Let's turn again in our Bibles
this evening to Ruth, the first chapter of Ruth. We've come tonight to a turning
point in my messages from this small book. We might say that
it has been negative to this point. The time, it was when
the judges ruled and everyone did that which was right in his
own eyes. There was a famine in the land,
the land that God had described as a good land, a land flowing
with milk and honey. Limelech, moves his family away
from the gospel. He dies in the land of Moab.
His two sons marry Moabites and leave them widows. And Naomi
is left with her two daughters-in-law, destitute in a land of strangers. Elimelech's name would die out
in Israel. And this is something that maybe
you have never heard or never thought that much about, but
this was something that no Israelite wished to happen. That is for
his name to die out in Israel, but Elimelech's name would die
out in Israel because his two sons had died and left no heirs. It has all been negative to this
point. We've come to a turning point.
And it all begins with hearing a message. Verse number six. It all begins with hearing a
message. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law,
that is Naomi, that she might return from the country of Moab. For she had heard, she had heard, it all begins
with a message. She had heard in the country
of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving
them bread. far she had heard. I have two subjects this evening
I want us to consider from these remaining verses here in chapter
1. First, God's glorious gospel. And I just jotted down these
six truths about the gospel that we may take from this place.
And I trust the Lord will make these six things a blessing to
all of us here this evening. First of all, the gospel is a
message for the needy. The condition of these three
women was a picture of need. Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah. Their condition was one of need. And you see down in verse 21,
Naomi confessed that she was empty, that she was empty. I could not help but think of
David's words in Psalms 40 and verse 17. But I am poor and needy,
yet the Lord thinketh upon me. The gospel message is a message
for the needy. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ
said, they that are whole need not a physician. A person who's
well physically, he doesn't need a doctor. It is only those who
are sick. They that be whole need not a
physician, but they that are weak. The Lord Jesus Christ began
his earthly ministry after he was baptized, tempted of the
devil, and back into the town of Nazareth where he had grown
up, going into the synagogue that day and finding that place
in the scripture where it was written, the spirit of the Lord
is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. The gospel message is for the
needy. That word empty, when Naomi confessed,
I'm empty, I thought to myself, what a great word, what a good
word to describe every lost sinner. Empty, empty. By nature, we are
all empty of all righteousness. all righteousness that God would
accept. We're empty. If you can imagine
a glass, it's completely empty. Dries a bone. That's you and
I. Empty of all righteousness that
God Almighty would accept. Because the righteousness that
He accepts must be perfect. Must be Perfect. We may have
been full of self-righteousness, but that was nothing but filthy
rags in God's sight. Empty. We are empty of any thought. Any thought. Any word. Any work. that God will accept. That's a hard saying, isn't it?
It's a true saying. Empty. Empty of any word, any
thought, or any work that God would accept. And I say that
to us tonight because what God told the Israelites concerning
the making of an altar. If you raise your hand upon the
work of building an altar, you have polluted it. Why? Because
you are polluted. Not one thought, not one word,
not one work that God would accept. Empty. Thank God the gospel is
for the needy. For the needy. Number two, The gospel is a message
marked by simplicity. The gospel is a message marked
by simplicity. And I'm using that word like
the Apostle Paul used it in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 in verse 3. Don't
misunderstand the word simplicity. The gospel message is marked
by its simplicity. The Apostle Paul said, but I
fear, writing to these believers in the church at Corinth, but
I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety. And oh, he was subtle, wasn't
he? When he came to our mother Eve there in the garden and suggested
to her, yea, hath God said, Paul said, I fear, lest by any means
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. What does that word there mean?
It means the singleness, the simplicity, the singleness that
is in Christ. Salvation is in one plain, easy,
important truth. The simplicity. Salvation is
in one plain, easy, important truth. Salvation alone by Jesus
Christ. The message Naomi heard and what
turned Her life, the message which she heard was one that
was plain, and it was easy, and it was important. There was a
simplicity about the message. What was it? The Lord, the Lord
has visited His people in giving them bread. Number three, the
gospel is a message about bread, about bread. The message that
Naomi heard about bread was bread that sustains physical life. Get that, sustains. We must have
food to sustain our physical life. And the message she heard
was about bread that sustains life. She didn't hear a message
about bread that could give life. only bread that could sustain
life. She didn't hear that there was
bread that could give her dead husband life, that could give
her two sons life. That's not the message of bread
she heard. She heard about bread, yes, a
message of bread, yes, but it was a message that can sustain
life But the gospel is a message about bread that gives life. What a difference. That gives
life. The Lord Jesus Christ confessed
himself to be the bread of God which cometh down from heaven
and giveth life unto the world. He confessed, I am the living
bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world. What is
special about his flesh? We're thinking about his broken
body and his blood that was poured out tonight as we observed the
Lord's table. But what is special about his
flesh? He said that He gives His flesh,
which is a gift of life to the world. What is special about
His flesh, His body, the Word was made flesh, is because it
was joined to the person of the eternal Son of God. And that flesh, that sacrifice
has an infinite value. I told someone this past week,
I said, every sin that you have ever sinned, every sin that I
have ever sinned, is an infinite sin. There's no little sin. Someone
said, I told a little white lie. A lie is a lie. And a lie is
a sin, and every sin is an infinite sin. You say, why? Because every
sin is committed against an infinite God. And to satisfy for an infinite
sin is going to take an infinite sacrifice. A fourth thing that came to my
mind, the gospel is a message from a far country. Oh my. The message came from the land
of Israel to Naomi in the land of Moab. The gospel message comes
to us from heaven. It was sent from heaven. It did
not originate with men. Men did not get together and
think, you know, I wonder how we could come up with a gospel
message. I wonder how we could come up
with a gospel scheme, a gospel plan. And if all the men had
got together and all the angels with them and come up with a
scheme and a plan, they still could not have caused it to come
into being. The gospel is a message from
a far country. It is called the everlasting
gospel. Why? Because God is the author
of the gospel, and he is everlasting. I like that proverb, Proverbs
25 and verse 25, which says, as cold waters. Have you ever been thirsty? I'm
sure all of us in here have. I remember one time, I must have
been about eight or nine, 10 years old, and my friends, I
got thirsty. And I've never forgotten it. And any other time I've been
thirsty in comparison to that time was nothing, nothing. As waters, as cool waters, The
scripture says, to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a
far country. That's the gospel, isn't it?
Good news from a far country, from heaven's country. And that's the fifth thing. The
gospel message is a message of good news. To a hungry person,
there is no better news. I'm talking about a person who
is spiritually hungry, a person who hungers and thirsts after
righteousness. I'm speaking about a person who
is spiritually thirsty. Yes, I remember that day I was
thirsty and it wasn't long before that man's wife that I was working
for, she made homemade bread every
day. And as we got closer to the house, I could smell that
bread. But I tell you what, she filled up one of those mason
jars with sweet tea, cold, sweet tea. And my thirst, after two
or three glasses of that, was removed. Nothing better to a
hungry person than food. Nothing better to a thirsty person
than cool water. You can talk to a hungry person
about beautiful landscapes. You can talk to a hungry person
about beautiful clothes, about beautiful homes and beautiful
cars and big bank accounts and all of that. But the thing that
is important to a hungry person Bread, bread, bread. It's a message of good news. When is a person saved? Someone
said one time, a person is saved when the gospel comes to you as good news. Not just you've
heard, that's what it means, that's what the word gospel means,
good news, but when it comes to you, because of the guilt of sin that
God the Holy Spirit has brought you under, conviction of sin. And then you hear, there's bread. God has visited his people and
there is bread. And that bread comes to you as
good news. There's life for Luke in the
crucified one. All that God requires, he has
provided in his son. He'll never ask more of me that
what his son has already rendered to God Almighty, satisfying his
holy justice. That's good news. Good news. With all my failures, with all
my sin, all the evil and the wickedness of which I'm guilty,
it's good news to hear there's a savior who saves his people
from their sins. And the last thing, the sixth
thing, it's a message, listen to me, please, everyone. It's
a message to be believed. It really is. It's a message
to be believed. Naomi heard the message. Did
she believe? Well, look what we read in verse
seven. Wherefore she went forth out
of the place where she was. Oh yes, she believed. She heard
the message. There's bread. God has visited
his people and there's bread in Bethlehem. Did she believe? You better know she did. How
do we know? She left Moab and headed towards
Bethlehem. The gospel, Paul said, let me
read this to us because I'm sure I'll misquote it, Romans chapter
10. And I don't want to do that. In verse six he said, but the
righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not
in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven. That is to bring
Christ down from above. Or who shall descend into the
deep? That is to bring up Christ again
from the dead. But what saith it? The word is
nigh thee. Everyone here tonight, the word
is nigh thee. It's coming all around you. You've got it in front of you.
Looking at it. The word is nigh thee. Even in
thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. The gospel is a message to be
believed. Now, that was the first subject
I wanted to speak to us about from this passage. Here's the
second, God's effectual call. God's effectual call, if you
look back here in Ruth chapter one. We're told of two women,
Ruth and Orpah, who had very much in common If you just stop
and think about it, they had very much in common. Let me mention
just a few things that come to my mind. They were both Loebites. That means they were both Gentiles,
and Paul described Gentiles In Ephesians 2 and verse 12, that
is Gentiles who had believed, but he describes them as being
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. Both of these women
had this in common. They were Moabites. They were
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. They were strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope. having no hope without God in
the world. They were both widows, and they
both, it appears, loved their mother-in-law. It seems to me
that's what the scriptures reveal. They both loved Naomi. And they
both were presented by Naomi their hopeless, Listen to that. They both were presented by Naomi
their hopeless, hopeless situation if they went with her. You'll never have a husband. That's just not going to happen.
And remember in that time, in that society, a woman, a widow
especially, how difficult life was, how hard life was. I'll
never have another child, Naomi says. And if I did, if tonight
I were to get pregnant and would you wait, would you wait until
if I had a son he would be old enough for you to marry? Your
situation is hopeless if you go with me. I'll say that they both heard
the same truth about the Lord God. No doubt Naomi, maybe Their
husbands had testified to them about the true and living God.
They both had heard the same truth about God from Naomi once
their husbands had died. There's no question about that.
One of them counted the cost and turned back to her people
and her gods. That's what the scripture says.
Orpah, she counted the cost. If I go with her, it's a life
of deprivation, a life of hopelessness that awaits me. She counted the
cost. Naomi said, go back to your family.
There's a future there for you. There's some hope there for you.
She counted the cost and she turned back. went back to her
gods. One of them, her name was Ruth,
she also counted the costs, and she made a thorough commitment. Naomi, where you go, I'm going. Reminds me of Elisha, when Elijah
was going to be taken up from him that day. And Elijah did
everything he could, didn't he, to discourage Elisha. But God
had told Elisha, or Elijah, rather had told Elisha, if you see me
when the Lord takes me away, a double portion of my spirit
will fall upon you. And they went to this place,
moved on down the road to this place and went to this place,
and finally that chariot of fire came by, and Elijah's taken from
him into heaven. And that mantle fell upon Elisha. And when he comes back to the
River Jordan, he smites the river with the mantle, doesn't he?
Where is the God of Elijah? And the river opened up. He was
determined He was determined by the grace of God to see Elijah
taken up. And Ruth, you see the same thing. She makes a commitment, a thorough
commitment. Where you go, Naomi, that's where
I'm going. That's where I'm going. And where
you live, where you lodge, that's where I'm going to lodge. Thy people? They're going to
be my people. And thy God, my God. And where you die, Naomi, that's
where I'm going to die. And where they bury you, that's
where they're going to bury me. She counted the cost, and she
made a thorough commitment. Now I think of Paul's question
to the believers in Corinth to whom he wrote these words. God
is faithful. By whom you were called, what
I'm trying to illustrate here is the effectual call. These
two women, both Moabites, having much in common, hearing the same
message, one goes back and one makes a thorough commitment.
One was called, effectually called. That's the picture we see here.
God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now here's the question. For
who maketh thee to differ from another? Who made Ruth to differ
from Orpah? Who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? God's
effectual call. Some people would like to say,
well, if he called one, he has to call the other. But neither
one were deserving. Ruth, she had nothing to commend
her to God that he would call her no more than Orpah did. It's of grace. It's all of God's
sovereign grace. The call is effectual. Moreover,
Paul said, whom he did predestinate, they may also call. And whom
he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? We saw some people just today
worshiping a big statue of Buddha, who maketh thee to differ from
another. Oh, to grace, how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Amen? Amen. I'll ask the man,
if you will, to come at this time.