Open your Bibles with me, if
you will, to Ruth, chapter 1. Ruth, chapter 1. And while you're
turning, let me remind you that ladies' lunch is going to be
tomorrow. Ladies' lunch is going to be
tomorrow. And Shirley's trying to get an accurate birthday and
anniversary list. She's got, she had some bad information. She's trying to get it all right.
So there's a thing laying out there. And if your birthday and
anniversary's right, put a checkmark by it. If it ain't, put the date
beside it. It's laying out there on the
table. She's trying her best to get that right. I told her not to put my birthday
in the bulletin. I don't want nobody to know anything
about it. to leave it out. You know, I've
had enough of them. Had enough of them do me for
a while. I really have. All right, Ruth, chapter one,
verse 18. When she saw that she was steadfastly
minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her. So they
two went until they came to Bethlehem, and it came to pass when they
were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about
them, and they said, Is this Naomi? And she said unto them,
Call me not Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very
bitterly with me. And I went out full, and the
Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Naomi,
seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty
hath afflicted me? So Naomi returned, and Ruth the
Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, which returned out
of the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning
of the barley harvest." Back here in Ruth chapter 1, you know, I preached a couple
of Sundays ago about Ruth's commitment, where Ruth, Naomi tried to kid
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
thee. 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, part me and thee. 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 has brought me home again empty. Why then
call you me Naomi, seeing, now 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'd 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 father, 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 and 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 gonna be in here with you. And that's what God does. We
find grace in his eye and 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 in 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 Jump plumb 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 round 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, 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 Naomi. 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 go. Where you lodge, I lodge. Your
people's going to be my people. Where you die, I'm going to die.
And I'll be buried there. 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. Naomi over and over and over
said, go back, go back, go back, go back, go follow your sister,
Laura Orpah. But none of these things moved
Ruth. Look what it says there in verse 18. When she saw, 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'd had nothing in herself.
She knew she was following Naomi, a woman that she loved. But now
she was also, not only does 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. Double-minded man's unstable
in all of his ways. He'll start, go back, go this
way, go that way. But oh, she said, here she was,
steadfastly to go. So Naomi just said, I'm not saying
nothing else about it. She's gonna go, she's gonna follow
me. And the church, when they heard
the gospel, and they gathered together, And it says that they
continued steadfastly in 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 ye steadfast. What does that mean? That means
don't go here, just go, just don't move, just keep on going,
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 gonna go, minded to go, steadfastly minded to go. Nothing's gonna
stop her, nothing's gonna 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 gonna 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 settle. 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. It 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 gonna go. That's what he said here. How
can two walk together except they be agreed? And oh my, 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 and
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 gonna 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 tells us that
in the presence of God, here these folks were sitting, here
these two poverty-stricken people, and that's what we were. We had
nothing. We was 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. in 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. Oh, 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? 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 somebody to him, said he can be brutal
at times. If you think he can't be, if you think he can't do
what he's gonna 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
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. 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? 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 why she said, the Lord, how pitiful he would be. The
person was dying one time. And I heard them out of their
own mouth saying, 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 gonna get out of this? I tell
you what glory he got out of it, taking them 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 gonna be revealed
in us. And oh, 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 just, it's like Job said, the Almighty has taken
the crown off of my hand. And they asked him, said, 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. Job, you lost everything. The hand of the Lord's touched
me. Job, you lost, the hand of the Lord's touched me. You've
lost your will. The hand of the Lord has touched
me. You're sittin' on a dung heap, you're sittin' on a pile
of shirt, and you're scrapin' balls with a piece of a pot. The hand of the Lord has touched
me. Well, that's what she says here. Can you reckon we could
do that? God put his hand out against
us. And well, but look what she goes on to say in verse 21. 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 full, but the Lord, now listen to this, and the Lord
hath 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 want, I don't
know how to say it other than that. Lord, empty me and fill
me nothing in my vision. As old Scott used to say again,
he'd say all this time, said, oh, let's be like mules with
blinders on them, just fill my vision with Christ. And oh my,
the Lord hath brought me home. And I'll 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 empty, that's 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
has taken that corn, eaten 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 all. 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. And 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. That's it. 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 then it's 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 feasts of the Lord to understand the significance
of the beginning of the barley harvest. Now 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 first fruits, the grain. the barley and the first fruits
of it of the earth. Oh, what a time of joy it was.
We'll see the significance of the beginning of barley harvest.
It says there in verse two, Leviticus 23, speak unto the children of
Israel and say unto them, concerning the feast of the Lord, which
you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are
my feasts. Here's the first one, down in
verse five. And the 14th day of the first
month at 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 six here, it 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
roast in 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 firstfruits. 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, and let's watch 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 it." And 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 only on the Sabbath, but on Sunday
morning. He waves that before 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 up for our offenses, all our offenses, but God raised
him again. Why did he raise him? Because
the offenses was 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 what's what he says?
Afterward, they that are Christ, that is God. 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 more 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 wheat from the chaff. So shall we ever be of the Lord.
He's the firstfruits. The rest of us have got to wait. Let me close with this. Every
believing sinner, every believing sinner comes to Bethlehem. Why
we say Bethlehem? Because that's the house of bread.
We come to where the place there's bread. And 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 gonna
come. When we get ripe, let's put it
this way, when we get ripe, that's when he's gonna harvest us. Not
till then. When we get ripe, Oh, Lord, you got your, he's
got his sickle ready. He got his sickle ready. Somebody
gets right, whew, away we go. Oh, don't that make you happy
all over? I got a, I got a letter from a fella 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.