It Was The Worst Of Times - [Ruth 1:1-5]

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Well, many of you know the Dickens' book, A Tale of Two Cities. Probably two million copies have been sold over the years.
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We know the first line, but maybe we don't know the whole paragraph, as the novel takes place in France with an unflattering parallel to London.
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1775. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.
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It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief.
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It was the epoch of incredulity. It was the season of light. It was the season of darkness.
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It was the spring of hope. It was the winter of despair. We had everything before us.
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We had nothing before us. We were all going direct to heaven.
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We were all going direct the other way. It was the best of times.
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It was the worst of times. For Ruth and the days of judges, I would have to summarize it by saying it was the worst of times.
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It was the worst of times. Moral chaos, spiritual decadence, ethical corruption, debauchery, dissolution, sin, excess.
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Those were the days of Ruth. Those were the days of judges. Those are today.
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Why don't we turn our Bibles to the book of Ruth, please, found in your Old Testament as we glean some truth from this great book that will teach us much about our
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God, our Savior, and how do we get out of here alive. Is there any hope for the future?
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Is anyone in charge? Is anyone at the helm? Who governs the world? How is the world governed?
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In a day and age where righteousness is about as rare as a song about Jesus at a public school winter solstice concert, where is righteousness?
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Thank you, Steve. If the world is governed by chance like the
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Epicureans, by evolution, is there really any hope? If the pendulum swings too far over and we're ruled by the stoic view of fate, what good is that?
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Is God really involved in the universe? To what extent does God govern, sustain, preserve the world?
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And if God is the same God then as He is now, what lessons can we learn from Ruth that show how
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God is sustaining and preserving and governing the universe then? What does that mean about Him governing the world now, in spite of how things look?
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When I look at society, government, the executive branch, the legislative branch, world governments,
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I look at it and I just think everything seems to be falling apart. Who could put all these things back together?
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Is anybody in charge? Maybe God's really a deist. He just wound everything up and then just let it go, and it's going now fast, breakneck speed.
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Ruth shines forth in lots of ways, but one way is that it shows that God is providentially ruling the world.
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The doctrine of providence comes forth largely as we study the book of Ruth, that God preserves, that God governs.
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All things are directed to their appointed end. He is administrating the world effectually, and that's what
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I love about Ruth. I like Heidelberg Catechism or Westminster Confession of Faith or London Baptist 1689, propositional truth,
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X, Y, Z, black and white, anathetical truth. I like that. There's a remnant of an engineer in me, even though I failed out of chemical engineering at the
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University of Nebraska, 1980. But what
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Ruth does, Ruth shows you the doctrine of providence not through propositional truth statements in a creed, but in the lives of people.
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When the world is falling apart, God shows that He's still in charge, sustaining and governing.
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So here's what we're going to do this morning. We're going to go through Ruth 1, verses 1 through 5. This is still kind of an introduction like it was two weeks ago.
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Last week I was sick. I felt pretty good about myself, by the way, because I think
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I've only called in sick a few times. Glad Steve was here to preach. And then I read just last night that Thomas Boston, a great
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Puritan preacher who was really a man who had poor health, never called in sick after 30 years of preaching 400 years ago without any conveniences, and so then
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I wasn't feeling so good. But two weeks ago we talked about what do we need to see big picture when we come to Ruth?
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And if you don't get that God is sovereign and you don't get that the Redeemer looks something like Boaz, Jesus the
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Redeemer is going to look like Boaz, but better, you're going to miss out on the book of Ruth. So today is another one of those messages that sets the stage.
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I'm convinced, because I have done it and I've seen other people do it, that people breeze by these first five verses way too fast.
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It's like light speed and it just comes at you so fast and you just want to get going, especially this time of year where everyone is trying to read through the
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Bible in a year. If you're trying to read through the Bible in a year this year, good for you.
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But you want to read with understanding, so you need to go slowly. And so we'll go through verses 1 through 5 this morning in Ruth, chapter 1, and then some practical application questions that stem directly out of this book.
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Let's go to chapter 1, verse 1, please. As we see, the exaltation of David in this book, the real book of roots, not written by Alex Haley, but written by Samuel, most likely, theological history where we're driving to the
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Davidic king, Jesus, but it all stems from bad days. How can anything good happen?
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Ruth, chapter 1, verse 1, it doesn't say it in your English text, but it starts off with the word, and.
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And it was. I love some of the Hebrew books, it just starts with the word, and.
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Joshua starts this way, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, Ezekiel, Jonah, Esther, and Ruth all start with the word, and.
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So for you English teachers, and. Seemingly with no reference to anything prior.
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Just the way we start Hebrew narratives. Once upon a time, but real.
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And it was. In the days when the judges ruled.
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So we can't go any further because. What comes into your mind when you think about the days when the judges ruled?
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What's going on with the judges? How do they rule? If I was going to play word association, it would be when the days of the judges ruling.
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What do I think of that? What are some words that I would respond to that? Here's some words. Bedlam. Pandemonium.
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Mayhem. Anarchy. Lawlessness. These judges weren't judges in a legal setting, they were these local chieftains.
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And if you look back just a chapter, in Judges chapter 21. What does it say in verse 25?
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This summarizes everything you need to know. Even unbelievers seem to know this verse.
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Judges 21 -25. In those days, these judges, when they were ruling, there was no king in Israel.
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Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Chapter 17 as well. It is a haunting refrain.
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What happens in a society where everyone does what they think is right? How's anything good going to come out of these days?
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How's David? How's then Jesus going to come out of this septic tank?
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So here's what would happen in the book of Judges. The people would rebel. God would then judge them.
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He would then send a ruler, a judge. There'd be some cleaning of the house, proverbially.
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Then there'd be a period of rest. Then repeat. More disobedience, more judgment.
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He sends a judge. Then there's rest. It happened again and again and again.
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And early on, Atheniel the judge, he is described by one commentator as a squeaky clean judge.
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He's a good judge. And before you know it, the black hole vortex begins to suck in people spiritually.
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And you get a judge like Samson ruling. Rebellion, judgment, deliver, arrest, repeat.
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That's judges. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The nation had lost its way.
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Complete disobedience. Let me give you an illustration. Go to Judges chapter 19.
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I'll tell you ahead of time, this is revolting. But I'm trying to press the point here because when a person, a
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Hebrew especially, opened up this book, Ruth, and read that these were the days of judges, all these thoughts would come flooding in.
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You do yourself a favor to read Judges this week to figure out how can anything good happen with Ruth, to Ruth, from Ruth, in these days?
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In the worst of days. Judges 19 .22. Just to give you an idea of the disobedience, the chaos, the drudge report headlines.
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19 .22, Judges, as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door.
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They said to the old man, the master of the house, Bring out that man who came into your house that we may know him.
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And the man, the master of the house, went to them and said to them, No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.
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Since this man has come into my house, do not do this vile thing. Behold, here are my virgin daughters and his concubine.
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Let me bring them out now. Violate them and do with them what seems good to you.
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But against this man do not do this outrageous thing. But the men would not listen to him.
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So the man seized his concubine, made her go out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning.
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As the dawn began to break, they let her go. As the morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was until it was light.
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The master rose up in the morning. When he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, behold, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold.
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He said to her, Get up, let us be going. But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey and the man rose up and went away to his home.
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And when he entered his house, the days of the judges, he took a knife and taking hold of his concubine, he divided her limb by limb into twelve pieces, sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.
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And all who saw it said, Such a thing as this has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day.
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Consider it, take counsel and speak. Sadly, this was not an exception to the moral depravity that was going on.
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Callous, gruesome, cut into twelve pieces. We're talking about a black hole of sin.
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Morally, politically, there's no leader, there's no strong government. It's filthy, it's foul.
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James Joyce said, The sordid details stank under his very nostrils. Not talking about the days of the judges, but could be easily applied.
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Shantytown spirituality, seedy spirituality. The way I describe it is, there was a red light district in the hearts of all the people.
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Three hundred years of this kind of stuff going on. How are we going to get a Redeemer?
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Is anybody going to help Ophiniel to Samson? It's not working, it's not helping. We need a
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Redeemer, we need someone. If you want to think of the opposite, you think about how wonderful the millennial reign,
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Psalm 2, of Jesus Christ will be, and then you think of the exact opposite, and that is the days of judges.
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The antithesis of the millennium is this day, the day of Ruth. Apostasy and compromise.
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Let me give you a New Testament definition of what was going on during Ruth's day.
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Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness, revilings, and such like these.
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Of which I tell you before, as I have told you in the past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
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Galatians chapter 5. Sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind.
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Yeah, but I thought God you promised the Messiah in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15.
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I thought the seed of Abraham was going to dominate in Genesis chapter 12.
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I'm going to make your name great. There's going to be a great nation. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to expand you.
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Where are these promises? How could the promises come? Is God faithful? Is God in charge?
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Does God superintend anything? And the answer is in the book of Ruth, yes.
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How can you have a love song and a love story come out of this? J. Vernon McGee describes the book of Ruth as a pure lily floating on the vast cesspool of sin.
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By the end of Ruth you're going to say God is faithful, he keeps his promises, and David comes out of this line, out of this cesspool of sin.
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It's amazing. It's wonderful. Now let's go back to Ruth chapter 1.
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And again, all these ideas flood your mind. I've used this illustration probably too many times, but I'll use it again.
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Every little phrase in Ruth 1, 1 -5 is like a zip drive of information that you've got to get before you go any further, because you just say a statement.
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In the days when the judges were judging, oh yeah, that horrible time. It also tells us something in the next phrase.
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Ruth 1 -1, there was a famine in the land. There was a famine in the land.
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That's a signal, friends. What's the signal? It's not a smoke signal, it's a theological signal.
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You're reading this book and you're thinking, okay, don't we have a genealogy of David? Samuel's probably writing this while David is alive to make sure people realize he's got the right genealogy.
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And we start off this way. There's a famine in the land. What comes into your mind when you realize
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Israel is experiencing a famine? Here's what you should realize.
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God's faithful. Because God said in Deuteronomy 28, if you're going to honor
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Me and obey Me, I'm going to give you all kinds of things and you're going to be in a land that's flowing with what?
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Milk and honey. And if you disobey, I'm going to judge you and there's going to be a famine.
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I promise I will discipline you with famine.
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This is a theological rationale for there's disobedience in the land. It's not just the pagans, it's
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Israel. This is a bad time. Deuteronomy 28, You shall bring out much seed to the field, but you will gather in little, for the locusts will consume it.
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When you don't observe My commandments, which I charge you today, these curses will come upon you and overtake you.
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Doesn't it make sense? Everyone did. Not just the judges, not just the pagans, but everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
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And God says, Then I'll chasten you and I'll give you a famine. Now think about this.
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Do we have any names of people yet in Ruth 1? No names of people yet.
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Why? Because the writer wants you to think about what is going on, not who yet.
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What's the stage? Not who, but what.
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Let's keep reading chapter 1, verse 1. In the days when the judges ruled, okay, chaos, debauchery, there's a famine in the land,
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Israel's included in the disobedience, and God is faithfully disciplining them. And a man of the house of bread, that's what
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Bethlehem means, in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.
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This is what I love about Bible study. This is why I'd rather go slower than faster. When a man of Bethlehem leaves and goes someplace else in the book of Judges, do good things happen or do bad things happen?
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When you read Judges this week and you notice that somebody is going to leave Bethlehem and go someplace else, bad things are going to happen.
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And when you read this, if you've read the book of Judges, you're going to say, when you leave Bethlehem, there's trouble.
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Judges 17, Judges 19, tragic things happen when you leave
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Bethlehem. Corruption. We read one of those in chapter 19 of Judges. And here it says in Ruth chapter 1, he went to sojourn, like Lot staying as an alien in Sodom, same language, in the country of Moab.
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I mean, didn't we learn two weeks ago how bad Moab was? From the father, the cave.
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Remember? The cave. And in Judges, you've got
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Aglon, the king of Moab. You've got the enemies of Moab. And this certain man, he leaves the house of bread and he disobediently goes south.
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Faithlessly. To Moab. Oh yeah, let's see.
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I need to raise a godly family. Where should we go? Oh yeah. There's a place open right on the red light district here in the street in Amsterdam.
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That'll be good. Times 50 negatively. Let's go to Moab and raise a family.
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Everybody does what's right in their own eyes. And this man of Bethlehem did what was right in his own eyes and so down they go.
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Come on family, let's go. The wild thing is, what's the guy's name?
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What's the guy's name who does all this? The name of the man was, My God is
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King. My God's in charge. Well, not really.
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I've got to take matters into my own hands. I'm living here in the house of bread. Instead of just repenting and doing the right thing and then
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God will bless Deuteronomy 28, I'm going to go take matters into my own hands.
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Yeah, I know they sacrifice babies to Chumash, this false god.
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I know they're corrupt and wicked. I've got to do the right thing for me and my family.
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The name of the man was Elimelech, My God is King. And the name of his wife,
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Naomi. Now we're starting to know some of the people. We know the time frame. Now the people. And the names of his two sons were
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Malon and Chilion. More signals here. They were
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Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there a real long time.
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It's ironic that they leave the house of bread led by My God is King. Naomi, by the way, means
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My Joy or My Pleasant One. That divine king who rules in Israel.
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I don't think that's working out so well. Let's relocate to Sodom. Good idea. My God is
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King. I don't know how you decide to name your kids. When I was growing up, my next -door neighbor, two houses down, he was the first to get married.
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And he named his son Luke. Good name.
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But he named his kid Luke after Skywalker.
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I tried to pick a good Gentile name for a biblical person. I don't know how you name your kids.
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How about Malon and Chilion? Malon. Dopey, happy, and sneezy.
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Malon. To be weak or sick or snively. Some link it to the root to be sterile.
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Chilion means some root of annihilation or I'm a failure and I'm a sinner.
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I guess we're going down to Moab where you name your kid from the father, from incest. I guess
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Chilion is a step up. Sickly and pining.
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See, here's what the writer does so wonderfully. You think Dickens is good. He throws in these little thoughts like they were
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Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse, the father of David, he's called that very thing.
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1 Samuel. It's a clue. That's why you read too fast. You're not a
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Hebrew. You don't speak Hebrew. You're not around 3 ,000 years ago. You don't understand the culture.
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We're not familiar with Ruth. We go way too fast. It's a clue. Yeah, this is going to be somehow, this family is somehow connected with David.
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How? How could it be? David was a son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah.
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That's 1 Samuel 17. Ephrathite, notable family. Some royal clan.
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Somebody. Distinguished. They, the text says in Ruth, went into the country of Moab and remained there.
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Now when you see verse 3, ask yourself the question, how can the line be rescued so David can appear?
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There's a major crisis here. Elimelech's seed is dying out.
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But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died. I'm certain judgment, along with the traditions of the
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Jews, would say the same thing. And she was left with her two sons. These took
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Moabite wives. When you read the word took, or left, lift up, or to carry in Hebrew, always has negative connotations.
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They took these kind of wives. They took the Canaanites as wives. They took the Philistines as wives. They took the
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Moabites as wives. The name of the one was Orpah. And the name of the other,
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Ruth. They lived there about ten years and both Mahlon and Chilion died. So the husband was left without her two sons and her husband.
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Dire circumstances. They just took these wives.
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And they took Orpah. Her name is back of the neck or stiff -necked. Maybe her name is linked to the word mane, like a mane of hair.
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And Ruth, maybe her name means friend or friendship or to water abundantly.
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But everything happening here is barren. You've got a barren land, Israel, and now you've got barren wombs.
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How is David going to come out of this? How is the ultimate David going to come out of this? Who's going to support these ladies now?
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There's no Obamacare. There's no Social Security. There are no food stamps. There's no nothing. Oh, I guess there is something.
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You can't support yourself through prostitution if you're a woman. No government -sponsored welfare programs.
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She was left with her two sons. Even the word left in the Hebrew talks about a remnant because of judgment.
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There's judgment. There's judgment. This was a bad decision. And the audience says, what's going to happen?
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Barren land, barren wombs, no heir, no future, no David, no son of David, no
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Genesis 3 .15, no Genesis 12 .1. Well, let's have some practical questions to help us wrap this up in our mind before we celebrate the
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Lord's Supper. Questions so we can think through this rightly because this book is relevant for today.
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The pastor's job is not to make this text relevant. The pastor's job is, and pleasure, how is this relevant?
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It is relevant because God is a transchronological God with truth. So let me ask you some questions that should help you make the connection.
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Those days today. Question one. Aren't you glad that God's grace overpowers sin and rebellion?
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Aren't you glad that God's grace overpowers your sin, my sin, and rebellion?
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Ruth is going to show us we start with a famine in the land and as one writer said, we end up with a future in the
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Lord, David. Listen to what Duguid said. In fact, were it not for the mercy and power of the
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Lord, all of us would end up like Elimelech, Maelon, and Chileon. Dead and buried without a trace and without memory.
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The victims of our own bad decisions and foolish choices. Left to ourselves, we would all fall away in an instant.
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Fortunately for us, however, God's grace transcends our rebellion and not only leaves the door open for us to retrace our steps, but stirs our heart to see our folly and the welcoming arms that await our return.
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I mean, just think for a second about the bad decisions we've all made. Is there something in the
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New Testament, is there a verse that kind of is like a pillow to your weary soul's head that you think, you know what, even though I've made bad decisions, sinful decisions, ignorant decisions, horrific decisions, there's a
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God who providentially rules and reigns? What's that verse? What's the verse of the
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New Testament that makes me think there's no ultimate tragedy no matter what happens in my life?
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God is sovereign over it and He's making it for His glory and for my good. This thing that's happening to me today is advantageous to me.
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At work, health, friends, school, loved ones, this thing is going to work out.
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Well, let's turn there. We weren't there that long ago, but I have to go back. Romans 8. What's the verse
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I'm going to take you to? 8 .28. This is such a great verse. This is a good overlay of Ruth.
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How can anything happen in the days when the judges were judging? There's a famine in the land. They go down to Vegas to raise their kids.
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I guess there's probably some good parts of Vegas. Romans 8 .28. God causes all things to work together.
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And look at the text. Just park here for a minute as well. ESV says, and we know.
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Now, chapter 8, verse 26, we don't really know how to pray like we should. Not too certain how to pray all the time.
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Should we pray this way or should we pray that way? Not certain. But here, certain.
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And we know. Might not fully understand, but we know for sure that God, now you just think about Ruth for a minute, then you think about your own life.
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If it's true for Ruth, if it's true for Paul, it's got to be true for you because God is immutable. We know.
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It's not necessarily we feel like this all the time or it's our emotions, but cognitively, mentally, theologically, we back up and now we look at the situation with this grid.
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God causes all things to work together for good. The days of the judges judging, kids named
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Moab, Chileon, Melon, disobedience, sojourning, taking the wrong kind of wives,
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He causes all things to work together for good. Far from Stoicism, far from Deism, He's orchestrating all this.
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All comprehensive plan. Tell me one thing in your life that's outside the sovereign plan of God right now.
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Tell me one thing. Superintendence of God. And you say, you know what?
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Yeah, but this is super easy for Paul to say. Paul's just sitting there on his couch.
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He's an armchair theologian. Are they servants of Christ?
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Paul said, I speak as if insane. I more so in far more labors, far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger, five times
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I received from the Jews 39 lashes, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times
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I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I've spent in the deep, frequent journeys, dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the
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Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren.
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I have been in labor and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, without food, cold and exposure.
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Written, 2 Corinthians, two years before he writes Romans 8 .28.
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And if Paul's looking back, he says all those things, God was sovereign over every one of those things.
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From sickness to poverty. And if everything works together for good, in one way or another, everything in your life that is happening is advantageous to you.
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Because God can make that advantageous to you. Steele and Thomas said, the afflictions of believers in a peculiar manner contribute to this end.
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Advantageous to the children of God. Even the sins of believers work for their good. Not from the nature of sin, but by the goodness and power of Him who brings light out of darkness.
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You don't sin so God can make something good out of it, but you've got those haunting sins in your past, those skeletons in your closet,
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God can even use those. It's amazing.
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Question two, related, stay there in Romans 8, please. Aren't you glad circumstances and people are not sovereign over you ultimately?
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Aren't you glad that circumstances and people aren't ultimately sovereign over you? President Reagan was shot
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March 30th, 1981. Remember there was a bunch of struggle or confusion, maybe
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I should say, in the White House, who's in charge? Vice President Bush was out. Remember there was a man.
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This man was a former military leader of NATO. This man said, constitutionally, gentlemen, you have the
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President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of State in that order, and should the President decide he wants to transfer the helm to the
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Vice President, he will do so. He has not done that. As of now, I am in control here.
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In the White House, pending return of the Vice President, and in close touch with him. If something came up,
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I would check with him, of course. I'm in charge here. Who said that? Okay, thank you.
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Alexander Haig, I'm in charge here. You got any
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Alexander Haigs in your life? Is this a spiritual application?
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Is this proper homiletics? People who can run your life and dictate terms and...
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God, why don't you just get rid of them? Why are they even around? Are there difficult people in your lives?
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People hard to get along with? Do you have enemies? Do you have adversaries? Do you have difficult family members?
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I want you to know that if you walk by sight, you'll lose Ruth. You lose out
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Ruth because we walk by faith and not by sight. God was sovereign over Ruth, Malon, Chilion, Elimelech, and Emelech II, if there was such a thing.
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Better name than Elimelech. Sovereignty of God means you're never at the mercy of other people ultimately.
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Your boss, your spouse, your kids, your enemies. God overrules the sinful deeds of men and women.
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Genesis 50, As for you, you meant evil against Me, but God meant it for what? Good! To bring about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.
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Heidelberg Catechism, question 28. What does it profit us to know that God has created and by His providence still upholds all things?
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Is there any good? Is there any practical application? That we may be patient in adversity.
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You know, God is sovereign so we can be patient in adversity. He's making this happen. He's allowing it. He's permitting it.
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He's ordained it. Thankful in prosperity. Everything that I have that's good now is from God's hand.
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Every little blessing I have, thankful in prosperity. And for what is future, what's the future going to bring in 2014?
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Have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from His love since all creatures are so in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move, including your enemies, including your adversaries, including your spouse, including your friends.
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God ordains bad things to happen for the purpose of bringing greater good.
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And when you see bad things in the world, your world, in you, you ought not to default to, oh, this whole world is going to hell in the handbasket.
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You should say, now wait a second, that seems true from one angle, the X angle, but the
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Y angle or the Z angle or whatever way you want to think about space and time, wait,
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God has ordained this. God has ordained this to happen. And I'm going to have to trust in the promises of God versus go by my feelings.
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You want to show me a disaster of a person is they run by feelings and they run by sight, not by faith and not by the fact of Scripture that God's sovereign.
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I am God, there is no other. I am God, there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning. A joyful trust in God for the future.
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Sovereign over presidents, sovereign over bosses, sovereign over everyone. And finally, question number three, aren't you glad that God has written the last chapter of redemption even though maybe you haven't read it yet?
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Aren't you glad that God has written the last chapter of redemption even though you might not have, even though you maybe haven't read it yet?
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Okay, let's think about Ruth for a second. Ruth 1, disaster is all happening, but Ruth 4 is going to be a fact.
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It's a fact in the mind of God that out of Ruth, out of Boaz, David the king comes.
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And for us, if you look back at Romans chapter 8, it's the exact same thing.
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It's the very same thing because God the Father has arranged everything including the last chapter.
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I want you to know something. Here's the story of your life. Here's the last chapter of your life if you're a
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Christian. Hear me well. And they lived happily ever after.
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That's the last chapter of your life. And you lived happily ever after. Contrary to the crying child out there.
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God's even working that for our good. They lived happily ever after.
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You look at Ruth. I don't see happily ever after verses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and a bunch of others.
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21 chapters of Judges. They lived happily ever after. But Ruth chapter 4 at the end, they lived happily ever after.
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David is here. The ultimate David, Jesus, comes as well. Let me show you
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Romans 8, 29 and 30 because too often we throw out 8, 28 and we forget these next two verses.
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How can it be that horrible things that have happened to us, let's forget that for a second, how can it be horrible things that we've done not make
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God bail? How could God keep loving us in spite of all this?
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You think, looking at Mike Abendroth, God said, you know, in eternity past I chose Mike, but after some of Mike's sins,
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I repent. I just can't do it anymore because look at how unholy, how ungodly, how unrighteous.
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Look at those decisions he's made. I repent of choosing Abendroth. How can it be they lived happily ever after?
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Romans 8, 29. You're not going to see a
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God who falls out of love with someone. You're not going to see a God who has emotional mood swings and one day loves you and the other day doesn't.
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You've got to break up. For those whom he foreknew he loved ahead of time, he also predestined, carved out to be conformed to the image of his
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Son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Those whom he predestined, let's just pick a number, one million.
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The million that he predestined, he also called those same exact million, not losing one.
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And those million he called, he also justified those million, declared them righteous, accepted by God based on Christ's perfect life, perfect satisfaction, perfect righteousness.
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And those whom he justified, declared righteous, he also glorified.
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They lived happily ever after. He glorified them. When God chooses you,
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He will take everything that's going on in your life, make it for His glory, you're good, and you're still going to be glorified.
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That's what Paul is trying to write in Romans 8. Look at verse 31.
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And there's a response. Since your end is written, since heaven's secure for you if you're a
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Christian, since you're going to live happily ever after even though there's pain and sorrow and sadness and sin, and we live in the
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Moab of the world, it seems. But since I'm going to heaven,
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I know God loves me and He never will repent of it. I know if God loved me in eternity past, I know if God loved me at the cross,
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I know when God loved me, when He made me born again, what's going to happen? If I'm going to live happily ever after, what's my response?
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Verse 31, what then shall we say to these things? Since any man's threat is not great enough, since like a prize fighter,
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God takes on all challengers, since God is saying, you know what
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Paul is saying, the sovereignty of God should elicit a response. What's the response?
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If God is for us, who can be against us? Praise and glory and thankfulness.
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That's why I love Ruth. Well, academic exercise, sovereignty of God 101, concursus, gubertorian, and I'm trying to think of the other
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Latin word, if I was R .C. Sproul, I'd have it all memorized. One time, by the way,
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I got to go to Ligonier, and they said, oh, some of you doctoral students, why don't you come in? Dr. Sproul is taping something and they need some audience members.
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And they had a chalkboard there. He had chalk. He said a Latin word.
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He walked over and wrote the Latin word on the board. I got to see it. If God is for us, who can be against us?
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I thought He was supposed to be against me. I know me. I know what I've done. I know who
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I am. But God can take those things in my life, good and bad, and sovereignly orchestrate them, providentially rule them, take them in the days of the judges judging.
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There's only one thing worse than the days of the judges who judge, and that's Mike's life, your life. He gives us something we don't deserve in the person and work of Christ Jesus.
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Verse 32 of Romans 8, I have to end here. He who did not spare his own son. Abraham didn't withhold his son.
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How much greater is it? God didn't withhold His Son. He didn't spare His Son, but gave Him up for us all.
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How will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? I've got a question for you.
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It's my final question. Would God do less for His children than He did for His enemies? For His enemies,
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He gave His Son. What will He give His children? And that's why when you read the book of Ruth, it's the worst of times.
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But you end in Ruth 4 and you say, and it was the best of times. Let's pray.
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Father in Heaven, we thank You today. Thank You for the book of Ruth. I would imagine
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Samuel wrote it, but Father, whoever wrote it humanly, we know You wrote it. So we might see the threat of redemption, the threat of providence, that there's a
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Redeemer nearer than I. Father, I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church.
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I pray for the dear people here. I pray that throughout this year, as we experience trouble, hardship, sin, death, that You would help us to see things from the heavenly perspective.
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And Father, I pray that You'd use Ruth to reassure us that we can trust
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You. You're a God to be trusted and magnified and thanked. And we pray that this would happen through this book, in Jesus' name,