The Way that Seems Right
We greet you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Lord’s house is made of living stones. God does not dwell in buildings that are manmade. In the Old Testament there was the temple and the tent of meeting in which God chose to abide. There was the mercy seat of God where people received pardon and remission of their sins. God had something higher and more excellent and He said, ‘I will make a way to dwell in hearts of people that they will be My abode.’ It is a wonder that this almighty God would consider us, the dust that we are, through which His power can be revealed. If we meet like this, we meet as living stones that are melted together to receive from the Lord what He wants to impart, each one a member in the body of Christ. I wish to speak about that house, that home, that unity where Christ dwells amongst His people.
The text today is taken from Ruth 1.
In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. Ruth 1:1
This family lived in Bethlehem, the house of bread. There was bread available. But during the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. Due to the severity of the famine, the father of this family chose to dwell in the country of Moab. Why did he go to Moab to survive? The land may have been more fertile, although Bethlehem was known to be a fertile area. He chose to take his wife and two sons to Moab to stay alive. Little did he know that he would lose his life. Little did he know that both his sons would die in Moab.
He dwelt in Canaan, the land of promise which God had sworn to give Abraham and his descendants. What God has determined will stand and materialise. Whatever we dream of or see, God’s word is sure and it will remain. Not even one comma of God’s word will pass away. It will endure into eternity. Remember this if you are a retired or old man, we tend to slacken when we grow old and lose the vigour and strength we had in our youth. May God keep us faithful in our old age. Lord, when I am grey don’t forget me, Keep and protect me. We can be kept because His word and His promises are faithful and true. God is not a man that He should change. Young man, child, son, remember God’s word abides. You cannot break it; it will break you.
Elimelech, were you strange to your people? Were there none of your kinsmen who could have accommodated you and seen your need? Was there no door at which you could knock so that you could stay in the place which you received as an inheritance from the Lord?
There are times of difficulties like those experienced by Job. There was no man on earth like Job. What did he do when he lost all and he had no future? He said, ‘Naked I came into this world and naked I will leave.’ Even when God allowed Satan to attack him physically, when the dogs were his friends that licked his wounds, when his own dear wife got too much and she could not handle it anymore, (she should have supported him all the more. She should have remembered her husband, his words, his loyalty to God, the blessings that come to a man who shuns evil), Job said, ‘I know that my Redeemer lives and, in my flesh, I shall see God.’
May I remind you of your inheritance. Don’t you have one? Has God not prepared one? If you don’t see it, come for prayer. What a privilege we have through this Gospel to unite with the children of God and God can answer our prayers as He has promised that when two or three are gathered in My name, I will be in their midst. The message of this revival was founded on amazing words that moved the very heart of the founder of this work. Some don’t read their Bibles or read it in faith, to see the wonder of it all. Jesus said to His disciples, The works that I do, you shall do also and greater than these because I go to the Father. Some people are so theological and learned, such professors and doctors of divinity and what not all. Jesus said, The works I do, you will do also, and greater than these. These works you will not find in the acts of the apostles, but Jesus has promised them to His disciples, His very own, in the lives where He chooses to manifest His power. It is pitiful if you do not believe the words of Christ. If you do not believe in the wonders and the works of grace and miracles. If you do not believe that it is for us, then you have taken away from the words of this book. Read at the end of this book, what will happen to those who take away from this book. Whoever you are, wherever you roam, allow me to daresay what I have said. I believe what I have said is scriptural.
You can ask for prayer and God can show you your inheritance. There is no time to be aimless and wander around. It is a pity that your wife and children need to follow you when you forsake your inheritance. You might say it is not my inheritance, but God calls it such.
Naboth had a vineyard that was his inheritance. The king asked for his inheritance, his piece of land because it was so close to the palace and he wanted to turn it into a productive garden. The king offered him a bigger and more fertile piece of land. Naboth said, ‘How can I sell my inheritance?’ The king sulked on his bed. He was depressed because Naboth was unwilling. His wife was wide awake. She had another fire burning within. She taught the children of Israel how to make themselves up. Ahab was weak to correct his beloved Jezebel. Do you wonder why it is preached about your styles? The preachers warn you so that you will have a righteous and a good influence over Israel because if you as a queen portray yourself like that, you will influence people. They don’t want you to influence the people of Israel with the spirit of Jezebel. The king has his table, but she had her table where she entertained the prophets of Baal, those she associated with. Read it for yourself. Beware, the devil, the deceiver, often invites and lures you to his table. He will plant thoughts in your mind through music. Suddenly the beat sounds good. It’s far away like the land of Moab, but it is enticing. This beat draws you closer and closer. Eventually you find a child of God listening to devil’s music. What music do you listen to? I hope not the music at the table of Satan.
When we grew up, there were love songs and pop music, then rock music. Somehow, some children of God liked that beat and they were infected by those drums and whatever goes together with it. When I went into a mall, it was as if I did not hear it. I was on another wavelength. Satan lures people away.
Some are troubled by marriage – is it the short one, long one, blonde one, black one? When I finished school, we were here, and we thought there was no time for marriage. We thought we would not marry because there was no time to do so. Our hearts beat for the Lord’s cause. We were with our black, white, coloured and Indian brethren. Christ mattered to us. We tried to be a support and help wherever we were called. One of the older brothers suddenly got engaged and we were shocked. ‘Had he fallen? Is he still one of us?’ we thought. Give your thoughts to Christ. Why be troubled by them? You anguish your own soul and the devil gets it right to pour water on the fire of your service to the Lord.
The Lord says that He who wants to save His life will lose it. How often don’t we want to save our lives, our existence? That is the natural flesh. The nature of man. He wants to escape to save his life. If you act upon and do what your natural tendency is, you will lose your life. Amazing. If we want to save our lives, it appears straight before us. We will support that with the fact that John preached in the wilderness to make a straight the way for the Lord. Satan shows you a straight way, but you are blind and think it is God’s way. There is a way which seems right to man, but the end thereof is the way of death, the way of destruction. You have chosen it for yourself. Young man, don’t choose a way that looks right to you, choose a way that will bring you life and not death at the end. There is a way of life that looks harmless enough, look again, it leads straight to hell. Surely these people appear to be having a good time, but all that laughter will end in heartbreak. You justify the path of error you have chosen. You will find out in the end you took the road to destruction.
Rev Stegen said that even if he would have to eat mud it was fine, as long as God was with him. He did not think about good food. The house of food was worth more to him than his earthly food.
One day Daniel woke up to hear that he was on death row. He was to be executed. He was in the home of bread and the executor came to chop off his head because of a dream. A king had a dream and he was so troubled that he asked the soothsayers, magicians and Chaldeans to relieve his anxiety and tell him what he had dreamt and the meaning of the dream. The wise men pleaded for the king to tell them his dream which they would interpret. There are some people who interpret their own dreams which lead them to become blood thirsty men. They thirst for the blood of Daniels, people beloved by the Lord and seek their destruction. I don’t know whether they are led by their own imaginations. They speak bitter words and make a mockery of people who are highly esteemed in heaven. By their dreams, they seek to speak to badly. Haven’t they read the Lord’s word that says if you call your brother a fool, you are in danger.
A choir sang a song which said, ‘Save me from the dangers of this world.’ You walk a dangerous path with pride and people claim that you are the preacher of the gospel, but you are guilty in the Lord’s eyes of bloodshed because a thought and word that you speak can be as murder in the eyes of Jesus. Rather sing this song – be aware of the danger that you are headed to self-destruction. You are not cursed; it is the words of Jesus that condemn you. You have the cheek to take God’s word in your hands and preach to others but you do not know that God’s word has condemned you already because you have not done what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.
The king said that the wisemen were playing for time and they will be put to death. Daniel requested time to seek the God of heaven regarding this secret so that he and his friends would not perish with the rest of the wisemen of Babylon. Daniel prayed. The secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision and Daniel blessed the God of heaven. It is wonderful to abide in the house of bread, Bethlehem, where our Saviour was born. Abide there.
Never be enticed to go to the land of Moab and eat of the abundance of the land. This father did not know that by taking this route, he would leave his wife widowed and childless. After the sons died, Naomi heard that the Lord had sent bread, sent mercy, sent revival back home where our Lord would be born. Blessed are those who, when they hear the good tidings, forsake Moab. Their hearts return to Moab. Naomi got up and went on her way. Some women, some wives, are a help to their husbands and the fathers of their families. She could say, ‘I have lost all, that is why I am returning home.’
Mother and fathers, be encouraged, your families can live because of you. Through great persecution and suffering we need to enter heaven. We can stand firm. Let us be stronger than before. It seems as if the devil is becoming more powerful in luring people, entering churches and children of God as never before. That is why we ask God for mercy to be stronger and remain in Bethlehem where our Saviour is with His salvation. He is our protection. All power is given to Him in heaven and on earth. With Him we will be victorious.
Conclusion Dietmar Joosten
Naomi had something. She never lost. Even in her difficulties when things went wrong. This mother had the secret. She had something. That is why Ruth said, ‘Where you go, I will go.’ Sometimes when things are difficult, we tend to lose what we have, Ruth said, ‘My mother, what you have is true. I am going to go where I must be.’ Mother, call your child and ask the child what the child sees in you. Sometimes difficulties bring out what is within. A person said to me recently, ‘I did not know my heart was like that. Only when I went through those circumstances, I realized what my heart was like.’
Naomi, can you lead your children in the ways everlasting that they can eat of the bread of life? Why do I say this? These days I listened to a sermon by a woman of God who is a man. It is not easy to be woman. It is less easy to be a man. One day you will stand before God as a man. What type of man are you?
Ruth must have seen something in Naomi– her peace, her words, her encouragement, her life – and she wanted it. Ruth saw her in the most difficult circumstances. She had lost her husband and sons.
This preacher said, ‘When I got married, an older person advised me and said My child, let me teach you a lesson. If you bake a cake for your husband, put it into the oven and it looks amazing and then your husband calls you to do something, (How would you have reacted? You are a wise woman. You might have told your husband that there was a cake in the oven and the Lord put it on your heart to bake the cake for him) or asks you to go along somewhere, obey your husband. What is a bit of cake to obedience to your husband? Where is that standard? You have so many reasons why you cannot obey your husband. Do you know what it means to obey your husband? It is a high calling. Is it your own strength? Is it your own character or is it God’s grace that gives you strength? In obedience lies a blessing a million times greater than the cake in the oven. If the young woman had agreed to go along with her husband, God may have sent an angel to look after the cake because of her obedience. Wives always know better; they are so gifted. That is why their children are what they are because they are so gifted.
The lady preacher said that if you see something wrong with your child and your child is dying spiritually, go to your husband and make right what you have done wrong. If you see your children fighting, pray, God will show you what is in your heart. May God help us to be like Naomi so that when people look at our families, wives and husbands, they will want to go along with us. I trust that you have heard. You always know better, better than your husbands. We can see that you know better than your own husband. That is not God’s way.
Can your child say that they want to go with you because of what you have. But your child sees the way you answer your husband, the way you speak to your husband and have words even in front of the children. They will be the same. Let us repent and return to God’s house, where the living bread is. Let us live there so that the standard that God gave us will not be despised here.
