and when they are chastened, they'll return. If they go away and they are
not chastened of the Lord to return, it is because they never
knew Him to begin with. God's people always, always will
return to Him from their disobedience. By His chastening hand, they
will. They'll return to Him. Is not the chastening of God
in our eyes precious? It should be. It should be. Paul
says no chastening at the time is pleasant, but grievous, isn't
it? It hurts. Naomi was hurt. Naomi
was bitter. She was destitute. She hurt. And yet, in that hurt, she still
loved God. and praise God for bringing this
hurt into her life. And so should we. When God chastens
us, we should be thankful, because He doesn't chasten those that
are not His own. He doesn't chasten them. Naomi
is a picture of a believer returning from chastisement. Are you away
from the Lord? What does His worship mean to
you? Have you placed something in the stead of His worship?
Return. Come back. Believe. Hear the Word of God. Feast on
the Word of God being preached. This is the joy of this life.
There is no other joy. There is no other happiness for
a believer. Number two, Orpha. Orpha. She is a type of every false
professor of faith in Christ. Every false professor. Now, I
want us to notice this. Look in verse 7. It says, Wherefore,
when she went forth out of the place where she was, her two
daughter-in-laws went with her. Notice that. Both of them. Ruth
and Orpha went with Naomi to Bethlehem. They started on this
journey to Bethlehem. They had great affliction, a
great affection for their mother-in-law. So much so that they were willing
to give up everything to follow Naomi. Now this speaks well of Naomi,
doesn't it? Doesn't that speak well of her?
Don't you suppose that she was not kind to them? Gracious to
them, even though they were idolatrous women. Friends, we should be
gracious people. If we're believers in Christ,
we should be gracious people. We should be the most kind people
on the face of God's earth for what God has done for us by grace.
We should yield ourselves to serve others and be kind to them
as Christ was to us. Forgiving one another, patient
with one another, loving one another. Naomi did that. Naomi
did that. She spoke well of her. And so
Ruth and Orpha, they made a pact. Look at this in verse 8. Naomi
said to her two daughters-in-law, go and return to your mother's
house. The Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the
dead and with me. The Lord granted that you may
find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband. Then she
kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept. And
they both said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto
thy people." Again, making a pact. I promise. I promise that we
will go with you. You see, Ruth and Orpah, they
made this pact under a very emotional situation. Yet one stayed and the other
left. Orpah did not fulfill the pact. No doubt Orpha was just as determined
to go with Naomi as Ruth. No doubt she was just as sincere
and loved Naomi just as much. But her emotion and affection
and sincerity were not enough to take her all the way. And neither will these things
enable a sinner to continue in faith to Christ. Affections,
emotions, sincerity are never enough for a person to continue
to follow Christ. You may sincerely want to believe. You may sincerely desire Christ. You may sincerely hear about
His blood and want forgiveness of sins. But if you're basing
your journey on your sincerity, you're not going to make it very
far. If your faith is grounded in your strength and your sincerity,
you'll not make it very far. Many people have some affection
toward Jesus. They hear of His kindness and
His healing and eternal kingdom and they want to go. Who doesn't
want to go to an eternal kingdom of bliss forever and ever and
ever? And that's foolishness. Who wants to go to hell? Nobody. Nobody wants to go to
hell. They start feeling some sense
of guilt of conscience, and they may feel even the fires of hell
at their feet. But they never count the cost
to follow Christ. What does it cost to follow Christ? If you've not asked that question,
you're not following Christ. What does it cost? Flip over
to Luke chapter 14. Our Lord tells us in no uncertain
terms what it is to follow Christ. You see, Orpah, she wanted to
follow Naomi, but she didn't count the cost. Chapter 14, verse 26, "'If any
man come to Me and hate not his father, and His
mother, and His wife, and His children, and His brethren, and
sisters, yea, and His own life also." What does Christ say?
You cannot be My disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his
cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple. Which of you
intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth
the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish? Lest, happily, after
he had laid the foundation, he is not able to finish it, All
that behold it began to mock Him." Verse 33, "'So likewise,
whosoever he be of you, who forsaketh not all he hath, he cannot be
My disciple.'" Is that not clear? Is that not clear? It is crystal clear. To follow
Christ means to forsake everything else, including self, especially
self. Naomi warned these two women
of the great cost. She said, you're not going to
have a husband. You're not going to have children.
If you follow me, there are no husbands for you. There's no
hope of coming any sons from my womb that you can marry. You
would be a widow the rest of your days, just like me. What
in the world would you want to come for? I tell you sinners,
if you are to follow Christ, the flesh shall profit you nothing. Why would you want to come to
Christ? If you are seeking something to entertain this flesh or to
please this flesh, you might as well not come. Don't come
with me. My Scripture says the flesh shall
profit nothing. Nothing. And unless a sinner
counts that cost, their faith will not last. We are to sacrifice everything
for Christ. Everything for Him. Naomi told the truth, didn't
she? She was not trying to coerce
them. She was not trying to badger
them to come. She told them the truth. Friends,
when we are witnessing, let us tell men the truth. We should
not try to trick them into some false profession of faith. We
should tell them the truth. Come to Christ. He'll save you
from your sins. What will it cost? Everything.
That's what it costs. Everything. You see, that's easy
for me to make that decision. You know why? Because my everything
is nothing. My everything is trash. It's
dung. I leave all that behind that
I may win Christ and be found in His righteousness alone. That's
what it is to follow Christ. Orphans, she followed out of
affection. She followed out of love and sincerity. But that's
not enough. That's not enough to follow Christ.
We must have true, genuine faith that is a gift of the Almighty
God by a supernatural experience of grace. If we don't have that,
we're not going to follow very long. Other things will take
the place of Christ. Eventually, the flesh will win
out and Christ will be set on the side. Oh sure, you'd tip
your hat to Him every once in a while, but really, you know,
He's just competing with other things, isn't He? Well, I'll worship Christ when
it's convenient. No, you won't. We should worship Christ at every
opportunity. Every opportunity. His children, they're willing to sacrifice
everything. We ought to sacrifice all of
our works, all of our goodness, and to yield ourselves completely
and utterly to Christ. We do not sanctify ourselves,
but rely totally on His sanctification by the Holy Spirit of God. A man once said this, that which
is born in the storm will die in the calm. Haven't you seen that to be true?
Haven't you seen people to come up all emotional and all hyped
up and weeping and crying and pouring out their selves? I know
I did. I wept. I wept over my sin. But what happens when it calms
down? What happens when it's all over? Do you continue to
follow Christ or do you just disappear? We've noticed some
to just disappear, haven't we? Thirdly, let's notice Ruth, a
picture of all elect sinners, saved by the grace of God. Ruth
was from the same city of Orpha. She lived there. She had the
same gods, the same people. In other words, there was no
difference between her and Orpha. Ruth was not an exceptional learner
or something special about her. She was born in the same city.
And so is every sinner. Every sinner is born in the same
condition, dead in sins. So there was no difference. There
was no difference between them. She made a pact in an emotional
state just like Orpha did. What was the difference? She
didn't go away. She never went away. Remember what Christ said to
His disciples? He said, will you go away also?
And what did Peter say? Lord, to whom shall we go? Ruth said,
I don't want to go back. I don't care what the consequences
are. I don't care about this world. I care about your God. I want
to know about your God. I want your God to be my God.
I want your people to be my people." She heard the Word of God and
she claimed Naomi. Even so, as Ruth was chosen, God chose Ruth. By His grace,
He also in providence brought the gospel for her to hear. And
by this gospel she heard, and she believed, and she returned
to Bethlehem. We who have heard the gospel,
we see the sweetness of the person of Jesus Christ, don't we? Naomi
means sweetness. So does Christ. He means sweetness
to me. I have sweetness of His person. I'm so glad He is the God-man.
Mediator. Aren't you? I am. I'm glad that
He is the God-man. We see Him in His glory and His
work to die in our stead, to take our guilty place, take our
guilt and our sins. And as we saw this morning during
the Bible study time, we saw this, that we were at union with
Christ and crucified with Him. When He died, I died. When He
arose, I arose. When He sat on the throne, I
sat on the throne with Him. And you know this? He is in union
with me. We are in union together as the
head is to the body, so is Christ to His saints. Will any of you willfully separate
your arm? You know, I like this arm. It
does me good. I like it. I don't want to be
separated from it. I'm in union with it. So is Christ to His people, and
His people to Christ. We're in union with Him. And
where else shall we go but to follow Christ by faith? And so
does every sinner who truly believes in Christ. And you know this,
when Ruth made this confession, she said, wherever you go, I'll
go, wherever you lodge, I'll lodge, wherever your people are,
my people, your God is my God. John Gill said this, this is
a confession, not only of her love and affection to Naomi,
but rather a confession to trust God. She had no reason to go
with Naomi. What was she trusting in? Naomi?
No. She said, your God will be my God. There's the foundation. There's the reason why I'm going.
I trust in your God. I trust in your God. Sinners, we make who believe
in Christ, every one of us who believe in Christ, make a profession
of faith or a confession of faith in baptism, don't we? This is
akin to baptism. When we are saved by God's grace,
we testify, identify with Christ in baptism, not for our salvation,
but because of it. Ruth determined to go with Naomi
long before she confessed it. Didn't she? Naomi, man, there's
quite a few verses in there that she keeps talking, but Ruth's
not paying any attention to that. She's wanting to go! And this
is her confession. And so is baptism the confession
of every believer in Christ. We should confess Christ in baptism,
identify with His death, burial, and resurrection. And lastly,
let us notice the people. Verse 19. And they too went until
they came to Bethlehem, and it came to pass when they had come
to Bethlehem that all the city was moved about them." This is the type of the church. When we find that our brethren
have gone away, And God chastens them and brings them back to
us. How then are we to treat those who return? Friends, we are to move on them
with compassion. We are not to exalt ourselves
lest we fall into the same temptation, lest we fall by the same sins.
We should be kind to them. We should welcome them back. Is that not a great thing? Is
that not what the Father did for us, the prodigal? When we
return, did He not embrace us with His arms? That's exactly
how we should embrace those who come back in worship of Christ. We shouldn't look at them with
disdain or even have an eye of suspicion. You know, that's a
hard thing, isn't it? When people come back, you look
at them and say, hmm, I wonder, No, don't wonder. Embrace them.
If they believe, embrace them. Love them. And the same with
new converts, people who are new in the gospel, like Ruth. They moved on her as well. They
moved in on them. Oh, is this sweetness? Look, sweetness has come back.
Isn't that great? And when our brothers come back,
let's say, sweetness has come back. Let's embrace them. I pray
that God blesses to our hearts. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed
in prayer.