Alright, if you will, open to
the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth. You've got
Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and if you get to Samuels,
you went too far. The book of Ruth. The title of
this message is The Three Widows. The faith which God gives makes
the believer steadfastly minded. God tries faith. And faith that
is proven true is proven to depend entirely upon the God of all
grace. That's what's proven to us when
our faith is proved. When you have cast your entire
life into the hand of Christ, no trials and no temptations
can separate you from Him. You are steadfastly minded. I'm going to give you a little
bit of a back story. We're going to begin in verse
6. In these first five verses, we see that Elimelech was Naomi's
husband, and a great famine struck Bethlehem, where they lived.
And he moved Naomi and their two sons down to that pagan land
of idolatry, Moab. They were looking for a better
economy. In the hard economic times, the economy had turned
south in Bethlehem, and Moab was booming. And so he said,
we're going to pack up the children and we're moving to Moab. We'll
have it better down there. And Emelech died. And it says
there in verse 1 that he went to sojourn in Moab. They were just going to go down
for a little while. We're going to leave the gospel. We're going
to leave our home. We're going to leave Bethlehem,
our brothers and sisters, for a little while. And we'll go
down and make a little bit of money. We might be able to send
some back and help them. And then we'll come back home
when things get better. But then in verse 2 it says they
continued there. Many times people leave the gospel.
They depart from the flock of Christ and local assembly and
they may intend on coming back. When things get a little better,
we'll come back. When it gets a little easier, we'll come back.
And many times the Lord's providence does not allow that to happen.
Many times they die. Now Naomi was left in Moab. She was widowed and she had her
two sons with her. Now going against God's word,
Naomi's sons married Moabite women. They were supposed to
marry Israelites. They didn't. They married the
Moabite women, the local women. And they both died without having
children. They didn't have any offspring.
So here's Naomi. She's been in Moab for over 10
years. She's a widow, and she's got two daughter-in-laws living
with her, and both of them are widows. Out of these three widows,
we're going to look at, two of these women we see have faith
that is steadfastly minded. They have steadfast faith. And
the other, we'll see, she still has options. But they're not the choices,
they're not the options that you and I would think. And we'll
see that at the end. We'll see what her choices were. But there in Ruth 1, verse 6,
Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the
country of Moab. For she had heard in the country
of Moab how that the Lord had visited His people in giving
them bread. 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 unto the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law,
Go, return each to her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with
you, as ye have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant
you that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.'
And 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. And Naomi said, Turn again, my
daughters. Why will you go with me? 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. And if I should
say I have hope, if I should have a husband also tonight and
should also bear sons, would you tarry for them until you
were grown? If I was able to be married tonight
and to have a son tonight, would you girls wait for 20 years without
a husband until those boys are grown? Would you 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." And they lifted up their voices and wept again.
And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. Orpah then left. She kissed goodbye. But Ruth clave unto her. She clung to her. She hugged
her, wouldn't let go of her. Verse 15, And she said, Behold,
thy sister-in-law is 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 whether thou goest, I will
go. And whether thou lodgest, I will
lodge. 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 aught but death part thee and me." When she saw that
she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left, speaking
unto her. We're going to look at these
three widows tonight. We're going to look at Naomi,
Orpah, and Ruth. First, let's look at Naomi. And
Naomi was a believer. She knew the Lord. And the Lord
will not allow His children to be without the Word of His grace,
no matter where you find yourself. If God is your Father, He will
not allow you to go without fellowshipping with the saints. The Word of
life, and He will not let you go without worshipping Him. It
may be very harsh, It may be a very hard trial that He uses
to bring you back to Him, but it'll happen. He'll do it. And
we see there the work of God in Providence. Naomi was down
there in Moab, and God, in His grace, killed her husband. She
was still kind of comfortable, though. She had two grown sons.
God and his infinite wisdom and grace and loving her killed both
her sons. God made Moab a harsh place to
Naomi. He made it bitter to her. Would
you want to stay there? You moved to another country
and your husband died and both your sons died. Now it's just
you and two more widows. You ain't got no income, ain't
got no nothing. That economy ain't looking too good now, is
it? makes it bitter to us. Well, I'll just read it to you.
In Hosea, the Lord was talking about Gomer, telling Hosea what
he's going to do to Gomer. And Hosea 2.6 says, Therefore,
behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns. We're walking down
a path and there's thorns on both sides of the path. Do you
walk into the thorns? You stay on the path, don't you?
He says, I'll hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall,
and she shall not find her paths, and she shall follow after her
lovers, but she shall not overtake them. She shall seek them, but
she shall not find them. Then she shall say, I will go
and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me
than now. Once God's hedged us up with
those thorns and He puts walls around us and doesn't let us
catch that dream that we're chasing, He makes everything around us
unbearable. And He turns us from that to
Himself by giving us something better. Now we see the work of
God through His Word, Ruth 1.6. And she arose with her daughters-in-law
that she might return from the country of Moab for She arose
because she had heard in the country of Moab how that the
Lord had visited His people in giving them bread. She heard
that the Lord had visited His people in giving them bread. Have you heard that? Have you
been out in this idolatrous world and heard that the Lord's visited
His people? He gave them the bread of life?
How did you hear that? How did I hear that? How did
Naomi hear that? Paul told us in Romans 10, so
then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
The Lord's got to speak it in His Word to us in that gift of
faith. That's how we hear. We hear by
faith. And what is it that we hear?
John 6, Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that
cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst." He goes on to say, this is the bread which
cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not
die. That is the true bread a believer
seeks. That bread of life. That's our
necessary bread. That's required by us. That's what's required for us
to live. Now see the work of faith. After
that work of the Word, the Lord's sins, she got Word. That's what
was happening, that bread of life. Now there's going to be
a work of faith. Look in Ruth 1.7. Wherefore, she went forth out
of the place where she was. She went forth. Naomi heard that
that life-saving bread was in Bethlehem, and she believed,
and she arose. To follow God, you have to leave
Moab. To follow God, you have to leave
Moab. You can't eat the bread of this
world and the bread of heaven. You can't serve two masters.
You either love the world and the love of God is not in you,
as John told us, 1 John, or God has made this world dead to you
and He's made His Son life to you. so that you must follow
him. Now Naomi, she rose up and she
set her face towards God, toward his people, and she put her back
to Moab. Just whenever Lot left Sodom
and Gomorrah, he left, put it to his back, and he didn't turn
back, did he? He didn't look back. We must do the same. Now
we see that love of faith. Look there at 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 their way to return unto the land of
Judah. And Naomi said unto 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. Same as you have,
you was kind to my husband, you were kind to your husbands, and
you've been kind to me, and I hope the same way as how the Lord
deals with you. Verse 9, the Lord grant you that you may find
rest, each of you in the house of her husbands. You say, I hope
you get married again, and I hope you have a wonderful marriage.
Then she kissed them, she kissed them goodbye, and they lifted
up their voices, and they wept. They cried hard. These two girls,
they love Naomi. They love their mother-in-law.
They were willing to leave their own families and to go with her. But Naomi has the love of God
in her heart. So Naomi urged her daughter's-in-law
to go back to their own mother's houses. She bragged on their
kindness to her, their kindness to her husband, to her sons.
She prayed the Lord would bless them, and she kissed them, and
then all of them cried together. It was an emotional time. Look
here in verse 10. And they said unto her, Surely we will return
with thee unto thy people. Now Naomi encouraged them even
more. to go back. Verse 11, And Naomi
said, Turn again, my daughters, why will you go with me? 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, and if I should say I have hope, if I should
have a husband also tonight, and should bear sons, would you
tarry with them till they were grown? Would you stay for them
from having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for it grieveth
me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out
against me." Now Naomi there doesn't sound like someone is
trying to boost the church roles. She doesn't sound like someone
that's trying to get a whole bunch of people in attendance
at church like a soul winner, does she? Here these two girls
are primed and the influence of emotion. Talk about emotionalism,
they're bawling their eyes out. They have told Naomi they want
to go with her, and Naomi tells them she has absolutely nothing
to offer them. I can't give you anything. Why
would Naomi say that? Why would she tell these two
girls, ain't nothing I can do for you. Go home. We want to
go with you. We love you. Go home. Naomi did not want them
to go simply because of her. We watched the documentary not
too long ago, that guy, Hinn, Benny Hinn, back in the 80s or
whatever, he would go up and slap people on the forehead and
they'd fall back and be healed of whatever disease that's not
physically seen. I never saw anybody get up there
with an arm missing and an arm grow back. But his nephew worked
for him, his family worked for him, and his job was to be the
first one to go up. He would go and he would say,
oh yeah, help me. And then he'd fall down and pop
back up again and dance some. And that gave everybody else
the encouragement. That gave them the courage for
them to go. And it showed them example how to do it. And then
that nephew would get his paycheck, they'd go to the next town, he'd
do it again. He was bait. That's what it was. Now Naomi
here, obviously she was a kind woman. It's always right for
us to be gracious to all men and women, but a true love of
God does not motivate believers to convince people to join the
church. A true love of God doesn't do
that. We don't have a heart to talk people into it, to convince
them. That's not our motive. Instead,
true love of God waits on Christ to make sinners willing. We do
not want sinners to follow us, we want them to follow Christ.
Now if I'm following Christ, and you're following Christ,
now we're walking together, ain't we? Like brethren. Let's turn over
to Matthew 8 and look at that. Naomi's not the only one
that does this in the Scripture. Our Master does. Matthew chapter 8 and verse 19. And a certain scribe came and
said unto him, Master, I will follow thee wheresoever thou
goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The
foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. Our master did
not give great earthly rewards to people on this earth while
he was here for following him. There was not a big worldly benefit
to being with him. This scribe here, he was not
going to be staying in the finest of hotels. He was going to be
sleeping on the ground. If you're going to follow me,
I don't have a place to lay my head and you won't either. But
the eternal benefit wasn't where they slept. It wasn't what they
got. It was being with Christ. walking with him, following him,
being in his presence. That's the true reward. True
reward. I like nice things. We all do. And I was thinking, Kimberly
and I was planning our anniversary next year. We'd like to go on
a big fancy cruise. But I don't care if it's on the
world's finest yacht or if it's on an inner tube. I'm with her. That's my vacation. That's what's
precious to me. Those other things are nice.
That's who I'm with is what matters. That's the wonderful part of
the trip. And so it is for Cross Sheep. We want communion with
Him. I ain't gonna shun the nice things. That's fine. But I want to know
Him. I want to spend time with Him.
I want to learn of Him. Let's try Luke 14. Luke chapter 14, verse 28. For which of you, intending to
build a tower, saith not down first, and counteth the cost,
whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest happily, after
he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it,
all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to
build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war
against another king, setteth not down first, and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against
him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet
a great way off, he senteth an ambassador, and desireth conditions
of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be
of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, Everything. He cannot be my disciple. Now
on that building, did Christ count the cost for his building?
For his church? Was he mocked for not being able
to complete it? He's mocked anyway, but he completed
it, didn't he? He forsook all for us. Suffered and died on the cross.
suffered our condemnation for us. He hath given all for us,
and we have to lay down everything for Him. Following Christ requires
that you forsake all that you have. Does that mean I've got
to sell everything I own? No, no. That's not it. The only
way you'll forsake all is if Christ makes Himself your all.
If He means everything to you, nothing else means anything to
you. If he's your righteousness, you'll forsake your own righteousness. If he's your treasure, you'll
forsake this world's treasure. It won't mean anything to you.
That rich young ruler, he could do neither. Look over a few pages
there in Luke 18. Luke 18. Let's start in verse 29. Temporally, how could you have
more? It's gone. You gave it all. I
was always thinking when we moved from New Jersey up in this corner
of the United States all the way down to Southern California,
across the United States diagonally, the first motel we stayed in
was in Oklahoma City. And if we had zig-zagged some,
we would have never had to stay in a hotel. And if we needed
it, we would have never had to buy a meal and we would have
never had to buy a drop of gas. Why? I left my family, my mother
and father, but I have brothers and sisters across this country,
don't I? And everything they have here, take it. We'll take
it. We'll feed you. We'll put you
up for the night. We'll always have a place to
lay our heads, won't we, when we have brothers and sisters in
this earth. Now, Naomi was moving. And she heard of the Lord working
back home, and she was heading there. And her two daughters-in-law
wanted to come, and she urged them not once, she urged them
twice not to come. And she gave them good reason.
She said, there's no earthly benefit for them staying with
her. No future husband or someone to take care of you. And now
we see Orpah. Back to our text there in Ruth
1. Here in Rufa 1.14, and they lifted
up their voice and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. Orpah had great affection for
Naomi. She loved her, but she didn't love Naomi's Lord. She
went back to her people. She went back to her gods. She
did not have a sign. She didn't have a person, a reason
to stick to Naomi. It says, no sign shall be given
but Christ. She didn't have that sign, did
she? Only the divine revelation of Christ in a sinner's heart
will make a sinner follow Him. And the Apostle Paul, he received
mercy from Christ when Christ revealed Himself in Paul. And
that's what Paul meant whenever he said, as we have received
mercy, we will not faint. They're not fainting because
it's the same way you're sustained as the same way you receive mercy.
when Christ reveals Himself to you. That veil is upon the heart
of sinners. When the Holy Spirit turns a
sinner to Christ, that veil is removed. Now that sign's been
given, we see Christ now. To follow Christ and to turn
from this world, you must see He is all and in all. He has to break your heart and
show you that your eternal life depends on Him and His righteousness,
that He's all your hope. Then, the response will be very
clear and plain and evident to us, won't it? Paul wrote to us
in Corinthians, said, seeing then that we have such hope,
We use great plainness of speech, causes great hope. Boldly and
plainly, we tell people what our hope is, Christ. We tell
them what man is, nothing. He's all. Just like our Lord,
just like Naomi, just like all believing men and women, Paul
tells us in 1 Corinthians 2, says that your faith should not
stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And most
people ask, what is the power of God? That's a wrong question. Who's the power of God? The power
of God is a person. In 2 Corinthians, Paul goes on
to say, but we have this treasure and earthen vessel that the excellency
of the power of God may be of God and not of us. It's His power. Paul said, unto them which are
called, Christ is the power of God. Christ is the power of God
and salvation. He's the power to make sinners
righteous before the Holy God. The power to separate sinners
from darkness into His marvelous light. The power to break that
stony heart. The power to raise up even from
the dead. Job said, He thundereth with
His voice of His excellency, and He will not stay them when
His voice is heard. Only the divine revelation of
Christ in a sinner's heart will make a sinner follow Him. And
Naomi wanted Orpah to go to the house of bread because she had
to have the bread. Naomi had to have that bread.
But when Orpah forsook Naomi, she forsook God. The power of
God and Christ was not revealed to Orpah. She was not deadly
thirsty for that water of life. She didn't have a need. She could
take it or leave it. And she left it. She walked away
from it. Now see Ruth. Ruth 1.14. And they lifted up their voices
and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth clave unto her. Ruth clung to her, latched ahold
of her, wouldn't let go. Ruth saw more than a mother-in-law,
Naomi. She saw her sister. Listen to
how Ruth speaks of God and of the Lord. Naomi had taught her
the salvations of the Lord. Imagine, these two have been
together for ten years. They've been living in the same house.
If someone lived, to you believers, if someone lived with you for
ten years, do you think the Gospel is going to come up? will come
out of you, isn't it? That's going to be discussed
over that period of time. Look here at what Ruth said in
verse 15. And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law
is gone back unto her people and unto her gods. That's where
Orpah went. Back to her gods. Return thou
after thy sister-in-law. You go too. And Ruth said, entreat
me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For
whether thou goest, I will go. And whether thou lodgest, I will
lodge. And thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, I will die.
And there will I be buried, and the Lord do so to me, and more
also, if aught but death part thee and me." And when she saw
that she had steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left,
speaking unto her. Ruth loved Naomi because she
loved Naomi's God. She loved her people. And Ruth
wanted to live and die in that house of bread. Grace sends a
famine. Grace moves a Naomi near his
chosen child, Ruth. Grace takes a husband. Grace
takes sons. Grace gives his child a new heart
to cry out, God is my God. His people, they're my people.
Grace makes us hold to Christ in that oath, steadfastly minded
to follow him. In the same way Ruth made this
oath, We confess our allegiance to Christ and to the world in
Believer's Baptism. Where He died, I died. He was buried, I was buried.
Where He rose, I rose in Him. And nothing shall separate me
from the love of God in Christ Jesus. That's what Ruth was confessing. Steadfastly minded. Or, as we
talked about in the very beginning, choices. Serving the Lord is
not a choice. God-given faith has Christ for
its object and no other. There's no other object. All
choices have been removed. True faith is being made of God,
steadfastly minded for Christ. Those without God-given faith
have choices to make. just like Orpah, but not between
serving the true God, living God, and some other God, but
between their gods. That's what she went back to,
her gods. God must remove those choices
through those thorns and those walls, calling His people, drawing
them to Him, and then we have no choice. The unbeliever, they
think they have choices. We saw it a few weeks ago there
at Joshua 24. When he says, if it seemed evil unto you to serve
the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve. And he gives
him those options. Is it going to be the gods of
your fathers which served on the other side of the flood,
on that side of the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in
the land you dwell now? Which side of the river of false
gods are you going to pick? He says, as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord. child of God doesn't have a choice,
doesn't want one. If I had a choice, I'd mess it
up. I'd pick wrong every time. Thorns are in my way, walls are
built around me. I'm hedged about. You are too. As for him and his house, We're
going to serve Him. Now God made Naomi and Ruth,
made them, steadfastly minded only for Christ. And Orpah went
back and had to choose from all those different flavors of religion
that was in her land of Moab. Does it seem evil to you to serve
the Lord? Do you still have to choose between
your imaginary gods? It's my prayer that God thunders
in our hearts and makes us steadfastly minded on that bread of life,
Christ Jesus. Amen. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're so prone
to wonder how thankful we are that your hand of love, providence
of chastening comes down Set to our paths. Lord, draw us to
Christ. Keep us with him. Keep us cleaving
to him only. Strengthen us, Lord. We're so
weak and sinful. Thank you for this word, Lord.
Bless it to our hearts. Allow us to see if we're steadfast
that you've made us that way. Lord, keep our brethren. Make
them steadfastly minded. purge us, Lord, and keep us till
the end. It's in Christ's name that we
ask it. Amen.