And all these things, but this evening I'd like to go to a little book of root all the way back in the Old Testament, a little book of roots. And we're gonna take a look at roots and we're gonna cover the whole book in one evening. And the other reason I'm doing this is to point out the foundation of the book that way, if you read it for yourself, you'll understand what the book of root is all about. In our Sunday morning, we've been doing a little study on the Redeemer, or the book of Ruth is a good indication of the Redeemer. We've been studying the book of Ecclesiastes, so we're going to take a look at the book of Ruth, which is sort of goes into a little bit about the same thing in the book of Ecclesiastes. And we're going to look at some types in the little book of Ruth. take a couple of Wednesdays to do that, and then probably, I don't know, I'm going to leave it up to you guys, but I probably, in January, we're going to cancel Wednesday night for a while, because I don't like coming out in this lousy weather. But anyway, verse 1, chapter 1, verse 1, a little book of root, it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to Surgeon in the country of Moab. He and his wife and his two sons, and the name of the man was Alemulek, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Maelan and Chilean effortites of Bethlehem Judah, and they came into the country of Moab and continued there. And Alemulek, Naomi's husband died and she was left in her two sons. And they took themselves wives of the women of Moab, the name of the one was Orfa, and the name of the other Ruth, and they grew up there about ten years. And Maylon and Shillian died also of both of them, and the women were bereft of her two sons and her husband, the woman. There was a famine in the land, so let's take a look at the first type. This is a type of a Christian that just plain didn't trust God. They should have stayed where they were and trusted God to provide their needs. Instead, they walked away from God into Moab. Of course, you know that Moab was one of the ancestral sons of Lot, one of the sons he had with his, one of his daughters. And God, being a righteous God, gave Lot and His children the land of par for their property. Being a righteous God, he didn't have to do that, but he did. So they left their God and went to dwell in the land of Moab. They did two things. They went and they stayed. And that's what happens when a Christian backslides, and they leave God, go into the land of Moab, the first thing they do is look and then they stay. She left her God behind and Naomi did, lost all of her blessings, lost her family, and finally she went back to God that she shouldn't have left in the first place. When things get hard and when things get tough, it's easy to walk away from God, isn't it? I have a family, as a matter of fact, Carl just did a funeral service for one of my family members, my cousin. And his parents, I probably shouldn't say this, my mom won't say it anyway. His parents never took the kids to church. And every one of the kids is, well, there are a bunch. But the funeral of the Carl just did, and Carl actually tried to preach this guy into heaven, which I thought was wrong. The rest of the message was pretty good, but he tried to preach this guy into heaven. I would never do that. I think you're dishonored God when you do that. But anyway, the mother and the father, the father told me one time that he used to teach Sunday school in the Methodist Church years, but he let his kids go and if he really taught Sunday school and that he was really saved, which I didn't really doubt, don't you think he would have considered his salvation and told his children how to be saved, never did. Everyone of them is alcohol and drugs is one of their biggest problems. You never see him in church, even though they asked me to do all their funerals and all their weddings and all the other crap, but you never see him in church. And if he really was a Christian, he's a perfect example of a Christian that walked away from God. Matter of fact, his mother, my aunt, said, well, we were going to church when the kids were young and everything went bad for us. And we said, if that's the way God is, we don't want to have anything to do with him. That was her statement. Sort of like Naomi. Things went bad, a little bit of famine, you know? I don't get everything I want. I'm going to walk away from God and I'll go to the Moabites. And that's exactly what they did. They're a perfect example of Naomi. And she came to church a couple of times. I don't care if they ever come back, it doesn't matter to me, and I don't. They're my family. I know that my mother is angry with me because I call them a bunch of mosheds. That's a break. I can't help it. They're a bunch of mosheds. And so they walked away from God. When they did, she lost her husband and her two sons. You cannot walk away from God and enjoy any blessings. It just doesn't work. No matter how hard things get, no matter how hard times get, blame God for all my troubles. They're God, I don't need you. You did this to me. It's your fault. I'll never try to serve you, so on and so on and so on. Well, we all have hard times when we start walking away from God because of it. He's not the blame. We are. So when they only lost everything, then she arose in verse 6 with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab. shouldn't have been there in the first place. Should have stayed where she was, God would have fed her and her family. For she heard, in the country of Moab, how the Lord had visited his people and giving them meat. Isn't that something? If they had stayed, the Lord would have visited them and gave them meat. Instead they left and she lost their way. Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was and her two daughters in law with her and they went on the way to return into the land of Judah and Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, go return each to her mother's house, the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. But then I want you to look at another verse here if you will, on down in verse, let's see here. Find the right verse I'm looking for. Oh here we go. Verse 15, And she said, Naomi did, behold thy sister-in-law is going back unto her people, and unto her gods, returned out after thy sister-in-law. In other words, Naomi is saying, go back to your gods. Isn't that sad? Naomi, if you really believed in your God, why in the world would you tell somebody to go back to their false God. Isn't that foolish? I don't know what kind of a Christian Naomi was to begin with, but when we walk away from God, it sure gives us some strange, strange attitudes, isn't it? In verse 8, return to your mother's house, Lord deal kindly with you, and then she tells them to go to their back to their own God. So how in the world can you expect the Lord to deal kindly with you? When you tell them somebody to go back to their God, it's pretty foolish. Verse 9, the Lord grant you that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband. then she kissed him and they lifted up their voice and they said unto her surely we will return with the end to thy people. You can't walk away from God. You can turn your back on God but you can walk away from the let's put it this way. If you walk away from serving God, trusting God, keeping your faith in God, then you walk away from the blessings that God has to offer. Let's Let's put it that way. What's that? No, you can't lose. Well, you can lose your faith, yeah. You can lose your faith. You can, huh? James chapter two. Yeah. You can lose your faith, but, well, hold your place. Right there. Go over to the book of Timothy over here. You can lose your faith. If you're not serving, nobody knows if you're having a faith. I'm glad you brought that up. All the way back here in Second Timothy chapter two, okay. In second Timothy chapter two, you can lose your faith. You can lose your faith. My wife's seen people do it. But no matter fact, my aunt that I just mentioned was a good example. I don't know how much faith she had. I don't know if she was saved. I don't know if she had that kind of faith or not, but they were going to church and then when things didn't go very good for them and they walked them, they didn't go to church anymore, blame God for the problems and things went better for us. And that's a funny thing that she would make that statement because things are going better for us now that we don't go to church anymore. And she just lost two of her sons. She just lost two of them. You're telling me things are going better for you? I don't think so. Anyhow, verse 11, chapter two, second Timothy. What's that? I'm going very good for the two that died, huh? No, no, not very. And I doubt very much that they were saved. I know the one funeral I did, I did one of their funerals. and I didn't preach the boy into heaven. I didn't know if that's where he was. And I talked to him about it, and I believe he was saved, but he didn't get saved until I talked to him about it just before he died. And even then I'm not sure 100% he would say because people will always tell you what they think you want to hear. But I certainly didn't preach him into heaven. I think that's just an honor to God. But anyway, it is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. And look at the rest of that verse. If we deny him, he also will deny us. And if we, Christians, believe not, yet he, by the faithful, I can go all the way back to the point of unbelief. I can be saved by faith in Christ and go all the way back to the point of, I don't believe that anymore. And as soon as I walk away from serving God like Naomi did and like Solomon did and backslide and then I go all the way to the point of unbelief, but it also says he abides faithful. He cannot deny himself. In other words, when we put our faith in him, we are saved and then I can start serving him and when things go bad, you know, and I get all bent out of shape and blame God for all my problems, I can go all the way back and say, and what happens is when I, when things start going bad, the more I walk away and the more I stop, the worse things are going to get. And the worse things get, the less I'm going to believe. But once I'm saved, he abides with faithful. He saved me. He cannot deny himself. You cannot lose your salvation. If you did, God would be one big hypocrite, wouldn't He? But He's not. Yeah, wouldn't He know? Yeah. Okay, back to group theory, if you will. Verse 11, and they only said, turn again my daughters. Why will you go with me? That was the wrong question. As she should have said, let us go to my God. Instead, why go with me to my God? foolish. And turn again my daughters, verse 12, go your way for I'm too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband also tonight and should also bear son, would you tarry for them till they were grown? Would you refrain or stay for them from having or refrain from being married? That's what I mean. Name my daughters, we're agree with me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. In other words, she was chastened. Her husband was really chastened. He was killed. And they lifted up their voice and wept again and said to her, etc., in verse 16. And Ruth said, and treat me not to leave me or turn away from following thee. For once thou goest, I will go and where thou lodgest, will lodge thy people, shall be my people, and thy God, my God. She had a goal, she was determined, and verse 17, she was committed. She had heard about Naomi's God somehow or other, and that's what she wanted. That's not very often, does it? Where thou dyes, will I die, and there will I be buried? The Lord do so to me, and more also, but death part be and me. So she was determined to go and she went. Didn't seem like Naomi had a lot to offer, but she did. No, Naomi didn't. And of course that's what happens when you backslide and you get into a backslidden condition blame God for your problems. That's what Naomi did. See what God has done to me. He dealt this. No, you asked for it. You should have stayed where you were, trusted him him, and you and your husband both found out. Anyway, by the way, Moab, you know who Moab was, of course. He was lots. Moabites were a pretty rotten, lousy, despicable bunch of people. Verse 21, all the way down to verse 21, if you will, is verse 20, brother. And she said unto them, call me not Naomi, call me Mara, which means bitter, for the Almighty have dealt very bitterly with me. It was her own fault. It was your fault. I Went out full and the Lord hath brought me home empty again. Let me ask you a question Is she telling the truth here? Why did they leave the land if they were full? That's pretty foolish, isn't it? There was a famine in the land and they walked away. They left their ran You didn't run out. You didn't go out full. You'd left Empty and you came back empty and the Lord brought me home empty. Why then call you? me Naomi and the last part and they all mighty hath afflicted me. Yes, he did, you got to come up. So Naomi returned and Ruth, the Moabitis, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned out of the country of Moab and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of Barley Harvest. No more famine for those who stayed. Isn't that something? You know what gets me is Christians who have the slightest little problem come along. And the first thing they want to do is blame God and run away, it's pretty sad. So did she give up her land to go somewhere else? Well yeah, they did. But according to go back to Jewish tradition, the land always comes back, but in this case, they got the land, but it was a little different. So let's go down to chapter 2, and I'm going to finish this up before we get done here. And Naomi had a kinsman in chapter 2, verse 1 of her husband, a mighty man of wealth with the family of Valimilek, and his name was Boes. So he was still a family member of her husband, and his name was Boaz, which meant, just as Ben said, that the land that she walked away from still belonged to her. Although at this time she didn't really own it, but it was hers. If you understand the Hebrew and the way God had set it up, anyway, and Ruth. The Moabites said, I don't know, let me now go to the field and glean ears of grain after him and whose side also find grace. And she said, Go, my daughter, and behold, Boaz came in verse 4 from Bethlehem and said unto the rapers, Lord be with you. And verse 5 then said, Boaz, who was said over the rapers? Who's damseled as this? He's seen this woman working. She was not a Jew. Apparently, he probably realized that. She was willing to work for nothing in hopes that Boaz would look kindly upon her. Let's see now. We want to skip some verses because I want to cover all this. Let not thine eyes in verse 9. Let not thine eyes be on the field that they do reap and go out after them. Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee and when thou art thirsty, go unto the vessels and drink of that which the young men have drawn in those times and in those days tradition was that the heathens didn't drink with the Jews, but he said, you go ahead and drink with all the people. Then she fell on a face and bowed herself to the ground and said, unto him, why have I found grace and deny that thou shalt take knowledge of me, seeing I am a foreigner, a stranger? Then on down, if you will, to verse 12, the Lord recompense thy work and a full reward be given thee by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou are come to trust. That's probably one of the most important verses in the whole book. The Lord recompense thy work and a full reward be given thee by the Lord God of Israel under whose wings thou art come to trust. You know something? Naomi and her husband should have done that. One thing that Naomi did when she came back to the Lord, she brought a sinner with her, and for those who backslide and lead serving the Lord, what they really ought to do is bring somebody back with them. So anyway, she had integrity, Ruth's dead, and the Lord recompense that I've worked, and a full reward be given to you by the Lord God of Israel under whose wings they are come to trust. You know, it reminds me of the parable of the sewers. It doesn't matter how much you do for the Lord or how much he rewards the point is, it ought to be our attitude. Whenever we serve the Lord, it ought to be our attitude, not expecting much, but knowing that the Lord will reward us, bless us, and protect us if we just serve Him by faith. He will always do that. Chapter 4, go all the way over there if you will, and then we'll close with this here, but I'm trying to cover the whole book of Ruth because I want want you to get the just foundation then when you read it yourself, when you get time to do that, you'll understand what root is all about. In verse four, chapter four, verse one, then when Boaz up to the gate and sat down there and behold the Kinsman of whom Boaz spoke came by to him, he said, Oh, such a one. Turn aside, sit down here, and he turned aside. And he took him into the the elders of the city and said, sit, sit you down here and they said down and he said under the Gensmen, Naomi, who has come again out of the country of Moab, south, a plot of land which was our brother, at Limilex. The land was still hers. But it needed to be redeemed. Remember Revelation chapter 5, what does it take to redeem the land? Yep, has to be able, to have the price and they have to be a kinsman. Boaz was a kinsman of Naomi. He was willing and he paid the price. He is a perfect example of the Lord Jesus Christ, a perfect example. He took Ruth. She became his wife. He redeemed her because he was willing. He was able to pay the price and he was a Kinsman. And the bottom line, if you read the whole thing, Naomi got the land back and Ruth became the wife of Boaz and she became not a mobile bite, but she became a Jew. And it's a perfect type of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. And the important thing, One of the most important things is that this root became one of the few women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. You can know that, root the Moabitis. There are two places in the Bible where we have the genealogy of Jesus Christ. One is in the gospel of Luke, and the other one is in the gospel of Matthew, and then the genealogies. Ruth has mentioned as the mother, she was married to Boaz, but she was mentioned in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, you know when you and I see Jesus Christ face to face, I don't think we're going to see a white person, a black person. I don't think we're going to see an Indian, a Hebrew. I don't think every human being is going to see their own self in Jesus Christ. I think the Chinese will see their nationality in him. I think the black person will see their nationality in him because in the genealogy of Christ we see every nationality, every person, every nation and the Moabitis is a perfect example of the world in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. She's a perfect example of a person with character. Let's see here. What do we want to close? In chapter 4, root verse 17, when you get the opportunity, look up in your genealogies in chapter 1 of Luke and you'll see the genealogy. But in chapter 4 verse 17 and the women who were her neighbors gave him a name saying this is a son born to Naomi and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. Then of course we have Jesus. What's important there? There is a son born to Naomi. The genealogical line that Jesus that God started with Abraham never ceased, never did cease. Sam and we got Boaz and Boaz we got Obed and Obed we got Jesse and Jesse we got David and my mother we got me and that was one of the biggest mistakes she ever met I'm kidding I shouldn't say that when my mother is around but she gets angry with me the poor girl so anyway that's the book of roots pretty simple isn't it pretty simple when you walk away from God. You always have to pay the price one way or the other. Naomi did, but thank God Ruth. Got her possessions back, got her nationality back, got everything back that she lost when she walked away from God. Isn't it funny? Sometimes the only way you get back your blessings is by a center. Isn't it funny? It really is. Okay, let's have word of burden close. Anybody else have anything they'd like to add? You want to bring another other message are, Cassie, you're done now for the day, all right? I forgot a verse, but I'm so excited. Well, Richie, bring candles or salvation next week. OK, let's have a word of prayerful closing.