Refuge Under His Wings - [Ruth 2:12ff]

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I've had the privilege to teach preaching classes in Europe and here in America.
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The last couple of weekends I've been teaching at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Northborough on Friday nights and then all day
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Saturday, and I have the men get up and preach, sometimes just five -minute little sermons, and I sit in the back and take notes and critique, and I tell the men when they're up there preaching that when
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I go like this, that means land the plane. It's time to finish, time to conclude.
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This coming weekend they'll have to preach for 30 minutes and with five minutes to go I'll go like this, it's time to stop.
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Since I've been in the book of Ruth and working through it, it's like I never want to see this.
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I want this to be go five more minutes, go ten more minutes.
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What will happen next? Who is this God, the God of Ruth? Why was it written?
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Written with so many purposes, but one is so that you see this
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God and you say, by the grace of God, that's my God. He's to be trusted.
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He provides. He protects both spiritually and temporally. What a great
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Savior. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a friend. Let's turn our
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Bibles to Ruth chapter 2. Today it's going to be especially helpful for us as we look at the faithfulness of God and the provision of God and the blessing of God.
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How do we live in this world where there are so many things that could make us nervous, things that could frighten us, worried for our kids, concerned about our health, what about terrorism, unsure of the future?
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And Ruth is going to bellow out, you can trust in this great God. Walk by faith and not by sight.
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I like that, by the way, better than the alternative. I looked online for some helpful hints on if you're worried or fearful, what you should do.
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Take a stand. It's one of the ways that you can get through this. Another one is you have to decide what this worry means to you.
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Talk with friends, co -workers and family members. If you're worried, how do you get through worry?
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Here's an option online. Express your fears in writing. Free floating ideas have a tendency to take on a life of their own.
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Writing about vague fears makes us pin them down. Make a contribution.
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Volunteer. Keep your routine as normal as possible.
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But there's one I actually really liked if you're worried and caught up in fear. Find trustworthy sources for information.
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That's exactly what Ruth is. A trustworthy source of information to help us to think properly about God.
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Trusting God in untrustworthy times. Having strong faith in a faithful God when the world's unfaithful.
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Seeing God as your refuge and strength, protector. Charles Spurgeon said, there's only one creature that God has made that ever doubts him.
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The sparrows doubt not. They sweetly sing at night as they go to their roosts, though they know not where tomorrow's meal shall be found.
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The very cattle trust God and even in days of drought, you have seen them when they pant for thirst how they expect water.
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The angels never doubt him. Devils do not doubt him. They believe and tremble.
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But it was left for man, the most favored of all his creatures, to mistrust his God. Ruth will help us as we consider who
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God is in light of our circumstances. Very very powerful section of Ruth.
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I started off going through Ruth pretty quickly and you can tell I'm not getting bogged down now but I'm slowing down on purpose because I just kind of don't want it to end.
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This great God of Ruth, the God of Boaz, who takes the famine and then makes things flourish.
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I'd like to ask you this question as we start. Can you believe God too much?
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Can you trust God too much? Can you out -believe God as one man asks?
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Ruth is going to help you realize that the object of your faith, God, is worthy of that very trust.
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Boaz is going to show his kindness to Ruth and you're going to see God has shown his kindness toward you in Christ Jesus.
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Ruth could trust Boaz to provide and protect and you're able to trust
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Yahweh to provide and protect. Let's take a look at verses 8 through 11 as I read them in review as we work toward our verses this morning verses 12 through 16.
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Then Ruth 2 .8, Boaz said to Ruth, now listen my daughter, do not go glean, don't pick up the leftovers in another field or leave this one.
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Stay in my field. Keep close to my young women. It's dangerous out there. I want to protect you.
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Let your eyes be on the field that they're reaping and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to molest or touch you or hurt you, rape you?
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When you're thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn. And here even in this culture, the women are supposed to draw for the men but switched it around provision and protection.
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Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I'm a foreigner,
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I'm a foreign woman, I'm a Moabite. Remember the cave? But Boaz answered, all that you have done for your mother -in -law, the word travels fast in Bethlehem, since the death of your husband, you believed in this great covenant keeping
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God and God's been faithful to work through your own life and your fruit has been seen. It's been fully told to me in how you left your father and mother and your native land and your native
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God, by the way, and came to a people that you did not know before. And now
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Boaz prays for Ruth. I can protect you so far,
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I can provide for you so far, but now I'm going to ask God's blessing for extra kindness, extra love, spiritual protection.
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Who can give you full reward for your faith in Christ Jesus? Who can give you everything you need?
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I can't, so let me pray to God. P .S. Boaz is going to be the answer to her prayer.
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That's just a side note, thrown in for free. Have you ever prayed God bless someone and then why don't you just add, and Lord, may
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I be the one to help bless that other person? And Ruth 2 .12
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shows the prayer of Boaz, the Lord Yahweh, this covenant keeping
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God who redeems sinners like Naomi, like Boaz, like Ruth.
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The Lord repay you for what you've done. He can only give the full reward for your kindness and love to your husband and mother -in -law.
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And a full reward be given to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, no longer the God of Moab, Chemosh, the
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Lord God of Israel under whose wings you have come to take refuge. God bless
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Ruth. You've given her the greatest gift we could say. Won't you give her the smaller gifts?
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
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And Boaz here uses a metaphor. God's going to repay you and give you full reward and you might be thinking, wait a second, give to get.
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God helps those that help themselves. God doesn't graciously give,
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He gives in response to. The idea here is shalom, if you were to study the
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Hebrew. The idea is wholeness. The idea is God started a good work in you and He'll be what to complete it.
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I just want to start singing along with Steve Green. I played it for the kids this morning. They're like, oh, He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.
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He'll be faithful to complete it. Okay, I better stop right there. My kids are like, Steve Green, I wanted to brag.
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I ride bicycles with Steve Green. But anyway, they didn't care. God started this work in you.
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He's converted you. He's regenerated you. He's given you new life. You used to bow down and worship a baby -killing
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Chemish false god and now He's converted you and He's going to give you everything else too. He's going to be giving you shalom, wholeness.
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He's going to finish the work that He started. That's the idea. The idea is this, if I could use
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New Testament terminology. He who did not spare His own Son but gave
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Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?
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He saved you. He gives you the greatest gift, Christ Jesus, the representative
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Savior who died on the cross and was raised from the dead. Won't He take care of your other needs, your lesser needs?
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If He takes care of the greater, He'll take care of the lesser. Boaz prays, I just pray that God will just bless you.
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He's blessed you with the best. He'll bless you with the rest. God bless her.
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And He calls on Yahweh to do it. Finish the work, God. The God of Israel.
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What a great prayer. And look at what it says there. Under whose wings you have come to take refuge.
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I mean under whose wings. If I was a little kid I'd go, God has wings. What do you mean? I thought
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He's invisible. What's the picture? Well when you read the word wings in the Old Testament, I think ten times it means a bird's wings.
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But more often than not, it's a metaphor, it's a picture of protection.
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What a gentle, sweet idea. There's some bad animal coming, probably a cat, some wicked cat coming to get this little chick and you can just imagine the bird, the mother just protects as much as she can.
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That's the idea. You've come to place yourself under Yahweh's care and He protects like a wing to protect.
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It's gentle, it's nurturing, it's kind, it's sweet, it's wonderful.
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Boaz prays, I could protect you so far, I entrust you to the care of Yahweh. Ruth, you're a believer.
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God just doesn't justify you, He sanctifies you and He glorifies you if I want to use New Testament language.
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The mother bird protecting her defenseless young. Now when
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I was a kid, of course you can tell I'm from Nebraska because when I think of wings and birds, we would just go out in the backyard and we'd take the duck and you'd take the duck's neck and kind of crank it down a little bit, put the wing over the duck's neck like that and then you hold the duck's neck under its wing and you go back and forth as fast as you can for about a minute and then you can lay down that duck and it'll stay right there neck under.
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And then you see how many of you can get in a line before that first one wakes up. I'm from Omaha.
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But here the picture isn't dizzy children fun, it's this God when you entrust your soul to God, He grants you saving faith and your response is belief and trust.
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He gives you more than eternal life, He gives you everything else, all the provision that goes along with it.
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Sometimes this wing language is used like when God rescued Israel out of Egypt, like with an eagle's wing, there's an eagle that tries to fly, it doesn't fly very well and you can just see and picture in your mind the eagle swooping down underneath the eagle to rescue them on their wings.
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You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself,
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Exodus 19. But this isn't carrying on eagles' wings, this is covering and protecting.
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I told my young men not to molest you, I told them not to bother you, I told them you can have water, but there's this
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God who protects even more. Spurgeon said,
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He shall cover you with thy feathers and under His wings you shall trust.
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A wonderful expression, but had it been invented by an uninspired man, it would have been verging on blasphemy for who should dare to apply such words to the infinite
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Yahweh? Does the Lord speak of His feathers as though He's likened
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Himself to a bird? Who will not see here in a matchless love a divine tenderness which should both woo and win our confidence?
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We're going to sing a song to close the service and here are some lyrics to that song. Praise to the
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Lord the Almighty, the King of creation. O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation.
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All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near. Praise Him in glad adoration.
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Now listen to stanza two. Praise to the Lord who over all things so wondrously reigneth.
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Shelters thee under His wings yet so gently sustaineth.
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Boaz prays, God will protect you. God watches over His children.
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Doesn't Jesus talk this way too? Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.
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How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.
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And you leaders weren't willing for me to do that. For the
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Christian, it's the same thing. When you trust in the triune God, of course
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He redeems you. You have forgiveness of sins, to use Ephesians 1 .7 language. We have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
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Of course He seals you to the day of redemption. The Spirit of God is your guarantee of your inheritance.
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And if He gives you those great things, doesn't He give you everything else? Can't you trust Him? Can you out -believe this
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God? Can you out -trust this God? Under whose wings, see the text, you have come to take refuge.
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Insecure world, refuge in Christ. I'm helpless, but I'm protected by Christ.
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The blessings of taking refuge in God. Would you turn with me to Psalm 2, please, quickly?
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I would like you to see a picture that is good for me to preach to you, but also to show you the blessings of taking refuge in God.
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If God has called you and redeemed you and placed you in Christ Jesus, you are blessed.
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You are a blessed person. And if you're not in Christ Jesus, then these five commands will, by the
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Spirit's power, penetrate your heart. Psalm 2.
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This section, verses 10 and following, that follow a lot of statements of fact, follow a lot of indicatives, are these imperatives in response to what
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God has done and who He is. Verse 10 is a verse that John Lambert said to Henry VIII just before he was burned in 1538.
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What would you say to the king that was going to kill you? Now therefore, verse 10, Psalm 2,
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O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth. By the way, John Lambert then in the fire is said to have lifted his fingers, floating in the fire, as it were, saying, none but Christ, none but Christ.
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And the psalmist says, now therefore. He's going to call people to believe in this
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God. If you're not a Christian, here's my call to salvation for you. Here's the summons.
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Now is the time. Not tomorrow. Today might be the last day that you're alive.
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And you're going to give an account for your soul. Time is fleeting. And with the Son's authority, he says, now therefore, what?
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And then he just has five imperatives. And then a blessing. O kings, the most powerful person in the world and certainly everyone else, if kings should do this, so should you.
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Is there a higher folly to stiff -armed God and His Son? First, be wise.
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Show discernment. Think for a second. Just stop for a moment in your busy life and say,
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I'm going to die one day. I've had several deaths in our church family in the last week or two.
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And one day that'll be me and I'll stand before God. And then what? It's time to act foolish no longer.
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It's time to act sinful no longer. I better think through this. I better consider my ways.
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Secondly, be warned. Take warning. Verse 10, be warned, O rulers of the earth and anyone else as well.
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Be warned. These are imperatives. Here's what it literally means. Let yourself be corrected.
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I had this view about life and I just thought if I was baptized as a baby, as a baby, I'm going to go to heaven. If I'm just good,
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I'll go to heaven. If I just have a few good works, I'm going to go to heaven. Friends, that all denigrates Jesus's life and death as a substitute
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Savior, as a sin bearer, as the Lamb of God. If you could get to heaven by being good, how masochistic was
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God to kill the Son? Stop thinking that way. You ought to let yourself be corrected. Correct thinking is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ's death alone.
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The cause of salvation is God's sovereign, distinguishing mercy. The instrument is non -saving faith and the ground is
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Christ's death. I don't get to heaven by any other way. You ought to let yourself be corrected. Number three, he says in verse 11, serve the
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Lord with fear. Worship Yahweh with reverence. He's such a great
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God. You ought to stand in awe of this God. It's what we say to unbelievers. I say to you if you're an unbeliever, stand in awe of this
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God. Look at this, rejoice, number four, with trembling.
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It's another imperative. Rejoice, exult with trembling.
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And then number five, kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled.
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Kiss, do homage. What does that talk about? When you say, I'm going to kiss the Pope's ring. What are you doing when you kiss the
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Pope's ring? You're showing him allegiance. Give the Son allegiance.
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He doesn't even use the Hebrew word for Son. It's the Hebrew Bible, but it's Aramaic, because this is to the
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Gentiles. This is to the nations. This is to the world. Everyone needs to bow and kiss the
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Son with allegiance and worship and loyalty. Haven't you kissed the calves of Egypt long enough?
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Haven't you kissed sex and money and power and fame and everything else, entertainment, long enough?
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First Kings 19 gives us this idea, yet I will leave 7 ,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed
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Him. Submit to Christ Jesus. Instead of kicking the
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Son, kiss Him. Instead of disregarding the Son, worship Him. Sooner or later you will anyway, therefore also
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God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Jesus the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus what?
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Every knee shall bow. Every person will kiss Him. Of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God the Father. His wrath may soon be kindled.
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Stop playing around. But now comes the benediction. I think of Ruth when
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I think about her and her kissing the Son instead of Chumash. I think about you
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Christians who used to kiss every other idol and now you kiss the Son. I think about the grace of God in my own life and look at what it says in verse 12 with language of Ruth.
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ESV doesn't do it justice but I'll read it to start. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.
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NAS translates it a little bit better. Are you ready? How blessed!
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The rewards of life of those who take refuge in Him. One of the students that I'm teaching who's at the preaching class, he's nervous in front of people so he always stands like this when he preaches.
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Isn't Jesus good? Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the
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King of creation. Their finals next Saturday and I told him this last week in front of the entire class and I'm going to encourage him along and I know what it's like to be nervous.
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I said, if you don't stand in the pulpit next Saturday with your arms out like this for full wingspan with elbows locked and smile at the congregation and go,
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Jesus is Lord, salvation full and free, something good with a smile,
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I'm going to dock you five points. He's like, really? All right, you give me a lip, ten points.
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No, I didn't say that. The God that gives the greatest gift gives everything else and you know what, you place your faith in God and you put
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Him, you put yourself underneath the shadow of His wings and you take refuge in Him, guess what?
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Blessing! How blessed! That's the idea, no doubt about it.
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Not blessed, but how blessed. You have a prophet, priest and king, you're blessed.
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Ruth, you used to go worship this other God and what did it get you? Famine, death, barrenness.
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And God converted you, He saved you by His grace and you in fact believed and repented.
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And now God has flooded you with blessings. Some spiritual yes, some physical yes, but blessings nonetheless.
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Think about what you deserve. Think about what I deserve. What do we deserve and what do we get? The blessings of God.
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How blessed! Nahum says, who can stand before His indignation?
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Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, the rocks are broken up by Him.
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The Lord is good, the stronghold in the day of trouble and He knows those who take refuge in Him.
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No refuge from Him, His wrath soon kindled, but refuge in Him.
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How blessed are all who take refuge in the Son. That doesn't just sound like the psalmist.
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That doesn't just sound like Ruth. That sounds like Bethlehem Bible Church, doesn't it? Blessed beyond measure.
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Let's go back to Ruth chapter 2 please as we continue to work through this passage. I just saw somebody's hand raise up.
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That means keep going. Alright, I will. People raise their hands in service from now on.
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It means preach longer. Right? There you go. I think I wrote that in my first book. I said, you know sometimes when people sing they put their hand up and it's supposed to express worship before God.
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But I said, you know all the years I preached, people don't do that when I preach. Isn't worship hearing from God's Word through a frail messenger, sinful messenger?
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Yes, but it's still worship. Worship just isn't singing, it's preaching. So I'm wondering why more people don't go like that.
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So I said that once when I was in Zambia to a group of about 120 preachers. Why don't people do that anymore?
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You know, why don't people put their hands up for songs but not for preaching? We had lunch.
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Came back and started preaching. They must have talked behind the scenes because 120 guys were like this.
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Come on. What's going to happen next? And even think about your own life.
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Before you were saved, 45 minute sermons? 60 minute sermons?
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I've got to go. Come on. Hurry up. And all of a sudden God gives you new affections and a new appetite and new life.
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You're regenerating. You're like, I just want to hear from you. Man, time went by so fast. What do you mean that was 50 minutes?
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I just want to hear these words. Somebody tell me some truth. Somebody tell me something about who God is. Blessed are all those who take refuge in Him.
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How does Ruth respond? Ruth 2 .13. Boaz prays, remember.
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And then she said, regularly she uses the word favor. Verse 2, verse 10, and now verse 13.
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I found favor in your eyes, kindness, my Lord. I found favor in your eyes, my
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Lord. For you've comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I'm not one of your servants.
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The word spoken kindly means, it's the kind of thing where a wife or a husband lays his head on his spouse's shoulder and just kind of whispers things of affection.
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Boaz didn't do that to her physically, but that's the idea of his words. Literally, in Hebrew, to speak upon the heart of the heart, spoken on the heart of.
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That's how you talk to me. Who talks that way to a Moabite woman? You comforted me and you've spoken kindly to your servants, even though I'm not one of your servants.
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You've got lowly servants and I'm not even a lowly servant. You've spoken kindly to me anyway.
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And you can see how God is blessing Ruth through Boaz. Verse 14, at mealtime,
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Boaz said to her, where's the food? Serve me. Come here.
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That means to approach, get close, very near, close enough to touch, actually.
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Don't keep your distance. I've been in cultures before where the men would sit and eat.
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And because I was a guest speaker and a pastor and I had a title that the men would eat over here and the women and the children would serve and then they would eat later.
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You know, the family would normally eat together, but there's somebody important involved. And so they want to serve and, and be kind.
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No, no, come here, approach, eat some bread, dip your morsel in the wine, have what we're going to have, forget the leftovers.
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So she sat beside the reapers and he passed to her roasted grain and she ate until she was satisfied.
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That's a long stretch from no food in Israel, no food in Moab and had some leftover.
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Now we just think of food. Well, utilitarian, let's just eat. TV's on, lean cuisine here, some kind of TV dinner, eat and go.
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Remember for food back in those days, this was a cultural thing of acceptance and camaraderie and very significant symbolically to eat together.
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And he serves her. Come here. I'm going to serve you.
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You're supposed to be taking the water for the other women and the men since you're a woman, a Moabite woman, a foreigner, but I've got my guys, they're going to serve you.
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And now I am going to serve you. And you see the kindness and the goodness of God through Boaz.
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She gets converted and she gets all kinds of other protection and provision. Have some bread.
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He passed her to roast grain. She ate. And when you look at the Greek version of the Hebrew text of the
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Old Testament, it talks about piling on, heaping on a huge pile of food so much so you can't eat the rest.
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And if you were at country buffet, you'd probably try to slip some of those nasty ribs in your pocket to eat later. Okay. I guess, do we have country buffets here?
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I guess not. But this is true at least. You'll at least identify with this.
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From famine to leftovers. This is a
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God who can work through Boaz to both spiritually and physically do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we can ask or think.
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Verse 15, when she rose to glean, remember God had said, if you drop something, just let it be for poor people, for widows, for others.
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Boaz was instructed his young man saying, let her glean even among the sheaves. Don't make her just go to the corners and do not reproach her.
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I'm putting her under my wings of protection so you better watch out and give her some good stuff.
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Don't humiliate her. That's what the word don't reproach her is. Don't make her just go around the corners.
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No, you give her some of the good stuff. And by the way, the wings of my protection and provision go farther.
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Verse 16, and also pull out some from the bundles, not just the stuff you drop, but accidentally on purpose drop some.
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Just start throwing it on the ground for her and leave it to her to glean and do not rebuke her.
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Intentionally pull some stuff out. Don't drive her away. Give her a bunch of stuff. Friends, I think
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Boaz likes her. That'd be fair to say.
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I think Boaz likes her. I think Boaz is treating her like family.
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I wonder if that has to do with kinsman, redeemer and redemption later. Don't you see the hand of God through Boaz?
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Again, the ultimate hero is not Boaz. It's not Ruth. It's not Naomi. The hand of God through this, you've entrusted yourself to Yahweh.
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Boaz prays and then he's also the instrument of God to answer the prayer.
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And to give you a sneak peek, when Ruth goes back to Naomi and tells about the lavish nature of the kindness of this man,
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Boaz, she's going to know. She's going to know right away. I'd like to close our service with Psalm 91, please.
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So please turn there. And I'd like to remind you that you can trust in this
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God of Boaz and Ruth. He's your God because of the work of Christ Jesus the
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Lord. And Psalm 91, I'm going there because it could be Ruth's psalm.
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It could be Boaz's psalm. It's our psalm. It's a psalm of protection, provision, rest and trust.
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And here's the neat thing. It uses some of the language of Ruth to tie it in. This is one of those psalms that when you're really, really going through troubled times, you ought to memorize this verse.
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I'll take it on good account that Athanasius told a man struggling to memorize this, not verse but psalm.
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Athanasius, the great Christian warrior for the Trinity, if you desire to establish yourself and others in devotion to know what confidence is to be reposed in God, you will praise
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God by reciting the 91st Psalm. And everything in here is about trusting
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God. Look, Christian, at verses 1 and 2. You can trust God because He's trustworthy.
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How many words of security can you spot in verses 1 and 2? I spot four. He who dwells in the shelter, number one, of the
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Most High will abide in the shadow, that's two, of the Almighty. I will say to Yahweh, my refuge, number three, and my fortress, four, my
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God in whom I will trust. Looking to God, the trustworthy one in uncertain times, threatening times, security found in Christ.
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Christian, you can also trust God who protects, verses 3 through 13. He protects from danger, just like He did with Ruth, verse 3.
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And He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
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He Himself, in the Hebrew, what do you mean snare of the fowler? What's a snare of the fowler? This is aviary language and the fowler was the guy who catches the bird and the bird, if caught by the fowler, can't escape.
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It can't extract itself. It can't undo itself because the fowler is too powerful.
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He'll deliver you from the snare of the fowler, though. Can't protect yourself? God will protect you, verse 4.
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He will cover you with His pinions. And what do you know? The language of Ruth, and under His wings you will find refuge.
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I'm very thankful that by chance Gil chanced to sing that special music song.
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Wasn't that lucky? All perfectly planned out? Well, maybe you don't think so.
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You'll find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler. It's something that wraps around you.
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And look at these real threats, horrific threats. They don't go to you, they go to the wicked. You will not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
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A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
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You will only look with your eyes and see that all this has come on the head of the wicked, their recompense.
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I think Ruth could say the next verse, and if you're a Christian you can say it too. This is the response to sovereign grace, because you have made the
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Lord your dwelling place, the Most High who is my refuge. No evil shall be allowed to fall you, no plague to come near your tent, there's safety, you can trust
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God. He'll command His angels concerning you. Look at the basis for this assurance. To guard you in all your ways, on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone.
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You'll tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. And then
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Christians see in verses 14 to 16 God's commitment to protect you.
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You can trust in such a God. Look at all the I will statements, see how many you can find. You want to know if you have a personal relationship with God, because of Christ Jesus, it's very personal.
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Take a look. Verse 14. Behold, He holds me, or He holds fast to me in love.
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I will deliver Him. I will protect Him, because He knows my name.
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This isn't just Ruth, this isn't just Boaz, this is every Christian, this is you. When He calls to me, I will answer
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Him says God. I will be with Him in trouble says God. I will rescue Him and honor Him. With long life,
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God says, I will satisfy Him and show Him my salvation. I've given the greatest gift,
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I'll give the lesser gifts. When I think about this trust in God, can't you just hearken back to Calvary?
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Was Jesus trusting in God the Father? Father into your hands I commit my, what?
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Spirit. Psalm 31, Jesus is trusting God. Psalm 31 is an evening prayer, and the
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Jews would regularly pray that at night as a child. What do you pray at night as a child? I'll tell you what I pray at night.
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When I was a kid, Swedish Lutheran kid, Danish Lutheran kid,
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German Lutheran kid all put together. Now I lay me down to sleep.
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I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I didn't like the take part, because I always thought take was thievery, so I switched it around, but with a good meaning.
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Redactor Mike as a child. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to take. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
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I wanted Him to keep my soul. God, if I die in the night, see me through. Now here's the question.
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Jesus prays, God, I commit my spirit to You. When you think about Jesus, praying this psalm to God to carry
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Him through, it's fascinating to me. He trusts in the faithfulness of God, even at death, even after His substitutionary atoning work is done.
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Jesus said it is finished, and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
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Ever think about that? He said it's finished, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
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That's not how we die. Here's how we die. We bow our heads and give up the spirit.
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And Jesus does what? Sorry, I said it the wrong way. Jesus bows
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His head and gives up the spirit. We give up our spirit and then bow our heads. Down they go, dead. And Jesus prays,
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I know who You are, God. You're faithful. You're the covenant keeping God. I commit my spirit to You. It's finished.
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He bows His head and then He gives up His own life. He knew what it was like to trust in the
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Father. Christian friend, God is so trustworthy that if you get to heaven and could change any part of His plan on earth, even what's happening to you today, you wouldn't change it.
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Newton said you'd only spoil it if you could do that. Christian friend, when times are difficult, focus on the
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Lord, not your circumstances. Corrie Tenboom, when a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't jump or you don't throw away the ticket and jump off.
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You sit still and trust the engineer. As Grandma Evie said with great wisdom, when you're in a trial, you gaze on the
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Lord and glance on your troubles. That's what Psalm 91 and Ruth 2 is wanting you to do.
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Instead of glancing at the Lord and gazing at your trouble. Christian, remember,
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God's care for you means there's no detail so insignificant that it doesn't fall under the purview of God's attention.
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And lastly, Christian, would you please do your best to limit your why questions when you suffer?
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If it's, well, God, why are you doing this and I'll trust in you, Psalm 42, 43, I get it.
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But if it's a demanding, why is this happening? Why do bad things happen to good people?
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God, you're wise, you're strong, you're loving, and it's still happening. Why? I would like an answer,
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God. Margaret Clarkson said, we may not demand of a sovereign
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Creator that He explain Himself to His creatures. God had good and sufficient reasons for His actions.
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We can trust in His sovereign wisdom and love. That's why it's so important to read the Bible. I see
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God's sovereign hand here. I don't see it in my life, but I'm going to walk by faith. He's faithful.
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So instead of asking why, why don't you ask who? Who? This is God we're talking about, and He is the one with steadfast love and has granted to me every blessing in the heavenly places.
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And He gives me rest for my soul, then He's going to give me rest for everything else. Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we are thankful this morning that You're a God who reigns. Thankful this afternoon, a
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God who rules. Never sleep nor slumber. I'm thankful that even though, just thinking about the people in this room represented, 100 different issues swirling around, every one of them are as about to.
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And then times that, times how many people are on this earth and You're sovereign over every one of them, causing things to work this way or that way, to yield
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Yourself glory. I pray that Bethlehem Bible Church, by Your Spirit's power, would follow the apostles and the disciples who said, increase our faith.
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We know You're faithful. Forgive us for our unbelief. And Father, focus our attention to Jesus Christ, the one who fully committed
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Himself to You and trusted You. Thank You for such a great representative in Jesus' name.