In Ruth chapter 1, Brother Tom
Harding says his favorite psalm is always the one he's reading.
And I apply that to myself, these Old Testament types and pictures
of our Lord. My favorite one seems to be the
one that I'm studying. But this type of the kinsman
redeemer in the book of Ruth is just one of my favorites.
It's one of the sweetest pictures of the Providence of our Lord,
the tender love and grace and provision that our Lord has for
his people. And today I have a, it's just,
it's one message, but in two parts. The subject of the day
is the kinsman redeemer. Now the title of this book is
Ruth, but Ruth is not the star of the story. She's not even
the subject of the story. The subject of the book of Ruth
is the same as every book of the Bible. It's Christ. And the
star of the book of Ruth is not Ruth, it's Boaz, because Boaz
is the one who's the type of Christ our kinsman redeemer.
But before we get to Boaz, we must see why it is that we need
a kinsman redeemer. And that's the title of the lesson,
why we need a kinsman. And we need a kinsman redeemer.
because we're fallen in Adam. When Adam fell, we all died in
Adam. We lost everything in Adam when
Adam fell. And look at Ruth 1 and verse
1. Now it came to pass 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 Chilion, Ephratites of Bethlehem Judah. And they
came into the country of Moab and continued there. Now there
was a famine in Israel, and it was because of the sin of the
people. This was during the time of the judges. We looked at that
last week, sometime before Gideon, before he came and set the people
free from Israel. or from the Midianites. Now,
if you look over in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, God's word gives
us some instruction on what to do when this happened. When this
time of famine and need comes upon us, God's word gives us
instruction what we're to do. In 2 Chronicles 20 verse 9. If when evil cometh upon you,
as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, and we stand before
this house and in thy presence, for thy name is in this house,
and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou will hear and help. What we're supposed to do in
these times of affliction is cry to the Lord, come before
him and cry. He promised to hear and help
his people. But that's not what Elimelech
did, is it? He didn't wait on the Lord to provide. He just
sold out and he left Israel to go to a land of idolatry. And
that's so foolish. Now, you know that in the Old
Testament, names mean something. Bethlehem means house of bread. There's not gonna be a famine
in the house of bread forever. Sooner or later, God's gonna
send bread there. It's foolish to leave there.
And Elimelech, his name means my God is king. Well, Elimelech
seems to have forgotten that. And even worse, Bethlehem, Judah
is the city Bethlehem where Christ would be born. Elimelech left
Bethlehem, the birthplace of the Redeemer, and he went to
Moab. Moab means of his father. Elimelech left the place where
Christ would be born to go the way of his father. He's going
the way of Adam, his father. He's going there in rebellion
because he has Adam's nature. Adam rebelled against God because
Adam wanted to be his own God. Elimelech's got the same nature.
And Elimelech gives us a picture of Adam's rebellion and he gives
us a picture of the fall that happened because of Adam's rebellion.
Look at verse three. In Elimelech, Naomi's husband
died, and she was left and her two sons, and they took them
wives to the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah,
and the name of the other Ruth, and they dwelled there about
10 years. Malon and Charleon died, also both of them, and
the woman was left of her two sons and her husband. Now, the
result of Adam's sin is death. The moment Adam sinned against
God, he died. He died spiritually, And all
of us died spiritually in him. Scripture says, as in Adam, all
died. Adam was responsible for you
and me. He was responsible for us. What
he did, we did. So we all sinned in Adam. We
all died in Adam. That's Elimelech. Elimelech was
responsible for his whole family. The responsibility was on his
shoulders. The whole family, for generations down the road,
would be affected by the decisions Elimelech made. Elimelech took
his family away from God's land, away from God's people, and took
them to a place of idolatry. And there he died. And he left
his wife, Naomi, a widow. There was no social security,
there was nothing, you know, no welfare programs or anything,
no safety net in those days. He left her without any means
of support. And Elimelech's sons, they followed
their father's example. He took them to a land of idolatry
and they married idolaters. Now God told the children of
Israel, don't you do that. Don't you marry from these nations
that are around you. Don't marry an idolater, they'll
take your heart away from the Lord. Now that's what God said,
but what did Elimelech teach his sons? Elimelech by his actions
taught his sons what God says is not all that important and
they disobeyed God too. And then they died and both of
them left widows and they left their mother completely destitute. That's the fall of man. When
Adam fell, we all died. We lost everything. We have no
means to supply what it is God requires of us. We lost spiritual
life. We lost righteousness. We lost
fellowship with God. We lost the way to God. We're
just like these helpless widows. We've got no way to supply for
ourselves. We're left absolutely destitute. Now that's the most
important lesson from this first chapter of Ruth. It's the fall
of man, our helpless, hopeless condition because of our sin
and how desperately we need a redeemer. That's the most important lesson
from this first chapter of Ruth. But there's another important
lesson here. First is to you fathers. I want you fathers to
listen to me. This is important. You remember
this. Your decisions affect your family
and can affect them for generations on down the line now. The responsibility
for your family to be in the worship service under the sound
of the gospel is yours. It's your responsibility, nobody
else's. You're the priest in the home.
And you're responsible to set the example too. Now our children
hear what we say, but I'm telling you, they hear what we do too. They hear that real well. So
let's be sure we're setting the right example for our children.
We always pray that the Lord save our children. How we desire
our children would come to Christ. Do they see us coming to him?
Do they see us worshiping him? Do they see us depending upon
him? We want our children to worship the Lord. Do they live
in a home where the Lord's worshiped? And I'm not just talking about
Sundays and Wednesdays now, I'm talking about every day. Do they
live in a home where the Lord's spoken of? Where he's worshiped,
where the prayers are made, where the word is read? Now I know
it takes the power and mercy of God to save anybody, our children
included. But now the Lord uses means.
He uses means to preach the gospel. He uses means to sow the word.
Young Timothy was taught the word from the time he can understand
language by his mother and grandmother, wasn't he? Parents are to teach
our children the word by our word and by our example. And
whatever you fathers do, whatever you do, do not take your family
to a place where they can't hear the gospel. You can just count
on God not blessing that. You can count on it. Now, we
know the end of this story, don't we? God ended up blessing this
situation. Oh, how he blessed. But Elimelech
wasn't blessed. Malon and Charleon weren't blessed.
There's a whole lot of pain and suffering caused because of what
Elimelech did. I like what one of the old writers
said to fathers, don't take your family somewhere you wouldn't
want them to be without you. Maybe a little bit like thought
it'd be okay. I'll be there, I'll teach him, I'll preach to
him or whatever. He wasn't there very long, was
he? If you men have a chance to take
a promotion or you get a chance to take a new job and move to
a city where the gospel's not preached, don't go, don't go,
just don't go. It's not worth it. I promise
you, it's not the Lord's will for you to take your family someplace
they can't hear the gospel. I promise you. Now you might
say, that's easy for you to say. And I'll tell you a true story.
Holly was four. Savannah was just an infant.
The company I worked for closed. They went out of business. I
didn't have a job. We signed a mortgage on a house. And the
next day, the next morning, I found out that company was closing.
The next day. I had a wife and two children.
And their company came in, working and closing the business down.
And they offered me a job, making 3 and 1 half times what I was
making. But here's the kicker. I'd have
to be out of town for three or four weeks at a time. Couldn't
even come home on the weekends. My family could live where they
wanted, but I was going to be out of town all over the place.
And I thought, well, that's a lot of money. And I talked to Brother
Henry about it. And I didn't even get my story
finished. And he said, they don't got anything
you want. And I thought, well, that's true.
And you know what? The Lord always provided, always. Now, sometimes it was like manna
from heaven, wasn't it? Oh, it was just enough for that
day. But the Lord always provided. Now I'm telling you, wait on
the Lord, just wait on him and don't take your family away from
a place they hear the gospel. Elimelech did not have to leave
Israel. No, he did not. He wasn't starving. And matter of fact, he wasn't
in any real trouble at all. We'll see this at the end of
the chapter. When he went out, he was full. He had plenty. It was just the economy was down.
But now on the other hand, if you've got a chance for a promotion
or a new job in a city where the gospel is preached, then
you go. Go. Better your family if you
can. Pastor friend of mine told me about, a couple came to him
one time, one of the key couples in the church there, told him
they were thinking about moving to another city. They're gonna
move to, and the gospel was there, there's a faithful pastor there.
And my friend said, I got one question. Do you believe this
is the Lord's will for you? And they said, yes, we do. He
said, I'm so happy for you. He said, I'll even help you pack.
If that's the Lord's will, I'm happy for you. If you have the
opportunity like that, you go. I'll weep. I mean, we'll miss
you. But you go if that's the Lord's will for you. But if the
gospel's not preached there, I promise you it's not the Lord's
will for you. Now, that's a lesson to you fathers. But here's a
lesson to you children. I want you to listen to me. You
remember what I'm about to tell you. You're growing up so fast. And I know it seems like it's
so slow. It seems like forever till you
get to the next birthday and the next, you know, oh, it seems
so long. But it's happening so fast. And
you're going to turn around. And it's time to go to college.
It's time to decide what you're going to do and where you're
going to live and these things. And it's time for you to go to
college or take this next big step now. Try to go somewhere
where you can hear the gospel. I promise you, you'll be better
off. And when you get a job, when
you're out looking for a job, you look for a job somewhere
you can hear the gospel. You seek a job where you can
seek the Lord first. Now that is my advice to you.
That's I love you, I care about you, I care about your wellbeing,
your soul and your body both, I care about you. But I want
you to look at Matthew chapter six. This is not just my advice
to you. This is what God's word says
to you. This advice comes straight from
the word of God. Matthew six, verse 19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves
break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves do not break through nor steal. Now just don't seek
the things of this world first, because they won't last. You'd
be surprised how quickly they're gone. Now look down at verse
25. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought, and that means
no anxious thought for your life, what you should eat or what you
should drink, neither for your body, what you should put on.
Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment? Behold
the fowls, the birds of the air. They sow not, neither do they
reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth
them. Are you not much better than they? Aren't you much better
than a bird? Of course you are. Which of you taking thought can
add one cubit under his stature? If by taking thought I could
have made myself taller and made myself 6'8", so I could have
played power forward for University of Kentucky, I'd have done it.
Remember how much I thought about it? I didn't grow. You can't
add one cubit, one inch to your height. Well, why take ye thought
for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow. They toil not, neither do they
spin, they don't make themselves clothes. Yet I say unto you that
even Solomon, in all of his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which
today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much
more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Take no anxious thought
saying, what should we eat or what should we drink or wherewithal
should we be clothed? For after all these things to
the Gentiles seek the idolater that doesn't know better. That's
what they see. For your heavenly father knoweth
that you have needed these things, but seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness and all these things should be
added to you. First thing you do is you seek Christ. And you
seek him with all of your heart, with all of your might. You seek
Christ. God'll take care of the rest
of it. He'll take care of you. He'll feed you and clothe you
and give you shelter. He will. And the world you live
in, this is advice that's important to you. The world you live in
is a lot like the world a limeleck lived in. There's a famine in
our day. Just like there was a famine
for a limeleck. Now, our famine is not the famine of bread. Everybody
here's got enough to eat. The famine that I'm speaking
of is a famine of the word of God. You can't go everywhere
and hear the word of God preached. Amos 8 verse 11 says this. Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord God, that I'll send a famine
in the land, not a famine of bread nor thirst of water, but
of hearing the words of the Lord. God said, you'll wander from
sea to sea looking for it, and you won't be able to find it,
because I'm sending a famine in the land. That's our day. We have a famine in our land,
a famine of the word of God. So if you find a place where
the word of God is preached, where you can hear the gospel,
you stay right there, and don't you go down to Moab. Don't you
go to these idolatrous places. You stay where you can hear the
gospel preached. Now here's some comfort for you.
We know that's what we ought to do, isn't that right? Oh, but we make so many mistakes. You children, you're gonna get
a little older and you're gonna look back and you're gonna think,
oh, I wish I hadn't done that. Oh, I wish I hadn't said that.
I'd give anything if I hadn't done that, but we make so many
mistakes. But despite all of our sinful
mistakes and errors and things we do, you know what? God's still
on the throne. Naomi went down there. She left without anything, but
you know what? God's not going to lose any of
his people. God's not going to lose one of
his people, even though we sin and stray and wander off. Look
at verse six, back in Ruth chapter one, God's not going to lose
one. Then she, Naomi, arose with her
daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab,
for she'd heard in the country of Moab how the Lord had visited
his people and given them bread. Naomi heard that the Lord provided
bread for his people in Israel. Well, now there's a surprise,
isn't it? God promised he would. God kept his promise, and she
heard that. And you know, that's a picture
of preaching. God's preachers, all they are is one beggar telling
another beggar where he found bread. Well, Naomi's way down
there in the land of idolatry. How did she hear what the Lord
had done in Bethlehem? Well, God saw to it. Same way
God saw to it. You'd hear the gospel. He sent
the gospel to her so she'd hear. Nothing's too hard for God. And
Naomi heard that good news. But it wasn't good news for Naomi
until she didn't have nothing, until she was destitute. And
she heard the good news. And she said, I'm going back
to Israel. I'm going to go back. And when
one of God's elect finally hears of Christ, when God strips us
and breaks us and shows us we're nothing and we hear of Christ,
we'll say with the songwriter, I'll arise and go to Jesus. Despite my sin, despite my filth
and my ugliness, he'll embrace me in his arms. I'm going to
go to him. That's what Naomi said. And she set a good example. She told her daughters-in-law,
I'm going back to God's house. I'm going back to God's people.
And her daughters-in-law were going to follow her. Look at
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've dealt with the dead and
with me. The Lord grants 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. And they said unto her, surely
we will return with thee unto thy people. And 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? Turn
again, my daughters, go your way, for I'm too old to have
a husband. If I should say I have hope,
I should have a husband also tonight, and should also bear
sons? Would you tarry for them? Would
you wait for them till they're grown? Would you stay for them
from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieveth
me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out
against me.' And they lifted up their voice and wept again,
and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her. Naomi's
not a very good soul winner, is she? These people want to
go with her, and she keeps kind of pushing them away a little
bit, you know, she keeps trying to run them off. And I tell you
what she's telling them, if you're going to go with me, you better
count the costs. This is going to be a costly trip because I
can't bear you any more sons to marry. What she meant there
was it was a custom. And that time, if a brother would
marry his brother's widow, if his brother married a woman and
he died and they didn't have any children, well, he'd marry
her. Well, she said, there are no husbands for you. I'm not
going to, I'm too old to bear any more sons. And if I did,
you're not going to wait till they're grown. If you come with me, all I can
promise you is poverty and hardship. That's all I can promise you.
Now I implore you, you come to Christ and you follow him. You
come, you won't be disappointed, but now count the cost. Now there's
a cost involved in this thing. The world hates Christ, hates
the gospel of Christ. You come, but now count the cost.
Well, old Orpah, she counted the cost. She says, too much
for me. And she turned back. She's a picture of a false profession. Trials almost always reveal a
false profession. It's just, it's too much. And
she turned her back on Judah and went back to her idols and
her old way of life. But not Ruth. Not Ruth. Ruth's
name means friendship. And she's gonna show a loyal
friendship here. And what's happened? Why wouldn't
she leave? Why did she cling so much to
Naomi? Well, it's God's grace. It's
what the old timers called pervenient grace. Grace that goes before,
grace before grace. The Lord's drawing Ruth. That's
why she claims Naomi. The Lord's drawing her to him.
And you know why Ruth's so insistent? You can't run a sinner away from
Christ. If you ever find a sinner, you
cannot run them away by calling them a sinner. You can't run
away by telling them there's no hope. You can't do it. You
can't run them away from Christ. You can't run them away from
Christ, because Christ is drawing that sinner to Him, just like
He's drawing Ruth to Him. See, God's overruling all of
this. In the message later on, we'll
look at handfuls of purpose. This is one of God's handfuls
of His purpose. He brought all this to pass for
one reason. To bring Ruth to Israel. She's
coming to Israel. She's coming there to meet the
Lord, be saved. Look at verse 15. And she said,
behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back unto her people and
unto her gods. Return now after thy sister-in-law.
And Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee, nor to return
from following after thee. For whether thou goest, I will
go. And whether thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall
be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, I will
die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more
also. If anything but death part thee and me, Now this statement
by Ruth is very famous. It's all that most people know
about the Book of Ruth. But this is not nearly the most
important thing for us to learn from this Book of Ruth. It's
not nearly the most admirable thing in the Book of Ruth. But
it is admirable. And it's admirable because it's
a picture of the believer's faith in Christ. What's the difference
between Ruth and Orpah? It's just God's grace, isn't
it? God gave the gift of faith to Ruth and not to Orpah. That's
the only difference. And faith is seen in commitment
to Christ. A true believer is committed
to Christ. He's committed to identifying
with Christ, identifying with the people of Christ. And he
says, I'm gonna follow Christ. I'm gonna be where he's at. Don't
ask me not to. Now, wherever he is, that's where
I'm gonna be. Wherever his gospel is preached, that's where I'm
gonna live and that's where I'm gonna die. Where Christ goes, I go. The people of Christ, they're
gonna be my family. Their God is my God. We'll worship
together. And even death won't separate
me from Christ. And now what our brother Job
said, though he slay me yet will I trust him. You know, it really
doesn't matter where I am or what I'm doing as long as Christ
is there. It really doesn't. It doesn't
really matter what kind of job I have as long as Christ is there. It really doesn't matter how
nice a car I have or how nice a job or car or how, I mean,
it doesn't matter. As long as Christ is there, it
really doesn't matter. Well, look at verse 18. When
Naomi saw that Ruth was steadfastly minded to go with her, she left
speaking unto her. She thought, well, I'm not arguing
with her anymore, just wasting my time. So they too went until
they came to Bethlehem. It came to pass when they had
come to Bethlehem that all the city was moved about them and
said, is this Naomi? And she said unto them, call
me not Naomi, that name means pleasant, don't call me pleasant,
call me Mara, call me bitter, for the Almighty hath dealt very
bitterly with me. I went out full, that's why I
told you Limelech didn't have to leave, I went out full, and
the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call you
me Naomi? Why do you call me sweet and
pleasant? seeing the Lord hath testified against me and the
Almighty hath afflicted me. And Naomi got back to Bethlehem
and her arrival was big news. Elimelech was somebody. Now he
was one of the chief men, one of the richest men in town and
her coming back was big news. And they all said, have you seen
Naomi? She didn't even look like the
same person. Just what a change in her. Naomi left a beautiful,
sweet woman. And she returned old, worn out,
worn out with grief and pain and suffering and age. She left. She was full. She had everything.
She came back empty. She got nothing. Now that is
the fall of Adam. Adam's disobedience brought about
a great change. It brought death. And the people
wonder, can that really be Naomi? You look at Adam right after
he fell, trying to make him an apron of fig leaves and hiding
from God in the bushes. Can that really be Adam? Can
it really? I don't know, but that man God
created, he was spectacular. Adam was spectacular spiritually. He is spectacular mentally and
physically. Can that nut hiding in the bushes
be the man God created? Is that Adam? Look at him. He was righteous, now he's totally
depraved. He was a spiritual man, now he's
a carnal man. Adam was brilliant, now he's
ignorant, dumb as a box of rocks. Adam had peace with God, now
his carnal mind is enmity against God. Adam was blessed, now he's
cursed. Adam was rich, now he's poor.
Adam was alive, and now he's dead. Adam and all of his descendants
bear almost no resemblance to the man God created. People look
at you and me, and they say, can that be Adam? Can those be
the descendants of the man God created? Look how far they've
fallen. Oh, they just hardly bear any
resemblance. Naomi says, I left sweet, but I've returned bitter. The Almighty hath afflicted me.
Well, that's the repentance from our sin. Repentance always tastes
bitter. It's bitter to us to see and
confess what we are, to confess our sin. Oh, it's so bitter.
But now listen, if the Almighty is the one that afflicts you
with this bitterness, if God teaches you that, God strips
us and God leaves us empty. I'm telling you this, grace and
sweetness is sure to follow, sure to follow. But this bitterness
of repentance has got to come first. We got to see our need
of Christ before he'll be sweet to us. Now look at verse 22. So Naomi returned and Ruth of
Moabitus, 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. Now they may not realize it yet,
but God so gracious, this is God's grace to them. Our Lord
brought them back, Bob, right on schedule. He brought them
back at the harvest time. He didn't bring them back in
the springtime when they're planting, and there'd be nothing for them
to go out in the field and glean. We'll look at that gleaning in
the message here in just a minute. He brought them back right at
the time of the barley harvest, where they could get them something
to eat. God wouldn't leave them starving to death. Now barley,
they didn't come back at the time of the wheat harvest. They
came back at the time of the barley harvest. Barley doesn't make
as good a bread as wheat bread. It's coarse and kind of hard,
you know. But I'll tell you what. If you're
hungry, if God makes you hungry enough, that barley bread tastes
awful good. It'll fill you up. That's a picture
of Christ the bread of life. Christ the bread of life is not
what this flesh wants. Christ the bread of life is not
what this world wants. He's coarse bread that the flesh
thinks, that's not very good. But I'm telling you, God makes
you hungry. There's nothing better. There's nothing better than the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of this happened according
to God's purpose, just like God allowed Adam to fall so he'd
get glory in sending his son to redeem his people. God allowed
all this to happen to bring to pass his purpose to save one
idolater, Ruth the Moabitess. And we'll look at that here in
just a few minutes.