Counting the Cost
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Text: Ruth 2:11-13
Did Anyone read the book of Ruth this week? During my studies the last few weeks the Lord has brought me to the book of Ruth. Through the study of the feet of Christ, I found myself here, and then earlier this week, when considering something that a friend asked me about I found myself here again.
I’d like to very quickly give you a rundown of the book of Ruth so that we can all be re-familiarized with the story before we dive in today. Ruth was a gentile women, she was a Moabite, which was a cursed people in the Old Testament. She finds herself in the midst of famine, and in the midst of this famine she hears from a far off about how the God from heaven had visited His people in Bethlehem and had given them bread. Upon hearing that news she leaves everything that she knows and holds dear behind, and she makes a b-line to be a partaker of that bread in Bethlehem. When she arrives in Bethlehem, she goes to work in a field, which is the harvest field of a man that just so happens to be her Jewish Kinsman Redeemer, who sees her in that field and takes her out of that field to be her husband and they lived happily ever after!
Now, the reason that I shared that story with you this morning is because that story is really incredible and not only because it is in the Bible and because it is historically accurate. But, the reason I shared this remarkable story this morning with you is because that story, is actually our story! Isn’t it amazing that we serve a God, that has it so together, that He can take history, and use it like an artist Who paints a picture, to help us understand a New Testament truth that is otherwise difficult to understand. Who like to read a chapter book of nothing but words? Who like to read books with a combination of words and some pictures? Who only likes to read picture books? What God does here for us is He states in the New Testament, truths and principles, but then in His infinite wisdom, He takes for instance here, the book of Ruth and uses it like a picture book. He takes both the principle and the picture and He places them side by side, that we might see and make those wonderful connections of truth!
So, what I gave you in that story was the picture, but now lets talk for a moment about the principle. You see, all of us were gentiles from a cursed race, we call it the human race, and all of the people in this room, at one time or another, found ourselves in a famine, in the midst of our souls, and somebody had the boldness to tell us, how the Lord had visited His people, and had given them bread in Bethlehem. My prayer here this morning is that we all responded to that news the same way, but let me tell you how I responded. When I heard that news, I left behind everything that I held dear, so that I could become a partaker of the bread of life. For those that are partakers of that bread, do you know what God has us doing right now? We are working in the harvest field of our Jewish Kinsman Redeemer in the city of Bethlehem, waiting for Him to take us out of that field and take us to His Fathers house and consecrate the marriage. Where we will forever live happily ever after with Him! What a God, that can record His word like that !
We are going to begin today, in Ruth 2. In order for us to pickup in Ruth chapter 2, it is vital that we make the connection that we just talked about, because in Ruth chapter 2 is a picture of how the church gets connected with their Kinsman Redeemer. In the Book of Ruth, Boaz is his name, and he is one of the greatest Old Testament types of the Lord Jesus Christ anywhere in the Scriptures. In order for us to really grasp our text this morning we have to dive just a little deeper into the story. If your a note take this morning, I really believe this will bless your heart, and if not, pay close attention so that you can grab these incredible truths from the word of God this morning!
I’d like us to consider the story this morning like links in a chain. To start out we will look at those beginning links which God uses to bring Ruth to Boaz in chapter 2.
First Link- Family Ruth 1:1 Now we talked big picture a few minutes ago, but to begin here this famine at this point, Ruth likely knows nothing about. She is in Moab, and these people to escape the famine come to Moab. I just want to say, that just because Ruth knew nothing about this famine, that didn’t change that fact, that God was going to use this famine, to complete change not only Ruth, but human history.
Second link - The famine Ruth 1:2. It is because of this famine that this Judaeo family from Bethlehem moves to Moab and shortly thereafter moves into Ruth’s life. What is amazing about this family, is that even though they had an absolute lack of faith and trust in God, and moved away from God, to a place that they had no business being in, there testimony would be used, however incredibly dim, as it was, to show Ruth Jehovah God! We see in verse 2 that this family was the family of Elimelech.
Elimelech and Naomi have two sons and they both marry women from Moab. Their names were Orpah, and Ruth.
Third link- Was a funeral, and actually there were three of them. One right after the other… First Elimelech dies, then his two sons take wives. Shortly after, both of the sons die. I am pretty certain that if you would have walked up to Ruth at that point in her life and said, isn’t is wonderful how God is working in your life right now, she would have looked at you like you had lost your mind… But listen, with that funeral, without those funerals, Ruth is never going to end up in the place of blessing that God intended for her.
Fourth Link- Fear, because not long after losing her husband, her mother in-law, Naomi decides she is leaving Moab. She has nothing keeping her in the land of Moab, and she has heard that God has visited His people back in Bethlehem, and she is going to go back and be a partaker once again of that bread. Remember Moab is a God forsaken land, and again the only light that Ruth has, however dim, was about to go completely out. Here is why the fourth link is fear, because Ruth feared being left alone in the darkness in Moab with all of its idolatry and we will see shortly how she renounces all of her association and all of her connection to Moab and the many gods which they served. In doing so she will go with her mother in-law to Bethlehem, which leads to the final link in the chain.
Fifth Link- The field- It is this final link that brings Ruth to Boaz. Not any old field, but it just so happened to be the the wealthiest bachelor in Bethlehem that also just so happens to be her kinsman, the kinsman of her late father in-law. Now upon arrival, Ruth has no idea of the connection, but what is clear is that she has been reading the word of God, because she knows that even though she was not from Bethlehem, and was a gentile that God had given provision for her to be able to glean from the corners of the field. God gave the Israelite commandments for the foreigners and the poor and widows to be able to come behind and gather enough to survive. Commandments that it just so happens that Ruth meets all three. She is a foreigner, a widow, and poor.
It is through this that Boaz comes to a field, and sees someone he doesn't recognize and ends up falling head over heels for Ruth!
Ruth 2:11-13
What Boaz does in these three verses is he shows us the cost of being a true discipleship, he shows us the reward of true discipleship, and he shows us the heart of true discipleship.
The Cost - In order for Ruth to become a partaker of the bread in Bethlehem, she was going to have to lose some things first. Look I am not trying to say that salvation is works, it is a free gift, and it is a beautiful thing, but there is a cost that’s involved if you’re ever going to really find yourself as a true disciple of Jesus Christ.
Let’s read verse 11 together
What Boaz is talking about here, takes us back to chapter 1. Ruth was married to Naomi’s son but like Naomi, she had been widowed.
Read: Ruth 1:6-11
Then Naomi in verses 11-13 asks them to consider the cost of leaving their homeland and coming with her. Do you realize the cross that you’re going to have to bear if you make this decision… By them leaving Moab, they were signing up for a life that was totally different then the life that they knew. Understanding herself, that this decision was going to cost them a lot, she forces them to consider the cost. This is no different than for you and I by the way...
And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
In becoming a true disciple, it is going to effect every relationship in your life, including the relationship with yourself.
And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
Again, I want to say that salvation is a free gift, Hallelujah, but Jesus wants to make sure, that we understand that there is a cost of being His disciple!
So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
And look at how Christ paints this picture here in Luke 14.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
This is what Naomi is doing with her daughter in-laws. Orpah, says thank you Naomi, I am going to stick with what I know makes me happy, I am going to stay here, but look at Ruth’s response in verse 16. This is why Ruth is a perfect picture of a true disciple! Look if Ruth knew everything that was going to happen, she would have happily gone, but she goes knowing nothing, and in knowing nothing, she not only is blessed, but is going to change the history of the whole world! Ruth, is the grandmother of King David, and is in the line of Christ!
We see all that Ruth lost, and God uses her to paint a picture of the cost of becoming a disciple of Christ.
Boaz says, in verse 11, “It hath been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband.
God again takes out His paint brush and again paints an amazing picture and He does this in Romans 7,
Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
A general principle to life, is that the law only pertains to the living… If you were to kill me, and dump my body on someones property which says no trespassing. They would not prop me up and throw the book at me…
Marriage, Romans 7 - Paul is trying to get us to see that eh laws that govern marriage are binding only as long as the partners are alive, and we see that a woman doesn’t stay bound if her husband is dead. Did you catch that part in verse three, that if her husband is dead, then “she is free from the law”!!!
Here is what is amazing! The context of Romans 7 is not marriage, it is salvation! He is showing us here how the laws of marriage relate to salvation, that is why verse four begins with wherefore.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
He is saying that the law that you where once bound to, the law of God, that the only thing that can free us from it is a death, verse 4 “wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another...
Now don’t miss this!!! All of us were sinners, and according to the law of God we were sentenced to die, but what happened is God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, and you know who He was, He was God in a human body, and through teh body of Christ H suffered the penalty of death.
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
And in the moment that we believed and called upon the name of the Lord something spectacular happened!
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
The death here isn’t water baptism but what water baptism pictures!
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
Christ through His body suffered the penalty of death that the law demanded and through our salvation the Spirit of God placed us into Christ’s death so that we died and now because of that,
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
We are free to marry another!!!! And he tells us who that is!!! The One who is raised form the dead! The church is the bride of Christ, and we are to bear the fruit of a holy and righteous life, which is children!!
Ruth belonged to a cursed race, was married and by that marriage, she was bound to him as long as he liveth, and all the while Boaz was the only person who could provide for her what nobody else on this planet could! But the problem was, she wasn’t married to Boaz. She was married to another, but you remember what happened. He died, no longer bound by the law, she was freed! That she might marry another! When we die in Christ, that law that held us bound is no longer over us and we now can marry our Kinsman Redeemer! Christ is the only one that can provide for us Redemption!
That is the unbelievable reward of discipleship! We have been made free from our marriage to the law, to marry another, which is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
What does that relationship look like? The Holy Spirit describes it as the leaving what we once knew, and what we were comfortable with, and cleaving to our spouse, it is a relationship in perfect unity and perfect oneness, completeness, and that is the reward of true biblical discipleship.
If that has not happened in your life, this is what God wants from each and every one of us! For us to cleave to Him and trust Him, for all of our security to be in Him and our new life with Him. We get the wonderful privileged of knowing him for the rest of our lives but it requires us making the calculated decision where we cut ties to follow Him!
Read: Ruth 2:12 Even being from a cursed race, Ruth heard the news, that there was bread in Bethlehem, she forsook all she knew to become a partaker of that bread and in doing so she recieved her reward of a blessed relationship wit Boaz, her kinsman redeemer!
By the way, it was not by works of righteousness that she had done, by it was by grace, that she came to the place of full reward!
Verse 13 - There is more…
What Ruth lost, we saw in verse 11 - The cost of true discipleship
What Ruth gained, we saw in verse 12 - The reward of true discipleship
How Ruth Grew, we see in verse 13 - The heart of true discipleship
In verse 13, Ruth explains all that she had recieved already by the hand of Boaz, but even through she had already recieved comfort, and a kind word, and acceptance even though she was a gentile, she begins with asking to find favour.
Ruth wasn’t satisfied to stay where she was in a relationship with Boaz, there was something deep down inside, that was rooting up, to where she wanted to know him even more, and for the fulness of their relationship to be brought to light.
The heart of true discipleship is that, that once we receive the wonderful blessing of that relationship with Christ, we are drawn deeper and deeper, wanting to know Him more, and for our relationship to grow.
Can I say this, I don’t know of a true disciple in the word of God, where this isn’t the case… There are not any non-practicing Christians here, there may be some temporary back sliding, but they return to the blessed relationship, when they are a true disciple!
Though Moses had seen the burning bush and had been given the ten commandments, that had been written with the finger of God, and had seen God in all those other ways, he kept going back to that mountain!
And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
It is what caused Jacob to cry out to the in Genesis
And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
It is what Paul means in
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Even David follows in his grandmothers foot prints;
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness:
I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
Ruth says, I know you have already given so much, but let me find favour in thy sight! Remember how James speaks about that we receive more grace!
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
That is exactly what Ruth was, she never allowed herself to be as, Romans 11:25 speaks of them being “wise in your own conceits.
May we in humility, never forget who we are! That we never forget the grace that Christ has given, may we never forget the purpose of that grace being bestowed, we are gleaning in his harvest field until he calls us out and He takes us to His Father’s house to consummate the marriage!
May we never allow ourselves to be satisfied, in Moab, but never satisfied, until we awake with his likeness!