Sermons in Ruth
Title: Steadfastly Minded
Text: Ruth 1: 6-18
Date: 12-27-09
Place: SGBC, Princeton New Jersey
Proposition: The faith which God gives makes the believer “steadfastly minded.” God tries faith. Faith that is proven true is proven to depend entirely upon the God of all grace. When you have cast your entire life into the hands of Christ Jesus, no trials and no temptations can separate you from him, you are “steadfastly minded.”
THE SETTING
Elimelech was Naomi’s husband. When famine struck Bethlehem, he moved Naomi and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, to pagan land of idolatry seeking temporary ease. Elimelech died. Naomi was left in Moab with her two sons. In direct rebellion against God’s word, Naomi’s sons married Moabite women and they both died childless. So here is Naomi, she has been in Moab over ten years. She is a widow with two daughter-in-laws, who are both widows themselves.
In two of these women we see faith “steadfastly minded.” In the other, we see someone who still has choices to make. But they are not the choices you might think. We will see this at the end.
Read Ruth 1: 6-18.
I. NAOMI
Naomi was a believer. The Lord will not allow his children to be without the word of his grace. No matter where you find yourself, if God is your Father, he will not suffer you to go without the fellowship of his saints, the Word of Life and the worship of him. It may be very trying in the manner that he does it, but he will do it.
The work of God in providence.
God took her husband. God took her two sons. God made Moab a bitter place to Naomi
Hosea 2: 6: Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. 7: And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
Once God has hedged us up with the thorns, once he has made everything around us bitter, he turns us from that to him by giving us something better.
The work of God through his Word.
Ruth 1: 6: Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread.
She heard that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread. Have you heard that?
Romans 10:17:…faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
John 6:35: And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst….50: This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
The work of faith (v. 7).
Ruth 1: 7: Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was
Naomi heard, she believed and she arose. To follow God you have to leave Moab. You can not eat the bread of this world and the Bread from heaven. You either love the world and the love of God is not in you or God has made this world bitter and his Son life so that you must follow him. Naomi set her face toward God and his people and put Moab to her back. We must do the same.
II. THE LOVE OF FAITH
Ruth 1: 7: 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. 8: And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother’s house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me. 9: The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept.
These two girls loved Naomi. They were willing to leave their own families to go with her. But Naomi has the love of God in her heart. So…
Naomi urged her daughter-in-laws to go back to their own mother’s house.
She commended their kindness to her. She prayed the LORD would bless them. She kissed them and they all cried.
Ruth 1: 10: And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.
Naomi persuaded them even more to go back.
Ruth 1: 11 And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? 12: Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons; 13: Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me.
Naomi doesn’t sound like much of a soul winner does she? Here these two girls are all worked up with emotion, they’ve told Naomi they want to go with her. Naomi tells them she has nothing to offer them. NAOMI DID NOT WANT THEM TO GO SIMPLY BECAUSE OF HER.
Illustration: Aisle walkers in the audience.
Naomi was obviously a kind woman. It is always right to be gracious. But true love for God and love for men does not want folks to join the church, or compel anyone to do anything in the name of the Lord. Instead, true love waits on Christ to make sinners willing. We don’t want sinners following us, we want them following Christ.
Matthew 8: 19: And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. 20: And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
Luke 14: 28: For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 29: Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 30: Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 31: Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? 32: Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. 33: So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Following Christ requires you to forsake all that you have. The only way you will forsake all is if Christ makes himself your All. If Christ is your righteousness you will forsake your own righteousnesses. If Christ is your Treasure you will forsake this world’s treasures—the rich young ruler couldn’t do either.
Luke 18:29 And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, 30 Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.
Illustration: My friend moving.
III. ORPAH
Ruth 1: 14: And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law.
Orpah had great affection for Naomi but not Naomi’s Lord. She went back to her people. She went back to her gods.
No sign shall be given but Christ.
Only the divine revelation of Christ in a sinner’s heart will make a sinner follow him. The apostle Paul received mercy from Christ when Christ revealed himself to Paul. That is what Paul meant when he said, “as we have received mercy, we faint not.” The veil is upon the heart of sinners. When the Holy Spirit turns a sinner to Christ the veil is removed.
2 Corinthians 3: 17: Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty….12: Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:…
1 Corinthians 2:5: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
The Power of God is a Person!
Thursday night we saw how Christ is the Firstborn, the only Sign given. Remember how Jacob described the honor which belongs to the firstborn?--the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
2 Corinthians 4:7: But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
Paul said, “unto them which are called, Christ is the power of God: ” Christ is the Power of God unto salvation. He is the Power to make sinners Righteous before Holy God, the Power to separate sinners from darkness into his marvelous light, the Power to break the adamant stony heart, the Power to raise up, even from the dead
Job said, “he thundereth with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard. 5: God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.”
Only the divine revelation of Christ in a sinner’s heart will make a sinner follow him. Naomi wanted Orpah to go to house of Bread because she had to have the Bread. But when Orpah forsook Naomi she forsook God.
IV. RUTH
Ruth 1: 14 And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.
Ruth saw more than a mother-in-law in Naomi, she saw a sister. Listen to how Ruth speaks of God, and of the LORD. Naomi had taught her that salvation is of the LORD.
Ruth 1: 15: And [Naomi] said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law. 16: And Ruth said, Intreat 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: 17: 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. 18: When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.
She loved Naomi because she loved Naomi’s God, she loved her people. Ruth wanted to live and die in the house of Bread. Grace sends a famine. Grave moves a Naomi near his chosen child Ruth. Grace gives his child a new heart to cry out: God is my God, his people are my people, Grace makes us bind ourselves to Christ with an oath, steadfastly minded to follow him. In like manner as Ruth made this oath, we confess our allegiance to Christ and to the world in baptism: where he died I died, where he was buried I was buried, where he rose I rose in him. Now I am seated at God’s right hand accepted in the Beloved! Nothing shall separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus!
STEADFASTLY MINDED OR CHOICES
Serving the Lord is not a choice. God-given faith has Christ for its object and no others. All choices have been removed. True faith is being made of God, steadfastly minded for Christ. The faithless have to choices to make, not between serving God or false gods, but between their gods. God must remove the choices. Listen to Joshua:
Joshua 24:15: And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, OR the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
God made Naomi and Ruth steadfastly minded for only Christ. Orpha went back and had to choose from all the flavors of religion that Moab had to offer. Does it seem evil to you to serve the LORD? Do you still have to choose between your imaginary gods? It is my prayer that God thunders in our hearts and makes us “steadfastly minded!” AMEN!