Manipulating Grace

Hope—it's a wonderful thing. It gives us a reason to press through all the anguish of life to something beyond. Hope carries us through the darkness to the dawn. Often, we try to move out of darkness on our own timeline, while God wants us to wait. The Book of Ruth teaches many lessons, as when Naomi gets frustrated waiting for God's plan to play out.

Today we hear three warnings against manipulating the timeline of God's grace. From Chicago, welcome to The Moody Church Hour with Pastor Philip Miller. Stay with us for a time of worship and teaching as a series continues on Mercies in the Shadows. We'll turn to Ruth chapter three to learn all about manipulating grace. Here now is Pastor Philip, along with worship leader Tim Stafford and assistant pastor Larry McCarthy.

Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to The Moody Church. We're so glad you've joined us today as we continue our series through the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament. And one of the things we tend to do when we're in trouble and we feel stuck in life is we can stop trusting in God, and start doing things our own way. And we're going to look at what that looks like today in our story, and the consequences that that come from that, and why it's always a bad idea not to trust God and to go off on our own and do our own thing.

So let's pray as we begin. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you provide us a way—a way of righteousness, a way of obedience, a way of faith. And even when that doesn't make sense to us, and we second guess what you're doing or what you've called us to do, it is always right for us to walk in obedience, even when we don't understand. Father, would you help us trust you enough to obey, even when we don't see why?

Help us today in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Let's sing about the promises of God. Amen. Standing on the promises that cannot fail, when the house of storms is down and fear is there, by the living Word of God I shall prevail.

Standing on the promises of God, standing, standing, standing on the promises of God. I'm standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises, I cannot fall. Trusting every moment to the Spirit's call, resting in my Savior as My hope in all, standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God.

My strength, standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God. I'm standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God. Amen, amen, blessed Lord.

Through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all, oh, I've learned to depend upon His word. I thank God for the mountains, and I thank Him for the valleys, and I thank Him for the storms He's brought me through. For if I never had a problem, I wouldn't know that God could solve them.

I wouldn't know what faith in God could do. Through it all, see now, through it all, through it all, oh, I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all, through it all, through it all, oh, I've learned to depend upon His word. Through it all, sing with me, through it all.

Through it all, through it all, I have learned to trust in Jesus. I have learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all, I have learned to depend upon His word. Oh, I. I've learned to depend upon His word.

Oh, I've learned to depend upon His word. What a friend we have in Jesus! Our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. All we weak and heavy laden, comforted with the Lord of Heaven.

Precious Savior, still I rend. You take me to the heart in prayer. Oh, what peace in Often for him, oh, I leave the same there, all because we do not pray. Everything to God in prayer. Father, we come into your presence, and we just pause to thank you for waking us up this morning.

Thank you for the fresh grace that you give us with each 24 hours. We don't have to make any of the mistakes we made yesterday. We thank you for the fresh hope that you give us every day, and we thank you, Father, for the truth of the gospel. We could spend all of eternity thanking you for the things that you've done, but Father, we pause now to just thank you for who you are. That you are a great God, a powerful God, a magnificent God, the true God.

And so we can come to you boldly, as Jesus has commanded us to, to cast all our burdens before you. And we come. Many are hurting now, Father.

Some people are afraid.

Some are frustrated and disappointed. Many have lost jobs, and they face tomorrow with. An uncertainty that we have not experienced before.

So we come now and we ask you to comfort those that are afflicted, to enable those that would now stand. That you would fill Pastor Miller with your Spirit this morning, that your Word would go forth with power and authority. Not that we would brag or boast, but that we might yet again bear witness to the truth of your Word and the power that it has to transform lives. We pray in the matchless name of Yeshua Jesus, our Savior and our King. And Amen.

Amen. Let us meditate on God's word this morning. A reading from Psalm 130. Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. O Lord, hear my voice.

Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy. If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord; my soul waits, and in His word I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning; more than watchmen for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is steadfast love. And with him is plentiful redemption. The Lord hears when we cry to him. Let's wait on the Lord. We can wait for him, for he keeps his promises with us.

Lord, from the depths I call to you. Lord, hear me from on high, and give attention to My voice, when not for mercy, cries. Out of the depths, I cry to You. In darkest places, I will call. Incline your ear to me anew, and hear my cry for mercy, Lord.

For you to count my sinful ways, how could I come before your throne? Yet for forgiveness, it's my case. I stand redeemed by grace, Lord. I will wait for you. Sure, will wait for you on your word.

I will rely. I will wait for you. Sure, will wait for you till my soul is satisfied.

So put your hope in God alone. Take courage in His power to save. Completely and forevermore, by Christ's mighty, mighty power. I will wait for you. I will wait for you on your word.

I will rely. I will wait for you. Sure, will wait for you till my soul is satisfied.

His steadfast love has made a way, and God Himself has paid the price that all who trust in Him today find healing in His sacrifice. I will wait for You. I will wait for You on Your word. I will. Till I, I will wait for you, surely wait for you, till my soul is satisfied.

I will wait for you, I will wait for you through the storm and through the night. I will wait for you, surely wait for you for your love. His mighty love. I wait, my soul waits for the Lord. My hope is in His word.

More than the watchman waits for dawn, my soul waits for the Lord. Lord, give us patience as we wait, and joy in the waiting. Knowing that all your promises are coming true, we believe your word. We hope in your word alone. In Jesus' name.

We walk with the Holy One. We stand with the Lord. We share in the name. We do this today. He rises to reign.

We walk with the Lord today. We stand with the Lord. We stand with the Lord today. We stand with the Lord today. We stand with the Lord today.

Here, at sight of mercy, every heart beats to the rhythm. The rhythm in which the Lord of Glory to the empty Jesus, unto the Away, and as we see, we will see that we see. All my mistakes away. I'm standing still, but we're dancing. We will go wherever we roam.

Just an open, just an open hand to hold our name. To be happy in each other's arms, just an open, just an open hand. Hope is a beautiful thing. It's the reason we press through all the hard things that life brings to us, all the pain, all the sorrow. It is the thing that keeps us going, doesn't it?

Hope is what carries us through the darkness to the dawn. And last week we saw Naomi's heart begin to beat with hope again for the first time and forever. It was nothing short of a miracle. This this woman who gave us her epitaph just a few verses before and said bitterness will be the story of my life. She has begun to hope again.

She's believing for the first time that her story isn't over, that God is still at work in her life, and that redemption is still possible even for her. And what was the trigger? It was the moment, if you remember, that Ruth came back with that overabundance of barley from her time of gleaning in the fields, and Naomi realized this is way more barley than anyone should have been able to gather in a single day.

Someone. Has been extraordinary in their kindness and grace toward Ruth, and then she learned his name. This is Boaz, and Naomi's heart started beating again in a way that she had scarcely allowed herself to hope before. Because Boaz was one of her relatives, one of Elimelech's kinsmen, and he was what they called in Hebrew a potential goel. A goel means a redeemer or a rescuer.

It's a technical Hebrew term that refers to the ancient Israelite practice of what is called levirate marriage. Levirate marriage was where, in the case of a man who died, leaving a woman widowed who did not have an heir, it fell to the unmarried brother of the man who died to actually marry her, secure her family, her line, to father a child in the name of the family who would inherit the property. It seems very strange to us this idea of levirate marriage, but in a world where property could only be passed down the male line, this was the way things were done. And if there wasn't a brother who could step in and fulfill this duty, it became a volunteer situation. Another relative could step in.

They didn't have to, but they could. No obligations here. And so when Naomi hears that Boaz is the one who has been kind to Ruth, her heart begins to start dreaming here. Perhaps Boaz, who has been incredibly kind, will be more than kind. Maybe he would volunteer to be a goel, a redeemer.

Maybe he would step in and rescue both Ruth and Naomi. Because if Boaz were to fall in love with Ruth, say, and be willing to pledge himself in marriage, their lives, their standing, their security, their future, their everything might change here. And so, as Ruth goes back to Boaz's fields day after day, week after week, month after month, it took about two months to bring in these harvests. This hope is stirring in Naomi's heart when she wakes up in the morning. It's what she's dreaming about.

It's when she's going about her chores during the day. It's what she's meditating on, and when she goes to bed at night, it's what she's praying about. And she's wishing and hoping and thinking and praying. There's a song there, isn't there? I think there is.

Anyway, and so she's beginning to wonder about redemption, and it becomes so real to her, so solid, so close in her mind, she can almost taste it. But now, two months have passed, and while Boaz has been generous and kind, nothing romantic has materialized out in the fields, and Naomi is starting to get anxious. The harvest is almost over; the long winter will set in, and Ruth and and Boaz will have very little reason to hang out from here on. And so, something has to happen soon, or all hope will be lost. Do you see what's happened here?

Naomi has a line of sight to the redemption of God, but now it's stalled out, and she's getting desperate. God, you got to hurry up here. You got to do something quick, or all hope will be lost. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been so close when there was something you were looking forward to, something that symbolized for you freedom and joy and life and security and redemption and hope, and it was right out there, was so close you could almost reach it and taste it and touch it?

Maybe you are longing to be married, and it just hasn't happened yet. Or maybe you were praying for relief, and it stays the same. Or maybe you were hoping for a breakthrough and everything stays stuck, or you're dreaming of better days, but reality is a stubborn thing. And here's the question: What do we do when we have a line of sight to hope and redemption and what God might do, and yet God has us waiting? What do we do in that moment?

We have to be so careful, friends.

So careful, especially when we're in grief, and we just want to get through it and get to the other side, because it's so easy in this moment to become restless and impatient and desperate and take matters into our own hands, give God a little push, and make something happen. And in fact, that's exactly what happens in our story today, and it serves as a warning to you and to me this morning.

So let's grab our Bibles. We're going to be in Ruth chapter three this morning. We're going to look at the first eight verses. But before we do that, would you bow your heads? Let's let's pray together.

Father, we thank you that you are so patient with us, and that your wisdom guides us in all the moments we face in life. Help us to learn today the dangers of stepping out beyond what you've called us to do. Help us to learn to trust you, to be patient and wait for you. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen, Amen. I'm going to read Ruth chapter three, verse one.

Then Naomi, her—that's Ruth's mother-in-law—said to her, "My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? Is not Boaz a relative with whose young women you were?" Now, just pause for a moment here. See Naomi in these opening questions, their leading questions. She's playing matchmaker here.

Okay, first question: Should I not seek rest for you, that it might be well with you? This echoes what she said back in chapter one, verse nine, when she released Ruth and Orpah to go back to their land and said, "The Lord grant that you find rest each in the house of your husband." So this rest here is marriage. It's stability. It's peace. It's companionship.

It's security. And she's meddling a bit here, isn't she? But she says, "Listen, I've got your best in mind. It's right for me to meddle here, but I have somebody in mind. Who is it, Naomi?

Question number two is not Boaz, our relative, the one whose young women you've been hanging around the last few weeks." And you can sort of see it here. Naomi's twinkle in her eyes is, "I've got a plan here, a scheme." Verse two, be here. See, he's winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.

Now, how does Naomi know this?

Well, she scoped it out. She has listened. She's asked questions of her friends, and she's got a plan here. Trust me, Naomi would say, "I've got." He'll be there. He'll be there.

Trust me, I have a plan. Look at verse three. Wash, therefore, and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak, and go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies.

Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. And he will tell you what to do.

Now, here's what's surprising to me. In chapter two, at the very end, when Ruth mentioned all the strapping young men who were in the fields that she got to hang around with, Naomi advised Ruth very wisely and said, "I want you to hang out with the young women, lest the young men take advantage of you." So Naomi, at the end of chapter two, is very concerned with Ruth's safety, with propriety that she do the right thing, not put herself in a vulnerable position. But just four verses later, here Naomi is advising Ruth to bathe and perfume herself. You know, make herself as alluring and as attractive as possible. In the Hebrew, there's overtones here of preparing even for for a honeymoon night.

Go down to the threshing floor. The threshing floors were secluded areas out in the fields. In the ancient Near East, they were notorious for hookups. Hide secretly, she says, until Boaz is all wine and dined up, and he's happy and content, and his guard is down. And then, under the cover of darkness, go cozy up to him in the middle of the night, and he will tell you what to do.

What is going on here? I mean, what's Happening. I mean, just just back up for one moment here, and pretend that Ruth is your daughter. Is this the advice you would give your daughter on how to go get a husband? No, absolutely not.

And yet, verse five, Ruth replies, "All that you say, I will do." So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother in law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. And then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. And at midnight the man was startled and turned over. And behold, a woman lay at his feet.

Of course, he was surprised here. Hella, what is going on?

Well, first of all. Naomi here is taking matters into her own hands. Can you see that? She has seen God's little mercies that have hinted at redemption that is coming. But after two months, Naomi is getting tired of waiting, and she's done.

She says, "Okay, God, if you're not going to get a move on, I will." And she's forcing a moment here. It's savvy and it works, but it's manipulative. The second thing that's going on here is Naomi is encouraging Ruth to fall back on her Moabite instincts here. After all, this is the Moabite way to get a man. If you know the history here, you will know that the Moabites were founded.

The story is from Genesis nineteen, when Lot was drunk and his daughters slept with him, and so the name Moab literally means Moab, who dad, who's your daddy, as a testimony to the scandal of how the people of Moab began. And just a few decades earlier, in Numbers twenty-five, when the Israelites were coming into the promised land, the Moabites were alarmed, and the women, the Moabite women, tried to seduce the Israelite men as a whole in order to derail the plans of God. And so the Moabite women, friends, were known for being enticing. They had a reputation, and the Israelite men were known for having a weakness for falling for Moabite women. And that's something that Naomi knows firsthand in watching her own sons Mahlon and Kilion fall for Ruth and Orpah.

And so, what's happening here is Naomi is sending Ruth to proposition Boaz to bathe and perfume, to put on her best clothing and avail herself to Boaz when he's happy from wine under the cover of darkness on the threshing floor in the middle of the night. And the Hebrew writer wants us to squirm a little bit here. And as a matter of fact, there's euphemisms all over this text. Reading the Hebrew will make you blush, and you can feel the tension and the scandal of it all. And you say, "Wait a minute!

I thought Ruth was a good girl.

Well, she is, but there's also a kind of risqué side to her as well." Do you remember in Matthew chapter one in the genealogy of Jesus? There are there are five women who are mentioned by name in that genealogy, and they're all of them strong women with a hint of scandal in the background.

So you have Tamar who seduced her father-in-law. You have Rahab the prostitute who, by the way, is Boaz's mom. Interesting. Then you have Ruth, our character here. You have Bathsheba, who had an affair with King David, and you have Mary, who has the scandal of an unwed pregnancy.

Of course, that's just by the Holy Spirit. There's no indiscretion on her part. But Matthew is highlighting these scandals on purpose because he's trying to say that scandal is no stranger to the redemptive plan of God. He's used it in the past, and he will continue to use it in. The future in Mary's life, but here's the point: Ruth is not the one exception in the list.

No, she fits in with the rest. Here, there's real scandal in what she's doing. This is not the right way to get a husband. But here's Naomi's line of thinking. She's thought this out.

If Boaz is with Ruth out in the field and then decides not to marry her, he'll want to keep this hushed up, and so Naomi and Ruth will be well taken care of in exchange for their silence. If Boaz is with Ruth and then decides I want to marry this girl, everybody wins. It all works out. If he's a man of strong character and says No, not now, but I will marry you later, then everything works out. If He says, "No, away with you!

What are you doing? How dare you come meet me like this in the middle of the field?" Well, they're not that much worse off, are they? They've gotten pretty much everything they can get from Boaz this harvest season, and they're just as destitute as they were before. They can't fall much lower on the social scale, and probably they'll have to resort to this kind of lifestyle in order to survive anyway.

Now. Spoiler alert! Everything does happen to work out, doesn't it? We'll see it next week. Boaz turns out to be a man of tremendous character, and he chooses to do the right thing in the right way here.

And God is incredibly merciful to Naomi and Ruth anyway. But listen, listen! It does not make what they did right here. They are not acting in faith in this moment. This is not full of trust and obedience in the way of God.

They are manipulating, they are scheming, they are controlling, and they are trying to get redemption, even if it means seduction and scandal. These are not examples we should follow. In fact, as I read this text, I see three warnings for us to keep in mind when we also have a line of sight to the redemption that God might bring into our life, and we're tired of waiting for it. Three warnings. Number one, first warning: we can pursue the right thing at the wrong time.

We can pursue the right thing at the wrong time. You know when we pray to God, one of the hardest things is when God tells us to wait. There's three ways He can answer our prayers. He can say yes, and then we're like, "Yay, God, thanks." Then He could say no, and we're like, "Oh, disappointed," but I can get over that. I trust You, God.

But the hardest one I think is when God says, "Wait." It's the right thing, and I'll bring it eventually. But right now, I need You to wait. Not now. And it's hard because in that waiting space, we can end up doing something really stupid. We may want to be married so badly, and God says wait.

And in our desperation, we lower our standards, and we settle things, and we rush, and we take shortcuts. Or maybe we need money, and God says wait. And in our desperation, we can grow dishonest. And steal and take shortcuts, or maybe we want relief from the pain, the sorrow, the grief we're experiencing, and we just want to get to the other side. And God says, "Not now." Wait.

And in our desperation, we can take matters into our own hands and take shortcuts. It's so dangerous. I'm reminded of First Samuel thirteen. The story of King Saul, who he and his army were pinned down by the Philistines, and Samuel, the prophet of God, had promised to come and meet him to make a sacrifice, so that God would bless them in their battle. And Samuel was delayed in coming, and Saul grew impatient in waiting, and decided, "I can't wait anymore.

I am going to do the sacrifice myself." And he assembled all the stuff, and he performed the sacrifice, and then Samuel showed up and said, "What on earth did you do? It's the right thing, wrong timing. Right thing, wrong timing. To obey is better than sacrifice." The famous line. And so, friends, here's the takeaway for us: we've got to wait upon God's perfect timing.

We've got to wait upon God's perfect timing. I wonder what would have happened if Naomi and Ruth had let things unfold just a little bit longer. If they had waited just a few more days and allowed God to work, I wonder what story might have unfolded. I wonder what would have happened, but we will never know, will we? And maybe God has you waiting right now, and you're tempted to rush ahead and get things moving.

But friends, listen to me. God makes all things beautiful in His time, and His time is always perfect. His time is always perfect, and so we wait on Him, we trust in Him, and we learn not to rush ahead of God. It's the first warning here. The second warning is that we can pursue the right thing in the wrong way.

We can pursue the right thing in the wrong way, friends. The ends do not justify the means, and God, listen. God will never call you to pursue a godly end in an ungodly manner. It is true that God has a beautiful plan of redemption for each and every one of our lives. That He is working always to bring hope and a future, and He calls us to walk in obedience as we cling to that hope of redemption.

In other words, faith—looking to what God will do—and obedience, being attentive and following Him in the now, go together. Faith and obedience, trust and obey. I'm again reminded of another story from the Old Testament, Genesis 16, where Abraham and Sarah learned this the hard way. God had promised Abraham and Sarah, "I'm going to make you a great nation." I will give you a son, and he will become a great people, and I will bless all the nations of the earth through you. But Abraham and Sarah, at this point in chapter sixteen, are still childless.

They've been waiting a long time; no child has been born. And Sarah concocts a plan and says, "Listen, I want you to father a child with my slave, with Hagar." This is a common custom in the ancient Near East. Pretty messed up. But they decide to have a kid the wrong way, right thing—an heir, a son, someone to multiply their line—but the wrong way, right thing, wrong way. And the story that comes out of that is a disaster of this rivalry between Sarah and Hagar, between Ishmael and and Isaac, and it's a huge mess down through history, even to this very day.

The dynamics that started in that error, and so friends, we learn. Here's our takeaway: we learn to submit ourselves to God's perfect will, submit to God's perfect will. Friends, God has a beautiful, redemptive, and hope-filled story for you as you follow after Jesus. Don't compromise, friends. Don't take shortcuts.

Trust and obey, as the song says. Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

Now the third warning here is that we can pursue the right thing with the wrong heart. We can pursue the right thing with the wrong heart. See, the real issue underneath all these other issues of timing and approach here is an issue of the heart. The question is, where will Naomi and Ruth find their ultimate, true, and real security in life? Where will they look?

Will they trust in God's redeeming love and do things His way, or will they trust in a man's redeeming love and get it however they can get it? And both Naomi and Ruth falter in this moment under pressure. They view Boaz as their greatest hope, as their greatest redeemer, as their greatest security in life. And Boaz is a great guy. Don't get me wrong.

Boaz is awesome, but Boaz is not their hope in life. Their hope in life lies not in Boaz, but in the Lord God Himself, under whose wings they have come to take refuge and shelter. It is the Lord God who is their greatest security. It is the Lord God who is the real satisfier of their souls. It is the Lord God who will give them the significance and place in the community that they need most of all.

It is true that God is going to use Boaz to embody for Ruth and Naomi all the provision and kindness and redemption of God. But friends, Boaz is the gift; God is the giver, and there's a huge difference. And friends, this is the essence of idolatry wherever we find it: idol worship. It's when we mistake the gift for the giver. When we look to anything other than God to find security, satisfaction, significance in life, when we root our ultimate sense of things in something other than God, we have made an idol and we have started to worship it.

And that's what's happened here. Naomi and Ruth have made a kind of idol out of Boaz and the redemption that he has to offer here. And so they will do whatever it takes to get him. It reminds me of another story from the Old Testament, and that's the story of Jacob, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, in the line there. Jacob knew that God's blessing was on his life.

There was a prophecy over his life that the older Esau would serve the younger Jacob, and so Jacob grows up with this sense of identity. That he will be blessed of God, but then he decides I've got to go get this blessing on my own, and so he tricks Esau, he connives to have Esau sell him his birthright for a bowl of soup in Genesis twenty-five, and then he deceives his own father Isaac in the dark in the tent to get the firstborn's blessing in Genesis twenty-seven, because for Jacob the blessing of God was more important than having God Himself. He wanted the things of God more than the person of God and a relationship with Him, and so he manipulates and he schemes and he. And the story of Jacob is where God ultimately has to wrestle Jacob down to the ground in Genesis thirty-two and pin him down, because Jacob has to learn that there is no blessing without God Himself. God is the blessing.

And God cannot give His blessing without giving Himself, and God will not respond to manipulation, to control, to coercion, to any sort of thing that Jacob might do here. He's tricky, and God has to wrestle him down so that Jacob realizes, in the end, that God is the blessing, and he can only have God by grace. As a gift, in who God is, and that's exactly what is happening in this story. God will teach Ruth and Naomi. We'll see this next week that there is no redemption without God.

That God is redemption. That His presence is what they need. And friends, this is. What we're learning as well, our takeaway is that we've got to rest in God's perfect sufficiency. We've got to rest in God's perfect sufficiency.

When we're tempted to to cut corners, to rush ahead, to compromise, to settle or sell out, it's usually friends because we believe something or someone can give us the security, the satisfaction, and the significance that our souls ultimately long for. We've made an idol, but here's the truth, and you know this: God is our portion. And He is more than enough for us. He is our true satisfaction. He is our greatest security.

He is our ultimate significance. He's the only one who can really redeem and bring joy and life to our souls. And He's more than enough for us. You know, Jesus. Face the similar kind of moment that Naomi and Ruth face here.

It's very different, but it's kind of similar. In Matthew chapter four, when Satan himself came and tempted Jesus, he tempted Jesus to do the right thing at the wrong time and in the wrong way. That's what those temptations were. Make this bread. It's not a problem for Jesus to make bread.

He makes bread later. But not here, not now, not that way. Throw yourself off the temple; God will save you from death. Did you know God saved Jesus from death? He did in resurrection morning.

It's the right thing, wrong time, wrong way. Come, you know, bow down and worship me. Satan says, and I'll give you the praise of the nations, the inheritance of all the peoples of the earth. You know, Jesus will inherit all the nations. He is the rightful heir to all of creation.

Right thing, wrong time, wrong way. And Jesus persevered and was faithful to God in the midst of all that pressure. Where Naomi and Ruth and you and I and so many of us fail, Jesus was faithful, friends. And this is good news for us. It's really good news.

See, Jesus trusted God's perfect timing. Jesus submitted to God's perfect will. Jesus rested in God's perfect sufficiency for him, didn't he? And the good news is this: Listen, our hero is not Ruth. Our hero is not Naomi.

Our hero is not our own selves or the best people we know, because at the end of the day, we all fail, we all sin, we all fall short of the glory of God. And the only hero left standing in all the Bible is Jesus Christ, the only righteous one who was faithful to the very end in all the fire and all the trial and all the temptation and all the moments. Jesus is enough, and be. Because his righteousness has covered us, God is gracious beyond anything we ever deserve. Because salvation, redemption, is by grace through faith in Christ, and so Ruth and Naomi here do not deserve the beautiful redemptive story they get to live into.

But then again, neither do you, and neither do I. We are all of us trophies of grace because of the faithfulness of Jesus, and that changes us, doesn't it? It teaches us to wait upon God's perfect timing. If Jesus waited, we can learn to wait. It teaches us to submit to God's perfect will.

If Jesus submitted, we can learn to do that too. And if Jesus rested in God's perfect sufficiency, then we're learning to do that as well. And so, because of Jesus' faithfulness, friends, now we can learn to walk in faithfulness as well, by the power of His grace and mercy. This is the only way redemption ever comes, is by grace. We can't control it.

We can't manipulate it. We can't coerce and scheme. We can only ask, seek, and knock. It's the only way it works. Would you bow your heads and pray with me this morning, Father?

We confess that so often we we meddle, we scheme, we Try to manipulate and control and bargain and try to take ownership of the outcomes in life, and that's not how mercy and grace work. Help us to lay down our schemes, our striving, all the wrestling. And just trust you. Wait upon you. Surrender and submit to you.

This isn't a passiveness where we stop doing anything, but it means that everything that we do is full of trust and faith. We do things at the right time, in the right way, and with the right heart. Father, give us your mercy and grace today. Wherever we are, whatever we face, wherever we're stuck, whatever griefs we bear, Father, we invite your presence. We ask that we would yield to you, surrender ourselves to you.

We ask for your mercy and grace, your kindness. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. On today's Moody Church Hour, we heard Pastor Philip Miller teaching on manipulating grace with three warnings against trying to do so. This has been Sermon Number Five in a series on Mercies in the Shadows.

Sometimes doing the right thing is the very last thing we feel like doing. When the pressure's on, we discover the kind of character we have. We discover who we are.

Next time, Philip Miller shows us four bold moves of obedience that become the only way to get the Lord's blessings. It was Corey Ten Boom who said, "There is no pit that is so deep that God is not deeper still." Failure is like a pit, and Erwin Lutzer has written a book he calls "Failure: The Back Door to Success." This life-changing book will be sent as our gift when you give a gift of any amount to support The Moody Church Hour. Just call us at one eight hundred two one five five zero zero one. That's one eight hundred two one five five zero zero one. Online, go to MoodyChurchHour dot com.

That's MoodyChurchHour dot com, or write to us at Moody Church Media. Sixteen thirty-five North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois six zero six one four. Ask about failure: the backdoor to success. Join us next week for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Philip Miller and the congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.