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Chartridge Mission Church
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The book of Ruth is many people's favourite in the Bible. It tells the story of a young widow who decides to leave her famine-stricken pagan country of Moab and follow her Mother-in-Law into the promised land in search of food. It is a tale of bereavement, love, and new beginnings. We are blessed at Chartridge Mission Church to have Award-winning International speaker and author David Duffett present the first chapter in our series on Ruth.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeLtfVhcCUFtiq9aekV3xebfuAa02NoeI

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nerd-Thats-Heard-David-Duffett/dp/1068384840/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ZFP6VQH977VA&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.b1APXEE2SlcJaJTT-JUSZGTLVVJZ9hxUqvrnKBFibVx22pqwpwsqTMIJjc7oB8SgTg-w9vzEqjIe7r-wAETifA.slCYcwnJWTAjOl6hVGW1DclNIC9KJEgVyksR-aJlj-I&dib_tag=se&keywords=david+duffett&qid=1746692747&sprefix=david+duffett%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-1

Chartridge Mission Church was founded in 1844 and remains in the village of Chartridge, just outside Chesham, in the picturesque Chiltern Hills of Buckinghamshire, England, UK.

We are a friendly fellowship and would love you to visit us in person. Join us for our Sunday service at 6 pm, followed by refreshments.

Our Church is wheelchair friendly, with an accessible toilet.

Chartridge Mission Church, Chapel Lane, Chartridge, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, HP5 2TH

Support our work at Chartridge Mission Church:

Donations via Stewardship.org.uk:

https://www.stewardship.org.uk/partners/20005300

Cheques can be made payable to Chartridge Mission Church and sent to the above address for the attention of Pastor Barry Kempson.

Filmed on Sunday, 4th May 2025.

Join us for our Sunday service at 6 pm.

www.Chartridge.UK

The Friendliest Fellowship.
Transcript
00:00Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
00:05Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
00:11Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
00:17No turning back, no turning back.
00:24Hello there, good evening.
00:27Welcome along.
00:28It's a privilege to be with you this evening, to spend some time in the house of the Lord
00:33and to look at his word and sing spiritual songs, which is a wonderful thing.
00:39Well, it's lovely to be with you.
00:41I bring greetings, well some of them are here actually, I was going to say I bring greetings
00:45from the people of Quainton, but we've got Geoff here and Ken there and Annie here, but everybody
00:51else sends their best regards as well.
00:54Well, we're very grateful for the kind of link that there is between Quainton and Chartridge
01:00and it's a privilege to be here.
01:02And I was delighted to have the opportunity, the privilege, to come and share about the
01:08Book of Ruth.
01:08We're starting a series, aren't we, in May that Andy has organised and each Sunday, I think
01:17this month, you'll be looking at a different chapter of the Book of Ruth and I have the
01:21privilege of kicking things off with Ruth chapter one.
01:24And as you know, the Book of Ruth is a lovely book.
01:27It's very often people's favourite book because of some of the wonderful things that are contained
01:32therein, the love and the loyalty and the faithfulness and all of the things that we read
01:38there.
01:39And so it's really a delight to be here.
01:42Let's turn to it, shall we, and read all of chapter one.
01:45Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land and
01:51a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his
02:00two sons.
02:01And the name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife, Naomi, and the name of his
02:08two children, Marlon and Chilion, or Kilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem Judah.
02:16And they came into the country of Moab and continued there.
02:20And Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died and she was left and her two sons.
02:26And they took them wives of the women of Moab.
02:31The name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other, Ruth.
02:35And they dwelled there about ten years.
02:39And Marlon and Chilion died also, both of them.
02:43And the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.
02:48Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab,
02:54for she had heard in the country of Moab how the Lord had visited his people in giving them
02:59bread.
02:59Wherefore, she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters with her.
03:07And they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah.
03:11And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's house.
03:19The Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead and with me.
03:24The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband.
03:31Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept.
03:36And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.
03:43And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters.
03:46Why will you go with me?
03:47Are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
03:52Turn again, my daughters.
03:54Go your way.
03:55For I am too old to have a husband, if I should say I have hope, and if I should have a husband
04:03also tonight, and should also bear sons.
04:06Would ye tarry for them till they were grown?
04:10Would ye stay for them from having husbands?
04:13Nay, my daughters.
04:14For it grieveth me much for your sakes, that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me.
04:19And they lifted up their voice and wept again.
04:23And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her.
04:29And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods.
04:34Return thou after thy sister-in-law.
04:37And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or return from following after thee.
04:45For whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge.
04:50Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.
04:55Where thou diest, I will die, and there I will be buried.
04:59The Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death, part thee and me.
05:05When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left, speaking unto her.
05:13So they too went until they came to Bethlehem.
05:16And it came to pass, when they would come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them.
05:22And they said, Is this Naomi?
05:24And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara.
05:28For the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
05:31I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty.
05:36Why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me.
05:46So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab.
05:54And they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of the barley harvest.
05:58Now, a very familiar passage, I'm sure, to many of us, because it's lovely to read the Book of Ruth.
06:05And so I'm sure we've probably read it on a good few occasions.
06:08But we'll come back to this later, and we'll go through it.
06:12But before we do that, I would like to give a little bit of background about it as well.
06:19Now, the Book of Ruth.
06:22Since we're starting today, we're kicking off the Book of Ruth, as it were.
06:27And I'd like to look at a bit of a background to it before we actually come to the book itself.
06:33Starting this series, there's a couple of passages I'd like to look at in Genesis that provide some background to what we've read in Ruth chapter 1.
06:43One is very highly relevant, and one's perhaps more an in-passing kind of reference.
06:48The title for the talk today, the message today, is Lot, Loss, Love, and Loyalty.
07:01That's Lot, Loss, Love, and Loyalty.
07:06So let's go to the first of those two Genesis passages.
07:11And if you've not looked at it before, I think you're going to find it quite shocking.
07:15If you are familiar with it, you'll know that it's a description of something very unwholesome indeed.
07:21Genesis chapter 19.
07:24And I'm just going to read the passage between verses 30 and 38.
07:29So it's Genesis chapter 19 and verses 30 all the way through to 38.
07:35And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him.
07:41For he feared to dwell in Zoar, and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
07:47And the firstborn said unto the younger,
07:50Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth, to come in unto us after the manna of all the earth.
07:58Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him,
08:03that we may preserve the seed of our father.
08:07And they made their father drink wine that night.
08:10And the firstborn went in, and lay with her father.
08:14And he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
08:19And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger,
08:23Behold, I lay yesternight with my father.
08:27Let us make him drink wine this night also, and go thou in, and lie with him,
08:33that we may preserve the seed of our father.
08:36And they made their father drink wine that night also.
08:40And the younger arose, and lay with him.
08:42And he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
08:46Thus were both daughters of Lot, with child, by their father.
08:52And the firstborn, bear a son, and called his name Moab.
08:56The same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.
09:01And the younger, she also bear a son, and called his name Ben-Ami.
09:06The same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
09:10So, unwholesome though it is, I'm sure you'll understand why I wanted to read that.
09:15Because that is where we find Moab, the father of the Moabites.
09:20And Ruth, of course, was a Moabite-ess.
09:24It's pretty grim, isn't it?
09:26And as a little background, on this background, of this passage,
09:32it comes hot on the heel of Lot and his daughters being rescued from Sodom.
09:36I'm sure you remember the passage where these angels came along and they stayed with Lot.
09:43And you remember the men of the city wanted to know the angels.
09:47And in another very grim happening, Lot was prepared to put his daughters out there, wasn't he?
09:53To say, look, these daughters, they've never known men.
09:56Have them.
09:57I mean, this is all pretty horrendous stuff.
10:00So, Lot is in this awful situation right after he's been rescued.
10:08Rescued from the horror of Sodom and Gomorrah and now in this very grim situation.
10:16Now, you might remember that before this, Noah had also ended up in a weird situation.
10:21He was rescued.
10:22He built the ark, didn't he, under God's instructions.
10:25And right after he'd been rescued and the ark had come to rest and they were carrying on,
10:32he was seen naked by one of his sons.
10:35It's another kind of weird happening.
10:37And just as a side note, I think this is one of the many pointers to the veracity of the Bible.
10:45If you were coming up with a book of stories to try and brainwash people into believing things,
10:50I don't think you would include these very odd, vulgar and seemingly peripheral events.
11:01If one were writing a book to brainwash people, you wouldn't waste space on things like that.
11:08So, there's been sin after Noah's rescue and there's been sin after Lot's rescue.
11:15Jesus mentioned the days of Noah and the days of Lot when he talked about the end times.
11:23And I do wonder whether there is some kind of parallel with what's going on in the world today.
11:29Because not so long ago in world history, we were spectacularly rescued from God's judgment ourselves, weren't we?
11:37Not by a physical ark, not by angels yanking us to get us out of the way of fire and brimstone,
11:47but by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
11:50And I wonder if there's anything in particular that is our Noah or our Lot moment.
11:57Perhaps something to talk about for another time there.
12:00Anyway, we've covered the fact that Moab is both the son and grandson of Lot at the same time.
12:10A bit weird.
12:12Born out of an incestuous union between Lot and one of his daughters.
12:16So, keep that in mind as we come towards the book of Ruth.
12:19But I want to drop in on one other passage on our way to Ruth as well.
12:23It's still in Genesis and now it's Genesis 38, 6 to 11.
12:28And Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.
12:33And Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him.
12:39And Judah said unto Onan, Go in to thy brother's wife and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
12:47And Onan knew that the seed should not be his.
12:50And it came to pass when he went in unto his brother's wife,
12:54but he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
12:58And the thing which he did displeased the Lord, wherefore he slew him also.
13:04Then said Judah to Tamar, his daughter-in-law,
13:08Remain a widow in thy father's house till Shelah my son be grown.
13:14For, he said, lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did.
13:19And Tamar went and dwelled in her father's house.
13:23Now, you know that there's a lot more to that story, but we'll leave it there.
13:28I just wanted to highlight that one verse, 11.
13:32Then said Judah to Tamar, his daughter-in-law,
13:36Remain a widow at thy father's house till Shelah my son be grown.
13:41For, he said, lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did.
13:46And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.
13:49So, in other words, Tamar was told to wait.
13:53And I'd just like to highlight that as we get to Ruth.
13:58Now, we can come to the actual story of Ruth,
14:01but I just wanted to give that as some background information.
14:04So, turning to Ruth, we'll go through some of the happenings in that first chapter.
14:10Or we read that there's a famine in the land during the time of the judges.
14:14Judges, it's contemporary with the first half of the book of Judges.
14:19As you know, it comes straight after the book of Judges.
14:22And this book of Ruth is a contrast,
14:26because in the book of Judges, there's a lot of unhelpful happenings,
14:29lots of blood and things like that.
14:31And then we've got this amazing story of love.
14:34And this famine that we read about could well have been a judgment from God,
14:39because the Israelites had not been following God's instructions
14:43once they'd occupied the land of Canaan.
14:47So, we read that a certain man decided to move his family out of Bethlehem.
14:56Of course, Bethlehem, as you perhaps know, translates to house of bread, Bethlehem.
15:02So, it's a bit ironic, isn't it, that this certain man was moving his family
15:07out of the house of bread, because he didn't think there was enough bread, to Moab.
15:12And why would you go to Moab?
15:14Now, of course, in this day and age, if you were thinking to go somewhere,
15:18you'd Google it, wouldn't you?
15:19You'd get on there, tap it in, find out, you know, what TripAdvisor said,
15:23and what the reports were.
15:24And I wonder if you did that about Moab, what would come up?
15:28Sexual immorality, false God worship, you know, lots of bad things in the previous 400 years,
15:35and you might think better of it.
15:37But this was not something that Moab had the ability to do.
15:44But we do have to ask, did he consult with the Lord?
15:48Did Moab ask the Lord, you know, where should I go?
15:51Because I don't think he did.
15:53He had consulted with the Lord.
15:55He'd probably have been told to stay where he was, in the house of bread.
16:00So was this move God's will?
16:02I'm not sure that it was.
16:04And these are not just questions for him.
16:08They're questions for us, aren't they?
16:09When things get tough for us, and we decide action needs to be taken,
16:14do we consult God?
16:17Do we ask the Lord for direction in the first place?
16:21Or do we come to the Lord last, when all of our plans have gone awry, and things aren't quite right?
16:29There was a pastor in the US, Pastor Clarence Sexton from Temple Baptist Church.
16:34And I forget which passage he was talking about.
16:37It may have been Jonah, but he was saying that God was there at every turn of Jonah's life,
16:46but it had to be until it got to the bottom of the ocean, or he was trying to, that God,
16:50that Jonah actually, you know, prayed.
16:53And we should really take note, and we should come to the Lord first, shouldn't we,
16:57in our times of trouble, and our times of decision making.
17:00So when problems arise, do we look to the Lord, or do we try and sort things out ourselves?
17:09What comes to mind is the words of Proverbs 3, 5, 6, and 7.
17:14Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.
17:18In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.
17:23Okay, so in verse 2, we have the names of these family members.
17:29Elimelech, God is my king, is the meaning of Elimelech.
17:34And again, it's a bit ironic that his name is God is my king,
17:37and yet he seems to have gone against God's will.
17:41Naomi means pleasant, and that's exactly why when she comes back to Bethlehem,
17:47and they say, here's Naomi, she says, don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, call me bitterness.
17:52Marlon is sick, and Chilion, or Killian, is pining.
17:58And Moab means the progeny of a father.
18:03Now in verse 3, we see that Elimelech dies,
18:07and verse 4, the boys take these Moabite wives,
18:11Orpah meaning kind, and Ruth meaning friendship.
18:16And then the boys die as well.
18:18Now, at this stage, we have to ask whether the move to Moab was really within God's will.
18:26As I said, my suspicion is it's not, because they weren't really blessed, were they?
18:31Elimelech died, and then those two boys died as well.
18:36And so in verse 6, Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem,
18:40because she's heard the Lord is now blessing that land with bread.
18:43So the reason for the move was a famine in the land,
18:48but the reason for the move back is that the Lord is now blessing that place.
18:52So now we get to some meat, if you like,
18:56if you'll pardon the use of a different metaphor.
18:59We've already had the house of bread.
19:01Naomi sets out to leave, telling her two daughters-in-law
19:04to return to their mother's houses and find new husbands.
19:07But they both said they wanted to go back with her to Bethlehem.
19:13And Naomi encourages them to reconsider,
19:17pointing out the futility of the situation.
19:20You know, she's not really in a position to have new children for them to marry.
19:26And that's where I wanted to draw that parallel.
19:28Well, we heard that Tamar was told to wait.
19:32And then we read in this passage, and in verses 12 and 13,
19:41Turn again, my daughters, go your way, for I'm too old to have a husband.
19:44If I should say I should have hope, if I should have a husband,
19:48and should also bear sons, would ye tarry for when they were grown?
19:53Well, that's the opposite, isn't it, of what Tamar was told by Judah.
19:58And I just thought that was an interesting contrast,
20:01because all of this is in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ that we're reading, isn't it?
20:08Quite amazing how that all works out.
20:11Now, on this advice or encouragement from Naomi,
20:16Orpah leaves and Ruth stays.
20:18And then in verse 15, Naomi gives Ruth some very bad advice.
20:24Verse 15.
20:26And she said,
20:26Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back unto her people,
20:29and unto her gods.
20:32Return now after thy sister-in-law.
20:34So she's pointing Ruth back to the Moabite gods.
20:38And as we already discussed, these are very unwholesome things.
20:42So it's not good advice that she was given at all.
20:46But, hot on the heels of that, we have these two beautiful verses.
20:51Such lovely verses.
20:52And I don't know whether you've ever known difficulties in relationships in your time.
20:58Whether there's been a breach of trust, or a lack of loyalty.
21:03But when we read these two verses, aren't they a wonderful declaration?
21:07And Ruth said to Naomi,
21:10Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee.
21:15For whither thou goest, I will go.
21:19And where thou lodgest, I will lodge.
21:22Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.
21:27Where thou diest, I will die.
21:29And there will I be buried.
21:31The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death, part me and thee.
21:37Aren't those lovely verses to read?
21:39I heard of one wedding, where that verse 16 was engraved inside the rings that were used for the wedding.
21:46Such a lovely picture of love and loyalty.
21:50And also, of course, verse 16 is where Ruth converts, if you like.
21:56You know, head of the Lord Jesus Christ here.
21:58But she converts from the Moabite gods to Naomi's God, which is the one true God.
22:05The God of Israel.
22:06So that's a lovely thing.
22:09Thy God will be my God.
22:11I wonder what Ruth had seen in all of this mayhem of people dying, of Elimelech dying, of the husbands dying.
22:19I wonder what she'd seen that she decided that thy God, Naomi, will be my God.
22:28So, in the face of this declaration, this lovely declaration from Ruth, Naomi concedes that Ruth should accompany her.
22:37And they journey up to Bethlehem.
22:41And in verse 19, we read that parts of A2 went until they came to Bethlehem.
22:47And it came to pass that when they were come to Bethlehem, all the city was moved about them.
22:51And they said, is this Naomi?
22:53And she said unto them, call me not Naomi.
22:57Call me Mara.
22:58For the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
23:03So, Naomi explains the sadness and the difficulty that has been brought about by all of the happenings.
23:13She went away full.
23:15I don't think the Lord sent her away, but she went away full with Elimelech.
23:19And now she returns empty.
23:22She says, call me Mara, which is bitterness.
23:27So, Naomi returned and Ruth, the Moabites, her daughter-in-law with her, which returned out of the country of Moab.
23:37And they came to Bethlehem.
23:38They came back to the house of bread in the beginning of the barley harvest.
23:45And as you look at the rest of the book of Ruth over the coming weeks, I'd encourage you to look out for that term barley harvest.
23:51I'm not sure how important it is, but it does figure a lot.
23:56It crops up, if you're part of the expression, it crops up in more places than one in the book of Ruth.
24:05So, really, I think the main question for us is that one that faced Elimelech and he made the wrong choice.
24:14He decided he needed to move.
24:16He decided he needed to take some action.
24:18And I think we can deduce from what we've read that he didn't consult God, that he did his own thing.
24:24And things really didn't work out very well for him.
24:27And so, as we start this book of Ruth, and I pray that the rest of the chapters will be a blessing to you as you look at them.
24:35Let us consider that when we're confronted with situations where decisions need to be made,
24:40we can't escape that, that we make it our business to consult God first on these things and to look for his leadership and his guidance.
24:52May the Lord bless these thoughts to us in Jesus' name.
24:55I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.
25:18Though none go with me, I still will follow.
25:47Though none go with me, I still will follow.
25:53Though none go with me, I still will follow.
25:59No turning back, no turning back.
26:05Will you decide now to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.