Let us turn back to the book
of Ruth, Ruth chapter 1. We'll be reading verses 7 through 18. 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. 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. And they said unto her, surely
we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi said, turn
again, my daughters, while 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 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 for them till they were grown? Would you
stay for them having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for it grieveth
me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is 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. And she said, behold, thy sister-in-law
is gone back unto her people and unto her gods. Return thou
after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, entreat me not
to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For whither
thou goest, I will go. And where thou lodgest, I will
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 if ought but death part thee and me. When she saw that
she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking
unto her. The Old Testament is divided
into five parts. We have the Pentateuch, the first
five books, the historical part, the books of wisdom, and then
the major prophets and the minor prophets. The book of Ruth is
in the historical division. Many believe that it was written
by the same man, the same human author who wrote 1 Samuel. It does give the genealogy, in
the closing words of this book, it gives the genealogy of King
David, with whom God made a covenant later, a covenant that he would
have a son that would reign upon his throne forever and ever. When the angel Gabriel announced
to Mary that she should bring forth a son, The angel spoke
these words, Thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a
son and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be
called the son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be
no end. The part that most people are
familiar with in this book are the words that we read in verses
16 and 17, the words of Ruth, when she said, whither thou goest,
I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall
be my people, thy God my God. Where thou dies, will I die,
and there will I be buried. I've used them several times
over the years in marriage services because they bring out the total
commitment, the total, absolute commitment that a man and woman
should make to one another as they enter into marriage. But having said that, it would
be a mistake to look at this book, even though it is a book
of history, to look at only the history which it records and
to miss the several typical lessons. Several truths are revealed to
us by type in this book. And this morning, I want us to
look at three, and they're very important. They're very, very
important. Three typical teachings. First, counting the cost. Counting the cost. I have no
doubt that this is what Naomi insisted that both Ruth and Orpah
must do. They must count the cost. Naomi had heard good news. We looked at that last time.
She had heard good news that the Lord had visited his people
and giving them bread. So she would return to her homeland
and her two daughters-in-law, they would accompany her so far. When she left to go back to the
land of Judah, Orpah, and Ruth would accompany her so far, probably
to the border of Moab. And I believe that is so, and
it is revealed here in the last line of verse seven, where we
are told that they went on the way to return unto the land of
Judah. Now, only Naomi could return
to the land of Judah. Ruth and Orpah, they could not
return there because they had never been there. They were Moabites,
and their intention, no doubt, was to travel along with Naomi
until they came to the borders, and then they would turn back.
They loved their mother-in-law. They respected Naomi, and Naomi
loved them. And so we see in verses eight
and nine they come to a place, it seems as we would say, that
Naomi bid them Godspeed and kissed them and said goodbye. Goodbye. And the tears began
to flow. Parting. Parting from those that
we love. And especially when we part from
those that we love and we know it's going to be the last time,
the last time we're going to part from them, is always a very
emotional time. And tears many times are shed. It was at this point, at this
very emotional point, when they were saying goodbye to one another,
that both ORPA and Ruth declare their intention now is to go
with their mother-in-law, to go with Naomi into the land of
Judah. But Naomi insists that they count
the cost. She spells out to them, these
two young widows, what it would mean if they accompany her back
to the land of Israel. And I think there's at least
three things she would point out to them. Number one, you
must count on remaining a widow. You must just recognize that's
what's going to be your life. If you go with me, if you travel
on with me, you are going to be a widow the rest of your life. Now both Ruth and Orpah were
young widows, and what the Apostle Paul tells us in the New Testament
concerning young widows was true of them, would apply to them.
Paul said, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear
children, and guide the house. remarriage for a widow was just
normal, was just natural. It was just something that they
would be likely to do if they stayed in their own country.
But now recognize this. Ruth, Orpah, you say you're going
with me? Recognize this. Number one, you
will most likely Remain a widow. Number two, recognize this. You must count on a life of poverty. Naomi didn't have anything. She didn't have anything. She
didn't have servants to go along with her. She didn't have anything. She had been gone from her house
for 10 years. Would she even find a house?
After 10 years, I suppose it had been vacant. After 10 years,
would there even be a house there for them to live in? And we know from the rest of
the story that Ruth ends up out gathering wheat and barley. Those were jobs that servants
did, laborers did. because of poverty. She would
have to do this to feed herself and her mother-in-law. So that
was involved in this decision that they must make. Count the
cost here. You want to go with me? Remember
this. Most likely you will be a widow
the rest of your life. And number two, you will live
a life of poverty. And number three, You must count
on never finding rest. Look in verse nine, what Naomi
told them. In verse nine. You must count
on never finding rest. The Lord grant you that you may
find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband. Now, without
a husband, at that time, In that society, a woman would not find
rest. What does that mean? Well, the
rest that she would find in the house of a husband would be that
she would not have to be anxious over the future. She would not
have to be anxious about being protected. She would have a husband
who would supply her needs, physical needs, and also be her protector. but you're not going to find
rest if you go with me. The Lord Jesus taught the need
for all who would follow him, we must count the cost. Look with me at two passages
in the New Testament. Matthew chapter eight, first
of all. I believe that this is part of
the Lord's message that is missing in our day. We must count the cost. In Matthew
chapter 8 and verse 19 and 20 we read, and a certain scribe
came and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever
thou goest. In the heat of the moment, in
his zeal, he volunteered. Lord, master, I will follow thee
whithersoever thou goest. Now that's a big promise, isn't
it? Wherever you go, I'm going with you. The Lord said to him,
really? Really? You're going to follow me wherever
I go? Do you realize that the foxes
have holes and the birds of the air have their nest, but the
son of man hath not where to lay his head? Have you thought
about that? Have you counted the cost? It's
easy to make a promise, make a decision. but have you counted
the cost? Look with me in Luke chapter
14. Luke chapter 14 and beginning
with verse 25. And there went with him great
multitudes. And he turned and said unto them,
if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and
wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple. You know the Lord was not saying
that we must hate others. We're told in the scriptures
to even love our enemies. But what he is saying is that
he must be first. He must be above all. Father,
mother, husband, wife, he must be first. Whosoever doth not
bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Which of you intending to build
a tire sitteth not down first and counteth the cost? whether he have sufficient to
finish it. Less happily, after he hath laid
the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold,
it began to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was
not able to finish. Our Lord is not dissuading men
from confessing him. We understand that. But just
like a man who builds a tower, a tower has to have a foundation. A tower goes up, and without
a foundation, it's not going to stay up. And just like he
ended his message, the Sermon on the Mount, with the two men
who built their houses, one upon the sand, one upon the rock,
this tower, or our profession of faith, must be based solely
and absolutely upon the Rock. The Rock is Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ. But unless we're willing and
able to acknowledge and confess that He is our all, He is our
everything, then we cannot follow Him. We must count the cost. I would encourage all young people
and all people who first come to hear the gospel, to make sure
that you build upon the foundation, that you build your hope of eternal
life, your hope of sins forgiven upon the foundation only, upon
Christ. Because the winds are going to
come and the rain is going to come and the water's going to
come up, And if you're not built upon the rock, your house is
going to go down. It will. It must because it has
no foundation. What Naomi is doing here with
her two daughters-in-law is causing them or making sure as best she
could that they count the cost. It's easy in a moment of emotionalism
and things like that to make a decision and a profession without
ever counting the cost. But our Lord said that first
of all, we must deny ourself, take up our cross, and follow
Him. So that's the first typical message
I have for us here from these words in Ruth today. But the
second is just as important, a saver of death and a saver
of life. A saver of death and a saver
of life. You see, if you've turned back
here to our text in Ruth, both Ruth and Orpah, They heard the
same message. Naomi didn't preach one message
to Ruth and another message to Orpah. They both heard the same
message. But to one, it was a message
of death. To Orpah, it was a message of
death. Verse 15, she went back to her
people and her gods. She heard a message of death.
To Ruth, it was a saver of life. It was a message of life. If
you have a Bible that has a marginal reading, if you see in verse
16 that marginal reading in our King James translation, it says,
entreat me not to leave thee, but in the margin, be not against
me. Be not against me. She had cast
her all in with Naomi, and she didn't want to hear any more
about not following through, about not going on. Now, what do I mean by a saver
of life and a saver of death? Well, turn with me to 2 Corinthians
2. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse
14. Now thanks be unto God which
always causeth us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest
the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are
unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in
them that perish. To the one, we are the saver
of death unto death. To the other, the saver of life
unto life. And who is sufficient for these
things? Now what does the apostle mean
here? He's telling us that himself,
along with all gospel preachers and the gospel that they proclaim,
is a sweet saver unto God. What he is alluding to, no doubt,
is that The priests of old were ordained with a special ointment,
and God forbid that this ointment be manufactured for any other
reason among the Israelites. And when the tabernacle was first
set up and Aaron, the high priest, the first high priest was dedicated,
this special ointment was poured upon his head. And it wasn't
just a few drops either. They poured it on his head. It
came down to his beard. We read this in the book of Psalms,
down to his skirts. And it is a picture, of course,
of that perfume that ascended, that savor that ascended unto
God was a sweet smell. And in other words, it was accepted
of God. It pleased God. just like when
the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized and that voice from heaven, the
voice of God said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well
pleased. I'm well pleased. And gospel
preachers and the gospel, and there wouldn't be gospel preachers
without the gospel, but that is a sweet smelling savor unto
God. Now what we preach, When we preach
the gospel, we preach the death, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And some, it's a saver of death
unto death. That's foolishness. That's foolishness. This whole
idea of preaching and preaching about Christ, a man that you
say is God, manifest in the flesh. His one sacrifice atones for
the sins of all his people. That's foolishness. To some,
the message, the same message. That's the point I'm trying to
make or want to make. Orpah and Ruth both heard the
same message. But to one, it was a savor of
death unto death, and to the other, a savor of life unto life. The same gospel message. that
we proclaim. To some, it's nothing other than
foolishness. To be saved by the sacrifice
of another? Many despise it. Many despise
the gospel message. It's a saver of death unto them.
I'm so tired. I'm so tired of hearing about
Christ and hearing about blood and hearing about a lamb That
seems to be all we ever hear. It's a savor of death unto death
unto some. But others, like Ruth, same message,
same gospel, is a savor of life unto her. That's just what I
need. That's just what I need to hear.
It's a savor of life. God blesses the preaching of
his gospel to some, And it becomes a means of quickening, quickening. Men by nature are dead spiritually
and yet somehow mysteriously, born from above, born of the
spirit, God is pleased to use the preaching of his gospel and
God the Holy Spirit regenerates or quickens some and they hear
the gospel, and they believe the gospel, and they're saved. It's a mystery, isn't it? It's
a mystery. It's a marvel. If the gospel
is a saver of life unto you, I know you praise God and thank
God that it is, because it could be a saver of death unto you.
It is to many. Both of these women, they heard
the same message, but one returned to her gods. It was a saver of
death unto her. The third typical teaching is
the stony ground and the good ground here. Our Lord told the
parable of the sower who went forth to sow. And in the parable
he tells us that the seed fell in four different locations,
or on four different places. And one of those places he called
stony ground, and one place he called good ground. Now the stony
ground, the seed, same message, same message, preached by the
same preacher, the Lord Jesus Christ. It fell in a place where there
was not much earth, Stony ground. The seed sprung up. In fact,
it almost sprung up like jacking the beanstalks, beanstalks, overnight,
quickly. They hear the message, and anon
with joy, they receive it. It springs up. But because there
was not much earth, not much dirt, the seeds sown among the
rocks, then the sun comes up and the sun scorches the plant
that is the product of those seeds. It withers away, withers
away. Orpah, she's typical of a stony
ground here. She lifted up her voice and wept,
And she quickly said, I will return with you. But she had
no root. She had no root and quickly withered
away. When she heard when there was
persecution because of the word or there was temptation because
of riches and other things that our Lord mentions in that parable.
The stony ground here comes to naught, comes to nothing. But
you see, Ruth is typical of a good ground hearer. Our Lord said,
a good ground hearer hears the word. Hears the word. The seeing eye and the hearing
ear are both from the Lord. A good ground hearer hears the
word of God and understands. Understands. I understand what
that preacher's saying. Some people over the years I've
had, I don't understand a thing that man's saying. I don't have
a clue what he's talking about. But good ground hearers, they
hear the word and they understand. They understand, first of all,
that they need a savior. They understand that well. Nobody
else maybe needs one, but I do. They understand the word. And
they understand there's only one savior. And that one savior
has to be both God and man. God that he might satisfy. God
and man that he might suffer in the place of man. They understand. And they understand that he is
willing to receive and able to save all who come unto him. And so they look to him, they
come to him by faith. Ruth, she's typical of a good
ground here and she brings forth fruit. What I see the fruit here in
Ruth is I see both repentance and faith. Two graces that always come,
that always accompany salvation. I see repentance and faith in
Ruth's words. She's turning from her gods,
her people, and her country, and turning to Naomi's country,
her people, and her God. That's a picture of repentance. What is repentance? Well, first
of all, if you just want the definition, it's a change of
mind, but it's always accompanied by a change of life. A lot of
people change their mind 100 times a day, but true repentance
is a change of mind which results or ends in a change of life. It is a turning from. That's
conversion, a turning from. Whether thou goest, I will go.
Wherever you go, she tells her mother-in-law, I'll be there
with you. Wherever you go, that's where I'm going to be. And wherever
you lodge, I'm going to lodge. If it's a house or if it's sleeping
out under the stars, wherever, wherever you are, that's where
I'm going to be. Thy people shall be my people. I'm going to be associated with
and concerned about and conform to thy people. She turned her
back on her people, Moab, Moabitess. And notice she said, thy God
shall be my God. That's very, very important in
her words, because you see the Moabites, they worshiped several
gods. No doubt she was raised in a
home, in a family, and was taught to worship at least three different
gods. At the same time, the Moabites
had three gods. But she confesses, no, Thy God,
singular. There's only one true and living
God, Thy God. And there's only one way to know
that God, and that is through His Son, Jesus Christ. There's
no other way. To know God is to know Christ,
to know God in Christ. Where thou diest, will I die. She recognized the fact that
Naomi being older, she would probably die sooner. But wherever
you die, Naomi, that's where I'm going to die and I'm going
to be buried in the same place. And I'm going to partake of the
same resurrection. Her confession shows that she
was a good ground here. What a blessing this morning
to hear the word of God and believe
the word of God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Have you counted the cost? Have I counted the cost? Is there
anything or anyone in my life before him? If there is, I cannot
be his disciple, neither can you. Is the gospel a saver of life
unto you? Is hearing the gospel essential? Is it? It's just like the food
that you must have for your physical body is hearing the gospel essential
to you. I must have it. I must hear it. Are you a good ground here? Do
you bring forth fruit? Every one of the good ground
hearers brings forth fruit, some 30-fold, some 60-fold, some 120-fold. But every good ground here brings
forth fruit. Fruit, as I've already mentioned,
repentance, faith, love, hope, patience, temperance brings forth fruit. in our lives.