This lesson is entitled, An Example of True Conversion. I started to title it, A Picture of True Conversion, because in this part here, Ruth, the main subject of this book, certainly provides an example of what true conversion is all about. That is being born again by the Spirit, brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. But the more I read it and the more I read through the whole book, Ruth is not just a picture of conversion, which she is, but Ruth is actually an example.

Because I believe that through all of this, she was like like the Old Testament saints and they were taught the gospel and it's useless to try, you know, people go back and say, well, what did Ruth know? Well, I believe she knew Christ. She looked forward to a promised redeemer and as he is revealed in the old covenant, and I'll show you that in just a moment, which you already know it, But somebody said, well, people today, they'll say, well, Ruth couldn't know all that. Why not? If God's determined to teach his people. This is not a book to explain or even reveal to us what was inside of Ruth's head or even her heart, other than what we see her do in this history. You see what I'm saying? Ruth forsook her homeland, her people, her God, and dedicated herself to the God of Israel, who is the God of salvation. And so did she know anything about the God that she dedicated herself?

I believe she did. I believe in the time that Elimelech and Naomi, when they first came to Moab, and their sons took wives, had Orpah and Ruth, and of course, Elimelech died and their sons died. I believe that these girls were taught the gospel as it's revealed in the old covenant types and pictures and all of that. I think it's kind of obvious that when Ruth and Naomi got back to the promised land, to Bethlehem, Judah, that Ruth knew something about the kinsman-redeemer. That's what this book is about, to show in type Christ the kinsman-redeemer, all right? So, I believe that Ruth was an example of true conversion.

Now, people can disagree with me all they want, that's up to them. But I know, I think about myself and you can think about yourself. For you to turn your back on the God you worshiped before you came to a knowledge of the true God, that takes a work of God. Now doesn't it? If you really turn back. Now we've got an example here of one who didn't really turn back in her heart. That was Orpah. But let's look at it. Let's read some of these verses. Verse eight. All right. It says in verse seven that Naomi determined to turn back to the land of Judas.

She heard that there was bread in the land and the famine was over. And that's equivalent to here in the gospel, isn't it? There's bread in God's purpose and grace in Christ. Christ is the bread of life. Christ is the water of life. And when God makes us hungry and thirsty for the bread and water of life, what does he do? He fills it. He fills it. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. They shall be filled.

Where are you going to find righteousness? In Christ. And He's the only one you're going to find it in. You're not going to find it anywhere else. So in this last lesson, we saw how. Here's Naomi. It says in the first line, in lesson two, we saw it should be how Naomi and her two daughters-in-law were left desolate in Moab without any hope. Here they are in a land of sin and idolatry without any hope in themselves. That's us by nature, sinners without hope in ourselves but God in His providence and this is something I think that we really need to to settle. In His providence, He determined to save Ruth and to send his messengers in his divine providence to spread the good news that there was bread in the land of promise. And the famine was over. So Naomi determined to return home.

She had sold the land that she left. So she didn't have anything back there. She didn't own anything, she had no title deed to anything. She had no possessions, she had no means of support. She was a widow. And she's what the New Testament calls a widow in deed. I mean, she's a real widow. She's not just somebody who's faking it, you know. She's not like widows today who have social security or insurance or things like that. She's a widow indeed. And so I put in here, she was casting herself totally upon God's mercy and power to save her and care for her by returning back to Bethlehem. I'm in your hands.

And that's what we do when God brings us to a saving knowledge. of our state in sin, our hopelessness, our sinfulness. And he shows us the only hope and way of salvation is by his free and sovereign grace and mercy in Christ, who is our surety, our substitute, our redeemer by his death on the cross. our intercessor, our preserver. He shows us how God requires perfect righteousness, else there is no salvation. And that's why passages like Matthew 5 says, you hunger and thirst after righteousness. When God shows you that in order to be saved and preserved under glory, you have to have a perfect righteousness That's because he's gonna give you a hunger for that. And how's that hunger gonna be satisfied? Well, if God leaves us to ourselves, what will we do? We'll try to do it on our own, by our works. We'll say, all right, I'll get busy and I'll work hard today. But that won't do it. That's an exercise in futility. And so therefore he comes forth with the gospel message He comes forth showing us that righteousness can only be found in the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's our justification, Christ's righteousness imputed to us.

Now, that message was back in Bethlehem, Judah, and That it was it was in the law in the types in the pictures you remember How Christ told the Pharisees he said you do search the scriptures for in them You think you have eternal life, but they are they which testify of me He said you study Moses's writings and you learn them and you comment on them Moses wrote of me Christ said When that high priest took the blood of the lamb from off the altar, brought it back to the mercy seat, and sprinkled it. What was that picturing? It was picturing the obedience unto death of Christ as the Lord our righteousness, that he was putting away our sins, propitiation. That's what that mercy seat is sometimes called, the propitiation. And that's what it took to remove sin.

So, Naomi was going back to her homeland and cast herself on the mercy of God. And she set her mind on doing this, and it says here, she said unto her two daughters, verse eight, verse seven, wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah.

And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, go, return each to her mother's house, the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me." So she's wishing them well and she believes they could do no good with her because she would be no good to them. And so obviously, Naomi, I put in your lesson here, she's not thinking spiritually here. Look at verse nine, the Lord grant you that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.

Then she kissed them and they lifted up their voice and wept. In telling them to stay in Moab, she's telling them to stay in a land of idolatry, in a land of sin. Now certainly there's idolatry and sin even back in Israel. That's why they were under a famine. there were times that but God had determined to preserve them until the Messiah come and that's what he was going to do and there were times of obedience but not much but she wasn't speaking spiritually here Granted, all of this, there's also God's presence and truth in the land of Israel in the old covenant law, the types and the pictures.

As we said, Christ said, Moses wrote of me. Now here's the point. We know that God can get his gospel to any of his elect, anywhere, even in Moab. We know that. That's how he found Ruth, Ruth in Moab. And we're gonna see that's the whole purpose of God for this thing anyway.

But now as we are witnesses of Christ, we're not to point people to Moab. You see what I'm saying? Like Naomi's doing here. We're to point them to where the gospel is. Now again, if they're one of God's elect, he's gonna get it to them. He's gonna get the message to them. But I'm not the point there. Because all I know is that's a land of sin and idolatry. So she wasn't speaking spiritually here.

But here, here we see that Orpah and Ruth, here's what they said, look at verse 10. And they said unto her, surely we will return with thee unto thy people. Both of them said that. But Naomi, look, she insisted, verse 11, Naomi said, turn again, my daughters, why will you go with me?

Are there yet any more sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? And think about it, she said, turn again, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband also tonight, and should also bear sons, would you tarry, would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you stay for them from having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the land of the Lord is gone out against me." So you see her reasoning. You know, how are you going to, if you stay with me, how are you going to have husbands? I can't have any more children. And if I could, would you wait on to be grown? All that.

And says in verse 14, and they lifted up their voice and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and Ruth clave unto her. Orpah left, Ruth clave unto her. And all of this, you see the different examples here. Orpah changed her mind. She's like a person who hears the gospel and embraces it at first, but then leaves it over trouble or whatever. You've seen that in the parable of the hearts, the different hearts, the stony ground heart, the wayside heart, the thorny heart. They embraced it for a while, but then they left it. Like those in 1 John who apostatized from it. I'm not saying she apostatized because she may not have turned back and cursed it like they do, but she didn't believe it. She wasn't really converted. She wasn't born again.

And understand that the Bible teaches that anybody who claims to be a believer, if they're truly a believer, they're born again by the Spirit and they cannot leave it. They're converted. They're given the gift of faith in Christ and the gift of repentance of dead works and they cannot leave it. Now that doesn't mean they can't stray for a while or can't mess up, we all do, but they cannot forsake it like Orpah did and go back to Moab, go back to your idolatry, go back to your salvation by works.

But now Ruth is a different example. Ruth clave unto her. She was truly born of the Spirit. She truly was brought to faith in Naomi's God. And the only way you can be brought to faith in the God of the Bible is through Christ. Now, how she viewed Christ, probably just like the ones back in, under the Old Covenant did. The coming, the promised Messiah, the God-man, all of that, the righteousness, blood. You couldn't stay under that system and totally miss the facts of that because it was a bloody religion.

Why are they shedding blood? Because God is a holy God and he must be satisfied. His law and justice must be appeased or else there's no salvation. this is a picture of the Lamb. Why do they use a lamb? Because he's a picture of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, without spot, without blemish, a year old, slain, the blood shed and poured out, taken to the mercy seat. by the high priest one time a year, sprinkled on the mercy seat. What does all that mean? That's a propitiation. That's a satisfaction, you see. You couldn't miss that. Now there were times that the Jewish nation, the Israelites, really dropped the ball on that service and whatnot. But here's one thing I want you to see. Every bit of this came about because God purposed it. Even the times that men and women mess up. Here, Elimelech and Naomi and their two sons did wrong to go from the house of bread to Moab. But it was all well within the purpose of God.

For what reason? To save one person named Ruth. God had a sheep there. The famine in Israel was sent by God because he had chosen Ruth. This is what I've got in your lesson. Elimelech had done evil by moving to Moab because God had determined to save Ruth. The whole episode here in God's dealings in history was because God had determined to save us, His elect, by the incarnation, life, and death, and resurrection of His Son, whose incarnation came through Ruth and Boaz.

All things work together for good to them that love God, who are called according to His purpose. so look what happens. Verse 15, and she said, behold thy sister-in-law has gone back, this is Naomi, she said to Ruth, your sister-in-law is gone back into her people, under her people and under her gods. So you see there's no doubt that Orpah forsook the God of Israel And then Naomi looks at Ruth and says, return thou after thy sister-in-law.

She's still trying to convince her to stay. And what she's saying there, like we said, I'm no good to you. She's thinking earthly, of her earthly well-being, but not her spiritual well-being. And then comes the famous words that most people remember from Ruth. And these are great words. But a lot of people miss the point of it. Look at verse 16.

And Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee, to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest, I will go. Where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God. And verse 17 says, where thou diest, will I die. And there will I be buried, the Lord do so to me. And that word Lord, there's Jehovah, God our salvation, do so to me.

And more also, if aught but death, part thee and me. Now, that's a great example of this daughter's love for her mother-in-law. And that's what most people see in this. And that's there. She loved her mother-in-law. But it's also a great example of a sinner who's been brought to conversion, who's been brought to faith and the God of salvation, the God of all grace. That word clave, back up there, where it said Ruth, in verse 14, Ruth clave unto her.

The verb translated clave, which means clung to, is the same term used in Genesis 2.24. to define a wife and a husband cleaving, uniting, and holding fast in marriage. Ruth's identity was involved in Naomi's and the God of all grace in Christ. And I believe that's what she's saying. She made a, A radical, as I've got here, an absolute dedication to Naomi, her people, and her God.

And that's what the Lord God does in his people when he brings us to Christ. He brings us out from under our natural depravity and spiritual death to spiritual life and godliness. He brings us out from our connection. I'm going to talk about this in the message today. He brings us out from under our connection with the lost, sinful, idolatrous world and into His church, His sheepfold, the place where He's worshipped in truth, where He reveals Himself in the person and work of Christ as our whole Savior. And that's where Ruth came to in conversion. And we can't go back. Ruth couldn't go back to Moab. She didn't want to. But she couldn't go back to Moab, because Moab was a place of idolatry.

And she said, your God will be my God. I'm going to worship your God. I'm going to worship the true and living God. Your way of salvation is my way of salvation. It's God's way of salvation. So she couldn't go back to Moab. And that's what happens when God converts us, when we're born again and brought to Christ in true repentance. We can't go back. And it's a good thing we can't. Because if we could, we would. We stay with him, we cleave unto Christ. Like Ruth claimed to Naomi, okay.