Ruth 1:6

Good News From Home

I. Introduction

A. In our previous study we discovered the first thing God used to prepare her to come home.

1. You remember it was adversity that softened her heart.
2. The loss of her husband and her children was preparing her to go back to the place of God's blessing and joy.

B. The things that happen to us should be the means by which we look within to determine our relationship with the Lord.

II. A Second Thing Happened

A. God used a second thing to bring Naomi back to Bethlehem, it was news of revival back home.

1. She heard in Moab that God had visited his people in giving them bread.
2. The famine had vanished, the fields were full of grain and the people were rejoicing.
3. What a picture of revival that is.

a. It could only mean that some folks back home had been repenting of sin,
b. Maybe some prophets had preached and the people responded and God now was healing their land.
c. Such news coming to Naomi in her need and misery would cause her heart to turn toward home.
d. It was so with the prodigal son in the N.T.
e. He remembered how his father's servants had bread enough and even some to spare. The rememberance of that was enough to turn him back home.

B. Under the influences of God's discipline and with the news of revival back home, Naomi repented of ever having left Bethlehem in the first place.

1. This is abundantly clear by her statements
2. Notice how she expressed her feelings: "the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me;" and in another, "the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me." There is no spirit of complaining about these words, just a gracious, humble recognition that she had been suffering under the hand of God and that she had learnt her lesson.
3. The way of repentance is the way back to God and to blessing.

a. Repentance is justifying God, it is the recognition that we are suffering under His hand and that He has been right in afflicting us.
b. It means we take the blame for the situation and rest on the goodness and grace of God to rescue us.

III. Naomi Returns to Nothing

A. We come now to the main part of Chapter I of Ruth.

1. Naomi came back to nothing.
2.She herself said; I went out full, the Lord hath brought me home empty.

a. She went out with her husband and two sons. She came home empty.
b. She left with some money - she came home empty
c. She left with a home and lands, she came back to find them grown over and the home decaying.
d. She didn't have any men left to work the farm.

3. That can be much like our own situation.

a. When we come back to God we come back with nothing.
b. Having stained ourselves with sin at guilt, how do we go about regaining peace.

4. Having messed things up what can we do to straighten them again.

a. The answer is, if only we will face it, is that we can do nothing.
b. We have limitless power to commit si, what giants we are in that realm, but we have no power to undo its effects once it is done.
c. We think if only we can become better christians that will make things right.

5. The moment I feel I have to become a little better to qualify, that moment I am defeated for I know its that becoming just a little better that defeats me.

a. Bill Gaither expresses it this way in one of his songs.

If there ever were dreams that were lofty and noble,
Those were my dreams at the start;
And the hopes for life's best were the hopes that I harboured,
Deep down in my heart;
But my dreams turned to ashes, my castles all crumbled,
My fortune turned to loss;
So I wrapped it all in the rags of my life,
And I laid it at the cross.

B. At that cross there is encouragement. Though Naomi returned empty, she did not remain empty.

1. That's what the story is all about - how the empty became full.
2. It was all because back home in Bethlehem there was one who was near kinsman.

a. Like Naomi, we don't have to remain empty for in coming back home to the Lord Jesus as an empty sinner, we become a candidate for the gracious provision of our kinsman redeemer.
b. As our kinsman redeemer, He has the right to redeem everything that stands against me.

IV. Ruth the Convert

A. There is one important matter in which Naomi differed from the prodigal son in the N.T.

1. When Naomi came back from the far country, she brought someone with her.
2. All too often when we get away from God we drag others down with us.

a. But it sometimes happens that when we repent and get right with God, others are induced to do the same and come back with us.
b. Ruth came home with her and actually embraced the Lord as a result of Naomi's repentance.

B. Perhaps up to her going back to Bethlehem and confessing her sin of ever leaving:; Ruth thought of Naomi's God as the good person's God.

1. For in Ruth's eyes, Naomi always seemed so good and able to stand adversity
2. Ruth asa poor gentile never felt herself to be like that, she felt as a Moabite she didn't qualify for such a God.

a. But the day saw her mother repenting and confessing her sin, Rufh began to see that Jehovah was the sinner's God.
b. He is the friend of sinners to quote the N.T.
c. This I suggest is what lay behind Ruth's choice.
d. Does this idea commend itself to you.

C. We want the world to see Jesus in us and we think the way to do it is for us to live before them an impeccable life.

1. But the impression we are giving to failing and sinning people is that He is the good person's God.
2. Since they feel they can't be as dedicated as we are than God can't be their God.

a. Our goodness does not draw sinners, sometimes it even discourages them and they feel that they don't quality.
b. In reality, none of us are impeccable Christians and if we allowed people to see our thoughts and the hidden portion of our lives, they would know the truth that Jesus is the God of sinners.
c. When people hear us giving a sinners testimony and sharing how God has been dealing with us and breaking us then they will feel drawn to our God.

3. It will dawn on them that He is not the good person's God at all, but He is the sinner's God and that He still receives sinners if they confess themselves so.
4. We help others more when we testify of His grace than we preach from a pedestal of righteousness.