08.14.2011 Ruth, pt. 2 - How Different People Respond to God's Work

08.14.2011Grace Summit Sermon - Ruth, pt. 2 - How Different People Respond to God's Work from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

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Thank You Lord, that Your love is better than life – it satisfies us completely – we don’t want to forget how deeply You love us – we want to remember Your grace. Speak to our heats, prepare us to listen – may our eyes turn to Your word and hear from You. Comfort, strengthen and challenge us to follow You fully to be wholly devoted followers.

Ruth – I’ll recap a bit
There was a drought. Ruth and her husband and two sons move to Moab – and while they are there, her sons marry Moabite women - and all the men die and Naomi and her two daughters in law remain. Naomi is going to go back to Bethlehem – and she encourages the girls to stay in Moab because there is little hope of them getting a husband and marrying and having children there.
There are three difference responses to the pain they are experiencing – they have all lost their spouses – such tragedy for these women.
We are not free to decide how God should work and act. We would like to make God a certain way – if God acts the way we think God should act, that would make our lives easier (or so we think). But the psalmist says that our God is in the heavens, He does whatever He pleases. That means He acts in accordance with His nature - with His character – love, mercy, grace, justice, faithfulness – God will act according to His nature. He will be faithful to Who He is because that is Who God is.
We see “Who God is” best in Scripture. Where? In the Gospels. Jesus reveals who God is.
The gospels are filled with the explanation that Jesus is God and Jesus reveals to us who God is and how He acts.
Ruth 1 – Naomi is leaving – she urges them to stay.
14 And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 Then she said, "Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law." 16 But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you [or] turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people [shall be] my people, and your God, my God. 17 "Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if [anything but] death parts you and me." 18 When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.
Now, what is interesting – in v.15, we see the difference between Orpah and Ruth – Orpah kissed her mother-in-law (goodbye) – but Ruth is not able or willing to say goodbye. On Orpah’s behalf, she is doing what her mother-in-law has asked her to do. I think she wants to stay with her, but is listening and honoring what Naomi wanted her to do.
We have two women with two different responses. Why does one person believe, like Ruth, and live an extraordinary life of faith, while another, in similar circumstances, rejects faith.
Orpah is not a bad person. There is nothing that says she is an axe murderer – but she recognizes her situation and goes back to her people. But in the next verse, we see a different response in Ruth.
“Do not urge me to leave you” – but Naomi is begging her to stay – but Ruth says, Stop begging!
Both are brought to the same point and one goes one way and the other goes the other.
It is a reality – we are all brought to some point by God – and there is a decision to be made.
Ruth, at some point, becomes a believer in the Lord. She says, "Your God will be my God.” This is an amazing description of what salvation looks like:
"Do not urge me to leave you [or] turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people [shall be] my people, and your God, my God. 17 "Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if [anything but] death parts you and me.”
Why the difference? It seems simple as you look at this passage: Ruth made a decision. There was a choice to be made, and Ruth made it. Everyone has a choice –
Alistair Begg said this about this section, "God does not believe for us.” Not for anyone. Everyone must choose faith in Christ to have that relationship.
I came to a decision point in my life – a long time ago, and I remember – at that point – sitting in an auditorium – it is now or never. That is how it felt. And I had to step over that threshold – it doesn’t happen automatically or by osmosis – a choice that must be made. For us it is what Christ has done for us – and for her, it was the Lord, Yahweh. You can’t believe for someone else.
The second thing we see – Ruth makes this decision – but all along you see that God has chosen Ruth for a very special purpose. God has something amazing that He is going to do – through Ruth the Messiah will be born – and King David as well. You see God’s hidden hand working to accomplish His purpose. And then Ruth chooses to believe. We could get into a long discussion about predestination and freewill – but we won’t! But the amazing thing is IT IS THERE! God understands it all, but I don’t think the smartest mind in the world can really figure it out. When someone comes to Christ – do you think you could know all that has happened? This is good news because it tells us that we don’t know how God is working in someone’s life that we love.
It looked bad for Naomi and Ruth – But God was at work – and there are some subtle signs that we can miss as readers – and Naomi misses them completely.
Marvel, wonder, and trust. Were it not for His great work – none of us would come to faith. If you think you could do it on your own, you’ve missed the Bible. Our relationship with God works based on faith. God always works according to His character – love, faithfulness and justice. We can know that God always works toward us in those ways.
We can’t make God be the way we want Him to be – but we can know that He will work in His love and mercy and grace.
Understanding that we don’t understand all these things – we must understand that we must appropriately and graciously persuade people to faith. So often, we think – because we don’t understand it – it is not really our job. But God calls us to call others to believe and not shy away from it.
Words like evangelism scare us. So stop using that word! Just tell people about what God has done – all we are trying to do –
We see the book of James – Faith produces works -; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people [shall be] my people, and your God, my God. 17 "Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if [anything but] death parts you and me."
True faith changes whom we worship and serve. Everyone has a God that he or she is worshiping. Money, Job, Relationships – but when one comes to faith in Jesus, it changes him or her.
Salvation comes at great cost to Ruth – look at what she is doing – giving up all hope of marriage, support, returning home…
Yes, salvation is free – there is nothing we can do to deserve it. But it is very costly.
Not only does it affect whom we worship and serve, but whom we worship and serve WITH!
Your God will be my God – your PEOPLE will be my PEOPLE – sometimes that is harder!
With the early Christians – it was seen in baptism – for them – it was an initiation – a change of community/family/nation/kingdom. It is like, on the fourth of July – people sworn in as American citizens – forsaking the old and accepting the new.
Ruth 1: 19 So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came about when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, "Is this Naomi?" 20 And she said to them, "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
(Naomi = pleasant, Mara=bitter)
21 "I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?" 22 So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
There is a contrast between Ruth’s response and Naomi’s response – Naomi looks at her life – and having lost a husband and two sons – it would be difficult to not have a disconnect here – but God is doing some amazing things that she is unable to see. She has forgotten that God is good.
She has Ruth as this daughter-in-law – and through all her problems, she has led Ruth to the Lord – through Naomi’s life – she just wanted to be with Naomi – there had to be something special going on in Naomi’s life. But she is missing what God is doing.
Second – we see that she has gotten to a point where she has forgotten to live a life of grace. She feels like she is getting what she deserves. Naomi is living a life of works and judgment.
In closing – this – one of those little verses that we can miss.
22b And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
This seems insignificant, but like foreshadowing in a movie – this is highly significant – the tipping point of the story – through this, God changes everything – and He does all of this work – and Naomi walks past it – and I think this is how God is – We walk through life and there are things going on and it all looks the same to us. This simple small hidden thing that is taking place in your life may be the thing that pulls everything together for you. You don’t know how or when this can happen.
Let's pray.