A Stranger Saved by Grace
Book of Ruth Series
By Pastor Jim May
Ruth 2:8-9, "Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens: Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn."
This young woman was a Moabitess, a worshipper of idols and a servant of Chemosh, the god of the dead. Her name was Ruth and she was a lost Gentile without hope. Then one day a miracle came into her life. Out of Israel came a family that was to bring her a message of hope, mercy and grace. Though she couldn’t have understood what was happening, God was leader her into a whole new life.
The land of her birth held little hope for anyone. Though they might be a strong nation and they might have hope of having the things of this world, there was no hope for eternity. The best that they could hope for by serving their gods was an eternal death, a state of existence where you were dying always but never dead. It would be an eternal hopelessness, but there was no other way. Most of her family and countrymen just accepted this as the norm and would never know of the hope of an eternal life in Heaven. They just went about their daily lives trying not to think of things eternal, living one day at a time until death came unawares and they entered into eternal death.
But Ruth was one in a thousand who was hungry for more. She wanted more than just to exist. She wanted to live. God saw that hunger in her heart. God knew that she would want to know Him and serve Him and so He made a way for Ruth to find the path to the Truth.
Last week I was taking care of a little business down at the bank. After we completed the business at hand the lady who was helping me began to inquire about the church and what we taught. She told me that was attending one of the largest Full Gospel Churches in the area and had come out of the Catholic Church. She was having a hard time reconciling her Catholic doctrines with the Full Gospel doctrines and was really confused about some issues.
Let me ask you this question. It’s the same question that she had. Suppose that there is a man or woman, somewhere in the world, that has never heard the name of Jesus, and never heard the message of the gospel. Can that person be saved? What do you think is the answer?
First let me tell you her thinking and let’s see if you agree. In her own way of thinking she said that she believed that if any who had never heard the name of Jesus and never heard the message of the gospel, and yet they knew that there was a God somewhere and they did all they could to be as good as they could, that God would somehow understand and they would still go to Heaven in spite of their ignorance.
Now what do you think? Is she right? Does God wink at ignorance? Will God allow someone who never hears the gospel and never has the opportunity to accept Christ to go to Heaven based upon their own goodness?
Of course the answer is NO – no one can go to Heaven based on their works alone. Their good works does not make them righteous and will not earn them one merit with God.
Isaiah 64:6-7, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities."
Now I would hope that everyone who attends this church would know that by now but when I run across someone who goes to a church similar in doctrine to ours and I find that they don’t understand the importance of the Cross, the absolute necessity of the shed blood of Jesus Christ and its power to wash away sin and the impossibility of going to Heaven through any other means than believing in and trusting in the Blood of Jesus alone, then I get concerned. That is the primary message of the entire New Testament. Without the name of Jesus, and without faith in Him and in His shed blood, there is no salvation. Don’t ever forget that.
First of all, if man could have found any other way to eternal life, then why would Jesus have to give up His throne in Heaven, come down in the form of a man, and become a sacrifice upon the cross? Why would God send His only begotten Son to suffer terribly and die upon the cross if it wasn’t necessary for man to have a way back to God?
Secondly, if a man or woman can find God without the preaching of the Cross and without believing in Jesus Christ, then why would Jesus say to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature? Why go to all that trouble, danger and expense to preach the gospel if people can find their own way to Heaven?
Jesus came and died to create a bridge back to God for lost humanity. We, like Ruth, were lost in sin, without hope of deliverance, born into a dark world of death, facing an eternal hell where we would be always dying but never really die.
Three times Jesus made a specific point of telling us about this terrible state of existence when he said, Mark 9:44. 46, and 48, "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
The only thing different about Ruth that moved the mercy and grace of God to reach out to her was that God saw in her a heart that was searching. God saw that Ruth would be a willing vessel and he moved Heaven and earth to give her a chance.
2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
Does this mean what it says? Does God love all men equally and does He truly desire for every soul on the face of the earth to be saved? Does God not have the power to save every one of them? If this is true, then surely He will find a way to reach into the heart of every one of them and make His presence known so that they will be saved. Surely God would not allow anyone to go to hell if he can stop them from doing so. Since we believe that God can do anything, then it would almost seem logical to believe that all men will be saved in the end.
But we have a flaw in that thinking; a major flaw. We must never forget that God created man with a free will, the ability to choose what he wants to do or not do. It is that free will that limits God’s ability to save all men. It’s not that God can’t, but that He won’t overstep that boundary. God only wants people to worship Him who want to worship Him of their own free will.
God loves all men equally, but not all men love God equally in return. The love of God reaches out to every man, especially at the Cross of Calvary, but few will accept that love and then love God in return because he is God and for what He has done.
Now I do believe that if a soul is hungry for the truth, somehow God will find a way to reach out to them and He will send someone to tell them about Jesus.
But what about those who live in undiscovered islands or villages in the deepest jungles who never heard of Jesus? What about them, will they be judged in their ignorance and sent to hell without a chance?
In the first place, I doubt that there are many, if any places on earth like that anymore. But it is possible, and whether there are still undiscovered people or not, there has been many in the past. What about them? Did they have a chance to be saved?
The answer is yes, they had a chance. Oh they may never have heard the gospel, but they had a chance to know that there is a God somewhere and they had the chance to choose to search for the True God.
David said in Psalms 19:1-4, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world."
What David is telling us here is that not only does all creation declare that there is a God somewhere and that we should search him, but even the stars in the sky, as they go across the Heavens every night, are also declaring the glory of God.
Since the dawn of history, man has worshipped the stars and the sun and the moon, many times worshipping them as gods. Why did man begin to even worship the signs of the Zodiac? Why does mankind look up into the sky and worship the sun as a god like the Egyptians and the Mayans and many other civilizations that have come and gone?
It’s because they sense that there is a “higher power”, a being greater than man who is out their somewhere. Men, from the time of Creation have always had that inner need for knowing about God, but he is born in sin and blinded by Satan who hides the truth and presents a lie that we all swallow completely. Satan hides the truth of what we can see in the stars in the sky and puts in its place all of the witchcraft and occult practices that make up the religion of Astrology. Mankind is quick to believe the lies and reject the truth. The truth is that God has placed within the stars in the sky the complete story of the Coming of the Son of God and the triumph of Jesus in the end, but mankind refuses to believe it when he sees it.
Therein lies the reason that men who know not God and die in ignorance of the gospel will still be sentenced to eternal punishment. Because man rejects God, and God knows the heart of man, knowing who will accept him and who will reject him ahead of time, there are some, who God knows will reject him, no matter what he does to reach out to them, and those may never hear the gospel because it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
Some say that this means that God has already predestinated some to go to Heaven and some to go to Hell before they were ever born. That’s not what predestination is all about. Predestination simply means that God already knows what we will choose by our own free will and so he allows us to live or die by our own choices. He just knows our choices before we make them.
Now, let us look back at Ruth’s story again. God has seen a hungry heart in Ruth. He knows that she is open minded and searching, so he sends a family out of Israel so that Ruth may learn about God through their testimony.
Through daily circumstances and tragic losses, God brings her back to Israel where she meets Boaz, a type of Christ. Boaz comes out of Bethlehem, finds her in the fields along with the rest of his servants and then gives Ruth permission to stay in his fields and eat of the food that he provides for her.
By grace, this stranger called Ruth, is given a place in the people that are called by God’s own name. She is accepted into the family of God.
Ruth 2:10, "Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?"
Have you ever asked God that question? Lord, out of all the many thousands of people around, why did you choose me? I look around and there are multitudes in the valley of decision, who do not know you as their Lord and Savior – Why ME? I didn’t deserve anything from you. I didn’t do anything to get here. You reached out to me, but not to them.
The answer to your question is this: God reached out to you. He is reaching out to every man. The difference is that you heard him call your name and you answered the call. And when you answered the call, then God chose you to be his son or daughter. It’s just that simple.
Matthew 22:14 says, "For many are called, but few are chosen." The call goes out to the heart of every man, but only a few will chose to hear that call and respond positively to the call of the gospel. And everyone who chooses to heed the call are chosen. The only reason that few are chosen, is because few will answer.
Matthew 7:13-14 says, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
What is the strait gate? It’s a very narrow “gate” that is the only way to eternal life. What is that gate? It is the Cross of Christ and the Blood of Christ, and our willingness to accept Jesus as our sacrifice for sin. That’s the only gate to eternal life, there is no other. Few people will accept that truth and so few there will be that will walk that narrow way and make it to Heaven.
But the way to Hell is wide open because any and every other path leads there. Good works lead to Hell. Good feelings lead to Hell. A clear conscious leads to Hell unless it’s clear because of the Blood of Jesus. A comfortable lifestyle, earned outside of the will of God working in your life leads to Hell. Just ask the Rich Man. Believing in yourself leads you to believing a lie and that leads to Hell. Trusting in your own lying heart leads to hell. Believing in any other god, any other method other than the Cross leads to Hell. No wonder most find that path and walk in it!
Most people don’t want to be lost, but they follow their own path and walk right off into the pit before they realize that they are on the wrong road. You must choose to go to Heaven by following Jesus or you will walk into the pits of Hell by default.
Ruth asked Boaz why he had shown mercy and grace to her, being a stranger and so unworthy. Look at how he answered her.
Ruth 2:11-12, "And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore. The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust."
Ruth, you’re receiving my grace because you chose to come to me and leave your old life behind. You’re receiving grace because you have chosen to make my home, your home. You’ve chose to come to a place that you didn’t know about because it offered you hope and a new life. You’ve chosen to come to the place where I can bless you and offer you all that I have.
It’s all about her choices to do what was necessary to receive that grace! God’s grace is unearned. You can’t buy it, work for it and pay for it in any way. But it is freely given because of your choices to follow God’s plan of salvation.
Ruth was being rewarded because of her faithfulness to the call of God in her life. That’s why you will be rewarded too.
We can only be saved as we are faithful to that call. When the Spirit of the Lord calls your name, and you hear the message of the gospel, you have a choice to accept or reject that call. Your choice will determine whether you experience the grace of God or not. His grace is free but you have to reach out and take hold of it before it can be applied to your life.
Ruth 2:13, "Then she said, Let me find favour in thy sight, my lord; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens."
Here we see that Ruth is expressing the feeling that we all have once we have experienced God’s saving grace and we come to know the Lord as our Savior.
She wasn’t asking for favor, she was acknowledging that she already had that favor. She was already being comforted. Boaz had already spoken to her as a friend. She already knew his welcome and his grace, but it was almost more than she could comprehend. She just didn’t feel worthy to be his friend.
That’s the way it is with you and I after we come to know the Lord. We cannot understand how and why God loves us so much. We will always feel so unworthy of His love and grace, and we will always really be unworthy in ourselves.
But that’s what grace is all about – it’s about being counted worthy when we aren’t and being made worthy by that grace, being counted as a Child of God, as a member of the family of God when we didn’t deserve it.
I’m so glad for the wonderful grace of God today. I’m so glad that one day He called my name. I’m so glad that my heart was searching and that I heeded that call. I’m so glad that I’ve found that strait gate, that narrow way and that today I know I’m on my way to Heaven.
But what about you; is that true in your life today? Do you know Jesus? He is the only way to Heaven. The only way to have eternal life is through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and surrendering your will to His will.
We are all strangers to God who are saved by Grace. Will you become one of us today? Today the message of the gospel has come to you. No longer can you claim ignorance. No longer will God overlook it if you reject him. Jesus is calling your name. Will you answer that call?
