Signs, Wonders Or Quiet Providence? - [Ruth 2:1-7]

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

2 views

0 comments

00:00
Well, I have a confession to make this morning. If I were to tell you that I was going to put together a men's
00:08
Bible study, a lot of men getting together, learning the deep truths of God, kind of act like men, be men of boldness and courage, let's have a men's
00:20
Bible study. What would you think of me if I announced it, we're going to get together and study the book of Ruth together?
00:28
It shouldn't be weird, but for a long time it was weird to me. Why would
00:33
I get together and study Ruth? Why Esther? That's like having a bunch of teenagers getting together to study
00:39
Song of Solomon or something. I mean, it just doesn't go together. But I think the very next
00:45
Bible study I have with men, we're going to study the book of Ruth, because this is such a great book for men, for women, and for everyone else.
00:54
Why don't we turn our Bibles to this precious book called Ruth, found in your Old Testament.
01:01
It's going to ask us, and we'll answer this morning, is
01:07
God near? Does God care? How do you know that God is involved in your life?
01:16
I mean, He's got a lot of other things to run in the universe. Doesn't He have more important people to govern than those in this room?
01:26
If I had some kind of machine, I don't have any machines here, but if this was a spiritual Geiger counter, and I would just put it over you to hear if there was any clicking going on, is
01:37
God sovereignly, providentially working in your life? I wonder if I would hear anything. And what's so good about the book of Ruth?
01:45
You think ordinary people, ordinary circumstances, and no signs, no wonders, no healings, no miracles, no raising from the dead.
01:59
How can God be involved in the lives of people unless He's doing something spectacularly?
02:06
When was the last time you saw someone be raised from the dead? When was the last time God gave you some sign?
02:12
The sun went blood red for you after you prayed for guidance, or you put out a fleece.
02:19
What I love about the book of Ruth is that God guides
02:25
His people then and now, that generation and ours, through quiet providence.
02:33
The quiet, providential working of God. Some say
02:38
God has to lead through signs and wonders and miracles. Expect a miracle.
02:45
And others say God works providentially, quietly, faithfully behind the scenes.
02:53
So I'm going to start coming up with my new slogan, Expect Providence. Because with the 1960s
03:01
Territon cigarette commercial, I'd rather fight than switch.
03:10
I'd rather fight than switch. Ruth is so spectacular because God is leading,
03:16
God is guiding, God does care for His people. And if God has given you the greatest gift, free grace found in Jesus' life, death, burial, you got freely sovereign grace, justification, redemption, reconciliation.
03:35
God made propitiation on your behalf. You have forgiveness. You also have the promise that when
03:43
He starts a work, He's going to be faithful to complete it. You also have the promise, He causes all things to work together for good.
03:50
And when you ask yourself the question, is God guiding me? Is God providentially overruling my sin, my frailties?
03:59
God, where are you? Bad things are happening. The book of Ruth is a good cure for the soul.
04:06
The trust in the sovereign God, because it's so obvious that He's quietly, yet providentially driving people from chapter 1, where there's a barren womb, a barren land, everything in the graves are anything but barren.
04:22
And at the end, what happens? David is born through Ruth and will eventually get the son of David, Jesus Christ.
04:31
God is always intervening, whether you see His hand, see the fruit of it or not.
04:38
And you don't need audible speaking. You don't need signs and wonders. You don't need spectacular events.
04:44
You need to see that God providentially works. And as one man says, Leon Morris, Ruth is a quiet story of ordinary people going about their quiet lives.
04:55
Sound familiar? Sounds familiar. Well, Ruth chapter 1 is almost the problem.
05:03
There's a problem. There's no food, barren wombs. What are these ladies, the widows, going to do?
05:08
And Ruth 2, where we're going to be this morning, gives us the solution. The solution to the problem of where are we going to find the man to take care of this widow?
05:20
Where are we going to find the one who's going to be the kinsman, excuse me, redeemer?
05:26
And as we read, as I told the seminary students yesterday, ask yourself this question, what don't
05:32
I see when I read the Scripture? And what I don't see is miracles. I don't see an axe head thrown in the river and the thing splits.
05:41
I don't see the Red Sea divided. I don't see someone raising a child from the dead.
05:48
Ordinary, providential guiding. So let's take a look at Ruth chapter 2 this morning, verses 1 through 7, as we see our immutable
05:58
God who guides us and leads us in the exact same way.
06:04
And then we'll talk about a few practical things. Let's take a look at chapter 2, verse 1, as Ruth is going to meet
06:10
Boaz. I have to tell you, just before we start, this is drama. You're going to see drama here.
06:16
And the way it's written, this is greatly written, superbly written.
06:22
It just has... Well, I'll just let it speak for itself. Chapter 2, verse 1. Now Naomi had a relative,
06:32
Ruth 2 .1, of her husband's. The narrator is giving us a heads up with many writings, not only in Old Testament narrative, but even in secular writings.
06:44
The characters talk, and occasionally you'll hear something from the author, from the narrator, from the one who's writing the story.
06:53
That's exactly what we have here. We're hearing from the narrator. And what the narrator is going to do is what you don't want to do if you play basketball and you're a point guard.
07:03
You don't want to telegraph the pass. So if I want to pass to you, I might look over here and then pass that way, right?
07:11
But I don't want to look at you and pass it because someone will certainly intercept it.
07:18
The author wants you to intercept this pass. Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech.
07:33
And now he's waiting to the very end. He doesn't want to tell his name till the end. Whose name was
07:40
Boaz. His name is withheld until the last second.
07:46
Now this relative isn't the word for kinsman, redeemer that we'll learn about later.
07:54
This just means relative or acquaintance. We don't know how close because the story is building.
08:00
We're going to learn later who this person is. If you look at chapter 2, verse 20, for instance,
08:06
Ruth 2 .20, the very end of the verse, it says again, Naomi said to her, the man is our relative.
08:13
We've learned that from verse 1. He is one of our closest relatives.
08:21
This man named Boaz. Boaz means strength. He's a man, what does the text say? Of valor, verse 1.
08:27
He's a man of integrity. You could translate that worthy man. You could translate that war hero.
08:33
Ever met a war hero? He's a man who's capable of high social standing.
08:38
He owns things. He has money. If you look at chapter 3, verse 11 of Ruth, this exact word is used of Ruth.
08:47
I will do all that you ask for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman, a woman of valor,
08:56
Ruth 3 .11. He, Boaz, is a mighty warrior, a valiant warrior.
09:02
You could translate it that way. If you were in medieval England, you would call him a what? A knight.
09:07
That's why some people have said Boaz is a knight in shining armor. Wait a second, something's happening here.
09:15
Chapter 1, the males are weak and now dead. What's going to happen? Especially in this society.
09:22
Especially what's going on. And especially knowing that there needs to be the line of David for it to continue.
09:29
We've got weak, dead males. Oh, now a different one comes onto the stage.
09:35
Maybe this is the helper of the widows. That's what the reader's thinking. This could be it. Heads up, maybe this is the one.
09:46
He's a kinsman of Elimelech. He's sturdy. He's strong.
09:52
He's got power. He can protect. Matter of fact, did you know this? In the temple of Solomon, 1
09:57
Kings 7 .21, there were two temples in the nave. One was
10:03
Jachin and the other one, it's name was, it's what you name a temple pillar.
10:09
What do you name a temple pillar? Boaz. Sturdy, strong.
10:20
Verse 2, And Ruth, the
10:26
Moabite, said to Naomi, Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight
10:34
I shall find favor. She said to her, Go, my daughter.
10:41
Don't forget, Ruth doesn't know about chapter 2, verse 1. We know, she doesn't know.
10:48
And so, most likely they arrive in Bethlehem and now you need food. And she says, I'm going to go after some food.
10:54
And if she lived today, here's what she would say. Listen, she'd say this, Naomi, for whatever reason, you can't go.
11:01
You're too bitter. You've got arthritis. You're too sick. You don't want to do. You're too this, that or the other.
11:07
But I'm going to go fend for us and I'm going to collect aluminum cans and cardboard and go get money for them.
11:15
That's what I'm going to go do. Because that's exactly what happened. Well, not exactly.
11:23
God had set it up in His mercy and in His grace and His compassion that if you had a field, you did exactly what business owners don't want you to do today if you work for them.
11:38
Cut corners. Don't cut the corners. Leave them for the poor.
11:44
Leave them for the needy. Leave them for the widow. So, don't cut all the corners.
11:49
Don't take the stalk with your left hand and the sickle in the right hand and cut it off and then gather it up.
11:57
Don't do that all the way to the corner. And also, if you drop something, just let it be on the ground for poor people.
12:04
And so, Ruth knew this. She'd obviously been taught this Mosaic Law from Naomi. And why don't
12:11
I go out into a field so I can glean? Let me go to the field. It was one singular big field and they would just have little markers, little stone markers to say, this guy owns that portion, this guy owns that portion, this guy owns that portion.
12:26
It was a field split up. And Ruth says, I'm going to go out and I'm making this announcement. I'm going to go take care of this.
12:32
Is that okay? Everything you read about Ruth is not, she had long pretty black hair, she had wonderful brown eyes, dark skin, beautiful.
12:48
Everything you read about Ruth is her inner beauty. And she's now going to go work. Listen to Leviticus 19 about how
12:55
God provides for needy people. Now, when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.
13:06
You shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the
13:12
Lord your God. Leviticus goes on to say, when you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor gather the gleaning of your harvest.
13:23
You are to leave them for the needy and the alien. Now, not everybody did that.
13:31
Have you ever met a person who didn't obey all of God's Word? I guess they exist, right?
13:39
So, it's still risky. She's got to go out there and she's got to provide in this man's world.
13:45
And she's going to go get the leftovers. And I just hope I can find the right portion of a field where there's going to be a man who's kind to me and will let this happen.
13:57
Everybody should let it happen, but not everybody's going to treat a Moabite especially well.
14:02
And Naomi says at the end of verse 2, Go, my daughter. Go take advantage of God's provision,
14:09
His abundant blessing. Go take care of it. Side note, I won't belabor the point, but I will say it.
14:14
This is God's built -in welfare system through work. God takes care of people in a welfare -type system through their work.
14:28
I won't make any other comment on that. But it's true. So, verse 3.
14:40
This is meant to be very dramatic. I'm going to read it slowly because it's back -loaded.
14:50
So, remember Ruth doesn't know chapter 2, verse 1.
14:56
She doesn't know Boaz exists. She doesn't know the people. She doesn't know the land. She doesn't know the field. So, she set out, went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz.
15:20
And didn't he just tell us earlier the author in verse 1 who was of the clan of Elimelech?
15:27
That is so important. It's in verse 1. It's verse 2 as well, from the clan of Elimelech. There's going to be this near kinsmen redeemer we're going to learn about soon enough.
15:36
Now, if you know me well, here's what you know about me. When we're talking behind the scenes or over here or over there, and you say, boy,
15:43
I just got a lucky break at work and got a promotion. And I'll always say, pardon me?
15:49
I just got a lucky break at work and I got a promotion. Because you know my hearing is going, but you also quickly come to find out, oh yeah,
15:57
I don't say luck around the guy because he's just going to jab me. I mean, what does luck do?
16:04
Luck is like evolution. It robs God of blessing. Evolution robs God of the praise of He created everything well with a word.
16:13
And what luck does is it robs God of quietly and providentially and sovereignly ruling over everything.
16:21
But once in a while, if someone says something, I might say, boy, that sure was lucky.
16:27
And then you know what they do? They do what I would do to a pastor who had been doing that to me. Oh, you just said luck?
16:34
I say, wait a second. I never do anything wrong. It's my show here. No, I say,
16:40
I was saying it ironically with satire for a rhetorical effect, for hyperbolic rhetoric.
16:54
My point is when I say that, I'm trying to say instead,
17:00
God is sovereign. And I'm going to use language of something to really mean the opposite.
17:05
And that's exactly what Ruth does here. The writer Samuel most likely, the human writer, literally says in Hebrew, look at v.
17:13
3 tucked right in the middle, ESV says she happened to come. Hebrew is her chance chanced as luck would have it.
17:31
This is the writer with a bull horn, with a mega horn. See God leading? See God guiding?
17:40
It doesn't really look like it. If you look and you walk by sight and not by faith, dead wombs, dead sons, but wait,
17:56
God is sovereign. I found a few different translations of this verse.
18:03
I'll just read them so you get the point. Now it happened that she ended up in the part of the field that belonged to Boaz.
18:10
It just so happened that the field belonged to Boaz. Chance led her to a plot of land belonging to Boaz.
18:18
And as the Tanakh, the Jewish translation says, as luck would have it, it was the piece of land belonging to Boaz.
18:29
Kind of a coinkydink, don't you think? The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the
18:38
Lord. We should know that even reading chapter 1 five, six, seven times,
18:45
Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, the personal name of God who is a covenant -keeping, faithful, compassionate
18:54
God whose overall, rules overall, and doesn't just create, but creates and sustains.
19:01
Chance? Laughable. Whose field is it?
19:09
Boaz's. And he's of the clan of the right person. Ray Pritchard said he has a friend who loves to say this slogan.
19:24
I might have to steal it. God is too sovereign to be lucky. God's sovereign to be lucky.
19:31
Now, before we go farther, if John Stott was here, he'd say, preaching is between two worlds.
19:38
The world of the Bible here in Ruth in the days of judges, everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes, no resolution until God's man comes on the stage, his name is
19:48
Boaz. But the other world is your world. Bethlehem Bible Church's world.
19:56
This immutable God who doesn't change is the same God who sovereignly worked out at the right time
20:03
Christ's death and crucifixion, resurrection. But is God just as sovereign over Ruth's life as He is your life?
20:13
That's the thing. Just think about big events in your life. Go back and go, okay, how do you...
20:20
I mean, when I was younger, I'd think, how could I ever meet my wife? How did Dad and Mom meet? What's going on? Will I ever get married?
20:25
Would anybody ever love me? Where do you go? What do you do? How do you find a wife? And as luck would have it,
20:32
Kim showed up at my door, stalking me and stuff like that. I'm not kidding you.
20:44
I don't want to be the star of the sermon. That's not my point. But I'm just trying to give you an illustration of my life. I move into this apartment.
20:51
I see the vacuum cleaner there. I never vacuum. I'm a single bachelor living in Los Angeles.
20:56
I asked the landlord. The last people left the vacuum cleaner. And he said, well, if they come back, just give it to them.
21:03
Otherwise, you could have it. Days go by. Weeks go by. Months go by. It wasn't years, but it probably could have been.
21:10
I get the knock on the door. Hi, my name is Kim. And I just moved in across the street. And our mutual friend who lives above you said you had a vacuum cleaner.
21:21
I'm like, I wasn't even a believer then, but I'm like, dear God made this vacuum cleaner work. Yeah, I think
21:27
I do. As luck would have it. It's 1996.
21:33
I'd like to be a pastor someplace. I think I was the last person in my graduating class at Master's Seminary to get a job in ministry.
21:40
And you're all like, well, we know why. God can use a donkey.
21:48
And I get this list of churches who are looking for pastors. Sent them out.
21:55
As luck would have it. Bethlehem Bible Church responds. Not just in big things, but in small things as well.
22:04
The point is, if you look with your eyes, they're going to fool you. Read the book of Ruth and say,
22:10
God is sovereign over everything in my life. Of course they're responsible. Ruth was responsible to go.
22:17
That's why if somebody says, well, I'm unemployed, what do I do? Well, go out and work for Home Depot. Go out and work for someplace because you know
22:24
God's sovereign, so get to work. Ruth's like, okay, I've got to go out and work. And look at what's happening.
22:32
The world of Ruth, God's sovereign. And your world, God is sovereign. Verse 4.
22:40
Well, I told the Seminary students that I was teaching yesterday, don't be a comedian.
22:46
Don't tell jokes. Maybe once a year, then you repent and move on. So here's my once a year. I'm going to use it early. Cowboy applied for health insurance.
22:55
The agent said, do you regularly have accidents? And have you had any in the previous year?
23:02
No, said the cowboy. But I was bitten by a rattlesnake and a horse kicked me in the ribs.
23:08
That laid me up for a while. The agent said, weren't those accidents? No, replied the cowboy.
23:15
They did it on purpose. All right. Verse 4.
23:25
Here's another marker. Here's another. Stand up and take notice.
23:32
And behold. The point there is, when behold is used any place, you should pay attention, but especially in Ruth.
23:43
Chapter 3, verse 8. At midnight, the man was startled and turned over. And behold, a woman laid his feet.
23:52
Ruth chapter 4, verse 1. Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the
23:58
Redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by. Behold means pay attention.
24:04
God's sovereign over all these issues. Listen up. Heads up. You just heard my football coach.
24:11
Heads up. Behold. Pay attention.
24:18
Guess who's coming to dinner? Boaz came from Bethlehem. Now wait a second.
24:25
First of all, you've got this huge field. She stumbles upon the part of the field that he owns.
24:33
She's been working all day. We're going to find out in a minute. And when she's basically leaving or resting, he shows up.
24:42
And Boaz said to the reapers, what do you say to your workers after you haven't seen them for a while? What does
24:47
Boaz say? Maybe the taskmaster boss you have says something like, you know, how's output?
24:56
What's your quota? What you running? What you doing? Why you loafing? Here's what Boaz says.
25:03
Yahweh or the Lord be with you. What a nice way to greet your employees.
25:09
Would you like to be greeted that way tomorrow morning when you show up at work? May Yahweh greet you.
25:15
And have him mean it. Well, if you treat people like that, they respond a certain way.
25:21
And how do they respond? Here's how the workers responded. The Lord bless you. The Lord bless you.
25:31
Behold, God is sovereign over all these things. And now Boaz, compassionate, godly, maybe he's the answer to these barren wombs and the barren land and anything but barren tombs.
25:48
And again, ultimately, when you telescope back a little bit, the reader of the Bible knows there's going to be a
25:55
Messiah who's going to come, a great Redeemer. They see the corporate redemption of God taking a nation through the
26:03
Red Sea and out of Egypt. But what's the personal aspect of Jesus the
26:09
Messiah? What does a Messiah look like? What does a Redeemer look like? Do you know what?
26:14
He looks like Boaz. The Lord be with you.
26:23
The Lord bless you. I've worked in a lot of fields in Nebraska.
26:29
I never really heard that one time. Maybe this is the one. Then, verse 5,
26:37
Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, your break's too long.
26:47
Get back to work. You're loafing. He said to the man who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this?
26:57
You'd think he'd check on the work, check on the production, see what's going on. Who is this? She must belong to someone.
27:05
Hey, supervisor, who's this young lady? Where does she fit in?
27:14
What the writer is trying to do is create suspense for you. Yeah, who is she? He doesn't know.
27:20
You know. He doesn't know. The narrator withholds information.
27:28
And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, she is the young Moabite. Remember the cave?
27:37
Who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. Where else do
27:43
Moabites come from? I just learned the other day that if you're from Utah, what are you known as?
27:50
A Utahn. I didn't know that. By the way, a side note,
27:56
I did learn that Utah, 92 % white, doesn't matter, 62 %
28:07
Mormon, and some of the highest rates of what we would call mental illnesses in all the
28:18
United States. The side note there is you put people under law without the grace of Christ Jesus, and you're going to have a mental illness.
28:26
You bet your life you will. But people from Utah are called Utahns. People from Moabite are called what?
28:35
Moabites, as if you're a woman. Why does he say it twice? You know the answer. She's from Moab.
28:46
There's a little flashback here as the foreman speaks, recalling an earlier conversation. She said, now remember this is the foreman talking to Boaz about what
28:57
Ruth said earlier. She said, pretty boldly
29:03
I might add, for a foreigner, for a woman, risking a lot, please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.
29:11
Let me take some of the stuff that they dropped. Let me pick some of the stuff up from the corner. Could I please do that?
29:17
So she came. Man, she's a hard worker. She has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.
29:28
And you showed up. She asked for permission. She's a hard worker.
29:34
Basically moved in here. Godly, he could have said.
29:46
So as I think about this, I think about Ruth going to meet Boaz, the redeemer.
29:53
I think of this. Charles Spurgeon said, when Ruth went to glean in the fields of Boaz, it was the most gracious circumstance in her life that Boaz turned out to be her next of kin.
30:07
Temporally speaking, that's the greatest thing that ever happened to her. And then he turns it, does
30:13
Spurgeon. And we who have gleaned in the fields of mercy praise the
30:20
Lord that His only begotten Son is the next of kin to us, our brother.
30:26
Now you just trace back your testimony. How awesome is God that just by luck you had that praying grandmother.
30:35
Just by chance, that open ear preacher said, repent or perish, Jesus Christ is the only
30:41
Savior. By serendipity, you met an evangelical friend and said, you think your baptism is going to save you?
30:51
Friend, you're deluded. And remember, you got mad and then all these other things. You just look at your life.
30:57
Could there be a better providence than God perfectly working to have you hear the general call before He gave you the effectual call and made you alive?
31:08
Every one of us would stand up and say, do you know what? Given that microphone, this is how God sovereignly orchestrated my salvation.
31:18
No greater spiritual mercy than that. And He did it through a man.
31:25
Man sinned in the garden. Man had to undo the sin. Well, how does that work if we're all fallen?
31:35
The representative man fell. There has to be another representative man to earn what we lost.
31:41
And that representative man is named Jesus Christ. That is why
31:47
Wayne Grudem rightfully says, regarding the incarnation, it is by far the most amazing miracle in the whole
31:57
Bible. Far more amazing than the resurrection and more amazing than the creation of the universe.
32:05
The fact that the infinite, omnipotent, eternal Son of God could become man and join
32:12
Himself to human nature forever so that infinite God became one person with infinite man will remain for eternity the most profound miracle and the most profound mystery in all the universe.
32:29
God sovereignly orchestrated the whole thing. John Howe the Puritan said, the wrong that man had done to divine majesty should be expiated by none but man and could be by none but God.
32:44
George Whitefield, Jesus was God and man in one person that God and man might be happy together.
32:53
No wonder. Romans 8 says, for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending
33:01
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. This great
33:06
Redeemer Boaz, the near kinsman, right now we only know Him as a relative but soon we're going to see
33:12
Him as this great Redeemer kinsman. And we need a
33:17
Savior who's our representative. Pilgrim's Progress, if you haven't read it you should.
33:23
Here's what faith said, but good brother hear me out. So soon as the man
33:30
Moses and the law overtook me, he was but a word and a blow for the law knocked me down and laid me dead.
33:40
The law struck me another deadly blow on the breast and beat me backward.
33:46
So I laid at his foot as dead as before. So when I came to myself again, I cried him mercy.
33:51
But he, the law said, I know not how to show mercy. And with that he knocked me down again.
33:58
He had doubtless made an end of me. But that one came by and bid him forbear.
34:07
I did not know him at first, but as he went by, I perceived the holes in his hands and in his side.
34:16
Then I concluded that he was our Lord. God has to be a man.
34:25
He has to be the near kinsman. Congregation, may I also encourage you not to seek after signs and wonders but to revel in God's sure, quiet providence.
34:38
Don't be a sign seeker. Actually, 1 Corinthians 1 says that's not a good thing. I just need a sign.
34:46
God is intervening even if you don't see signs and wonders. Some would say, you know what, you've got an absentee
34:54
God, you've got a deistic God, and He's not doing all these signs and wonders. I don't think that's true at all.
35:01
I think providence answers that question.
35:06
He's personally present, constantly present, infallibly present, exhaustively present through providence guiding.
35:19
Phil Johnson chronicles some folks who are after those who teach that signs and wonders were mainly done around apostolic times, at least the ones through people.
35:34
David Miller said in his article, God told me that the Bible does not teach the cessation of these signs and wonders through spiritually gifted men.
35:45
He said, I think that some in the cessationist movement have adopted what I call biblical deism.
35:51
Deism believed in an impersonal God, one who created the world then stood back and let it operate according to certain principles.
35:58
Biblical deism creates a somewhat impersonal God today. He does not walk with me and He does not talk with me.
36:07
But when you read Ruth, you say God is involved, and there's no spectacular miracles. Darren Sumner, PhD from Aberdeen, teaches at Fuller said in an article entitled,
36:19
I'll just read the title of the article, you get it, Can Cessationism be Christian? Mark Driscoll said,
36:27
Cessationism is worldliness, and he is making it akin to atheism and deism.
36:34
But the common denominator of every one of those men is, they have a faulty view of God's quiet, providential working.
36:43
Appreciating the eminence of God, His closeness. So you say, okay Mike, that's fine, but I've been living my life through Gideon fleeces for decision making, what do
36:54
I do now? How do I make decisions? God opened this door, God closed that door, God put the water on the fleece, off the fleece, what do
37:01
I do? How do I live my life knowing that God is providential, guiding, providentially guiding me?
37:08
What's the answer? Someone would come to you and they'd say, I have a huge decision to make, how do
37:14
I make the decision? What do you tell them? What do you say?
37:20
Let me just give you my paradigm for decision making and we've got to wrap this up. Super simple.
37:26
What does the word say? What does wisdom say? What do you wish to do? In that order.
37:32
Word, wisdom, desire. Scripture, wisdom, and what you desire to do.
37:41
So you'll say, what does the Bible say about the decision? Well, it says, don't do this or do that, okay, now
37:47
I know what to do. What if the Bible doesn't say anything about it? What if the
37:52
Bible doesn't tell me exactly? Well, let's find wisdom. If I were to ask you how to get wisdom, where should you go to get wisdom?
38:04
It'd be easier if there was some sign, or wonder, or miracle, but if that's not coming, then what do
38:10
I do? How do I get wisdom? It can't be bought, Job says, and I need it.
38:17
By the way, one of my favorite verses is Proverbs 4, 7. I almost like to tell this to kids. The beginning of wisdom is, get wisdom.
38:26
Thanks, Dad. Solomon wrote it. The beginning of wisdom is acquire wisdom.
38:31
Okay, how do I get it? Two -fold way to get it. James 1, 5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should what?
38:40
Ask God. Ask God for wisdom. It doesn't say, ask God for some sign, close the door, do this, do that.
38:47
Well, if you just say, this door's shut, doesn't that mean something? Well, maybe, but I can't read
38:53
Providence. Maybe that shut door means, kick it down. I don't know. I've got to go back to the
38:59
Word, and then back to wisdom. Lord, please give me wisdom. And you've said in your Word, that if I ask with faith, you'll generously and liberally give me faith.
39:12
It isn't with duplicity give wisdom. And then the other way you get wisdom is, you ask other people.
39:20
Ask godly people. I'll just give you a few verses. Proverbs 12, 15, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel.
39:31
Proverbs 15, 22, without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed.
39:38
Heads up congregation, when you want wisdom, make sure you don't do this thing, that we all fall short, and often do.
39:45
Let's see, who's going to give me the advice that I want to hear? I'll go to them. How about this, since God is sovereign, you have to make a decision.
39:53
You've read the Bible, you've soaked yourself with the Word, you've saturated your mind with the Bible, you're trying to think about things theologically now, from God's perspective, what
40:01
His glory is, what His will is, versus His will for my life. I'm going to ask for wisdom, and then pick somebody who you know is going to give you the advice you don't want.
40:12
That's what I would do if I were you. Because God's providentially sovereign anyway. You're not looking for yes people,
40:18
I need wisdom. I'm dumb in this area, I'm not smart, I'm living in myself,
40:24
I trust myself, I can't get out of myself, help me. Proverbs 27, 9, a man's counsel is sweet to his friend.
40:33
And friends, remember, when you go ask that person for advice and they don't tell you what you want to hear, be nice to them.
40:40
You ask them. A while ago I gave some advice to someone and they got mad at me that I gave them the answer.
40:46
But you know, here's the sweet thing about it, four months later they came back and said, that was the right thing to tell me. Thank you.
40:54
I was glad for that. You seek out mature people and ask them. You don't look around and say, okay
41:00
God, I need to know whether to go get that new job today and if it's over 13 .5 degrees today,
41:06
I know that's a sign, I'll go do it. I mean, we've all done things like that. Trying to just find a word from God in the
41:13
Bible. Let's just try it for once and see what happens. I'm just going to try it, it's not made up. For though your people of Israel will be as a sand as a sea, only a remnant of them will return.
41:23
Is that for my tax deductions or what? Tax income? I only get a remnant of return. It's a sign.
41:28
So, what does the word say? That wasn't in the first sermon. I had a different verse for that.
41:36
Ask wisdom from God, ask wisdom from other people, and then now here is the punchline.
41:45
The third one, W, is do what you want. Do what you wish.
41:51
Do what you'd like. Turn to Psalm chapter 37. Of course we've looked at the scriptures, we've asked
41:57
God, we've asked others for wisdom. And now we have to make a decision. Ruth had to go out.
42:04
And here I just love this verse. What a great father we have.
42:10
What a providentially wonderful Lord we serve. When your mind is filled with Scripture, when your hearts are renewed with the word of God, when you've asked
42:23
God for wisdom, found wisdom from other people, then you've got to make a decision. Just go ahead and make the decision.
42:28
Not presumptuously, where I'll just go do this and test God. But knowing if I even mess up the mistake,
42:35
God cares for me and will work it out. Delight yourself in Yahweh the
42:41
Lord. And what? He will give you the desires of your heart. Since you've been walking by the
42:47
Spirit and you're in Christ, the desires you have often and regularly are the desires
42:52
He's given you. So go make a decision. You don't need a sign.
43:00
Gary Friesen said, does the wise father guide his child by formulating a plan that covers every detail of the child's life and then revealing that plan step by step as each decision must be made?
43:14
Of course not. The father who is truly wise teaches his children the basic principles of life.
43:20
He teaches what is right and wrong, what is wise over against what is foolish. He then seeks to train the child to make his own decisions, making proper use of those correct guidelines.
43:33
Such a father is overjoyed when he knows that the child has matured to the point where he is able to function independently as an adult, making wise decisions on the basis of principles learned in his youth.
43:49
The grown -up son or daughter is thereby prepared to live in the real world and make responsible choices with respect to mate, vocation, and other decisions of life.
44:02
If you hanker after signs and wonders, I believe God does supernatural things.
44:10
But I don't think he gifts people anymore with the gift of miracles like he did in the New Testament.
44:16
So how do I make a decision? How do I plan my life? Simple. God, I know you're providentially working.
44:23
I'm going to be in the Word. Ask wisdom from above. Ask wisdom from other people. And then, with John Calvin, love
44:30
God and do what you please. What pleases you? Love God and do what you please.
44:40
Just for a split second. I want to end there. That's the end. But if God wasn't sovereign, what
44:47
Calvin said would be blasphemous. But since God is sovereign, we can look at Psalm 37 and say, delight yourself in the
44:56
Lord, and He'll give you the desires of your heart. Go delight yourself in the Lord this week. You don't need one sign.
45:04
You need to read the book of Ruth to say that's the God who saved me and has allowed me to serve
45:11
Him. Alright, let's pray. Father in Heaven, we thank You so much that the burden for displays, clouds turning to blood, or moons turning to blood, or supernatural miracles, don't tell us that You exist today and or sustain the universe.
45:37
Your Word tells us that. So Father, help us to just rely on You. Help us to make good decisions.
45:46
And when You give us a burden, Father, help us then to move forward with that. I think of George Mueller, burden for the orphans.
45:53
You never told him to do that. He never heard Your soft, still voice. He never saw a miracle.
45:58
He just had a burden for orphans. And it was a biblical burden. He asked
46:04
You for wisdom, and other people said it was a good idea as well. And then he establishes one orphanage after another, delighting himself in You.
46:15
Father, may You do that here at Bethlehem Bible Church. In Jesus' name,