Today, on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe, I call this title of this final message on Ruth the Hidden Hand of God. Let's turn in our Bibles to Ruth chapter 4. And read from verse 13 through 22, and learn that above the dark clouds, God's hand, hidden it is true, but loving. His loving hand is at work in unimaginable Welcome to The Verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. Do you sometimes feel invisible?
Too boring, too ordinary, too insignificant to be noticed? Today on the verdict, we're concluding our study of Ruth and celebrating that our great God is always active in our lives and using ordinary people for extraordinary things.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe to introduce today's lesson.
Well, today is the last in our study of Ruth. I love this book, and I hope you have found this study to be helpful. and encouraging. In these troubled and uncertain times it's easy to be fearful. Many of you know first hand about suffering, pain, disappointment.
But in Ruth we have examples of those who shelter under the Lord's wings in the most difficult of circumstances. and to day we'll learn about the wonderful end of the story. This ordinary widow from Moab is chosen by God to play a role in the royal line of Israel. and in his larger redemptive plan for the whole world. Remember the story of Ruth.
and allow it to encourage you now and in the future. Let's learn to continue to love and trust God even when His hand is hidden. Prose 4, then verse 13.
So Boas took Ruth. And she became his wife. And he went into her And the Lord enabled her to conceive And she gave birth to a son. Then the woman said to Naomi, Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a Redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel. May He also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age.
For your daughter-in-law who loves you and is better to you than seven sons. Has given birth to him. Then the omega took the child and laid him in her lap. and became his nurse. And the neighbor woman gave him a name, saying, A son has been born to Naomi.
So they named him Obad. He is the father of Jesse. The father. of David Now these are the generations of Perez. To Perez was born Hezron, and to Hezron was born Ram, and to Ram Abinadab, and to Abinadab was born Nashon, and to Nashon Salman, and to Salman was born Boaz.
and to Boaz Obed. and to Obed was born Jesse. and to Jesse David. We see in this wonderful story of Ruth and the unfolding of God's purposes that God blesses ordinary people. God blesses ordinary people as they trust Him.
And they obey him. Putting it another way, God blesses those who find their shelter and their refuge. Wonder His wings. The smile of God, which once had been hidden, now brilliantly shines in these extraordinary ways. In the ordinary lives, of ordinary people, and as they trust him.
And as they obey him, But also, we see this principle. We can frame it the same principle in another way: that God is working out His purposes. through the lives of ordinary people. Truly saying the same thing another way. God is working out his purposes.
Through the lives of ordinary Ordinary people. Here, Obed, this little boy is born. What a heritage he has. His godly parents. He has a godly grandmother now in Naomi.
He is As the woman said, verse fifteen, He's going to be the restorer of life. and the sustainer of Naomi's old age. God's taken care of her. And this little boy Born to Boaz and Ruth, is going to be the grandfather of whom. Israel's greatest king.
King David, the man after God's own heart. What a story of God's amazing grace. Remember that this story, the story of Ruth, takes place at the time of the judges. A dark time spiritually for Israel. A time when everyone does what is right in his own eyes.
It is true throughout the judges God raises up godly judges, but whenever they die, the people revert to their idolatry and their immorality. It's a very dark time, and no doubt the godly remnants in Israel are asking of where is the deliverer going to come from? If they knew their Bibles, they knew that God had promised that one day there would be a king for Israel that would rule over him. Where is this king going to come from? Where is this godly spiritual leader to come from?
Is he going to be born in Jerusalem, the capital? Is it going to be the product of some of the great families of Israel? Ah, but God's as always, there is never panicking. God is working His mysterious weighs his wonders perform. What is God going to do?
God chooses someone from Moab.
Someone, in fact, who is not part of the chosen people, someone who is outside of the Commonwealth of Israel. He takes a Gentile and an unknown woman at that. Ruth. and Rose This one-time pagan Moabites, this one-time widow, this individual who was barren for ten years, he takes this woman, this most unlikely woman. and she is going to be the great grandmother.
of Israel's greatest king. King. David. And this amazing king that's going to come into the scene. In a few generations, King David is going to be born, of course, not in Jerusalem.
But he's going to be born in this little insignificant town. called Bethlehem, the very place who are all bad. This born. Amazingly, this young mobitess Ruth becomes a vital part in the outworking. of redemptive history leading to the birth.
of King David. And the chosen royal line is not preserved by some of the judges or the priests or the prophets. Of all the women that God could have chosen as the great-grandmother of King David, the greatest king in Israel. He chooses Ruth. A poor Mobile tests.
former widow. Can we reverently say How like God to do that? Isn't that just like caught? to work in ways that we never ever could imagine. God and His providence.
Using ordinary, seemingly insignificant people in ordinary, insignificant places like Moab, like Bethlehem. Lake Charlotte, North Carolina. But people Who trusts him? People who obey him. People who live their lives not dictated by the society or by the culture or by what is personally expedient.
but by radical, radical faith in unbelievable ways. God blesses those who shelter under his wings. And so, in the difficult circumstances of life. When life is the most bitter to you. In the most confusing circumstances of life, you like Naomi, you like Ruth.
Maybe the source. of incredible blessings. to others. All bad. the son of Boas and Ruth, is of course as we read he's in the royal line.
Did you think it's strange the way this book read? You say it would make a pretty poor movie, wouldn't it, to end with a genealogy? Kind of boring, isn't it? Not at all. if you understand what's going on.
Morris writes, the ten names in the genealogy from verse 18 through 22, there are ten names. The ten names in the genealogy are contrasted with ten infertile years in Moab. A genealogy doesn't seem a very exciting way to end a book of drama, of romance, of faith, of action. Ah, but this genealogy is, of course, vital for an understanding of Ruth and vital for understanding the story of the Bible. In Genesis forty-nine, verse ten.
It is prophesied that the coming king is going to come from the tribe of Judah. Judah, one of the sons of Jacob, Judah is the royal tribe. Look at verse twelve of Root four. Paras mentioned here Ruth four verse twelve moreover, may your house Be like the house of Perez, whom Tamor bore to Judah, through the offspring which the Lord shall give you by this young woman. A statement.
To boas. Perez is the son of Judah and is one of the forefathers of Boaz, verse eighteen.
Now these are the generations of Perez. Who's Perez? He's the son of Judah.
Now these are the generations of Perez. And it goes right down. to include Boas. And so in the closing verses, We are given the royal line. which concludes with Boas All bad?
Jesse? and king David. Salmon, Boaz's father, was married to another unlikely character, was married to Rahab. the prostitute. Also a Gentile but a woman of faith.
God is again bringing the most unlikely and the most unexpected of people to bring blessings to others. Isn't that a great encouragement? For people like you and me, Don't say you're too insignificant for God to use. Don't say you're too poor. Don't say you're too uneducated, unconnected, from the wrong country, from the wrong tracks, as it were, for God to use you.
No, God is working out His purposes. Through the lives of ordinary people. like you. And like me. And when we come and the unfolding purposes of God, to the first chapter of the New Testament.
Can I ask you to turn there in the New Testament. The first book in the New Testament is Matthew. Testament meaning covenant. We've been reading in the Old Covenant. How is the New Covenant going to begin?
How does Matthew 1 begin? It begins with another genealogy. I hope when you're reading through your Bible, you don't skip over that. No, read them. It is the genealogy Not of King David, but of David's greater son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew one verse one The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The sun of David The son of Abraham. To Abraham was born Isaac, and to Isaac Jacob, and to Jacob Judah why Judah? Judah the royal line, as we've seen, and his brothers. And to Judah were born Perez and Zerah by Tamer.
And to Perez was born Hezron, and to Hezron Ram. If some of these names sound familiar, it's because we've just read them at the end of Ruth 4. And to Ram was born Abinadab, and to Abinadab Nashon, and to Nashon Salman, and to Salmon was born Boaz by Rahab, there is the Gentile former prostitute. And to Bilaz was born Obeyed by Ruth. and to obed G S A And to Jesse was born David They came.
Isn't that amazing? Obed is the father of Jesse, who in turn is the father of David. Israel's great king. This is the royal line. And this genealogy, we won't read it all, but it continues until the birth of Jesus, who's called the Christ.
Skip down to verse sixteen. Matthew one sixteen Same genealogy. including Boas, Obed, Jesse, David. Matthew 1:16, and to Jacob was born Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom was born Jesus The Christ. Amazing.
When you begin to study your Bible. That our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, the ultimate Redeemer, the ultimate kingsman, Redeemer, is born not in a palace in Jerusalem. But he's born in a stable in Bethlehem. J. Vernon McGee writes: If Ruth does not get into the right field and meet Boaz and marry him, you can tell the wise men not to come.
There will be no birth in Bethlehem he is right. Isn't this mind blowing? Leaving Moab. Naomi and Ruth would have been amazed if they had known about the marriage awaiting Ruth and the birth of this wee boy, Obed, particularly when Ruth had been barren for ten years. These are unbelievable blessings.
Grace. lavished upon lavish Grace.
Well to God. We love and we serve. who is working out His purposes, often with a hidden hand. And again and again, not only in Scripture but in our own life, I trust you've experienced this. Again and again, God surprises us with His amazing grace.
And so this book opens with three funerals, but it ends with a birth. The family line will continue. Never in the wildest dreams of Ruth and Naomi would he ever have thought that the offspring of Ruth and Boas would be in the royal line. Leading not only to the birth of Israel's greatest king David, but leading to the birth. of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
and that down through the centuries, another woman, another young woman, another woman of radical faith, another woman of excellence, another woman who trusts God and obeys God, although in the midst of confusion, This young woman Mary. is going to leave her homeland. Nazareth. and is going to make what must have been a long journey down to where? To Bethlehem.
Where there is going to be born. the Saviour. of the world. And that she is going to give birth to David's greater son. our Lord and Saviour.
Jesus Christ. What have we learned from Ruth? We've learned that we don't believe in the God of the deist, a God who creates the heavens and the earth and then withdraws from his creation. separate and remote from the world. We don't believe in secularism, which holds that man is master of his own destiny.
We reject the New Age mysticism, the so called New Age spirituality with its belief that the answer to all of our problems and questions and needs are found deep within. No, we reject that. We reject materialism and hedonism with their pursuit for the accumulation of stuff. and their pursuit of the accumulation of personal pleasure. The We're certainly not fatalists with a what will be will be mentality, no, as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe in the goodness of God. And in the power of our sovereign God, who with infinite tenderness and grace watches over us. It's true that much of life we don't understand, but we take the unanswered questions in our life and we take our hurts and our disappointments and our despairs and commit them all to the Lord, knowing that he is always working for our good and for his glory. Knowing. That God is always at his best.
When we are at their worst. At the end of World War two, the Allied forces swept through Germany. searching farms and houses for snipers, In the basement of an abandoned house on a crumbling wall, a victim of the Holocaust has scratched the star of David. and beneath it had written these words I believe in the sun. Even when it does not shine.
I believe in love even when it is not shown. I believe in God even when He does not speak. And we could add And we believe in God even when His hand is hidden. When we shelter under the wings of the Lord, God blesses us more than we can think or imagine. Will you today find your refuge and your shelter under his wings?
Will you today Come. to the Saviour, David's greater son. who, through his redemptive work, as he comes as the Saviour of the world, born in this little insignificant town of Bethlehem, in fulfilment of God's redemptive purposes, as God down through this century with his hand, often hidden, at superintended events, so at the right time At the right place. Our Saviour comes into time and space and comes to pay the price for your sins and mine as he dies on the cross, as he rises again and is eternally alive. And the word of God says that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
Isn't it time? That you called upon the name of the Lord. And so we're saved. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ Will you today afresh? Thank God for His sovereign purposes, and Will you love and trust him with all of your heart, knowing that God is ordering your steps in ways that you can never imagine?
And that God's hand, although sometimes hidden, is always a hand of love. and a hand. of blessing. And so, what may be the worst experience, the most bitter, the most difficult, the most confusing circumstance of life that you could ever imagine may be the source. of the greatest blessing for you.
and forever. And not till we get to heaven will we fully understand how God in His marvelous providence is working out His story. That's history, isn't it? His story, using real people, ordinary people like you and me in the routine of life to further His eternal purposes.
So keep seeking. your refuge under his wings That means that you humble yourself. before the Lord. That you turn from your self-reliance that you set aside your own blueprint for your life. And that you humble yourself before the Lord, knowing that He is infinitely wiser, infinitely more powerful, and loving.
And as purposes that you know nothing about, as your life and mine intersect with others, that we would be the source of blessings to others, all under the sovereign purposes. of God.
Now to do that You must trust them. Will you trust them? Will you trust the Lord in that circumstance? You're worrying.
Some bitterness has begun.
some anger at people, at God, at circumstances. We commit all of that to the Lord. and trust them. You say it's hard, I would think of who God is. Think of his wisdom, think of his love, think of his care, think of his tenderness to you, think of the way he has saved you, forgiven your sins.
Commit your way to the Lord, trust him and. Will you obey him? Don't go against his word. Obey him. Turn from your sin, confess your sin, and obey him.
Live a holy life. And then God Well bless you. in incredible ways. That's the message Of Ruth. And that is why I hope is in the Lord, our Father.
We think how our enemy seeks to distract us. But your word tells us to trust in the Lord with all of our heart and to lean not in our own understanding. And to acknowledge you in all of our ways, and you will direct our paths. There are brothers and sisters here, Father, who need your direction, who need your comfort. There are those here who need to turn from their sin.
There are those who here who are worrying and bitterness and perhaps anger has come into their soul. May they know that their hope is not in their circumstances, but their hope is in the Lord. There are others here, Father, who have never yet. Come to Christ, the Saviour of the world. And as they listen to these truths, they may seem very remote, very academic.
May they experience your forgiveness as they trust Jesus Christ. As they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. With all of their hearts. Speak to each one of us, Father. Yeah.
The power of your word and through the power of your Holy Spirit, as we ask it. in the name of David's greater son. Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen. This is the verdict with Pastor Jean Monroe, and the end of a message titled The Hidden Hand of God.
Today's lesson is the final chapter of our study in Ruth.
So, if you want to go back and revisit any part of our series, remember you can do that anytime by going online to theverdict.org. And as we wrap up our series, Enruth, we want to remind you that there's still time to get your free copy of the special listing guide that goes along with this study. Full of bonus content and exclusive notes from John. This insightful listening guide will challenge you with engaging questions and inspiring prompts so that you can review and apply what you've learned to your day-to-day life. Just go to our website to request your free copy of the Ruth Listening Guide.
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And then, as we close, we invite you to join us in person for Sunday worship at Calvary Church, home of the verdict. We're located at the corner of Highway 51 and Ray Road in South Charlotte. To find directions and details, just visit our website at theverdict.org. And now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? We've learned many lessons. And while you may have unanswered questions, I trust you believe in our great sovereign God, who with infinite tenderness and grace is watching over you. God's hand at the moment may be hidden, but it is always a loving hand of blessing.
So keep your eyes on our Lord. Tomorrow we return to encountering Jesus from the Gospel of John. We're thinking of the personal encounters Jesus had with various peoples and seeing how their lives are forever changed. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies.
Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
