The book of Ruth, found right after the book of
Judges. I believe it's the eighth book in the Old Testament, so
that you'll find it readily. The book of Ruth, read with me
the first seven verses. in the days when the judges ruled
that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem,
Judah, went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife
and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech,
and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons
Malon and Chalion, Epiphytes of Bethlehem, Judah. And they
came into the country of Moab and continued there. In Elimelech,
Naomi's husband died, and she was left and her two sons. And
they, the two sons, took them wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah,
and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelled there about
ten years. And Malan and Chalion died also,
both of them. And the woman was left of her
two sons and her husband. Then she arose, that is Naomi,
with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country
of Moab. For she had heard in the country
of Moab how the Lord had visited his people and given 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." The book of Ruth is a genealogy of sorts. It is, as it were, a family tree. It is the story of a making of
a family. But this is not an endless genealogy,
but this is one that has an end, a very blessed And this is not just any family
tree. This is the Lord Jesus Christ's
family tree. Now, look at verse 1 with me,
beginning here. We're going to see very clearly,
I hope, by God's Spirit, how God brings about all that he
does for the redemption of fallen sons of Adam, fallen daughters
of Adam. beginning with verse one. Now,
it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled. Now, this is right after the
book of Judges, but it happened, we believe, during the time of
the judges. That's what it says here, in
the days when the judges ruled. Do you remember that after Joshua
died, There were judges appointed over the people to rule the people,
to mediate. They were not kings, they were
not rulers in the strict sense, but they were mediators. They
would mediate in certain things and so forth. Look back, the
page preceding that, to Judges 21. Judges 21, look at verse
25. This is significant. It says, "...in those days there
was no king in Israel, but every man did that which
was right in his own eyes." There was no king in Israel,
but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Though the law had been handed
down by Moses, these were people who had a first edition of the
law of God, handed down by Moses. And God's will was clearly revealed
to them. Nevertheless, in spite of the
clear law of God, every man did that which was right in his own
eyes. And in the beginning, this is
a picture of mankind. In the beginning, Adam received
from God Almighty very clear, very explicit, very plain instructions
or law. Very plain. And in spite of that,
in spite of the fact that Adam had the law of God, who was his
king, had the law of God clearly revealed to him, Adam nevertheless
did that which was right in his own eyes. He refused the plain
and clear commandments of God for that which was right in his
own eyes. And from the very first man,
from Adam our father, every man and woman has proceeded
from him. And from the very first man proceeded
a race of people whose every ambition and desire is to be
their own God. That's what I told you that a
recent philosopher said was the basic problem within every man
and woman's heart is that every man and woman wants to be in
charge of their own destiny. In other words, they want to
be God and set up their own standard and do that which is right in
their own eyes. Men and women down through the
years have fallen into every conceivable error and wickedness
and iniquity, rather than hear the plain law of God Almighty. And this proves that man cannot
rule himself. Man cannot rule himself. A democracy
will not work. It must be a theocracy. That is, man must be ruled by
God. Man needs a king. He needs an
all-wise, sovereign, benevolent king. Israel had that at one
time. They had Moses, they had Samuel,
they had David, and things were fine. But at this time, the setting
of our story, see here, this is the setting of our story,
and that was significant that we read that. Every man at this
time did that which was right in his own eye. This was a time
of darkness, a time of ignorance, a time of self-rule. In other
words, you think this is right, I think this is right, you think
this is wrong. It will all go our own way and
we hope it turns out. It sounds like today that it
was a godless time. There was no king in Israel.
No king. And in the midst of this evil
time, this dark, evil time of ignorance and superstition, God
brings about certain events that issue in the coming of the King. God is going to bring about certain
glorious and marvelous and providential dealings and events that bring,
that usher in the last King who will ever rule. And it will really straighten
this mess up. Now, verse 1 again. Now, it came to pass. It came
to pass. What came to pass? Well, the
scripture says in Acts 15, 18, known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. Did you hear that? This story, your story, everyone's
story, the story, the events behind everything, this story,
every detail of it, every event of it, was sovereignly decreed
by Almighty God before the foundation of the world. Every single event,
as with all things and as with all people. And nothing and no
one could change what was about to happen, because God had decreed
it, that this was going to happen. This was no alternative plan,
what God was about to do. God does not have alternatives.
God does not have contingencies. Do you know what a contingency
is? It is when you try one thing and it fails, you have a contingency
plan. You have a backup plan. You have
something. If that fails, you hope this
works. This is what people are saying about the gospel, that
the law didn't work. You see, man failed in that plan
of God. God was hoping man would live,
but he didn't. So God had this waiting in the
wings, had a contingency plan. And Christ came and did this
and all that, and he's not sure if that's going to work. Right? Basically, that's what's
being taught today. God's not sure who's going to
be saved. He hopes that plan, it looks like that one's going
to be a failure. There's no contingency with God. Known unto God are
all his works from the beginning. There are no accidents with God.
There are no happenstance. There's no such thing as L-U-C-K. But there is such thing as providence,
that known unto God are all his works from the beginning. It
says God worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, You can't do that.
None can stay his hand. It says God will work, and who
shall let it? Doesn't it say that? And every
event in history and in the future has been divinely ordered, down
to every jot and tittle, down to every fly that wriggles, or
flies, every worm that wriggles, every moth that moths, every
particle of dust and every sunbeam that comes through the window,
is divinely ordered and predestinated by God Almighty. We believe that. If you don't, you don't have
a God. You don't have a God. An atom bomb is made up of molecular
molecules, is it not? What's to prevent a couple of
atoms fusing together and all of a sudden there being an explosion?
God's in control of the atoms. Every particle, every event in
history and in the future has been divinely ordained down to
every jot and tittle for the glory of God and for the entrance
and the glory and the setting forth of God's Son. Everything
has an end. The last chapter in God's book
is Son language. Everybody is going to hang the
Son in the sky. He hung him once on a cross.
That was the center of history, you see? That was the central
point of history, when Christ hung on that cross, hanging there. The last moment in time was when
Christ hangs in the heavens for every eye to see him. And that's
all she wrote. And the way, now listen to this,
the way that God generally does this. The way that God generally
brings about the redemption of sons and the glorification of
himself, God's greatest glory, and the revelation of his Son,
the way that he generally does that throughout the scriptures
is by showing man to be absolutely helpless and hopeless and dead
and dying. By revealing the story of man
in his utter helplessness, hopelessness, and despair and in darkness,
that his sun might shine forth the brighter. Like a black cloth. When you go in a jeweler, Nancy,
and someone comes in and they want to buy a diamond from you,
what do you do? You get out a black or a dark
blue velvet cloth, don't you? And then you bring out that,
it might be a little quarter carat, like I cheaply bought
my wife. But it'll look big, won't it,
on that black backdrop. You bring that out and you bring
out a diamond and it shines that much brighter, doesn't it? Oh,
isn't it beautiful? God's glory, the redemption of
man, the glory of his son, shines that much brighter with a backdrop
of man's sin and other helplessness and hopelessness and despair,
and that's the backdrop of this story here. In the midst of utter
despair and hopelessness, one bright and shining central figure
shines forth. Who is it? Ruth? Oh, no. Oh, no. You know, I marked through
Ruth at the top of my Bible. I'm not desecrating God's Word.
That was added by the translators. just as a label over this book.
I've got written up at the top of my Bible, who has. That's who this story is about.
He's the central figure in this story. And do you know what is
written all over the front of this book? The front and the
back? It's got a name written. And
it's not man. It's not the story of man. It's
the story of the God man. It's got Jesus Christ's name.
written all over. Boaz, our Boaz, our kinsman-redeemer,
is written all over. And this book, as with all others,
this book of Ruth, speaks of the Prince and Savior, the coming
one, Jesus Christ. As he said, they are they which
testify of me. John, he may have preached to
those disciples from the book of Ruth. Wouldn't you like to
hear him preach that message? Well, maybe we will. All right,
now look at verses 1 through 3 again. Just like everything
comes that God designs and it will pass in God's good time. When the judges ruled there was
a famine in the land. As the famine and a certain man
of Bethlehem, Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and
his wife and his two sons. And the name of that man was
Elimelech. Elimelech. And the name of his wife was
Naomi. And the name of his two sons, Malon and Chalion, they
were Epiphytes of Bethlehem, Judah. And they left Bethlehem,
and they came into the country of Moab, and continued there. And Elimelech, Naomi's husband,
died. And she was left with her two
sons. Elimelech. You know what the
name Elimelech means? The name Elimelech means, My God is King. The name Naomi means, My God
is sweet. Now here's two Israelites. God
is king. God is sweet. Dwelling in God's
land, Israel, in God's hand, God's protection, under God's
orders to stay there. Don't leave. This is my land,
regardless of the circumstances. I'm God. You're mine. Everything
will be all right. That's God's orders to his people.
Dwelling in God's land, the promise. They weren't starving. There
was a famine, all right, but I guarantee you they weren't
starving. Didn't David say, say, I've been young and now I'm old
and I've never seen God's seed forsaken, the righteous forsaken
or his seed begging bread. Never. Have you ever seen any
of God's people starving? Any of you have to go out on the
streets and become bag ladies and street people? No, I've never
seen that in God's people. And David said a long time ago,
thousands of years ago, he'd never seen it either. That's
a lot of people that Even the children of Israel, wandering
through the desert, they weren't planting any crops. Did they
go hungry? No. The Lord fed them. So here are
these two Israelites, Elimelech and Naomi. They were not starving,
but they left Israel. They left Israel to sojourn in
Moab. Now, do you know what Moab was? Do you know where Moab was? Moab
was the archenemy of Israel. Moab was the enemies of God.
They were the enemies of God. They were against God. And this
was against God's express direction. God told the people of Israel,
don't you have any dealings with the Moab. As a matter of fact,
he told them to kill them, and they didn't. But Elimelech and
Naomi disobeyed God, disbelieved God, and they left with their
two sons, and Elimelech died in that strange land. And Naomi
was left in sorrow. And do you remember what Naomi
said when she came back to Judah? They said, There's Naomi. She
said, Call me not Naomi. God is sweet. Call me Marah. My Lord hath dealt bitterly with
me. Bitter. I'm bitter now. I've lost my
husband. We died. Naomi died in Moab. She would have lived in Judah.
Does that remind you of a story in the beginning? Adam and Eve? Adam, the man created
in God's own image? He disobeyed God? What happened?
He died. He died. And Eve? What about
Eve? She's called the giver of life. That's what Eve means, the life
giver. What did Eve say after she writhed in anguish and pain
after giving birth to her first son or daughter or whichever
it was? What did she say? She said, Oh,
I have great bitterness and sorrow and anguish because of it. Call me not Eve, call me Mara. All right, look at verses 3 through
5. And Elimelech and Naomi's husband died, and she was left
with her two sons. Isn't this a clear parallel? And they took them wives of the
women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah,
and the name of the other, Ruth. And they dwelled there about
ten years, and Malan and Chalion died also, the two sons, both
of them. And the woman was left. All that
was left was this poor little woman. So here's our story. A once proud
and Upright and happy and robust
and lively man, God is king. A woman, God is sweet. Two fine
sons, two scrapping boys living in God's land. Everything is
just fine and dandy. And they left because of a little
adversity. And they left. And the man died. And the two sons died. And all
you've got left now is one for the low widow. And two widowed
daughters-in-law. Now, there's nothing, back in
these days, there was nothing more helpless or desperate than
a destitute widow, a woman for that matter. Deborah, a woman
had it tough back then a woman just about could not make it
on her own it was not the day of women's live back then. Not
at all a woman had no independence whatsoever. It was a truly a
man's world a man's society women were like slaves. And there was nothing more desperate
or hopeless the case of a widowed woman with nothing Nothing more
desperate or hopeless. And this was the reason. You
remember when Naomi, when Naomi pleaded with her two daughters-in-law,
this was the reason she pleaded so strongly with her two daughters-in-law. You go back and you find you
some husbands. Don't stay with me. My case is hopeless. I want
to drag myself home and hope for the best. I want to become
a beggar. Don't you stay with me. You stay
and you find you a couple of husbands or you're lost. You're
gone. Now, here's the story. The story of God Almighty's sovereign
grace and providence is clearly seen in the life of one little,
poor little destitute Moabite girl, living in a pagan land,
living in darkness. A story of a little lady who
was brought to the point of utter despair and hopelessness, finally
down in the dust, an absolutely hopeless case. And it's at this
point, where all seems to be lost, that God Almighty steps
in and shows his absolute glory. Now, after Adam's As I said,
after Adam's fall for 4,000 years, mankind had been in darkness
and misery and sin and despair, at a point of seemingly utter
hopelessness and helplessness. If you will read the last verse
in the last book of the Old Testament, you will find that it ends with
this word, a curse. The human race for 4,000 years
after Adam's fall was under a curse, living in darkness, living in
sin, apparently hopeless and helpless. And it's at this point
in time when all seems to be absolutely dark and hopeless
when God steps in. Or rather, God steps down, steps
down onto planet Earth. And like Ruth, Think about this. Like Ruth, the events that surrounded
the life of another little maiden somewhere with a name that had
four letters. Her name was Mary. The events
that surrounded that poor little helpless woman. Everything was
divinely ordered by God, and around those seemingly helpless
and hopeless circumstances, a ray of hope had shined. A bright
and morning star, for that matter. A son was about to arise with
healing in his wings. Who is the son of David? Who is the son of Jesse? Who is the son of Obed? Who is the son of Moaz? Who is the husband of Ruth? This poor little helpless, hopeless
woman, widow. Now, how did God accomplish this? Christ had to come from the seat
of David, from the seat of Jesse, from the seat of Obed, from the
seat of Boaz, from the seat of Ruth. He had to. How did he accomplish
this? How did God do this? You see,
it all hinged. Ruth had to marry a certain man.
She had to meet a certain man, a son of David, her kin to redeem
her. Had to. What did God do then?
How did all this come about, huh? Did God wait for somebody
to do something? Was he up in heaven saying, I
hope it turns out? Huh? Did he just hope for the
best? Did he hope Ruth exercised her
free will? I hope Ruth decides to go with
Naomi. Is that what God was saying?
Oh, I hope she goes because she's got to marry Boaz. Oh, I hope
she falls in love with Boaz. She might not have him. I hope
she decides for Boaz. Is that the way it happened?
No, a thousand times no. A thousand times, God purposed
every footstep that Ruth was to take. And this is how he did
it. You see, God moves and things move. God moves and things happen. Not vice versa. God never reacts. Did you hear me? God never reacts. A reaction is an action to something
that has taken place. It's the resulting action of
something that happened. God never reacts. Man reacts. God acts. Man reacts. God moves. Things happen. God wills. Things happen. God purposes. It'll be done. He said, I've
spoken it. I'll do it. Count on it. That's
the way it is. So God moved. How did he do this?
How did he do this thing? He moves in mysterious ways. If nobody else is going to enjoy
this, I'm going to. I'm just going to enjoy this
this morning. God moves in mysterious ways. He doesn't have ways that
are not our ways. How would we have done this?
Well, I wouldn't have. I would have. How would you have
done it? Let's see. I sure wouldn't have. See, Ruth
has got to meet Boaz. Boaz is over here in Judah, and
Ruth is over here in Moab. And she's down in the dust, and
it appears that she's all hopeless near here. How are they going
to get together? Well, I never would have put her over there.
I'd have put her over here, and I'd have drecked her out. Oh,
I'd have made Ruth the prettiest, the finest, the best looking,
the most talented, and I'd have just paraded her before old Boaz,
you know, till finally Boaz could not resist her, and he said,
I've got to have that woman. That's how I'd have done it.
His way is not our way. God sent a famine and took a
man from Judah and his family, two sons, took them down to a
land, killed the man and the two boys' married wives, killed
them Brought the two wives and the mother down in the dirt,
not knowing where they were going to go, where they were going
to do, barred their way every which way, finally brought them
back to Egypt, made them slaves, gleaning in a field, and brought
Boaz riding along. And Boaz looks down in pity and
mercy and says, Who's that? God sent a famine. A famine. Have you seen pictures on the
television of famines? Ethiopia and various places. Where was the most recent famine?
I forget. It was over in Africa. Somalia,
that was it. A famine. It's a devastating
thing, isn't it? It's a life-threatening thing. That's not the way we
would have done it, was it? Is that the way you would have
done it? God did it. God sent a famine. Did you hear that 20th century?
God sent the famine. Not the devil. God sent the famine,
dried up the earth, dried up the crops. People died. God sent the famine, and the
whole train of events that followed because of this famine culminated
in the ushering in of God's Son into the world. Now, listen to
me. Why did I dwell on this? God
directed the fall. Do you hear that? The fall of
man was directed by God Almighty to show forth and usher in his
ultimate glory, to show forth his son, his sovereign saving
power, to bring man to his wits end, to a hopeless and helpless
case, to bring forth his son into the world. Yeah. Yeah. Now listen to me. You got problems
with this? Listen to this statement by Thomas
Watson. You've got to listen to it. In the sin of the action. Did
you hear that? I would make you repeat it back,
but you couldn't. God always has a hand in the
action where the sin is taking place. Adam and Eve before the
serpent. Did that take God unaware? Did
God not have prevented that? Sure He could. This is all in
His purpose. Stay with me. But He never has
a hand in the sin of the action. You can never charge God with
the sin itself. Though Satan, now listen, Satan
is an agent of evil. I'm going to explain some things
to you here. We don't need to explain them, that's the way
it is, but I'm going to explain it to you. Though Satan is an
agent of evil, he can only do what God allows him to do and
what God had purposed for him to do all along. Though man is responsible, God
orders every step he takes. God is absolutely sovereign over
all people, things, and events, or he would not be God. Somebody else would. That's the
true meaning of the word. absolute ruler. That's what God
means, absolute. That means in all things, irrefutably,
undeniably ruler and controller of all things. Now listen, I'll
give you an illustration of this. There was a woman. There was
a woman praying by a window. Had the window up. It was a hot
summer day. This woman was praying by the
window. She didn't have anything to eat. She said, Would you please
send me some bread? I'm hungry. Would you please
send me some bread? And there were two boys underneath that window. Two boys. And they thought, we'll
play a practical joke on this old religious woman. And the
two boys heard her praying for this bread. And they said, we'll
play a trick on her. And they went down to the store
and got a loaf of bread and a carton of milk. And while she was still
praying, they came back and put that bread and that milk on that
windowsill. And they snuck out of sight. And the woman opened her eyes,
said, Amen, and opened her eyes and saw the milk and bread, and
she started praying again. Thank you, Lord, for answering
my prayer! Thank you, Lord, for sending
me bread! And the boys popped up and said, How you stupid,
old woman, you! God didn't send you that bread,
we did! And she said very calmly, she
said, Well, the devil may have bought it, but God sent it. Right? The devil may have brought
it, but God sent it. He used you to do it, to make
a fool out of you. You know God uses people? Yeah. Pharaoh. Didn't he say, I raised
you up, Pharaoh, to dump you in the river, boy? Huh? Cannot he do with his own as
he will? Who doesn't like this? Raise your hand. You better not. Who like my old man or Plaskett's
got? Better not. Who does like this? You better raise your hand! Seriously! God says, I do with my own what
I will. Now, you want to see the glory
of God in His mercy like you've never seen it before in this
story. Now, we're not making God out to be some austere monster,
but if that's the way men feel that a sovereign God is, Barnard
used to say, better be prepared to be the monster, because that's
the sovereign God of the Bible. And don't you let anybody tell
you that God had nothing to do with your husband's death, or
your son's death, or with a famine, or what have you. That would
leave you without a God, wouldn't it? That means Satan's just as
powerful as God. You better be worshiping Satan
then. You better be praying to Satan. Oh, leave us alone. Don't
send this famine Satan. Please. God's done all He can
do and can't do anything about it, but you can. You're sovereign
Satan. Don't send that. No, no, please. Right? Doesn't that just make
good sense? Don't you let anybody tell you
God has nothing to do with sickness, with disease, with famine, with
pestilence. He said, I, the Lord, do all these things. I kill,
I make a life. I bring down, I raise up. Isn't
that what he said? If there's something out of God
Almighty's control, He's not God. If there's something that can
mess things up or kill you or someone or somebody like Satan
who's doing things out of God's control, you are without a God. Better run hide in a cave. You
have no God, no hope. But let it be known, and I'm
trying to shout it, that God is God. But this generation is ignorant
of that. And whatever God does is absolutely
right. Shall not the judge of all the
earth, Moses said, do right? Just because we can't figure
it out doesn't mean it's wrong, it means we can't figure it out.
Right? God is absolutely infinite in
his wisdom and in his right. He's holy, he's just, he's good,
and it's according to his absolute right as God. And he does all
things for his glory and bless his holy name. He does everything
for the good of all who are called according to his blessed, infinite,
predestinated purpose. Purpose! God does all things
on purpose. No accidents, no luck, no chance,
no contingency. That's the God I worship. That's
the God of the Bible. So God sent a famine. God sent
a famine. And it affected whole nations.
Yeah, it did. It wiped out whole nations for
the sake of, now get a hold of this, God wiped out whole nations,
sent a famine that wiped out whole families and nations for
the sake of finding one little woman in a faraway pagan land
who was absolutely of no value in love herself, for the sake
of finding that one little woman to bring her all the way over
here to marry that one man in the course of time to bring forth
his son. Why did God save Ruth? What was
Ruth? Was there something noble and worthy about Ruth? Look back
at verse 4 again with me. Maybe you don't understand. Maybe
you don't understand this thing called mercy. Maybe you don't
understand this thing called salvation, called save. You know
what it means to be saved? It means somebody is lost. You
know what it means to give life, eternal life? It means somebody
is dead. You know what it means to show mercy? It means somebody
is guilty. Maybe we don't understand that. Maybe people don't understand
that. Well, let's look at verse 4.
It says that these men, these sons of Elimelech and Naomi,
took wives of the women of Moab. I've already told you who the
Moabites were. They were idol-worshippers. They
worshiped them. I'm talking about a statue, buddy. The idol's name was Temosh, and
they were in league with The Sidonians, who worshipped the
God of Jezebel, Ashtoreth, they'd whittled them out of God, Rick.
Not the living God, they didn't worship the living God, they
worshipped an idol. And they were a wicked people,
a savage people. hated the people of God, hated
the true and living God. They were Moabites, enemies of
God, idol worshippers, under God's curse, under God's law,
every one of them. God gave orders to the Israelites
to kill them, like he did the Sodomites. I don't give a flip
what these people say. The reason the Israelites had
such trouble from then on out was because they didn't kill
the Sodomites to begin with. That's what the Lord said to
do. And as a type in that, we're not going to that. But these Moabites were the enemies
of God. They were under the wrath of God, under the curse of God's
law, but God had an elect Moabite. As far as we know, Terry is one. He had an elect. He had a little
sheep, a black one at that, amongst these Moabites. And he must bring
her. She's his. He must bring her,
though she's under the law, though she's under its curse. And finally,
you remember in the story, she was brought before the law to
do with, as it would, helpless to stand before the law. But
what the law could not do, in that Ruth was a Moabite and weak,
both of us could do. Her prince and her Savior. And God Almighty has an elect
people among the sons of Adam, though they are enemies of God,
though they are under the curse of God, though they are under
the sentence of death by God's law. God has a people he must
bring, and they will hear his voice and they will come. And
elect from every nation, he said, every nation. And God manipulates. He says, I gave Egypt and Ethiopia
for thy ransom, didn't He? He manipulates whole nations,
yes! Whole nations and all courses
of events in time to the bringing of many sons unto glory. Many
enemies, former enemies. And like Ruth, they have to be
fetched. God's got to go get them by a
miraculous train of events. Like Mephibosheth, living as
an enemy of God, a usurper, a would-be king. He had to be fetched by
God, didn't he? And brought to utter ruin and
despair of himself. And that's the way every son
of God or daughter of God will be. God Almighty brings them
to a lowest ebb they've ever been in. down in the dust, like
he eventually brought this woman Ruth to. And God says to them
finally, when they've reached their wits end, when they're
without hope, without God, without help, without strength, then
God says, I've got somebody I want you to meet. That's what he says in the gospel. It looks bad, doesn't it? God
is holy. You're a sinner, aren't you?
You deserve to die, don't you? You're guilty before the law,
aren't you? You can't keep the law, can you? The soul that sins
must surely die. It looks bad, doesn't it? Wait just a minute, I've got
somebody here I want you to meet. He's right here with me. He's
your advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. And, oh, Ruth, was brought to
utter ruin and despair, hath herself brought down to a field
as a beggar, a poor beggar in rags, walking along, picking
up the droppings. And God Almighty says, I've got
somebody I want you to meet. somebody that can help you. And
this is that story. Did I just whet your appetite?
I'm just trying to whet your appetite. This is an hors d'oeuvre,
a horse doober, an hors d'oeuvre of things to come. How God in
his sovereign providence brings about, you could rightly call
this story the romance of redemption. There's never been a romance
like this. Oh, except that spiritual story of Christ romancing his
people. You know, he has to win their
love. He romances his people. He does.
The salvation of this hopeless Moabite maiden to the final end,
ultimate end and glory of her Lord and Savior, her Prince,
her Prince charming, Boaz. The greatest, the biggest selling
story of all time is Cinderella. You're looking at a Cinderfella.
Like Abraham, he said, I am but dust and ashes. And every one
of God's people get down in the dust, guilty before God. Cinderfellas. And along comes our Prince Charming.
It's the most beautiful story ever written. Now I want you
to read in closing with me, this will open up Ephesians chapter
two, like you've never read it before. I wrote after the side of Ephesians
two, verse twelve through fourteen, I wrote Ruth. You'll see this
in light of this. Verse twelve. Verse twelve. That at that time, now remember
this. He said in verse 11, remember,
verse 12, that at that time you were without Christ, you were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, having no
hope without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus. You who sometimes were far off
are brought by the blood of Christ, he is your peace, you Moabite
maiden, you. Now, you remember where you came
from. Don't ever lose sight of that.
You reckon Ruth did? I tell you, I'll let you in on
the end of the story. She goes to live like a queen,
from beggar to the king's house, marries the most beautiful and
glorious man in all the kingdom. and becomes infinitely rich.
You reckon she ever forgot where she came from, John? Now, you
remember. You remember. In time past, you
were an alien. You were an enemy. You were a
Moabite. He didn't have to marry you. God didn't have to fetch
you. He did it. God doesn't have to
save anybody. It's by mercy. It's sovereign
mercy. He saves whom he will. Thank God he saved somebody. And like I said, there's one
woman in heaven that's going to be singing at the top of her
lungs of mercy, sovereign mercy, sovereign providence. That song,
he moves in a mysterious way. Thank God there's one woman thanking
God for a famine. Thanking God for the death of
her father-in-law. Thanking God for the death of
her husband. There's one woman that I know of, and I believe
a lot more besides her. When they finally see the end
of the story, Ruth Bird, when you see the end of the story,
when you ever live with him, the unsearchable riches of your
Boaz, you're going to look back and say, thank you, Lord, for
doing it exactly like you did it. And you'll marvel and you'll
just marvel. He's going to take you every
step of the way through your life. I believe he will. I'll
show you what he's done. See, I did this, Violet, in order
that this might happen. You see, if that didn't happen,
this didn't happen, that didn't happen, this didn't happen, that
didn't happen, this didn't happen. But I did that over there so that
this over here would happen. And this looked hopeless and
helpless, and you looked, you were so down at this point, weren't
you? You were down lower than you've ever been before, lower
than you've ever been before. You can't get any higher. Now,
what do you think about that? Thank you, Lord. Right? We can't see now, though,
can we? Can't see? Ruth couldn't see. Oh, she knew the end of the story.
She'd have gleaned that field with us. With happiness. Thank you,
Lord, for putting me in this field of green, just the drops,
just the crumbs from my master's table. All things work together
for good to them that love God, who they're called according
to his sovereign, infinite, pre-foundational purpose and decree. He's God. All right, stand with me. you