As thy days, our Lord said, as
thy days, thy strength shall be in measure. It's the pledge,
the promise to me he made. Ruth sure needed that, didn't
she, Naomi? The book of Ruth could be called
the book of Phoas, couldn't it? The story of Ruth is the story
of Boaz, the kinsman redeemer, the one who bought her, brought
her, loved her, gave himself for her, married her, bought
back everything that she lost. The book of Ruth is the gospel
of Christ. My story. It's my story. It's
your story. If the Lord has called you and
redeemed you, Ruth is not the story of Ruth only, but Naomi. We read these two women, two
different women. One's a Jew and one's a Gentile. But the Lord broke down that
enmity and brought them together then, Jew and Gentile. Their
lives were vitally connected, vitally connected. Everything about them was connected
like God's people. We come from different places.
And Ruth is not just their story, but it's our story. Everyone,
it's our story. The story of all of God's people
who I said are vitally joined together by our union with Christ.
And Naomi and Ruth, both, their true connection was Boaz. In
the end, Boaz bought everything for Naomi in return, and Ruth. He's both of their kin of redeeming. So, their connection, their union
was in Christ, and so it is with us. Naomi, as I said, was a Jew. She was from Bethlehem. But she
left God's people, didn't she? She left God's people to go to
a heathen land. It seemed like she needed to
do this. Her husband thought they needed
to do this and left and went to a heathen land, Moab. And
she said in her own words, I left fools. And she went into the Moab where
there was none of God's people and no truth. And she ended up being empty.
And that'll happen every time, Mom. Every time. And, you know,
she said that the Lord was against her, the Lord was afflicting
her, the Lord had dealt bitterly with her. The Lord was being
real good to her. Everything he did brought her
back. For else she would have stayed
and died in Moab with Heth. Isn't the Lord good? All the
trouble she went through. No, the Lord didn't deal harshly
and bitterly with her. He did His great mercy, great
grace. Hosea says this. Let me just
read to you from Hosea. It says in Hosea 11, my people
are meant to backslide him. My people are meant to backslide
him. But then he went on to say in
Hosea 14, he said, I'll heal their backslides, and I'll love
them freely, for mine anger is turned away from them. Naomi. Backslip. She left. But the Lord brought her back.
Brought her back. Ruth. Ruth is a heathen. Ruth is an unbeliever. Ruth didn't
know the Lord. She didn't know the Lord. She
wanted to know the Lord. Don't you love her prayer? That was her prayer. I want your
God to be my God. Your people to be my people.
Where you die is where I want to die and so forth. I don't think she knew the Lord
until she met Boaz. And that's us in it. That's us. We don't know Him until we leave
Christ. But she was an unbeliever in
a heathen land where no gospel was. She didn't know God. She didn't know she had a kinsman
redeemed. Didn't know she needed one. But God. See, God has a people out of
every kindred, nation, and tongue under heaven. God chose her.
God called her out from the heathen. He called her out from the heathen
to bring her to where God's people were, to the house of bread.
That's what Bethlehem means, the house of bread. No bread
in Moab. I don't care how prosperous it
seemed to be. They sure ended up emptying it
in Moab. Boaz didn't leave Bethlehem. Boaz and his maidens didn't leave
Bethlehem. You reckon Boaz took care of
everybody during that famine? You know he did. You know he
did. So Ruth was a heathen woman like
every one of us. We're all Gentiles in this room.
But God called her. God loved her. God brought her
out from the heathen to this house of bread to meet her Redeemer. And Ruth had to leave everyone
and everything to do that. That's the title of this message.
That's the subject. Leaving all for the gospel. Ruth
had to leave everywhere and everyone to go where there was bread or
she would have died among the heathen. She has to go where
her Redeemer is and so must we. Every one of us. Matthew 10. I want you to see these two sobering
passages of Scripture that our Lord said. Matthew 10 and Mark
10. Look over there before we go
to Ruth. Matthew 10. You have it? Now this is the words
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 10. You have it? Verse
37. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh
not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that
findeth his life shall lose it. That is, if this is your only
life, if your way in this world is your only way, you're going
to lose everything. But he that loseth his life for
my sake shall find it. Mark chapter 10, easy to remember,
both of them. Chapter 10, listen to this. It
gets even more serious, but yet more comforting. Mark chapter
10, look at verse 28. Peter and James and John, Mark
10, 28. Peter and James and John and
those twelve disciples did leave everybody and everything. They
had wives, they had children, they had home. And Peter began
to say unto him, Lo, we have left all and followed thee. And
Jesus answered and said, Verily, or truly, I say unto you, There
is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or man
or woman, hath left father, or mother, or wife, or children,
or lands for my sake and the gospels. But he or she shall
receive a hundredfold right now, in this time, houses, and brethren,
and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecution,
with trouble, and in the world to come, last and the best eternal
life. So our Lord said, all must leave
and all of God's people will. Ruth did, didn't she? Naomi came
back. All must and all shall. All must
leave family. Now, in this room we have people
that were born and raised right here in Franklin County, okay?
You didn't have to leave anywhere to get here. But you still had
to leave family, didn't you? You still, when you were in false
religion like Ruth was, you had a good relationship with all
your relatives and so forth. But when you heard this message
and came to the house of bread, then the persecution began there,
and the separation began. All must, all must need Christ,
the blood of Christ more than blood can. And with all who consider
what a great blessing this is, they have no choice. They have no choice. And they
all consider it a great privilege. A great privilege. But many, some in here, several
in here, have literally had to leave a town, an estate, houses
and jobs to come here and hear this gospel. Quite a few. We've got people that come from
New York, Alabama, North Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio,
and the list goes on and on. Why? Why are they here? Because this is the house of
bread. And this is where the Redeemer
is found. And all of those met the Redeemer. Right here. Right here. The gospel
of Christ is being preached. All brought by the sovereign
power and providence and purpose of God. For these reasons. The bread. The bread from heaven.
The gospel. Our Lord said, leave all these
for my sake and the gospel. The gospel is Christ. The gospel
is Christ. Christ and the gospel are synonymous.
You can exchange the word Christ for gospel and gospel for Christ
all through the scripture. It has the same meaning. The
gospel is the power of God. Christ is the power of God. So,
it's, our Lord said, all of his people must and shall live for
the gospel sake. All brought by the sovereign
power of God for bread, And the kingdom of God, the end of this
story, the end of this story, it all seems bad. It all seems desolate and all seems so sad. This is what Naomi sees, a pull
of bitterness and sorrow. They wept and wept and wept and
wept. Oh, that they were wise when
they considered the latter. You know how this ends, don't
you? Oh my, the story of Naomi and
Ruth ends with the birth of a child. A new birth. There were no new
births, only death. And here's a story, somebody
had to die for somebody to be born. You hear me? There's a child named Obed. It's going to be born. And he
wouldn't be born unless the Limelech and Mylon and Chalion had died. And from Obed, Jesse. And you
know Jesse's son, don't you? David. And who came from him? Christ. How many came from him? See, it's all vitally connected.
It has to happen exactly like the Lord did it. They're all
vitally connected. And the lives of all of God's
people, you know, everyone for whom Christ died, everyone that
God chose, and everyone for whom Christ died, they must, they
must be born again. They're in Christ's life. He's
their Redeemer. They must be born again for the
Kingdom of God's sake. Everything is for the Kingdom
of God's sake. You understand that? Everything
is for the furtherance of God's Kingdom. Everything, every trial,
every tribulation, every affliction, everything we go through is for
the furtherance of God's Kingdom. We don't see it. We don't know
what God's doing. He's doing something through
every single thing in everyone's life for the furtherance of His
Kingdom. That's the way I got word. Then Hannah and I left everything,
everyone to come here. And we found a little rental
home. And the first night, I'll never
forget, we all laid on a mattress on the floor in this strange
town. Didn't know anybody away from
home. We relied on that mattress, crying. Wondering, why are we here? Look at this. You know how many
births have happened? It wasn't, I mean, every day
I'd go over here and sit in that little 8 by 10 room, that block
room, and study 8, 10, 12 hours. And after a while, I asked the
Lord, I begged the Lord, Lord, I believe you brought me here.
Would you bring some fruit out of this? Did it? God's way is not our way. The
way the Lord brings Naomi and Ruth to Bethlehem is a way of
trouble. Same with all of God's people.
He said you must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom
of heaven. And there was great sorrow. Look
at our text in Ruth chapter 1. Look at it with me. Chapter 1,
Ruth. It was great sorrow for Naomi
and Ruth and much weeping. They wept and wept and wept.
David one time said, well, the story of David. At Ziklag, where
all his wives and children were, all the wives of the men taken,
and they thought they were all dead, and the city was burned
with fire, and it says, David and all the men wept till they
couldn't weep anymore. You ever wept where no more tears
would flow? We all have. We all have. And so Ruth and Naomi did that. Okay? Much weeping. Verse 3,
Naomi's husband died. How long was she married? 20,
30 years? No matter if it's 5 years, she
loved this man. Her husband died. That's a deep
trial in it. There's 6 widows in this congregation. That's a tough trial. I don't
know what that's like. I don't really want to go through
it. But one of us is going to, unless the Lord takes us both
at the same time. We always pray for that. If the
Lord takes us both at the same time, it's probably not going
to happen. Somebody's going to be a widower,
a widower. Right? And then the Lord took both of
her sons That, you know, to lose a husband
or a wife, I've never been through that. It has to be one of the
toughest trials ever, but to lose a child. Every parent thinks
that it's not supposed to be that way. The parent's supposed
to go first, right? Seven or eight people in this
congregation have lost children. One lady lost two. Some have lost a husband and
children. So nothing's changed yet. This
is the way. God hasn't changed. And His ways
haven't changed. And you know what the Scripture
says about weeping, and we weep. It's sorrowful, isn't it? Deep,
deep sorrow. You think you'll never, ever
get over the sorrow, right? Do you? Is joy coming tomorrow? Has joy
come yet? Some of these widows and women
who have lost children are smiling at me right now. Deepest, deepest,
darkest trial. They're smiling. Yes, they're
saying the Lord's true to His Word. He's true to His Word.
If we just wait, we're going to see. And we're going to thank
him. When it's all over, we're going
to thank him for every single thing he did exactly like he
did, and be thankful that nobody could change it. Old Brother
Scott, he lost his wife. He lost his
health, like Joe. A couple of sons ended up in
prison. On and on it went. He said, if you knew what God
knows, you'd order your life exactly like God did. He would
change that. And somebody will know. It's
all over. We'll say, there's a song we
used to sing, It will be worth it all. It will be worth it all. Worth it all. So the journey
began for Ruth and Naomi. The journey began. Two insignificant
women, two nobodies from nowhere, insignificant to the world. Are they insignificant? Not to
God. One of them is David's great-grandmother. The world doesn't know them. The world doesn't care. Moab
didn't need them. Bethlehem didn't recognize them.
Oh, but God knew them. Lord knew. Naomi and Ruth, loved
of God. These were not insignificant
women. These were saints. Saints of God. The whole world
exists for them. Can you believe that? It said,
I gave Ethiopia for thee, Egypt for thy ranch, Ethiopia and Seba
for thee. You're precious to me, God said. Naomi and Ruth
were poor Down and out, they're hungry. That's where they're
going. They're going to Bethlehem for
bread because they're hungry. Oh, blessed are they that hunger
and thirst. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst. The first thing the Lord does for anybody when He
begins to work on them is make them hungry. Make them hungry. For what? Bread. What's bread? What Christ said. I'm the bread. People get hungry for what they
don't know. They don't know what. The Lord has to tell them, you
need Christ. You need the Word. You need the
truth. You need the gospel. You need Christ. Oh, blessed
are they that hunger and thirst for the gospel. That's a sign
of life. If you ever lose that hunger
and thirst, you're either sick or dead. Oh, blessed hunger. Where there's
hunger, there's hope. You know that? Where there's
hunger, there's hope. Like that prodigal son, he ended
up in the hog pen, but the Lord brought him to himself. And he
had a hunger, a need to go back home. And the Lord brought him.
Verse 6 says that Naomi arose with her daughters-in-law. She
heard that there was bread. In Bethlehem. That's what she
heard. In Bethlehem. Can you find a
little book of Micah? Can you find it? Can I find it?
Micah chapter 5. I didn't mark it. I got an advantage
over you. I mark these ahead of time. Micah
chapter 5. She heard that there's bread
in Bethlehem. Well, there should be. That's
the name of the town. House of Bread. And look at Micah,
chapter 5. Micah, chapter 5, verse 2. But thou, Bethlehem, Ephratah,
though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of
thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel,
whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. Out
of thee shall come the Redeemer. Bethlehem. Not Jerusalem, not
Rome, not Athens, no little town of Bethlehem. You know what the
population of Bethlehem was about this time? 2,000 people. 2,002 now. 2,000 people. Well, what's the population?
2,000 people. What's there? What's in Bethlehem? What are
the job opportunities in Bethlehem? Are there business opportunities
in Bethlehem? What about the education system there? Is there
a good school system in Bethlehem? What about recreational opportunities
and activities? What do you have for young people
in Bethlehem? Does any of that matter? What's
in Bethlehem? Bread. You're going to die without
it. That's the one thing needful. If you've got that, if you've
got the gospel, everything else will be added to you. Isn't that
what our Lord said? Blessed are they that hunger, but seek ye
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these
things will be added to you. Bread, gospel, the one thing. So, the Lord put in the heart
of Naomi this hunger, this backslidden woman, brought her back home
by suffering, sorrow, loneliness, hunger, it's all good. Didn't
David say it's good for me that I've been afflicted? Didn't he? And he does that to all of his
people, to bring them to see that there's one thing needful,
one thing they need. And Ruth. Ruth. The Lord put a hunger in her.
Now there were two, weren't there? Go back to our tape. Book of
Ruth. There were two sisters-in-law. Orpah and Ruth. Two daughters-in-law of Naomi. And one of them, or both of them, were given these
sons of Naomi, and both of them lost those sons, those husbands. Look at it. Verse 8, And so Naomi
said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return to your mother's house.
The Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with my sons
and with me. Verse 14, And Ruth, or Orpah left. She left her mother-in-law. They lifted up their voice and
wept. And it says that Orpah, verse 15, went back to her people. They went back to her gods. So
she was a heathen. And she left Naomi and Ruth. And went back to her people,
probably remarried, maybe had children. Seemed like she had
a good life, didn't she? And went back to her false gods,
Moab. There's no bread in Moab. She
may have prospered in Moab. She may have had all those things
I just mentioned in Moab. It's a big place. But she didn't
have Christ. She died without Christ, didn't
she? But God, who made this difference? These two young ladies are just
alike. They're from the same place,
aren't they? Who made Ruth say, no, I'm going
with you? Who did that? Who made her to
differ? Who maketh thee to differ? You got a brother, I got a brother.
Who put this need in your heart for Christ and not your brother?
Sovereign election is wonderful. Sovereign mercy is salvation.
Or else we would not come. We would not come. And this is
the story of every one of God's people. And what she said to
Naomi is what all of God's people pray to our Lord. Verse 16. Entreat me not to leave thee.
Don't let me leave you. I don't want to leave you. or
return from following after that. I want to follow you. Where you,
whither thou goest, I'll go. Whither thou, where you lodge,
I will lodge. Thy people should be my people.
Thy God, my God. This is what God's people say
to our Lord Jesus Christ. Your people are my people. Your
God's my God. The only God there is. Where
you die, will I die. Where, there will I be buried.
We want to be crucified with Christ, don't we? Buried with
Christ and risen with Christ. And let nothing, not even death,
separate us. And it says, I love this, it
says that Naomi saw that she was steadfastly minded. She was
steadfastly minded. She couldn't change her mind.
Listen to this. All of God's people say this.
They say, Treat me not to leave. Don't let me leave you. Don't
let me go back. Don't let me go back. I want
to follow you. I want your people to be my people. The true and
living God be my God. Christ him crucified, my Lord. Let nothing and no one separate
me from you. And we cleave, we hold fast to
him. And it says this in Hebrews 11,
it says, We're made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning
of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Who made Ruth steadfast? The Lord did. You see, God's
people don't have a choice. When God chooses them, from then
on, they don't have a choice. They're glad of it. They're glad
of it. All God chose, they choose Him.
Hebrews 11, don't you love the story of Moses? It says that
Moses, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of
God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season, esteeming
the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasure
of Egypt. He had respect under the end, the reckoned path. And
by faith he forsook Egypt. Where's he going? The wilderness? I've told this story so many
times, maybe some of you haven't heard it. Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's
Prophecy. And the whole book starts out
this way. There's a man, he said, I saw a man stand there. with a book in his hand and a
burden on his back. You know what this told me. And
as he read in that book, he wept. He wept because of this burden
on his back. And he heard that he needed to
get through yon wicked gate, yon straight and narrow gate,
beyond that to a cross. And there his burden would fall
off. So he was determined to leave
the city of destruction. His family was there, his friends
were there, his job, his home was there. He was determined
to leave the city of destruction and go to the celestial city.
And so he started leaving and his wife, his children, his neighbors
were mocking him, his wife and children were begging him not
to leave. His neighbors were calling him a fool. Do you know
what he did? says he put his fingers in his
ears and ran toward that gate, crying, life, life, eternal life. And he got through that gate,
and he got to the cross, and his burden rolled down into a
grave. It was a time of suffering. Pilgrim
went through it. Naomi and Ruth went through it.
Especially for Ruth. Naomi's coming home. But Ruth's
in a strange town. Stranger in a strange place. But she has somebody waiting
on her. Look at verse 3. You know I can't tell this story
reading a couple of these verses, chapter 2, verse 3, so she went
out looking for something to eat. She gleaned in a field after
the reaper, and it just so happened, her hap was to lie on a part
of the field belonging to Boaz. You know how many fields were
in Bethlehem, in Israel? Everybody, the farmers, their
cattle, their shepherds. And she just happened. She went
out, out of venture, to glean something for her and her mother-in-law,
and just happened to land in the field that belonged to the
only person that could do her any good. Her only hope. The only one that could buy back
and restore to her everything she'd lost. Her kinsman redeemer.
Now who did that? There's no such thing as love
for chance or accidents in the life of God's family. Anybody's
life for that matter. Her half. Her half. And so she
gleaned in this field and somebody had his eye on her. Long before
she saw him, her kin's redeemer saw her. He said, who is that? They told her. Then he introduced
himself to her. She still didn't know him. She
didn't know who he was. But here's what he said to her.
Look at verse 16. He let fall handfuls of purpose
for her. Everything in Ruth's life was
on purpose. Everything in our life is on
purpose. We think we make this decision, that decision. No,
God made all the decisions long before we were born. And he gave
the command He gave the command for her to stay in this field,
stay in this field. And look at verse, let's see. It said, verse 15, he said, Boaz
commanded his young men saying, let her glean among the sheaves
and reproach her not. And he told her earlier, stay
in this field. And she did. And brothers and sisters, the
gospel's here. It was your hap to lie in this field that belonged
to Christ. Whether you hear the gospel,
meet your Redeemer. And you know what He tells us to do? Sit still. Stay still. Stay right there.
Eat. And she went home that day, and
not only said to her, verse 20, verse 19, where have you been?
Where have you been? She said, I think the name of
the field belongs to a man named Boaz. And Naomi said, Oh, blessed
be the Lord. He's not left off this kindness.
I said, Tony, that man is our near of kin. That's our kinsman
redeemer. You've just met your only hope. And our only hope. So, this was of the Lord. Oh, my. And there she stayed. As she
stayed, look at chapter 3, I'm going to close this out, chapter
3. Significantly, there's four Gospels
and there's four chapters in Ruth. But she came, and chapter
3, and look at verse, she came, verse 7, she came to where he
was and she lay down at his feet. at night. And verse 9, she said
to him, spread your skirt over me. You're my only hope. You're
my kinsman. When you hear about Christ, you
hear the gospel, you say, oh, clothe me with thy righteousness.
You're my only hope. And he said, blessed be thou
of the Lord, my daughter. He said, I'm your kinsman. Verse
12, I'm your kinsman. And he said in verse 18, Naomi
said to Ruth later, sit still, my daughter. We're going to wait
on this man. This man will not rest until
he's finished this thing. In chapter 4, and I quit, verse
13, Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife. And he went into her,
and the Lord gave her conception. And she bare a son. Women said
unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this
day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.
That's why I did it, for his glory. That's why God does this,
for his glory. He's going to get glory out of
us. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life. Christ
is our life. A nourisher of thine old age.
He carries us from the cradle to the grave. And our daughter-in-law,
which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, Naomi,
hath borne this son. And Naomi took the child, and
laid it in her bosom, and became a nurse unto it. The women, her
neighbors, gave it a name, saying, As a son born to Naomi." Naomi? Ruth had this child. No, he belonged
to both of them. Boaz bought them both. And his name was Obed. He's the
father of Jesse, the father of David. And from David came the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my. Oh, my. What the Lord does in the life
of His people to bring them to Him. No accidents, no chance. And what mercy and what grace,
what blessing. Stand with me.