How God Restores Us: Lessons from Ruth and Naomi - Wednesday Evening - October 16, 2024

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has

for us here today.

We're going to go ahead and start our Bible study here this evening.

If you have your bibles, please turn with me to the book of

Ruthen.

And we are going to actually tonight conclude the book of Ruth,

the story of the kinsman Redeemer.

And I hope that this has been a study that has helped you understand

God's love and his grace in your own life.

Anytime we see stories in scripture, we know that they're more

than just stories.

They are descriptions of real people going through real issues

and ultimately receiving real forgiveness and real grace from a

real goddess.

And so I know that so many times in our life we can be separated

from these stories because they are thousands of years old.

And I know that not everything in scripture can we personalize for

ourselves.

But I do believe that there is that application of understanding

our kinsman redeemer in Jesus Christ through this story.

And so we see the story of Ruth, and she's the centerpiece.

Ultimately, God's the centerpiece.

But in this case, Ruth is the one who receives grace from her kinsman

Boazden.

And so I believe Ruth is a picture of those believers.

Boaz is a picture of Jesus Christ extending his grace and love

to us as the groom.

And we, the church, are the bride.

And that's an important thing to think about when it comes to our

christian life.

That picture of the Lord being the bridegroom, we being the bride,

and how he's coming back for us one day.

If you know the picture of, of marriage back in the Bible times,

it wasn't the type of marriage that we have today.

I mean, it's similar in the concept of they would get married

and there would be that covenant union, but there was something

called the betrothal period back then that is different than

what we do today.

We have in most cases, not everyone is like this, but there

is usually a time in marriages today where there's an engagement

period.

I know Alicia and I, we had a year long engagement.

That was the time for the bride to find her dress and to go

through all those things.

And, you know, I didn't do much in the planning process.

I was like, hey, what are we going to eat at the wedding.

That was about the only question I had input I had on all

that.

But back then, what would happen is the groom would make a

commitment to his future wife and there would be this betrothal

period.

So they were essentially linked already, but they had not

consummated the marriage.

They didn't have that reunion.

And at an appointed time, and the bride wouldn't know this, the

bridegroom would come back as he was preparing a place for his

bride in his father's house.

And he would prepare that place.

And when he was ready, he would come back and take his bride

and take her back.

And there would be that consummation.

There would be that completion of marriage.

And that's the beautiful picture of what's happening for us

right now.

We are in the betrothal period.

We're waiting for our kinsman redeemer to come back.

And that's an exciting time.

We're longing for that day.

We don't know when that day is, but the Bible says for us to

be prepared.

And even in John, chapter 14, Jesus says, I go to prepare a place

John 14 · chapter mention

for you, and I will come again.

And that's exactly the period that we are in right now.

So, Ruth, chapter number four, we're going to go to verse number

13.

So we've seen Ruth, we've seen Boaz.

But there's another individual in this story that's notable, and

that is Naomi.

Where did Naomi start?

Well, Naomi started at the very beginning with.

With her husband moving from the land of Israel, specifically

Bethlehem, and traveling to the land of Moab because of this

famine.

And so instead of trusting in God, she and her husband trusted

in the land of Moab for their provisions.

And obviously, that was a bad decision, and there were consequences.

Her husband dies.

Eventually her sons die.

And Naomi travels back to Bethlehem.

And when she travels back to Bethlehem, she is known, or at least

she wants to be known not by her name, Naomi, which means blessed.

But she wanted to be known as Mara, which meant bitter.

And so we know that in the heart of Naomi, there was a sense

of bitterness.

But through the story, we've seen Naomi's heart change from a

heart of bitterness to a heart of being blessed and understanding

the perspective of being blessed in the Lord.

And so through this marriage of Ruth and Boaz, Naomi is going

to be blessed as well.

And we're going to study that here this evening.

So let's look at verse number 13.

We'll start in verse number 13, and we will go down to the end

of the chapter, it says, so Boaz took Ruth and she was his wife.

Obviously, in this verse here, we see that picture of the culmination

of marriage, the time in which this all becomes one.

And we know that the Bible speaks of marriage as a union of

one flesh, a covenant before God.

And we live in a society today that cheapens the definition of marriage.

It cheapens the definition of love.

Marriage is just an agreement that we have with somebody until

they make us upset or they aren't fulfilling what we want to

be fulfilled in our life, and then we have the freedom to break

that.

That's in our society today.

But the Bible says that marriage is between one man, one

woman for life, one flesh.

And so there is that commitment.

There is that covenant between each other and before God.

And so it says here, so Boaz took Ruth and she was his wife.

And when he went in unto her, the Lord gave her conception and

she bear a son.

And so we see here, in this case, there is a gift given to them,

and that is the gift of marriage, but also the gift of a

child.

And that would be a great story in and of itself.

But we know that there is significance to this child because

this child is going to have a child, and that child is going to

have a child.

And we're going to ultimately see that the line of the Messiah

comes through the line of Boaz and Ruth.

What an amazing blessing that is for a woman who was not born in

Israel, was not of that heritage, but yet she was used by

God to be part of the line of the Messiah.

And we know that there are others that could be mentioned about

that.

And if we had more time, we could go through the whole genealogy.

But what I will say here in this case, in verse number 13 is

we see God's hand and his blessing upon the life of Boaz and

Ruth for their faithfulness.

And we see, obviously, God's providential plan working in the

lives of individuals who didn't know that they were being

used by God.

And so we certainly don't believe in determinism when it comes

to God forcing everyone to do something.

But we do know that God has his providential hand upon our lives.

And so if God wants something to happen, he will ordain that to

happen.

And God ordains this to happen and uses the obedience of Ruth and

Boaz in this case.

So verse 14.

And the women said unto Naomi.

So we see the women of Bethlehem referencing Naomi here,

and they say, blessed be the Lord.

So this is Naomi's testimony.

Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without

a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.

Naomi went from a place of saying, God has turned his back on

me.

God has forgotten me.

God has given me all this pain, and he's given me all this

suffering.

Now her testimony is no longer bitterness.

It's now the testimony of a God who cares for her, a God who

has not left her alone.

And this reminds me of that passage of scripture in Hebrews,

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

chapter 13.

That God will not leave us nor forsake us.

Naomi was never forgotten about.

Even in her unfaithfulness, God was still faithful to her.

And God rewarded her for her humility.

God rewarded her for her obedience.

And ultimately, we see here that the testimony now of Naomi's

life is that she is blessed and that she was not forgotten.

And I want you to know here this evening that God is not going

to forget about you, regardless of your issues, regardless

of your struggles.

Now, he doesn't condone our sin.

He doesn't want us and celebrate in our sin and say, you

know what?

I'm glad that you're unfaithful.

But yet God still loves us as a loving father loves his child.

I was having a conversation with someone recently.

I said, you know how much you love your children?

You know how much that even when they frustrate you, even when

they do things that you don't agree with, you still love them.

A good parent still loves their child, even if they don't agree

with what they're doing.

And I say, that's how God loves us.

If we are his child, truly his child, if we've trusted in him, in

faith, God loves us.

Even in our stumbles now, he doesn't condone us.

He wants us to get back up.

If I love my child, I don't want them to stay in their sin, but

I still love them.

And so God's love was there with Naomi through the ups and the

downs.

But ultimately, he was pulling her back to that fellowship with

him.

And so God did not leave them without a kinsman.

And I can tell you here this evening that God does not leave you

without a kinsman.

If you've come to Jesus Christ in faith, you have a kinsman redeemer.

You have one who was there with you in the midst of your struggles,

in the midst of your doubts, in the midst of your pain, in the

midst of your loss.

And Naomi was one who had a lot of loss, had a lot of pain, even

though some of that was brought upon her life, by her own

decisions, God still dealt with that pain and suffering and

provided for her.

And I will let you know that God is a provider.

One of my favorite names of God is Jehovah Jireh, the God who

provides.

And God provides for us what we need in our lives.

Sometimes he doesn't provide what we want, but he provides what

we need.

And so what we can see here is that God provides for Naomi, God

provides for Ruth, God provides for boaz.

And it says, verse 15, and he shall be unto thee a restorer of

thy life.

We can see here that the testimony of Naomi's life is that

God restored her back to where she was before, probably definitely

better than she was before.

And I can tell you here tonight that God is a restorer.

He can restore broken relationships.

He can restore broken hearts.

He can restore us in the midst of loss.

I can tell you a lot of times people will say, you know what?

Time heals.

And I can tell you there are people in my life that have passed

on, and I'll never get over it.

Right?

We never get over something.

But what God does is he restores us.

He fills us with other blessings in our life and allows

us to see the goodness in his kindness and his love towards us.

Says, and he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life.

And so God is one who restores us.

And so we go back to verse number 14.

I want you to see a couple things about the Lord here.

He is one who does not forsake us.

He always remembers us in the midst of our pain.

But then we see verse 15.

He is a restorer of life.

So he remembers us.

He restores us.

You know, it's so fitting.

I believe that we see the difference in Naomi, because I think

the difference in Naomi's life is the difference that we can have

in our own life.

We can come to Christ, but yet there are going to be times in our

life, in our christian walk, that we are going to feel like we're

down, we are going to feel like we're defeated.

We are going to feel broken.

But we see that God is a restorer of life.

And then we see here in verse 15 that he's a nourisher, a nourisher

of thine old age.

God nourishes us.

What a beautiful picture that is.

What a beautiful picture it is that God restores us and nourishes

us.

And this is an awesome demonstration of what God can do

through one broken person who gets right with him.

Folks, if we are taking a breath.

It's never too late to get right with him.

It's never too late to get restored back to fellowship with

him.

I know so many people that say, you know, I've been out of church

for so long.

I've gotten away from him so far.

I've gotten away from reading his word.

I've gotten away from loving my worship for him and desiring to

be with him and to stay with him.

But you know what?

It's not too late.

The Bible says that he can restore us, he can renew us.

That's the heart of revival.

And God wants us to go back to that place of humility in our life

so that we can be revived in our spirit.

You know, a lot of times, we, at least me, I can blame Naomi early

on, and Ruth, like, come on, why Naomi?

Why would you doubt God?

But we can understand her heart, because sometimes we doubt

God.

But we should learn from those instances.

We should learn that God's plan is perfect and filled with love.

And even though sometimes we can't figure out what he's doing

and sometimes we might be desperate, we have to go back in

faith and say, lord, I trust you because of your goodness.

And we can even claim that passage of scripture in romans 828.

And we know that all things, all things work together for good

to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.

You say, explain that to me.

How can this pain right now be good?

I can't explain that to you.

That's above my pay grade.

But what I can say is that I know what scripture says, and I know

that God will work things out for our good.

That's what it says right there.

Now you would say, well, you know what?

I can't see how this is good.

I can't understand this pain right now.

And I would tell you I understand that.

But what I can say is that God is a healer, God is a restorer.

God is a nourisher.

It could be on this side of heaven, or it could be when we see

him face to face.

You know, a lot of times we pray for healing for folks, and many

times, God answers that prayer.

But sometimes God does not answer that prayer.

And we say, how could he not heal?

Well, let me tell you, if it's a child of God, if the individual

you're praying for is a child of God and God allows them to go

home with him, he's healing them better than he could heal them

here on this side of heaven, because now they're restored.

When Paul understood what heaven was like.

Remember his conflict there.

Paul says, you know, I'm torn because I want to go be with him.

But I know that God has a plan for me now.

And I think the more we understand of the goodness of God,

the more we understand what it means to be in his presence, the

more we.

We will see that what he does, no matter if he heals or not heals,

he's ultimately a healer.

He's ultimately a nourisher.

He's a restorer of life.

And so he says here, a nourisher of thine old age for thy

daughter in law which loveth thee.

Hey, there's a blessing right there that she has a daughter in

law that loves her.

She has a family that cares about her.

You know?

And I will tell you, one of the marks of an individual when it

comes to their life, and the blessings in their life is, do they

have a support staff?

Do they have a family that loves them?

That's a blessing in itself.

You know, I've seen individuals go through struggles,

and they have no one here that is there to support them.

But what we see here is Naomi was not left alone.

Through the midst of all of that, through that midst of loss,

God still provided for her a companion there in Ruth as her daughter

in law, a daughter in law which loveth thee, which is better

to thee than seven sons hath borne him.

And so it puts it into perspective here, and that is perspective

of gratitude, folks.

When we understand that God is a God who doesn't forget about us,

when we understand that God is a restorer of life, when we understand

that God is a nourisher, we have then the perspective of gratitude.

And we thank the Lord for what we do have.

We thank the Lord for those gifts that we can see in our life.

But when our eyes are not fixed on his goodness, what do we

do?

We focus on the negative.

When we focus on the things that we don't have.

And that's where Naomi was at the very beginning.

I don't have a husband.

I don't have sons.

That was all taken away from me.

Instead, now she's able to see what she does have in a relationship

with God.

You know, I can sit here all day and tell you things I don't have

and skills that I would love to obtain and all these different

things.

What I could do is tell you all the reasons why I'm upset and

why I could be bitter, or I could flip it around the other way

and say, you know what?

My God has to provide all of my needs.

My God has given me everything in my life.

Every good gift comes from goddess.

I was talking to a brother this morning, and sometimes as pastors,

it's good to talk to other pastors.

And I was talking to another pastor, and I said, I just had a

realization this morning how blessed that I am in grace, that

God has given me an opportunity to serve him.

And I know that that's a spiritual platitude that we say all

the time like God's graced me.

But I'm going to tell you, it's overwhelming.

Sometimes we think that God has given me so many chances, and

I have failed him so many times, but yet he still offers us

grace, and he still offers us the opportunity to serve him.

That is an exciting thing.

And so we see Naomi used by God and blessed by God with her attitude

of gratitude.

And it says here.

And Naomi took the child and laid it in her bosom and became a

nurse unto it.

So God obviously allowed for her sons to be taken from her.

But now we see that this grandson is restored to her, and

we see that Naomi now has this blessing.

And this is an exciting opportunity to see God still caring

for Naomi and providing a way for her to have this peace and rest

and comfort.

And God is a comforter.

Second Corinthians, chapter one, says that God is the God of

all comfort.

And comfort comes in different ways and at different times.

Some of you have heard me give the story before of when I had a

kidney stone.

And some of you that have had a kidney stone can relate to this.

Orlando, maybe you've had another pain that was just unbearable.

Okay.

I remember I had that kidney stone.

It was hurting really bad.

I went into the.

My dad.

It was ironic, because my dad had just had a kidney stone about

a week or two before.

So he went to the emergency room.

They immediately.

They were like, oh, sorry, sir.

You know, we're sorry for your pain.

We're gonna give you the medicine.

He said within, like, ten to 15 minutes, he was already on the

medicine.

He felt better, and they addressed it.

It was overdeveloped.

Yeah, that wasn't my story.

Okay.

I was in the emergency room for, like, two to 3 hours, and they.

I still hadn't been called back.

And I'm sitting there in the.

In the emergency room going, you know, what?

What's going on?

I was writhing in pain, and I told Alicia, I said, I think I'm

gonna pass out.

And she's like, well, then just pass out.

Because if you pass out, maybe they'll take you back.

So I'm, like, trying to pass out.

I'm like, okay, what's going on?

And I was in a lot of pain.

And so then they take me back.

They go, you know, mister Masaru, come on back.

What seems to be the problem?

I said, my side feels like someone just stabbed me.

I feel like I'm about to explode.

I said, I think it's a kidney stone.

They said, okay, okay, well, sit over here and wait.

So now I'm in a secondary waiting room, and I'm like, what

is this?

I was like, I thought I was back, so I thought.

And so there was just that waiting and that excruciating pain.

And then eventually, eventually.

So then Alicia had to leave.

Micah was a baby at this point.

It was getting late, so Alicia was like, I got to go.

I got to take care because my parents were there.

I.

So my mom's like, I'll wait with you.

So my mom waits with me there, and eventually they get me back.

This is.

I don't know how it felt.

Like six or 7 hours.

I don't know if it was that long.

I'll have to confirm that story tonight with my parents.

But I finally got back, and they put an iv in my arm, and they

put that medicine in.

And, I mean, I'm telling you, it was, like, immediate.

I was like, oh, it went away.

The pain's gone.

And I remember looking at my mom and going, why am I here?

I feel like it's fine right now.

And she's like, son, you were just writhing in pain over here.

And so immediately when that comfort came, I forgot about that

problem.

I'm like, what am I?

What's.

Why was I complaining?

Now, I know that that comfort was temporary, okay?

But that's sometimes how it is with the Lord, right?

He brings that comfort into our lives.

And then we say, well, why was I stressed about that in the first

place?

He took care of that for me.

And it seems like we have short memories.

We forget about how God got us through this struggle and this struggle,

and now we're in that pain again, and we're going, oh, come

on, God, why is it not happening now?

Well, in his time, in his way, he will comfort us.

He is the God of all comfort.

And sometimes we go through those struggles, or at least he allows

us to go through those struggles so that we can learn something,

so that we can grow in our faith, so that we can grow in our

trust in him.

And sometimes that is a painful process.

Sometimes growing is painful.

Sometimes learning a lesson is painful.

The Bible says that that is necessary.

Romans chapter five tells us that it's necessary to go through

those tribulations so that we can get to a place of hope at the

end.

It's patience, experience, hope.

And that's what we see here in this passage of scripture.

Naomi gets the comfort, verse 17.

And the women, her neighbors, gave it a name, saying, there is

a son born to Naomi, and they called his name Obedient.

He is the father of Jesse.

That name should sound familiar to you because we see in

that next phrase the father of David.

And so we get to see the line of the messiah through Ruth and Boaz,

through Obed, through Jesse, and through David.

And so Ruth and Boaz are the great grandparents of David, the

king of Israel.

And we know that Jesus comes from the line of David.

And so the son of Ruth and Boaz was named Obed.

He was the son of Jesse.

And what an amazing, or, excuse me, the father of Jesse, and

then ultimately the grandfather of David.

So Naomi's return to Bethlehem way back at the very beginning, and

the roots of David in Bethlehem going back to Ruth and

Boaz are why Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem back in Luke,

chapter two.

If you know, that story went back to be taxed, and it was actually

like a census.

And so Ruth and Boaz are the reasons why Jesus was born in Bethlehem,

right?

Or just one of the many reasons.

Ultimately, it was God's plan.

And we know that that's a fulfillment of prophecy, and we know

that all of this comes together.

And that's one of the ways that we can see in scripture how

God's plan is woven throughout all of scripture.

And that's an amazing thing to see.

Verse 18.

Now, these are the generations of Phares.

Phares begat Hezron, and Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Abinadab,

and Abinadab begat Nashon, and Nashon begat Salmon, and Salman begat

Boaz, and Boaz begat Obad, and obad begat Jesse, and Jesse begat

David.

Now, you say, why is there.

I don't like genealogies.

Well, you should like genealogies.

Genealogies are really cool, because the reason why it's there

for a reason.

Anytime the Bible puts something.

Anytime you see something in scripture, the reason it's there

is it's for something for us to know, and genealogies are there

to show us that path and to show us that line.

And specifically in this case, the line of Jesus.

And so what can we take with us with the story of Ruth?

Well, there's a lot of things that we can take with us, but the

biggest picture that I think we can take with us in our life is

that picture of the kinsman Redeemer.

You, as a Christian today, have a kinsman redeemer.

If you trust in Jesus Christ as your savior, he is your kinsman

redeemer.

He bought you with a price.

The Bible says that we are bought with a price.

We are redeemed by his blood.

We are redeemed by his love.

And it wasn't free for us.

Or excuse me, it was free for us.

It wasn't free for him.

He paid a price for us.

And so the kinsman Redeemer had the duty of buying the family

members out of slavery.

And Jesus redeemed us from slavery and from death and from sin.

And he brings us to salvation.

He brings us to everlasting life.

So Boaz, as the kinsman Redeemer to Ruth, wasn't motivated

by self interest, but he was motivated by selfless love, agape

love.

And so God, through his love for us, the Bible says, sent his

only begotten son.

And Jesus proved his love towards us, in that while we were

yet sinners, he died for us.

So the kinsman Redeemer is motivated by love, true love.

And so Boaz, as the kinsman Redeemer to Ruth, had a plan to redeem

Ruth unto himself.

And there were challenges along the way.

And Jesus had a plan, and some might think even some challenges

along the way.

But ultimately, we know that God's plan was played out through

Jesus Christ and through his redeeming work on the cross for us.

And so we are just like Ruth.

We are the bride of Christ.

The Bible says that in Ephesians, chapter five.

The Bible says in ephesians 531 and 32, for this cause shall

a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his

wife, and they too shall be one flesh.

This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

And so what we really see is that marriage is a picture of Christ

in the church.

And so the way that we live our lives as married couples actually

demonstrates to the world the relationship that Christ has with

the church.

It's a really interesting study, if you think about marriage

in that perspective.

It changes the way that we see marriage, and it will change the

way that people will see what it means to love a spouse.

And so what we see is that husbands, the responsibility for

us, is to love our wives as Christ loved the church and gave

himself for it.

Sacrificial.

Right.

We know that, and we know what the wife's role is.

The wife, it says there in Ephesians, to submit to her husband

and to understand what that is.

And so that's the understanding of the church submitting

to Jesus Christ.

Now, I know that that can be somewhat offensive to certain people

in our society today, but the Bible clearly says that there are

roles within the marriage equal in value, if you want to study

that out.

In one Peter, one Peter talks about how we're joint heirs together

in the grace of God.

Isn't that the husband's better than the wife?

It's not that he has more wisdom or more power.

It just talks about how we're different in our roles.

Distinct in our roles, but equal in value in the eyes of goddesse.

And so there is a beautiful picture of Ruth and Boaz's love,

and that's a beautiful picture of the love that God has for us as

his church.

And it also can be applied to the way that we are to live our lives

in our marriages within the church as well.

But it all comes back to that kinsman Redeemer.

It all comes back to that understanding of forgiveness and

love and sacrifice.

And so Boaz was willing to do anything for his bride, and God is

willing to do anything for us and even give his life for us.

You know, I love the picture in Isaiah 54.

Isaiah 54, verses four through eight, kind of speak of this kinsman

redeemer and what this is all about.

And I think it would do us well to look at that passage.

So if you would like to turn there with me, Isaiah 54.

And we'll start in verses four through eight.

And I think that through this we can see who Christ is, what he

has done, what he continues to do as our kinsman Redeemer.

And so it starts in Isaiah 54 four.

It says, fear not.

And I love how that is mentioned so often in scripture.

Specifically dealing with our relationship with Goddesse prefaces

things that he talks to us about when it comes to our struggles

with fear not, we see that over and over again.

So fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded,

for thou shalt not be put to shame, for thou shalt forget the

shame of thy youth.

Isn't that exciting, that in our forgiveness, the way.

I don't know about you, but I have a lot of things that I did in

my youth that I'm ashamed of.

I would not if they followed me around with the camera when I

was a child and a teenager.

And they played it for you.

Now I would just be so ashamed.

Okay.

All my mistakes and all my problems.

But the Bible says that in our forgiveness that we are not defined

by the shame of our youth and shall not remember the reproach of

thy widow would anymore.

For the maker.

For thy maker is thine husband.

The Lord of hosts is his name, and thy redeemer, the holy one of

Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called.

For.

The Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit,

and a wife of youth when thou wast refused, saith thy goddess.

For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies

will I gather thee in a little wrath.

I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness

will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.

And so I think that's just one of the many beautiful pictures in

scripture that speak to how God takes us out of that life of

brokenness.

And though we might feel forgotten about for a time, we will

be restored and renewed.

And so I want you to think about the end of ruthen.

What does it say there that God doesn't forget about us.

He restores us, he nourishes us, and he provides that blessing

of forgiveness in our life.

And so that is the story of Ruth.

I always used to think that Ruth was just a story of Boaz and

Ruth and getting married, and that's love.

And it is a great love story.

It's a beautiful love story.

But any love story in scripture points to a relationship

that God has for us.

And so you have the story of Boaz and Ruth.

You have the story of.

And there's other stories of love, and not always as pretty.

You have the story of Hosea.

You ever heard the story of Hosea?

That's a whole other story of how God's love is, and that's a different

aspect of God's love.

And that speaks of more of God's love in the midst of our unfaithfulness

and the struggle with that.

So we conclude the book of Ruth.

And I hope it's been a good study for you.

I hope it's been challenging.

I hope it's been at least somewhat convicting, hopefully encouraging

to know that you have a kinsman Redeemer.

And if that's something that you have questions about, if that's

something that you might say.

I never really understood it that way.

I've always just understood it to be that I'm trying really hard

in my life, and I hope God shines his light upon me one day.

Folks, that's a misunderstanding of the gospel of

Jesus Christ.

I gotta tell you this, and this is something that I think is

one of my life's messages, is we cannot work our way to heaven.

We cannot be good enough.

It's just not realistic.

We cannot be good enough to meet the standard of God.

Now, it doesn't mean that we stop striving.

It doesn't mean that we stop trying to serve him, stop trying

to love him.

But that's not the reason why we love him.

We don't love him so that he'll bring us to heaven one day.

He brings us to heaven one day when we trust in what he has done

for us.

And the good works are just stemming out of that.

True faith works don't save us, but true faith does produce that

work in our lives.

Not perfect, but the Bible does say that that true faith has

a change in our life.

And just as Naomi changed, just as Ruth was changed from a lady

in idolatry, in paganism, to a life of being part of the line of

the Messiah, so we can be part of that.

I don't know what your past is.

I mean, you hear stories about people that were saved at five years

old, and that's great.

That's a wonderful story, because I think that when we see

testimonies of people getting saved at a young age, that's a picture

of God's protection from that person seeing the effects of sin

in their life.

And that's exciting.

And we celebrate those just as much as we celebrate those people

that were saved out of a life of violence and a life of addiction.

That's a miracle in and of itself.

Salvation is a miracle no matter what that person was doing

prior to salvation.

Because the Bible says that all of us, whether we were five years

old in a kindergarten classroom or we were in the middle

of prison, we are all enemies of God before we come to him.

And as we come to him in faith, and as he extends that grace

to us, we are all blessings.

We are all blessed by the miracle of God's grace.

And so I want you to think about salvation that way.

Salvation is not just, hey, it's my ticket.

Like, I go to the golf club or the YMCA.

I signed up on a line, and now I'm part of the club.

That's not what salvation is.

Salvation is a miracle given to us out of grace and mercy, something

that we did not deserve, but yet we still get the blessings of

it.

And that is an awesome, awesome thing.

Well, so many people have been asking me, where are we going after

Ruth?

We were in Genesis for a long time, and we went to Ruth.

Where are we going now?

Well, I want to kind of whet your appetite for where we're going

in the future.

Okay.

And I don't know if you guys have seen a theme, but on Wednesday

nights, we have been really spending a lot of time in the old

Testament, and we will continue that theme in the old Testament

here for a while.

And I think it's so important to see the full scope of scripture.

And so one of the things that I was really doing was I was reading

through the Old Testament, and I was really praying hard about where

we would go next.

I hope that you know that I don't just go like this.

Okay.

I think some people think that maybe I just do this.

I just skimmed through the old.

All right, we're going to preach on this.

No, this.

I spend a lot of time praying about where God would have us to

go next.

And I really felt pulled to the Old Testament and specifically

the book of Zephaniah.

And I don't know if any of you have studied the book of Zephaniah.

It's a very short book of the Bible, three chapters, but there

is a lot there.

So I just want to give you kind of a.

Because some of you might have just heard Zephaniah and said, okay,

I won't be coming back till after that.

That sounds like a no.

Zephaniah is an exciting book of the Bible.

It speaks of God's judgment upon those who rebel against him,

and it also speaks of God's forgiveness and grace to those who

come back to him in humility and forgiveness.

And I really, as I was reading through the book of Zephaniah, I

saw this.

I said, you know what?

You could transplant Zephaniah's message to a pulpit today

in America, and it would be perfectly applicable because he talks

about idolatry.

You say, well, we don't have any idolatry in America, folks.

We're plagued by idolatry.

Plagued by it.

And God hates idolatry.

Idolatry is putting anything before the Lord.

We have a lot of people that are putting things before the Lord

these days.

So idolatry, another aspect that he deals with is complacency.

There is a phrase in the book of Zephaniah where basically the

people are like, we don't really care what God does.

We're going to do our own thing, and God's just going to do

his thing, and we'll just do our, you know, he does his thing,

we do our thing, and we're all just going to be happy.

Very, very complacent about what God's work is going to be done.

That's what we see in America today.

We see a lot of people that they might believe that there's a

God up there.

They might even believe that he's a good God.

But, you know, don't get involved in my life.

My life is the way that it is.

And so we're going to talk about how we deal with spiritual

complacency within the church and without.

And really, we're going to see the goodness of God's judgment and

the importance of knowing that God is a righteous judge, but also

he's a gracious, forgiving Lord that's willing to have us come

back to him.

And that's what the book of Zephaniah is all about.

So we're going to go through it very, very slowly.

It's three chapters.

Might take us, I don't know, a couple months, I don't know, maybe

a couple weeks.

We'll see, see how it goes, see how good of a listeners you are.

But I appreciate you being here through this study.

And I mean this, by the way.

If there is a study that you are, you're like, I've been always

dying to hear a study on this passage, or even a topic for that

matter.

I'm always open to suggestions.

I'm not gonna say that I will take your suggestion, but I will

say I'm always open to hear people's thoughts and say, you know

what?

Can you please preach on this?

Now, as you well know, I'm not always inclined just to preach about

just whims and opinions and things like that.

But if there's a passage of scripture or topic that you'd like

to talk about, we might not be able to bring it up within, like,

a corporate setting, but it might be something that we're able

to do on a smaller setting in a different way.

Some of you know that we have a podcast at the church, and I'm

really looking for ideas and topics to deal with, with individuals

because I can tell you what I'm excited about, and I can share

with you what I'm thinking about, but it might not be something

that you've been thinking about.

So if there's a topic.

And I know for many of you it might be current events, and I can

speak to certain elements of current events today.

But, you know, we know that the Bible is written to us.

And the Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration

of God as profitable for doctrine, for approved for correction,

for instruction and righteousness.

And so everything that we need today is found right here.

And I would encourage you to rest in that truth here tonight.

Well, we're going to go ahead and transition to our prayer time.

Appreciate your attention this evening.

I never take it for granted that you all are faithfully coming

and growing in the Lord.

And you know, it's a blessing.

It's a blessing to be part of a church that's hungering and thirsting

after righteousness.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find [email protected] or

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Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.