You know, I preached a couple
of Sundays ago about Ruth's commitment. With Ruth, Naomi tried to get
her daughter-in-laws to continue to go back, go back to Moab,
go back to their own families. But Ruth said, and treat me not
to leave thee. Don't make me go. or to return
from following day. I will go where thou goest, and
lodge where thou 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 a fault but death, pardon me, and day. And when she saw
that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left
speaking unto her, You know, there's a couple of
things that Naomi says here about God. That's amazing. In verse 20 she says, The Almighty
hath dealt very bitterly with me. She said in verse 21, I went
out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then
call you me Naomi? Listen to this, seeing the Lord
hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me. Not very many people would say
that. Not very many people. But a believer,
when he opens the Bible and reads the scriptures, he can read his
spiritual biography in God's Word over and over and over again. You take Mephibosheth. He couldn't
walk. He's lame on both of his feet.
How did he get lame? He fell. Why did David say, go
fetch him? And he couldn't come on his own.
He didn't have the ability. So the king says, go fetch him
and bring him. And that's what God has to do
to us. We see in Mephibosheth that we, through a fall, couldn't
come. But the king said go get him,
bring him in there. And then when he brought him
in there the first thing he told him was don't be afraid. He said
who am I but a dead dog that you'd even consider me. And he
said oh give him everything back that he ever had. And he gonna
sit at my table the rest of his life. And then what about Noah? Noah was, as in the days of Noah,
that's where we're at. And like Noah, we read our biography,
our spiritual biography in him. Noah, the scripture says that
he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He was just like everybody
else in his day. He was just as lost as they were.
He was just as wicked as they were. He was without God as all
of them, but God said, I'm gonna give this man grace right here,
and I'm gonna give his family grace. And He saved Noah and
Noah alone, his family. And where did He save them at?
In an ark. And then God said, Come thou into the ark. He said,
I'm going to be in here with you. And that's what God does. We find grace in His eyes. He brings us and puts us in Christ. And there ain't no getting out.
God shut the door. And what about Peter? Oh my goodness,
I recognize myself more as Simon Peter than anybody. Sometimes,
I mean, he was, he was, he was such, he was so, he was a mighty
man, but yet at the same time he was so impulsive and impetuous
and he would go, be going along and all of a sudden he'd say
something and jump plumb out of the traces. They'll pull them
out of the traces. And then Paul, we read our spiritual
biography. Here's a man who hated Christ,
didn't want Christ, persecuted Christ, hated Christ's people,
and went after Christ and his people. And then a light above
the brightness of the sun shone around him. Put him in the dust. Put him in the dust! And he said,
Who art thou Lord? He said, I'm Jesus of Nazareth.
Whom thou persecutest. But go, you're a chosen vessel
unto me. And here in Ruth's story, we
can also see our spiritual biography to some degree. You see, she
acted, her and Naomi acted upon a testimony. What was the testimony? Of things not seen as yet. They
was in Moab. Her husband left by his carnal
reasoning and left the place where God was. She acted upon
a testimony of things not seen. She heard that the Lord had visited
his people. She heard that there was bread
in Bethlehem of Judah. And what she heard was very simple.
So she arose and went to where there was the bread. And there's
bread in Judah. And she committed herself to
going back to Bethlehem, Judah. She committed herself to that
one, Ruth did, to that one, going back to Bethlehem, Judah. I committed
herself to now. And when Ruth got there, she
was uncertain. She was uncertain of her future.
But because her future was uncertain, that never deterred her. She
said, where you go, I'll go. Where you lodge, I'll lodge.
Your people's gonna be my people. Where you die, I'm gonna die.
And I'll be buried. Uncertainty of her future never
deterred her. Her sister-in-law, Orpah, went
back, kissed Naomi on the cheek and wept and cried and went back
to her family and to her God. And Naomi over and over and over
said, go back, go back, go back, go back, go follow your sister-in-law,
Orpah. But none of these things moved
Ruth. Look what it says there in verse 18. When Naomi saw that
she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking
unto her. She was steadfastly minded. Oh
my. You see she had humility. She
had humility. She had nothing in herself. She
knew she was following Naomi, a woman that she loved. But now
she was also, not only did she have humility, but she also was
steadfast. I mean when she set her face,
she's like our Lord Jesus Christ, he steadfastly set his face to
go to Jerusalem. And I want you to read with me
in 1 Corinthians 15, 58. This is what God says about us
being steadfast. 1 Corinthians 15, 58. You know, the Scriptures tells
us about a double-minded man. A double-minded
man is unstable in all of his ways. He'll start, go back. Go this way, go that way. But
all she said here, she was steadfastly to go. So Naomi just said, I'm
not saying nothing else about it. She's going to go. She's
going to follow me. And the church, when they heard
the gospel and they gathered together, and it says that they
continued steadfastly. and the apostles' doctrine in
the breaking of bread, they continued steadfastly in it. What those
apostles preached, what those apostles taught, they steadfastly
adhered to what those men preached. But look what he said here in
1 Corinthians 15, 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
listen to this now, be you steadfast. What does that mean? That means
don't go here. Don't just go. Just don't move. Just keep on going. Don't be
steadfast. You got a place to go. Don't
stop. And oh my, unmovable. Always abounding in the work
of the Lord. For as much as you know that
your labor is not in vain in the Lord. So here she was. She was steadfastly. She was
going to go. Minded to go. Steadfastly minded
to go. Nothing's going to stop her.
Nothing's going to change her mind. And I'll tell you something,
beloved. Our Lord Jesus Christ offers
no worldly honors or advantages to get people to follow Him.
He does not do that. He doesn't offer, you know, these
preachers that say, well, God's gonna make you healthy if you're
sick, if you'll come to Jesus. He'll save your marriage if you
come to Jesus. He'll heal your body if you come
to Jesus. Our Lord Jesus never ever used
any earthly inducement to bring anybody to Himself. And in fact,
nobody will come to Him if He don't bring them to Himself. And that's the way it is. And
I tell you, they owe me steadfastly. And nobody's going to be steadfast
until God makes them steadfast. And why shouldn't we be steadfast?
Our gospel's right. Our gospel's true. Christ is
true. The Word of God is true. We got
a foundation to set on. I ain't gonna get off no foundation
that holds me up. Look what it says now in verse
19. So they two went until they came
to Bethlehem. They two went together. They said over in Amos, can two
walk together except they be agreed? Can two walk together
except they be agreed? I mean, they're talking about
walking together. If you're walking together and you don't agree
and you agree on a lot of things, but when it comes to the gospel
and it comes to the things of Christ, if you're walking along
for a certain time and somebody says, well, I don't believe that
and that and I'm going to go this way. How can two walk together
except they be agreed? I've walked with men now for
30, 40 years. Some of them longer than that.
And I tell you, and then there's other men that I walked with
for several years and they decided they wanted to go this way and
some decided they wanted to go that way. But let them go where they're
going to go. That's why they said here, how
can two walk together except they agree? And oh my, and look
what it says, and they went two of them together until they came
to Bethlehem. They walked up together, they
agreed together, they loved one another, and they walked together
until they came to Bethlehem. You know where they was headed?
To Bethlehem. And you know what they did? They
got to Bethlehem. They reached their goal. They
got to the house of bread, the place where God had visited his
people. That's where they came together. They went all the way
to Bethlehem. And I don't know how long it
took them, but it took them a while. And look what it says. And when
they were come to Bethlehem, all the city was moved. The whole
city was moved about them. You know, Bethlehem, even yet,
from what I understand, it's a very, very small place. just
a village, but the whole city was moved about them. Why? Why? Here come two poor, poverty
stricken women walking into town, carrying what little they owned
on their backs, wrapped up in clothes or something like that.
They come walking into town. They'd been walking from Moab
and here they come. They're walking into town and
their clothes are probably wore out and they're wore out. They
look haggard and they're poverty stricken. They ain't gonna be
no benefit to that town. They're not gonna be no benefit
to Bethlehem. They're not gonna be no benefit
to anybody in there. They ain't got nothing. So the
whole city was moved about them. They're not famous. There wasn't
nobody famous. What benefit are they going to
be to this city? But oh my, this tells us about another place.
Another place where people who are insignificant while they're
on this earth are received with joy. When our Lord Jesus Christ
left the 99 and found that one sheep and he carried it back
home, he said, Rejoice with me! I found the sheep. The woman that lost the coin,
she searched and searched and searched and she found it. Rejoice
with me, I found my coin that was lost. And the Lord Jesus says this,
there's joy in heaven in the presence of God over one sinner
that repents. I mean, you think about that.
Every time a sinner repents, there's joy in the presence of
God. Is it the Lord Jesus full of joy? Is it the angels full
of joy? Who is it that's full of joy
over there? When a man repents and believes, heaven itself starts
rejoicing. That astounds me. Why would anybody
rejoice over me? Period. But the Scriptures tell
us that in the presence of God, Here these folks were sick, here
these two poverty stricken people, and that's what we were. We had
nothing. We were poverty stricken. We're
insignificant. We're nobody. We're no benefit
to God whatsoever. But yet, when we repented, They
got happy. They got full of joy. And the
presence of God. Oh, my. But oh, they went to
Bethlehem. They went together because they
agreed. And they arrived at the right
place. They arrived at Bethlehem, Judah.
And look what it says now. and then verse 19 that all that
city was moved all they was they heard there was a stir about
them there was a stir about them and they said is this Naomi they
was incredulous about it is this surely this is not Naomi this
can't be Naomi it looks like Naomi but it can't
be is this really Naomi What a change in her that they
looked about and saw her coming into town. Is this Naomi? Huh? And oh my. That far country experience changed
her. Look what she said. Don't call
me Naomi. That word Naomi, her name means
pleasant. Pleasant. Pleasant person. Her
name means pleasant. Her husband's name meant God
is my king. God is king. She said, don't
call me Naomi. Call me Myra. Bitter. Call me, I'm not pleasant anymore. I'm bitter. There's just a bitterness,
you know, and she said, I'm all, this far country experience changed
her and changed her dramatically. Her pleasantness turned into
bitterness. Her plenty transformed into poverty. Her fullness into empty. And
that's why she said, don't call me Naomi. And listen to what
she says. For the Almighty hath dealt very
bitterly with me. Now what in the world is she
talking about? Does that mean that God dealt very bitterly?
What she's saying is that God, He put His hand against me. And
that God, I heard old Barnard say one time, when God wants
one of His people to do something, and intends for them to learn
something, intends to bring something back to Him, He said He can be
brutal at times. If you think He can't be, if
you think He can't do what He's going to do, you look what He
did to His own son. If he's gonna save a sinner, look what he did
to his own son. When his son cried out, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He had to forsake him in
order not to forsake us. He had to punish him in order
to punish us. He had to put our sin on him
to get rid of our sin. He had to die for us to live. He had to bear a curse for us
to be blessed. And here's this woman, she went
off and her and her husband, your husband went off in his
carnal reasoning and left this place. And she said, God had
dealt very hard with me, very bitterly with me. He took my
husband and he took my sons. And I was. I didn't have nothing.
I didn't have nobody. And I kept trying to tell my
daughter-in-law to go back, go back, go back. I've got nothing
that I can do for you. I can't even do for myself. And Ruth said, I ain't going.
I ain't going. And that's the way we are by
Christ. We ain't going. We ain't going. We ain't going
to count. Our Lord said count the cost. All the cost was on His part.
What if I give up? Listen, people. Let me ask you
this. What did you give up for Christ? Huh? What cost have you counted
for Christ? He done all the counting. I understand
that, you know. Count the cost. If you're going
to be a follower of mine, the first thing you know, nobody
in your family is going to be a believer unless I do something
for them. Your brothers are not going to believe, your sisters
are not going to believe, your daddy's not going to believe,
your mama's not going to believe. And people's gonna wonder what
in the world's the matter with you that you said you believe
in a sovereign God? You believe in election? You
believe in free grace? You believe you ain't got nothing?
You believe you ain't got a choice? You believe you ain't got no
power? You believe you ain't got no rights? Yes. I'm nothing, nobody from nowhere
as old Scott used to say. And I tell you what, beloved,
that's what she said to the Lord. How beautiful He would be. A person was dying one time.
And I heard them out of their own mouth say, I mean, there's
a believer, there's a believer, there's a believer. There's nothing
convinced me that they wasn't a believer. And they was sick
and they was dying. And they died by degrees. And
they said, what glory is God going to get out of this? I tell you what glory got out
of it, taking him to glory himself. Huh? Oh my God, when he puts
his hand on you, it may be a very hard hand he lays down on you.
But I tell you what, the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared to the glory that's going to be revealed
in us. And all she said, listen, the
Almighty, she attributed it, what happened to her, to God.
She didn't say, I didn't deserve it. She didn't say that. I didn't
deserve God to do me this way. That's not what she said. She
said, it's like Job said, the Almighty has taken the crown
off of my hand. And they asked him, Job, what
in the world is all your troubles? Your wife won't speak to you?
Your servants, when you call them, they won't come? He said,
the hand of the Lord hath touched me. Jehovah, you lost everything.
The hand of the Lord has touched me. Jehovah, you lost... The
hand of the Lord has touched me. You've lost your will. The
hand of the Lord has touched me. You're sitting on a dung
heap. You're sitting on a pile of sherds
and you're scraping boils with a piece of a pot. The hand of
the Lord has touched me. Now that's what she says here. Do you reckon we could do that?
God put his hand out against us. And well, but look what she
goes on to say, verse 21. She said, I went out fooled. Oh, I was fooled. I had a wonderful
husband, hardworking husband, had two wonderful sons, two beautiful
daughter-in-laws. I went out fooled. But the Lord,
now listen to this, and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Listen, I don't know about you
all, but I want to stay empty except for Christ. I want to
stay empty except for Christ in me. I don't know how to say
it other than that. The Lord emptied me and filled
me with nothing and my vision. As old Scott used to say again,
he used to say all this time, he said, oh let's be like mules
with blinders on them, just fill my vision with Christ. And oh
my, the Lord has brought me home. And I tell you what, He brought
me home again, but you know how He brought me home? I lived out
here, I was full. But when He brought me home,
it was empty. Didn't have nothing. And the
Lord brought me home again just kind of like the prodigal. He left home, left his daddy,
left his father, and his father had a beautiful home. All the
wealth anybody could possibly want. And that prodigal said,
listen, well, he went home, he left there and he spent all of
his living on righteous living, partying, partying, partying.
And he spent it all. And he went out here and joined
himself to a farmer. And now that farmer said, I only
got one job, only one job. I want you to go out and feed
my hogs. And I want them fed twice a day. Get out there and
feed them hogs. Take that corn, shuck that corn, shuck that corn,
feed them hogs. He got in such a sad state, he's
taking that corn, eating it himself. And he said, oh my soul, what
in the world am I doing here? I'm empty. I left full, now I'm
empty. He said, I'll go back to my father's
house and I'll tell my father, I'll just be a servant. Oh, I tell you, beloved, she
acknowledged the Lord in awe. In Moab, she lost everything.
She lost her loves. She lost her joy. She lost her
smile. She lost her fullness. She became
poor. She became empty. She became
hungry. It's like David said, Lord, restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation. And let me show you something
else they did here. They arrived at the right time. And she says,
seeing the Lord hath testified against me, the Almighty hath
afflicted me. Then verse 22, so Naomi returned and Ruth the
Moabitess, her daughter-in-law with her, which returned out
of the country of Moab, and listen to this, and they came to Bethlehem
in the beginning of barley harvest. She came in the beginning of
the barley harvest. The first grain, barley is the
first grain that ripens in the spring. And they got there in
the spring. And they was getting ready to
start harvesting the barley. And it's called the first fruits
of the earth. And it's a time of joy. And we
need to look at the Feast of the Lord to understand the significance
of the beginning of the barley harvest. And you keep Ruth and
look over here in Leviticus 23. Look in Leviticus. Let's look
at just a couple of feasts over here to understand the significance
of the firstfruits, the grain, the barley and the firstfruits
of it of the earth. Oh what a time of joy it was. We'll see the significance of
the beginning of Barnhart. It says there in verse 2, Leviticus
23, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, concerning
the feast of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy
convocations, even these are my feasts. Here's the first one,
down in verse 5, In the fourteenth day of the first month, that
even, is the Lord's Passover. Oh my, the Lord's Passover. What's the Passover about? That's
where God slew a lamb, put the blood over the lintels of the
door and on the post, and God said, when I see the blood, the
death is accomplished, the blood is applied, the blood is shed,
then it's applied. and I tell you the redemption
of God's people sin put away and now they come out of bondage
and the scriptures tells us Christ our Passover sacrificed for us
and then look what else it says now and on the 15th day of verse
6 here says in Leviticus on the 15th day of the same month is
the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord now seven days
you'll eat unleavened bread Seven days, perfection, completeness.
And there's a Passover feast. And that's unleavened bread. You eat that lamb that's roasted.
Unleavened bread. And that seven days, that communion,
that's the communion of the body and the blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And they do that to show the
benefits of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell
you, we remember, we know that leaven represents sin and there's
no leaven because Christ put our sin away. That blood, the
death was done, the blood was shed, the blood's applied. Now
it's time to eat. Now it's time to feast. Now it's
time to feast. And then look at this other one.
Feast of the first fruits. Down in verse 10. Look what it
said here in verse 10. Speak unto the children of Israel,
and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give unto
you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring
a sheaf, a handful or a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest,
and let's harvest it, and let's see who you bring it to. You
bring it to the priest. And he shall take that sheaf
and wave that sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you. And when does he do it? On the
morning after the Sabbath shall the priest wave. That's on Sunday. And he says,
you know, the Feast of the Firstfruits. This is the one I really want
us to consider. He said, bring a sheaf of the
firstfruits of your harvest. When they went to this barley
harvest, they brought the firstfruits. And they brought it to the priest,
and the priest waves it, not on the Sabbath, but on Sunday
morning. He waves it for the Lord, so
we'll be accepted of the Lord. And oh my! And he said, to be
accepted for you. And this is a shadow of our Lord's
resurrection. You know, on the more after the
Sabbath, first day of the week, the day of our Lord's resurrection,
and then it says to be accepted for you. Christ, listen to me,
Christ was delivered for our offenses, for our sins. God delivered him for our offenses,
all our offenses. But God raised him again. Why
did He raise Him? Because the offenses were paid
for. He raised Him again for our justification. To show us
that we're justified. Who justified us? Not our faith?
Surely didn't. Faith didn't die. Christ died
for us. But He was raised for our justification. And let me
show you something, beloved. And I'll tell you His resurrection
proves He's accepted for us. Now I want you to see 1 Corinthians
15, 23. Now looky here. Look at this. Oh, this is a blessing. Listen to what he said here.
Firstfruits. Firstfruits. That means, you know, you take
your firstfruits and that priest, you give them to the priest and
he waves. On Sunday morning, the resurrection of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the firstfruits. And we'll
be accepted because of Him. Look what He said here in verse
23. But every man in his own order... Listen to this now.
Christ, the firstfruits. Firstfruits of what? Firstfruits
from the dead. And then watch what He says. Afterward,
they that are Christ's... He's the firstfruits that was
taken. He's the firstfruits that went
in the presence of God. He's the firstfruits of life
from the dead by his own power. He was the firstfruits. And he
took his holy and righteous life and set it down beside God. And
beloved, and because he's the firstfruits, all of us, that
means that there's a harvest coming later and he's the firstfruits
and all of us gonna get to go. But that's been waived in the
presence of God. And you know, we've been accepted
of God. You know, they bring that firstfruits, they bring
that. And then all this, and then they
start getting the rest of it. And one of these days, our Lord
Jesus Christ, what did He say? He says that He'll send His angels. And He'll bring the harvest in. Separate the weeds. from the
chaff. So shall we ever be of the Lord.
He's the first fruits. The rest of us have got to wait. Well, let me close with this. Every believing sinner comes
to Bethlehem. Why do we say Bethlehem? Because
that's the house of bread. We come to the place that's bread. We have that true bread which
came down from heaven. And we come to the right place.
We come to our Lord Jesus Christ. And we come at the beginning
of the barley harvest. He's the firstfruits. We come
to Christ risen from the dead. And He's the firstfruits from
the dead. Bless His name. One of these days, He's going
to come. When we get ripe, let's put it
this way, when we get ripe, that's when we go harvest. Now tell
me, when we get ripe, oh Lord, you got to, he's got his sickle
ready. He got his sickle ready. Somebody gets ripe, away we go. Oh, don't that make you happy
all over? I got a letter from a fellow yesterday. He was commenting
on a message I was preaching. He said, boys, oh boy, you just
laugh and laugh and laugh. And he said, I understand why
you laugh. He said, that's the joy of the Lord. That's the real
joy of the Lord, ain't it? He said, I do that when I hear
preaching. He said, I laugh when I hear what I'm understanding.
And oh, the joy of the Lord, that's our strength. Bless His
name. Our Father, oh, our Father, thank
you for allowing us to meet here this evening, to look in your
precious word, to be blessed by it, to be encouraged by it,
to be instructed by it, to be comforted by it. Lord, bless
it to the hearts and minds of all of us. And please be mindful
of those who are not with us through whatever reason, Lord. We know that there's folks who'd
be here if they could, but we bless you, pray for your blessings
upon them, and your blessings upon these that go from here
tonight. We praise you and bless you and
thank you. In our Lord Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away. Your sins are pardoned and you
are free. They're all taken away. They're all taken away, away. They're all taken away, away. They're all taken My sins are all taken away. My sins are all taken away. My sins are all taken away. See you Sunday. God will. Good
night. God bless you.