Refuge Under His Wings (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio, with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

Preaching Classes, Ruth, and Learning to Finish Well

I've had the privilege to teach preaching classes in Europe and here in America. The last couple of weekends I've been teaching at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Northborough on Friday nights and then all day 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 I go like this, that means land the plane.

It's time to finish, time to conclude. 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. Since I've been in the book of Ruth, and working through it, it's like I never want to see this.

I want this to be, go five more minutes. Go ten more minutes. What will happen next? Who is this God, the God of Ruth, and why was it written? Written with so many purposes, but one is so that you see this God and you say, by the grace of God, that's my God.

He's to be trusted, He provides, He protects both spiritually and temporally. What a great Savior. Oh what a Savior, oh what a friend. Let's turn our 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.

Trusting God in Untrustworthy Times

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.

And Ruth is going to bellow out, you can trust in this great God. Walk by faith and not by sight. 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.

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. Okay? Talk with friends, co-workers and family members. If you're worried, how do you get through worry?

Here's an option online, express your fears in writing. Free floating ideas have a tendency to take on a life of their own. Writing about vague fears makes us pin them down. Make a contribution, volunteer.

Keep your routine as normal as possible. But there's one I actually really like if you're worried and caught up in fear. Find trustworthy sources for information. That's exactly what Ruth is. A trustworthy source of information to help us to think properly about God.

Trusting God in untrustworthy times. Having strong faith in a faithful God when the world's unfaithful. Seeing God as your refuge and strength, protector. Charles Spurgeon said, There's only one creature that God has made that ever doubts him.

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. The very cattle trust God, and even in days of drought, you have seen them when they pant for thirst, how they expect water.

The angels never doubt him. Devils do not doubt him, they believe and tremble. 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 God is in light of our circumstances.

Very, very powerful section of Ruth. 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.

This great God of Ruth, the God of Boaz, who takes the famine and then makes things flourish. I'd like to ask you this question as we start. Can you believe God too much? Can you trust God too much? Can you out-believe God, as one man asks?

Ruth is going to help you realize that the object of your faith, God, is worthy of that very trust. 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.

Ruth could trust Boaz to provide and protect, and you're able to trust Yahweh to provide and protect. Let's take a look at verses 8 -11 as I read them in review, as we work toward our verses this morning, verses 12 -16.

Boaz’s Protection, Provision, and Prayer for Ruth

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. Stay in my field, keep close to my young women. It's dangerous out there, I want to protect you.

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? 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.

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, 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, word travels fast in Bethlehem, since the death of your husband, you believed in this great covenant keeping 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 God, by the way, and came to a people that you did not know before. And now Boaz prays for Ruth.

I can protect you so far, I can provide for you so far, but now I'm going to ask God's blessing for extra kindness, extra love, spiritual protection. Who can give you full reward for your faith in Christ Jesus?

Who can give you everything you need? I can't, so let me pray to God. Now, P .S., Boaz is going to be the answer to her prayer. 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 I be the one to help bless that other person?

And Ruth 2 .12 shows the prayer of Boaz, the Lord Yahweh, this covenant-keeping God who redeems sinners like Naomi, like Boaz, like Ruth. 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, and a full reward be given to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, no longer the God of Moab, Chemosh.

The Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. God bless Ruth. You've given her the greatest gift, we could say. Won't you give her the smaller gifts? 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.

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. God helps those that help themselves. God doesn't graciously give, He gives in response to.

The idea here is shalom, if you were to study the Hebrew. The idea is wholeness. The idea is, God started a good work in you, and He'll be what to complete it. I just want to start singing along with Steve Green.

I played it for the kids this morning, they're like, He who began a good work in you, will be faithful to complete it. He'll be faithful to complete it. Okay, I better stop right there. My kids are like, Steve Green, I wanted to brag, I ride bicycles with Steve Green.

But anyway, they didn't care. God started this work in you, He's converted you, He's regenerated you. He's given you new life. He used to bow down to worship a baby-killing 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. He's going to finish the work that He started. That's the idea. The idea is this, if I could use New Testament terminology. He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?

He saved you, He gives you the greatest gift, Christ Jesus, the representative Savior who died on the cross and was raised from the dead. Won't He take care of your other needs, your lesser needs? 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. He's blessed you with the best, He'll bless you with the rest. God bless her. And He calls on Yahweh to do it. Finish the work, God. The God of Israel.

What a great prayer. And look at what it says there. Under whose wings you have come to take refuge. What do you mean under whose wings? If I was a little kid, I'd go, God has wings. What do you mean?

I thought 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. But more often than not, it's a metaphor, it's a picture of protection.

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.

That's the idea. You've come to place yourself under Yahweh's care, and He protects, like a wing to protect. It's gentle, it's nurturing, it's kind, it's sweet, it's wonderful. Boaz prays, I could protect you so far, I entrust you to the care of Yahweh.

Ruth, you're a believer. God just doesn't justify you, He sanctifies you, and He glorifies you, if I want to use New Testament language. The mother bird protecting her defenseless young. Now, when 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. And then you see how many of you can get in a line before that first one wakes up. I'm from Omaha. 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.

He gives you more than eternal life. He gives you everything else, all the provision that goes along with it. Now, sometimes this wing language is used like when God rescued Israel out of Egypt, like with an eagle's wing.

There's an eaglet 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 eaglet to rescue them on their wings. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.

Exodus 19. But this isn't carrying on eagles' wings. This is covering and protecting. 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 God who protects even more.

Spurgeon said, He shall cover you with thy feathers, and under His wings you shall trust. 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 Yahweh? Does the Lord speak of His feathers as though He's likened Himself to a bird? Who will not see herein a matchless love, a divine tenderness, which should both woo and win our confidence?

We're going to sing a song to close the service, and here are some lyrics to that song. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation. O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation.

All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near. Praise Him in glad adoration. Now listen to stanza two. Praise to the Lord, who over all things so wondrously reigneth, shelters thee under His wings, yet so gently sustaineth.

O as praise God will protect you. God watches over His children. Doesn't Jesus talk this way too? O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.

And you, leaders, weren't willing for me to do that. For the Christian, it's the same thing. When you trust in the triune God, of course He redeems you. You have forgiveness of sins, to use Ephesians 1 .7 language.

We have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. Of course, He seals you to the day of redemption. The Spirit of God is your guarantee of your inheritance. 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 God? Can you out-trust this God? Under whose wings, see the text, you have come to take refuge. Insecure world, refuge in Christ. I'm helpless, but I'm protected by Christ.

Taking Refuge in God: Psalm 2’s Five Commands

The blessings of taking refuge in God. Would you turn with me to Psalm chapter 2, please, quickly? 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.

If God has called you and redeemed you and placed you in Christ Jesus, you are blessed. You are a blessed person. And if you're not in Christ Jesus, then these five commands will, by the Spirit's power, penetrate your heart.

Psalm chapter 2. 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 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.

What would you say to the king that was going to kill you? Now therefore, verse 10, Psalm 2, 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.

And the psalmist says, now therefore. He's going to call people to believe in this God. If you're not a Christian, here's my call to salvation for you. Here's the summons. Now is the time. Not tomorrow.

Today might be the last day that you're alive. 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? 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. Is there a higher folly to stiff-armed God and His Son? First, be wise.

Show discernment. Think for a second. Just stop for a moment in your busy life and say, I'm going to die one day. I've had several deaths in our church family in the last week or two. And one day that'll be me, and I'll stand before God, and then what?

It's time to act foolish no longer. It's time to act sinful no longer. I better think through this. I better consider my ways. Secondly, be warned. Take warning. Be warned, O rulers of the earth, and anyone else as well.

Be warned. These are imperatives. Here's what it literally means. Let yourself be corrected. I had this view about life, and I just thought if I was baptized as a baby, I'm going to go to heaven. If I'm just good, 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 savior, as a sin bearer, as the Lamb of God. If you could get to heaven by being good, how masochistic was 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. The cause of salvation is God's sovereign, distinguishing mercy.

The instrument is non-saving faith, and the ground is 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 Lord with fear.

Worship Yahweh with reverence. Such a great God. You ought to stand in awe of this God. That's what we say to unbelievers. I say to you if you're an unbeliever, stand in awe of this God. Look at this, rejoice, number four, with trembling.

It's another imperative. Rejoice, exult with trembling. And then number five, kiss the Son. Lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. 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 Pope's ring? You're showing him allegiance. Give the Son allegiance. He doesn't even use the Hebrew word for Son. It's the Hebrew Bible, but it's Aramaic.

This is to the Gentiles. This is to the nations. This is to the world. Everyone needs to bow and kiss the Son with allegiance and worship and loyalty. Haven't you kissed the calves of Egypt long enough?

Haven't you kissed sex and money and power and fame and everything else, entertainment, long enough? 1 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 him.

Submit to Christ Jesus. Instead of kicking the Son, kiss him. Instead of disregarding the Son, worship him. Sooner or later you will anyway, therefore also God highly exalted him and bestowed on Jesus the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus what?

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 Lord to the glory of God the Father.

His wrath may soon be kindled. Stop playing around. But now comes the benediction. I think of Ruth when I think about her kissing the Son instead of Chumash. I think about you 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. ESV doesn't do it justice but I'll read it to start. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. NAS translates it a little bit better.

Are you ready? How blessed! 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.

Isn't Jesus good? Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the 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.

I said if you don't stand in the pulpit next Saturday with your arms out like this or full wingspan with elbows locked and smile at the congregation and go, Jesus is Lord, salvation full and free, something good with a smile.

I'm going to dock you five points. He's like, really? Alright, you're giving me lip? Ten points. 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 him, you put yourself underneath the shadow of his wings and you take refuge in him.

Guess what? Blessing! How blessed! That's the idea. No doubt about it. Not blessed but how blessed. You have a prophet, priest and king. You're blessed. Ruth used to go worship this other God and what did it get you?

Famine, death, barrenness. And God converted you. He saved you by his grace and you in fact believed and repented. And now God has flooded you with blessings. Some spiritual, yes. Some physical, yes. But blessings nonetheless.

Think about what you deserve. Think about what I deserve. What do we deserve and what do we get? The blessings of God.

We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.