Perspective

And they all forsook him and fled. {Laughter}

Well, it's a delight to be with you again and be a part of a Sunday evening service. The Sunday evening service has been put to rest in many places.

Somehow the saints can't come out at night anymore. But it's great to be here to worship and to be led in worship in such a such a triumphant way. Now you had better fasten your safety belts because we are going to be looking at five books in the Old Testament.

I suppose I should ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes so folks can walk out if they want to. You won't know who they are. I want us to look at five books in the Old Testament and I'll tell you why.

Solomon in Ecclesiastes said there's nothing new under the sun. And basically that's true because the new always grows out of the old. He said the reason some people think there are new things is they have bad memories.

They don't remember the past. The famous philosopher George Santayana said that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. I will extend that and say those that do not remember the past are condemned not to know the future because it's all been done before.

One of the few advantages to getting close to 75 years old is to have a little bit of perspective. Now there's some disadvantages. I don't feel as young as I used to but that's life.

And I'd rather have aches and pains than be lying in the cemetery someplace. So I'll just live with it. But one of the advantages of having had over 50 years of ministry experience is to get a little bit of perspective on things.

And as the pastor said there's a generation that thinks nothing happened before 1980. It's been my privilege to teach Doctor of Ministries courses at a number of seminaries and I love the students. I just love this present generation of students.

They are marvelous. And every once in a while one of them would raise his hand and say you know here I've got a good idea. Do you think this will work? And I say go ahead tell us about it.

He'd tell. I said yeah it'll work. Yeah.

Well how do you know? Well we did it 50 years ago. You did? Yeah. Yeah.

See problem is that the younger generation thinks that we're outmoded and the older generation thinks they are crazy and that's not true. Every generation needs the other generation. So all we're going to do tonight is start in the book of Judges then move to First Samuel and then move to Second Samuel and I won't tell you where we're going to go from there.

Because these books show us the future. You say wait a minute this is the past. No no no it's the future.

Back in 1943 in the middle of the Second World War Harry Rimmer that great Bible scholar published a little thin book entitled Straight Ahead Lies Yesterday. It's a great title. Straight Ahead Lies Yesterday and we're going to look at yesterday and find out what is going to happen next.

Now I feel sorry for people who don't want to know what's going to happen next. We're not going to talk about details. I don't know what 666 stands for.

I have a friend who claims he knows who the Antichrist is. I doubt it but that's all right. It keeps him happy.

I don't know all of the meaning of the book of Revelation but that's not important. I know one thing and know it well. Jesus is coming again and I believe he's going to come before the tribulation and can come at any time.

But you see I'm not on the planning committee. I want to be on the welcoming committee. We start in the book of Judges and we look at chapter 17.

Judges chapter 17 and we look at verse 6. In those days there was no king in Israel. Every man did what was right in his own eyes. Now that's an interesting verse so much so it's repeated down in verse 1 of chapter 18.

In those days there was no king of Israel. Chapter 19 verse 1. Now it came about in those days when there was no king in Israel. Unless we should forget it at the very end of the book chapter 21 verse 25.

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. You get the impression that whoever wrote the book of Judges wanted us to know that there was no king in Israel.

Judges is the book of no king. Now actually God was their king. Chapter 8 of the book of Judges Gideon makes a speech.

He didn't live up to it but he made a speech. Chapter 8 of Judges verse 22. Then the men of Israel said to Gideon rule over us both you and your son also your son's son for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.

But Gideon said to them I will not rule over you nor shall my son rule over you the Lord shall rule over you. Unfortunately he didn't live up to that but his theology was right. God was the king of Israel.

Then why did the writer say there was no king in Israel? Well chapter 2 tells us verse 7. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua. That's first generation now. And all the days of the elders who survived Joshua.

Let me pause here to say I once heard a very fine man criticize Joshua for not appointing a successor. Joshua was not supposed to appoint a successor. Joshua trained a group of elders.

Every local church must be a bible institute where we take young men young women teach them the word of God. That's the job of my generation. My peers who are here you folks who are like me senior saints they call us now.

Our job is not to criticize the younger generation. Yes if they do something wrong we have to talk to them about it. Our job is to be good examples to them and teach them.

For the last several months I've had the privilege of doing something at our church on my own. Pastor said go ahead it's all right with me. On my own that I've done I think is the fourth time I've done it.

Gather around me 15-20 young men and just pour into them as I would in a seminary classroom what it means to preach the word of God. We've had a marvelous time. They are the most encouraging people.

But what happens here? Joshua a respected leader. He trains these elders who were respected leaders. And all the days of the elders who survived Joshua who had seen all the great work of the Lord which he had done for Israel.

Young people hear me the older folks in this church who have walked with God have seen God do things you've never seen. Listen to them. Listen to them.

Younger folks who have come into the church you weren't here when the buildings were built. You weren't here when they went through prayer and struggle and sacrifice. Listen to them.

And those of us who are older if we help these young people catch up on the past they help us catch up on the present. I often sit down with some of our college kids and just let them tell me what's going on. Oh it helps me considerably.

If we don't cross generations the church is one generation short of extinction. But now what happens? Verse 10. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers.

That means they died and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord nor yet the work which he had done for Israel. They were cut off from the past. Whose fault was it? I don't know.

Probably in the home. But we have this third generation that doesn't know the Lord. Doesn't know what he did.

Nothing happened before 1980. And there's no king in Israel. When the church cuts itself off from the past it's in great danger.

Now what happens? Well the book of Judges tells us what happens. This is one of the most tragic books in the Bible. It starts off with apathy.

They didn't care. Don't talk to us about Joshua. Don't talk to us about grandpa.

Grandpa was an old fogey. Don't talk to us about Moses. That's centuries ago.

Apathy. Their apathy turned into apostasy. Chapter 3. God sends idolatry and God sends punishment for their idolatry.

They began to live like the world. You couldn't tell Israel from the other nations. And you turn the pages of Judges and you find anarchy.

One tribe fighting another tribe and rape and homosexuality and apostasy. And where did it all come from? A generation came along didn't know the Lord. We are living today at a time when there is no king in Israel.

There could have been. But they said we will not have this man reign over us. And Pilate presented him to the people and said behold your king.

And they said we have no king but Caesar. And they crucified their king. So there is no king in Israel.

Consequently we are living in the book of Judges. A time when many churches are apathetic. A time when you hate to watch the news or read the newspaper because all you read about is violence and war and sensuality and vice.

And you read all of that in the book of Judges. Now we turn to 1 Samuel. If Judges is the book of no king, 1 Samuel 8 tells us that 1 Samuel is the book of man's king.

1 Samuel 8 the leaders of Israel, the elders of Israel came to Samuel. Now Samuel was a remarkable man. I wish that preachers would give more attention to this man Samuel.

What a man. First of all he was born in answer to prayer. Hannah prayed for a child.

She said Lord you give me a son I'll give back to you to serve you. God gave her a son. And she called him Samuel.

Samuel grew up in one of the filthiest homes he could grow up in. Eli the high priest was a compromiser. His sons were lustful, proud, and there in the tabernacle little Samuel was growing up being taught by a compromising high priest who had two sons who should have been stoned to death.

Now mothers and dads hear me. You commit your children to the Lord. You say oh man they're going off to school whether it's a Christian school or whatever kind of school and there's bad influences whether we like it or not.

I've spoken to Christian school out in Denver some years ago where the day before they had dismissed a student for putting something in all the orange juice, some kind of narcotic in all the orange juice. That's a Christian school. Now granted it doesn't happen every day every week no no no but here we are in this wicked evil world and and you you send your little boy your little girl off to school regardless of what school it is and on the way anything can happen.

But like Hannah and Elkanah her husband we just say now Lord he's yours she's yours and little Samuel grew up in one of the dirtiest environments he could have grown up in and stayed pure. You say it can't be done. Yes it can.

You boys and girls and young people do not have to do what other people do. You can keep pure in a dirty world. Samuel grew up and Samuel was the leader of Israel.

He knew how to pray. Here was a guy who could pray and the weather changed. Beautiful day and all of sudden crash bang it's raining.

He could pray. He could talk to God. He understood the word and they came to Samuel and they said chapter 8 verse 1 Samuel give us a king verse 4 verse 6 verse 5 appoint a king.

In other words they were saying Samuel we're firing you. We know you know how to pray. You understand the word of God.

You're a wise man. You've been faithful. You've never taken anything didn't belong to you but we're firing you.

Now this is a parenthesis. It's free. I've never seen a time in 50 years of ministry when more good men and women have abusively been dismissed from their places of service by people who weren't worthy to polish their shoes.

I've seen godly pastors and their wives thrown out. Betty and I were in Great Britain. Oh it's been many years ago.

We don't go overseas anymore. There was one church in Great Britain we heard about that had a marvelous youth ministry. They'd meet once a week the young people with their youth pastor.

They'd pray. They'd study the word of God. Then they'd go out and witness and go out and try to reach people.

Now I know you're not going to believe what I'm telling you but I am telling you the truth. The elders called the pastor in. They said the youth pastor and they said now look you're doing a good job with these kids and we appreciate it.

What kind of a program do you have for the carnal young people? Can you imagine that? What kind of a program do you have for the carnal young people? He said I have not. They fired him. Is the church supposed to supply fun and games for carnal young people who don't want prayer and the word of God just to pacify them? That's what was happening in first Samuel.

We want a king just like the other nations. Samuel wept and prayed all night. He said lord they fired me.

I'm done for. Parenthesis again. I admire Samuel when they kicked him out.

He didn't go home and pout, pray for thunder and lightning. He just went home and said all right if I can't rule this nation anymore, if they won't take my leadership, I'm going to start a school and I'm going to teach other people how to understand the bible and how to serve the Lord. So he started the schools of the prophets.

If it hadn't been for them I wonder what would have happened to Israel. First Samuel is the book of man's king. Well God saw the whole thing.

He always does. He said boy you want a king? I'm gonna give you a king. I'm gonna give you a king you'll never forget.

He gave him Saul. Saul was a hero. He stood head and shoulders above everybody else.

He was handsome. He was a star. He was a celebrity but he wasn't supposed to be the founder of a dynasty.

He came from the wrong tribe. He came from the tribe of Benjamin and second and Genesis 49 10 says the king would come from the tribe of Judah. So Saul was just a temporary king to spank them.

You see God always gives his best to those who let him make the choice. We don't, we want a king like other nations. Look I've given you Samuel.

No we want a king. Okay I'll give you a king. George Macdonald, some of you have read George Macdonald's novels.

George Macdonald, that Scottish preacher said this in whatever man does without God he must fail miserably or succeed more miserably. Some of you nod your heads. Yeah I know, I know.

Man's king. So what did Saul do? Wreck the nation. Wreck the nation.

Ends up in a witch's house getting in touch with satanic power and he commits suicide out on the battlefield. Man's king. Folks things are going to get so bad in this world that people are going to cry out give us a ruler.

Give us a king. We've got to solve the problems in the near east. We've got to solve the problem here and the problem there and the economic problem and all we can't do it.

Give us a ruler and satan's going to say I got him. I got him. Jesus said I've come in my father's name.

You wouldn't accept me. Another is going to come in his own name. You'll accept him.

The bible calls him the beast, the antichrist. So the next thing on the horizon is man's king. He'll be just like Saul.

Admired, powerful. First part of Saul's reign he was a peacemaker. First part of antichrist reign he'll be a peacemaker.

He'll get the jews and the arabs and other folks to sign a covenant that can rebuild their temple and then in the middle of that time he will turn against them, persecute Israel, set up a world system that will be so diabolical. But it's what they asked for. Give us a king.

Judges the book of no king. That's where we're living now. First Samuel the book of man's king.

That's what we're heading for. Second Samuel is the book of God's king. Saul dies.

God says okay David, you've been running away from him for 10 years. Now it's your turn. And David had been ruling over part of Israel for about seven years.

And then the elders came and said we know you're the one God has chosen. And they anointed him the third time. Samuel anointed David when he was a teenager and then they anointed him in Hebron where he took over a small part of the country.

And now they anointed him king of all Israel. God's king. God's king.

Now that's what we're all looking for. I'm looking for Jesus the son of David to come and straighten this whole world out. God has ordained that this world will get as bad as it can get.

Now I personally, I don't make this an issue, but I personally don't believe that the church is going to be here during the reign of the antichrist. I don't make that a separate denomination or a test of spirituality or fellowship nor would I go to jail for it. It's just a conviction I have that anytime Jesus could come back we're gone.

And some of my friends who don't agree with that, I hope I'm near them, I can say see I told you so. But then I'll be in a glorified body and probably won't do it. Man's king will be replaced by God's king.

And I saw heaven open, said John, and out came the army of heaven. And the one at the front of the army was the word of God, Jesus. He'll come down, straighten the whole thing out, and then establish his kingdom.

You see the church has been praying for centuries, your kingdom come, your kingdom come. This kingdom hasn't come. Does that mean that our prayer, Jesus taught us to pray that, does that mean our prayer is not valid? No, it's a good prayer.

Keep praying it, your kingdom come. Because one day a voice is going to say the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever.

Say now why are you telling us all this? Well, David came and had his rule. Our David hasn't come yet, but he will. Now at this point I can see on faces some people are saying, wait a minute, wait a minute, this fellow, hold it, he skipped a book.

I did. I mean you start with Judges, then you went to 1 Samuel, Judges, no king, that's where we are now. 1 Samuel, man's king, that's what's coming.

2 Samuel, God's king, he's the one who's coming, but you skipped Ruth. I did, and that's where we're going to turn now. A little book of Ruth, right after Judges.

Now it came about in the days when the Judges governed. Oh, the book of Ruth takes place during the days of the Judges? Yeah, but in the book of Ruth you don't read about rape and violence and apostasy and godlessness. No, well why? Because Ruth is talking about God's people in God's will, accomplishing God's purposes.

We're living in the book of Judges, but we're not living like the book of Judges. We're living like the book of Ruth. Now what is the book of Ruth? Number one, the book of Ruth is a love story.

There are three love stories in the Old Testament, you know. Ruth, God's love for lost sinners. God's love for the church.

Jonah, God's love for the world that needs to hear about repentance. Hosea, God's love for Israel. Oh, bless his heart.

Well, I get to heaven, I want to talk to Hosea. That man paid a tremendous price to be able to be a prophet. His wife became a prostitute, so he could write the book and say, you know what my wife did is what you people are doing.

You've prostituted yourselves to idols and sin, but she came back, and God's calling you to come back. So Hosea, God's love for the Jews, and Jonah, God's love for the Gentiles, and Ruth, God's love for the church. Oh, Ruth is a beautiful story.

Starts out pretty bad. It came about in the days when the judges governed that there was a famine in the land. God never promised that you and I'd have an easy time of it, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn, that means temporarily, temporarily in the land of Moab, and the Old Testament law said an Ammonite and a Moabite will not enter the congregation of God unto the tenth generation, meaning never, with his wife and his two sons.

They went to Moab, and the name of the man was Elimelech, which means God is my king. Oh, we're back to the king now. There are people in the book of Judges period who don't want man's king.

God is my king, but Elimelech didn't live up to it, and he took Naomi and his two sons went off to Moab. It's a bad thing, sad thing, when a professed Christian in time of trouble goes to get help from the enemy. Sad.

And you know the story. Elimelech died. Malon and Kylion died, the two sons, so he had three widows, three widows, and then Naomi tells Ruth and Orpah, go home.

What? Excuse me, excuse me, Naomi, where'd you come from? Bethlehem of Judea. You're Jewish? I'm Jewish. And you're telling these two girls to go back and worship false gods? Yeah.

Why? I want to go back home, and I don't want to take along with me the evidence that our family has disobeyed God. People say, well, who are these two girls? Well, they came from Moab. What were you doing in Moab? Well, they were married.

You allowed your two sons to marry girls from Moab? She wanted to get rid of the evidence. Well, she succeeded with one daughter-in-law, but not Ruth. Oh, one of the greatest women in the Bible is Ruth.

Oh, I want to meet her in heaven. And she says, go on, Ruth, your sister-in-law's gone, you go. No, I'm sticking with you.

I've made my decision, and I've trusted Jehovah God. This amazes me. A backslidden woman like Naomi had enough of a testimony to lead her daughter-in-law to faith in Jehovah.

Praise God for his grace. She says, I'm not going with you. Wherever you go, I'll go.

Wherever you live, I'll live, and your people will be my people, and your God is my God. She said, okay, come along. Can't whip them, join them.

And they went back to Bethlehem and discovered the famine had gone away. Because the book of Ruth is not only a love story, it's a harvest story. Ruth is key character number one.

Boaz, who owned the land, was key character number two, and he was the lord of the harvest. They come back, and Ruth says, do you care if I go into the harvest field and glean? The law said they could do that. The law said, don't you pick up everything.

You leave it there, and let the poor people come in and take something. And Naomi said, go ahead. So where's she going to go? I mean, she didn't know the territory, and they didn't have signs up saying this is old McDonald's farm, this is young McDonald's farm.

They didn't have signs. They had little markers in the ground, but only they knew what they were. So she's going along saying, Lord, show me where to go.

He said, right there. So she went in. The field that belonged to Boaz.

Do you believe in the providence of God? I do. You know what the word providence means? Video. You know what that means, to see.

Pro, ahead. God sees ahead. One day I was invited to a birthday party.

A Christian friend of mine was having a birthday, and they were having a party for him. So I went. Now, you don't expect much to happen at a birthday party.

And my friend, whose birthday we were celebrating, said, I'm going to seminary this fall. You're going to go back to Indiana University? Yeah, I thought I would. He said, why don't you come with me? Be my roommate at seminary.

And they've got a special program there, five years. You can get your college and your seminary all at once. I said, I'd never be able to get in.

It's too late. He said, try. I got in.

So I didn't go to Indiana University. I went to seminary. And John was my roommate for a couple of years, and he got married, and I stayed on there and finished my course.

That's where I met Betty. I went to that seminary because somebody said, at a birthday party, would you come to seminary? That's where I met some of the greatest friends I've ever had. That's where God gave me training I could not have gotten anyplace else, all because of the providence of God.

So there she is in Boaz's field, gleaning. Boaz shows up. I like this story.

He looks at his workers and says, the Lord bless you. They said, and the Lord bless you. That would solve a lot of labor problems right there.

Wouldn't you love to work for somebody who'd come up to you and say, the Lord bless you. And that was the end of that because, boing, he saw this beautiful girl. Who's she? Well, that's Ruth.

She came home with Naomi. Ah, with love at first sight. He went over and said, don't you go anyplace else.

You come right back here. If you get thirsty, there's water over there. If you get hungry, there's food.

Oh man, there's a love story. Do you remember the day when you were out there and life didn't have much meaning and you were just living on leftovers? That's what gleaning is, just living on leftovers. Whatever anybody else doesn't want, you'll take it, you know.

Then along came Jesus and his love reached out to you. And of course, the end of the story is that Boaz married Ruth. Now the turning point in the story of Ruth is in chapter three where Naomi says, now Ruth, it's harvest time and the men are going to be down at the threshing floor guarding the harvest.

Now Boaz is your relative and because he's your relative by marriage, he can be your redeemer. There was a wonderful law in the law of Moses that if I became very poor, a relative of mine could set me free from my debt and from my slavery. And Boaz was that relative to Ruth.

Now Naomi said, you dress up in your best clothes and you go down to that threshing floor and you notice where Boaz will be lying. Now this is important, Ruth. When he's asleep, you lie down at his feet and uncover his feet.

Boaz wakes up and says, what is going on? She said, you're my nearest relative and I'm at your feet, redeem me. He said, I'll do it. Well he didn't waste any time either.

Next day he gathered the elders at the gate and said, you know Naomi's come back and she brought Ruth and Ruth's property is for sale. And there was one other relative closer than Boaz. And Boaz said to him, now if you want that property, take it.

He said, I'll take it. He said, now wait a minute, when you take the property you have to take Ruth. Boaz said, I can't do that, that would ruin my own inheritance.

Boaz said, good, great, I'll take her and she'll become my inheritance. Jesus did that for me. There came a time when I just put myself at his feet and I said, I can't make it without you, I need you.

He said, don't worry about it, I'll pay the price, I'll pay the price, I'll redeem you. Would you look at the end of the book of Ruth, chapter four. Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down.

When he saw the relative coming by, he said, turn aside friend, sit down. And he turned aside and sat down. Verse two, and he said to the elders of the city, sit down.

So they sat down. Everybody's sitting down. The turning point in the story of Ruth came when she put herself at the feet of the Lord of the harvest.

And then the whole thing came together. But from then on, the key phrase is, sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down. You know why? After Jesus died for me on the cross, he went back to heaven.

You know what he did? He sat down. You know why he sat down? His work was done. In the tabernacle and in the temple, there were no chairs.

The priest's work was never done, never done. Always keep offering sacrifices. Jesus said, it is finished.

And went home to heaven and sat down. And when you get to the end of the marvelous thing, she and Boaz get married. She becomes his wife and she has a baby boy whose name was Obed.

And then Obed grew up and his wife delivered a baby boy named Jesse. And Jesse grew up and his wife delivered a baby boy named David, God's king. When Matthew was going to write his gospel, the Holy Spirit said to Matthew, I want you to start with Jesus' genealogy.

Now if I sent a genealogy, my phone would ring. And Craig Bubeck, my editor at David C. Cook would call and say, you know Warren, that's a good book you've written, but explain this first chapter. What's the sense of all these names? So when people start to read the New Testament, you know what they do? You know what you did when you started reading the New Testament? You turned the page.

That's how you learn. Boy, you learn so much that way. Maybe we better do that as we close.

Matthew chapter 1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, whoop, there's Ruth, the son of Abraham. Now you know this, but I'm going to repeat it. Somebody here doesn't know it, but I'm going to repeat it anyway.

Whenever a Jew made a genealogy, it was male. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, etc, etc, etc. But in our Lord's genealogy, you find four women.

Verse 3, to Judah were born Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Oh, remember Tamar? She faked being a prostitute, and she had intercourse with her father-in-law. And ooh, it's a dirty thing.

But her name's in the genealogy of Jesus. Hmm. Five.

And to Salmon was born Boaz by Rahab. What was Rahab? Prostitute and a Gentile. That's bad enough.

And to Boaz was born Obed by Ruth, a Moabitess. And to Obed, Jesse. And to Jesse was born David the king.

And to David was born Solomon by Hur, who had been the wife of Uriah. And what was her name class? Bathsheba. Now if you were going to give your grandchildren your genealogy, would you have included those women? That's tabloid stuff.

That's the kind of stuff you read when you're waiting to be checked out of the grocery store. Those tabloids are the only newspapers in the world that have the garbage already in them. But you know what that genealogy is saying? Our God is a God of grace.

Our God is a God of grace. You can't come in the family. You came from Moab.

There she is, Ruth. You can't come in the family. You became a prostitute.

There's Tamar. You can't come in the family. You're a Gentile prostitute.

She came in. You can't come in the family. You committed adultery.

But there she is. The only condition for getting into the family is be a sinner. Be a sinner.

Now I'm not suggesting you go out and sin. No, no, no, no, no. I'm just saying when you come, Jesus said, I've come to seek and to save that which was perfect.

No, no. I've come to seek and to save that which was lost. This man eats and drinks with sinners.

That's what I came for. I'm a physician. Physicians don't take care of healthy people.

They take care of sick people. And so when I read the book of Ruth, God says, I know you're living in a difficult time in history. Violence, deception, television, sewage, radio sewage.

I know you're living in a difficult time in history. Wars, rumors of wars. But don't forget, don't forget, even though there's no king in Israel, you're living in the book of Ruth.

It's a love story. It's a harvest story. And in the book of Ruth, God didn't try to straighten out the whole world.

God didn't say we'll have a committee against apostasy. A committee against, no, no. God just said, look, I'm going to bring a little boy into the world named David.

David's going to straighten some things out. And then many centuries later, I'm going to bring in another little baby boy, the son of David, Jesus, my son. He'll straighten everything out.

I'm glad I'm living in the book of Ruth. It's a love story. I can wake up in the morning and look up and say, Father, you love me.

You love me. I'm not perfect, but you love me. He's going to say, I do love you.

Now get out there and get busy in the harvest. Get busy in the harvest. Are you busy in the harvest? Does Boaz, our Jesus Boaz, come to you every day and say, bless you? And you say, bless you.

He says, I got a job for you to do today. Well, can't you ask my brother? I learned a little poem in seminary. In the world's broad field of battle, in the bivouac of life, you will find the Christian soldier represented by his wife.

That's not always true. We have some fabulous Christian men. I thank God for them.

Sometimes it's the man who represents the wife. Sometimes it's the parents who represent the children. But God says to all of us who are living in the book of Ruth, we've been saved.

We've trusted Jesus. Get busy in the harvest. There's something for you to do.

Don't live on leftovers. Get busy in the harvest. You're in a wicked, evil, selfish, competitive world.

You're part of a love story. Now reach out and bring others in that they might know my love also. Well, one of these days, yesterday, will become tomorrow.

And this is what's going to happen. All of us need to change our names to Elimelech. My God is king.

And we need to sing that old hymn, king of my life, I crown thee now, thine shall the glory be. And then one day our king will come, and we'll see him in his beauty, and we'll hear him say, well done. Oh, Father, thank you for this Old Testament picture of future events.

Help us to be busy in the harvest. Help us to give ourselves at the feet of Jesus, the Lord of the harvest. And may some here who have never left the book of Judges for the book of Ruth do so tonight and come and meet their Redeemer.

I pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.