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Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (26-9-1999 Guisborough Evangelical Church)
Reminder of the story – Elimelech was living in
Bethlehem with his wife Naomi and two sons Mahlon and Kilion. Bethlehem means
“house of bread”, but at that time it hardly lived up to its name for there
was famine. We do not know for sure if the reason for the famine was drought, or
warfare (for in the days of the judges everyone did what was right in their own
eyes). Because of the famine, Elimelech took his family southeast to the land of
Moab.
Soon there was another blow to
Naomi – her husband died. Ten years later, both of her sons died. Mahlon and
Kilion had both taken Moabite wives, Orpah and Ruth, so now Naomi was left with
no one but her two daughters-in-law. Then she heard things were better in her
homeland, for the famine in Judah had ended, so she planned to return to
Bethlehem. She suggested that it was better for Orpah and Ruth to stay in their
own country, Moab, rather than come with her to a foreign country, with a new
language and new way of life.
Orpah was persuaded to stay in
Moab, but Ruth could not be persuaded. She spoke the memorable words: Don't
urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where
you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where
you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it
ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me (Ruth 1:16,17).
Ruth went to Bethlehem with her
mother-in-law; she worked as a gleaner in the fields at harvest and supported
Naomi. Later on she met the rich landowner, who also happened to be a kinsman,
Boaz, and subsequently married him. Her child Obed was the grandfather of
Israel’s greatest king, David.
We are going to take two phrases out of the words of Ruth, Your people will be my people, and your God my God, reverse the order of them, and see them as pictures and illustrations of the greatest decision any one is called to make. We are still required to make Ruth’s decision because the same God is with us today. And by His grace we may also unite with the people of God.
Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law had had no easy life. She
had been through famine, hunger, leaving home, living in a strange country,
losing her husband and sons. Ruth watched her over the years coping with her
problems and bereavements. There must have been something different about the
way she coped. Naomi did not worship idols like the Moabites, but her life was
founded on trust in the living God. Ruth wanted to know that God, and to belong
to His people.
How often this happens. What we
are speaks more loudly than what we say. People do not read their Bibles
nowadays – but they do read our lives. If our life is founded on God, it gives
stability and calmness to life, which is especially clear when trouble strikes.
Many have come to faith through the very experience of watching a believer, day
in, day out, and realizing that they have something that they do not have.
When backs are to the wall and trouble strikes, the differences between the Christian and the non-Christian are clearly seen. They react differently. They cope differently. The Christian has a reality and a power in their life that the non-Christian does not have. God is their Rock, their refuge and hiding place.
Ruth had been brought up to worship idols, but she found
they were wanting in time of trouble. She realized idol worship was empty.
Naomi’s God, the God of Israel, the true and living God, was the God of grace
and power. Ruth decided that this was the God to whom she would give her trust,
worship, obedience and devotion.
That decision which was made
over 3000 years ago can be made, and needs to be made today. The living God
still confronts us. We know a lot more about Him than Ruth did, and so much had
happened since then. He has revealed Himself more clearly, above all in His Son
the Lord Jesus Christ, His final and full revelation. What do we know? What do
we see supremely of God in Christ and the Cross?
He is a God of mercy and grace.
We urgently need that because we have sinned against God and broken His law. We
stand under wrath and condemnation. But because of God’s redeeming grace, He
has dealt with our greatest need in the death of His Son, being punished for
sin, and upholding God’s justice. God’s grace and mercy has provided Christ
as our substitute. He died that we might not die eternally. The Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). There is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
How do we know Him? God
demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ
died for us (Romans 5:8). It is not enough to know this. It is not enough to
know that He is a Saviour, or the Saviour, or the only Saviour. He must be My
Saviour. God calls on each one of us to repent and forsake our sins, and trust
Him to save us while there is time. He must be Saviour, Lord and Master in our
lives.
This is a most important decision, and a costly one. Ruth had to leave her own country and family and ways, and embark on a completely different life. When we give our lives over to Christ, we do not stay the way we were. There has to be an about turn in life. We are under new management. “The entrance fee is nothing. The annual subscription is everything.” (Dr Henry Drummond).
When we belong to Christ, we
automatically belong to His people. “The New Testament knows nothing of a
solitary religion.” (John Wesley). If we take God seriously, we take His
people seriously too. This is one of the signs of new birth. We know that we
have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers (1 John 3:14).
If Christ loved the church and
gave Himself for it, we cannot love Him without loving the church that He loved.
We love the church (N.B. the people of God, not bricks and mortar) and belong to
His people. We identify ourselves with them in the fullest and most complete way
– loyalty, support, giving, serving, caring, belonging, sharing the same
attitude to the people of God as Christ had.
The father of John G. Paton, from Tortholdwald, only missed church three times in forty years. The first time was because the snow was too deep. The second time was because the road was too icy and he was forced to turn round and get home on his hands and knees. The third time he was urged to stay at home by the elders of his church in Dumfries (four miles away) because they did not want the outbreak of cholera to spread to the district. Such commitment – rarely seen today, with all our cars and facilities! We have so much to learn about making God’s people our people.
Maybe you think the picture
presented, of belonging to God and His people, is too stern and forbidding.
After all, it is costly, the annual subscription is everything, it involves
coming under new management, and total commitment to God and His church. Listen
to this – God is no man’s debtor. This has been the testimony of God’s
people down through the ages. You have made known to me the path of life; you
will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right
hand (Psalm 16:11).
Making that clear decision to
belong to God is the gateway to rich blessing. For Ruth, there ensued the
provision of food and work in the harvest fields, and the provision of Boaz as a
husband. She had chosen to take refuge under the wings of the Lord God of
Israel, and so she was richly rewarded. Her happiness was complete when she had
a son, Obed. Yet more was to follow – Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse
was the father of David (Matthew 1:5), and from that family line the Son of God
in His humanity was born. That obscure refugee woman from Moab was the
ancestress of the Son of God.
A life given to God is never
wasted. It will be blessed and enriched beyond measure. It will have purpose,
meaning and direction. It will no longer be empty and pointless. It is a life in
which God works in all things for the good of those who love Him. We do not know
what God will do in and for the lives of those who give their lives to Him.
Christian history is full of unknown and unsung men and women whom God used wonderfully for His purposes. They lived and died in obscurity. Only the future will reveal the extent of their influence. Who was the child whose words “Tolle lege” (Take up and read) led Augustine to pick up and read in Romans “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ”? Who was the obscure and unknown Methodist lay preacher with the text “Look unto me and be ye saved” that urged the young Spurgeon to look and live? And who has ever heard of Maria Millis? She was the servant woman who led Lord Shaftsbury to Christ as the age of 7, taught him to pray and read the Bible. How often God’s purposes have begun with a very humble or obscure person who has faithfully walked with God and lived for Him and His people.
“The world has yet to see what God can do with a man who will give Himself wholly to Him.” To which D.L.Moody responded: “By God’s grace I’ll be that man”. God confronts us now in Christ. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5,6).
