Good morning, my brothers and
sisters in Christ. If you would, for our call to worship this
morning, turn with me to Revelation chapter 19. I might get there
myself. Revelation chapter 19. And after
these things, I heard a great voice of much people in heaven
saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power unto
the Lord our God. For true and righteous are his
judgments. For he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt
the earth with her fornication and has avenged the blood of
his servants at her hand. And again, they said, Alleluia,
and her smoke rose up forever and ever. And the four and twenty
elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that
sat on the throne saying, Amen, Alleluia. And a voice came out
of the throne saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants,
and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard, as it
were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thunderings saying, Alleluia, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his
wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine
linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me,
write, blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper
of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, these are
the true sayings of God. Our most heavenly Father, Master,
we thank you for through your mercy and grace that you've raised
the candlestick here for all these years. Lord, you gave us
a faithful pastor. We should be so bold to ask Lord
that You let us let your candlestick abide here many more years. You
bid us to come, Lord, to the light that you've lit, or else
we wouldn't come at all. We know that all your promises
are yea and amen. You've promised, Lord, where
two or three are gathered in your name. You're here amongst
us, Lord. We'd ask that your gospel go forth in power and
grace and affection. We thank you for all these things
that almost hold an imperfect name. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. ? Tis not that I did choose thee
? ? For Lord, that could not be ? ? This heart would still
refuse thee ? ? Hast thou not chosen me ? ? Thou from the sin
that stained me ? ? Hast cleansed and set me free ? ? Of old thou
hast ordained me ? That I should live to thee ? Your love had
no beginning ? No cause in me was found ? That you should choose
to save me ? A sinner strongly bound but grace not earned or
sought for was purpose for my soul. For me salvation wrought,
for Christ paid the dreadful toll. ? T'was sovereign mercy
called me ? ? And taught my opening mind ? ? The world had else enthralled
me ? ? To heavenly glories blind ? ? My heart owns none before
thee ? ? For thy rich grace I thirst ? This knowing if I love thee,
thou must have loved me first. Please be seated. Adam Charon's
going to bring special music. If you'd like to follow along
with the lyrics, it's 205 and the hardback. Free from the law, O happy condition,
Jesus hath bled and there is remission. Cursed by the law
and bruised by the fall, Christ hath redeemed us once for all. Once for all, O sinner, receive
it. Once for all, O brother, believe
it. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. Now are we free, there's no condemnation. Jesus provides a perfect salvation. Come unto me, oh, hear his sweet
call. Come and he saves us once for
all. Once for all, O sinner, receive
it. Once for all, O brother, believe
it. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. ? Children of God, O glorious
calling ? ? Surely His grace will keep us from falling ? ?
Passing from death to life at His call ? ? Blessed salvation
once for all ? Once for all, O sinner, receive it. Once for all, O brother, believe
it. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. Thank you, Adam. God requires
nothing more, and we'll settle for nothing less. What hope we have, once for all. Let's open our Bibles together
to the book of Ruth. titled this message, Every Believer's
Testimony, and the bulk of our time will be, hopefully, Ruth's
statement to Naomi in verses 16 and 17, where Ruth says to
Naomi, entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following
after thee. For with that thou goest, I will
go, and with that thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall
be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I
die, and there I'll be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more
also, if ought but death part me from thee." Now in this story,
I want us to see Ruth as a type of every believer. And Naomi,
who has lost everything in the land of Moab as a type of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who came, as the scripture says, into Egypt
to deliver his bride. And what Ruth said to Naomi is
the confession of everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is our confession. And if the Lord confirms this
confession to our hearts, he will give us assurance of our
salvation. And we know that Ruth's husband,
Elimelech, left Bethlehem, Judah, the house of bread, foolishly
looking for greener pastures and a more lucrative job. He took his family to Moab. And
in Moab, Elimelech died. Chilean and Milon died. And now Naomi, the wife of these
two boys and her husband, is left with her two daughters-in-law,
Ruth and Orpah. And over and over again we see
in the scriptures this dichotomy that God gives. There's only
two groups of people in the world. There are The lost and there
are the saved. There are the believers and there
are the unbelievers. There's no middle ground. There's
no in-between. And Ruth and Orpah represent
these two groups of people. We see that in the two thieves
on the cross, that God had mercy on one and left the other to
himself to curse the Lord and to die in unbelief. We see that
with Adam and Eve's two boys, with
Cain and with Abel, and how one was a believer and one was an
unbeliever. We see that with Jacob and Esau. Jacob I loved and Esau I hated.
This division that God has made, we see it when the Lord said
he's going to separate the goats from the sheep on the Day of
Judgment. There are but two groups of people in this world. The
men of this world might divide themselves up in many, many categories,
whether it be race or ethnicity or nationality or age or gender,
but God divides all men into two groups. There are the Ruths
and there are the Orpahs. And I so want to be identified
with Ruth and the confession that she made to Naomi. I hope the Lord will cause each
of us to have this confession. The Lord tells us that if we
are to be in the category of Ruth and Jacob and Abel and the
thief that cried, Lord have mercy upon me, remember me when you
enter into your kingdom, that it will be by God's grace. I
will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and whom I will, I'll
harden. And so it is not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth. We don't choose to be one group
or the other. By choice, we are of the orpahs
of the world. That is the only choice that
we would ever make. But the Lord said, you did not
choose me, I chose you. And that's our hope. That's where
our faith is, that the Lord would have mercy upon us and that he
would choose us and deliver us from our sin and put us in Christ. Two very different groups of
people. and only two groups of people. This mature woman of faith by the
name of Naomi, Elimelech's wife, had the wisdom of showing her
daughters that if they were to follow after her, it would be
a walk of faith. And so it is in all of those
who identify with Ruth. It is a walk of faith. And with
the verses we haven't read, there's several here in chapter one,
where Ruth, I'm sorry, Naomi is reasoning with her two daughters-in-law,
Orpah and Ruth. And she says to them, she reminds
them of what they are leaving in Moab. And she encourages them
to return to Moab. Now I'm certain, Because Ruth,
Naomi loved Ruth, and she loved Orpah, and she didn't want them
to go back to Moab, but she was doing for them what the Lord
does for us. He's saying to us, as Naomi said
to Ruth and Orpah, if you're going to come with me, it's going
to be a walk of faith. We're going to have to trust
God. I don't have any more sons. If I was to get married, she
used this reasoning. She said, if I was to get married
today and have a child, which I'm too old to have, are you
going to wait until he gets old enough for you to marry him,
to have a husband? If you come with me, there's
no promise that I can give you that you'll have your needs met. Look what you're leaving in Moab. Look at your family. Look at your friends. Go back
to Moab. And the Lord is saying to you
and me, if you follow after Christ, it's going to be a walk of faith.
And there's going to be a lot of things in this world that
are going to have to be forsaken. And you're not going to be able
to walk by sight and depend on the material things of this world
to sustain you. You're going to have to look
in faith to Christ if you're going to follow after me. What a good thing that is. Well,
we know what happened. Orpah considered what Naomi said
and went back. She went back. She said, well,
you know, I've got too much to lose. And Ruth, on the other hand, said, Your people are going to
be my people. Your God's going to be my God.
Where you live, I'm going to live. And where you die, I'm
going to die. And I understand that we're going
to have to trust God. But your God, which you've been
telling me about, will be my God. No doubt Naomi had told
her daughters-in-law about the God of Israel. No doubt she had. expressed to them what the Lord
had done in bringing the children of Israel out of the bondage
of Egypt and how Joshua had, how he had provided for them
in the wilderness with the manna and with the water from the rock
and how Joshua had brought them into the promised land and how
they had divided up the land and how God had provided for
them with a land flowing milk and honey. No doubt, Naomi as
a as a mother in the faith, had been faithful to tell her daughter's-in-law
about the God of Israel. The Lord gave Ruth ears to hear.
Orpah, on the other hand, you remember what Orpah's name means?
To turn swiftly like a gazelle. And that's what Orpah did. When
she was given an opportunity to go back, she went back. Might
this serve as a lesson to each of us? that we oftentimes look
back. But the Lord said, if you put
your hand to the plow and look back, you're not fit for the
kingdom of God. And we know where Orpah's life ended up. I hope the Lord will use this
story to to rebuke if necessary or to exhort, to encourage each
of us. And what the Lord said to the
church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter two, when he said, I
know your works and I know your commitment to the gospel and
your faith, but you've left your first love. You've left your
first love. You've looked back to Moab and
there's nothing in Moab but death and destruction. And Naomi saying
to Ruth, come, let's go to Bethlehem, Judah, where there's rejoicing
in the house of bread, and let's feast on the Lord. It will be
a walk of faith, but we can trust Him to provide. He has promised
that He would, and we're certain that He's faithful to His promises. We walk not by sight, we walk
by faith. Orpah went back. Ruth, she came with Naomi. There are things in following
after Christ in this world that will be forsaken. There are friends
that will lose friendships. There are family members that
we love. Naomi no doubt loved Orpah, and yet she was not willing to forsake
her friends back home. Ruth, on the other hand, turned
from everything that she had in this world and followed after
Christ. This is the experience of every
believer. We see these words of Ruth, Also,
verses 16 and 17 that we just read, as a wonderful wedding
vow. I've quoted these verses at weddings
before. Entreat me not to leave thee.
Look with me again at verse 16. Or return from following after
thee, for whither thou goest, I will go. And whither thou lodgest,
I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people,
and my God my God. Where thou diest, I will die,
and there I will be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more
also, if ought but death. Part thee from me." Adam said,
this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. The two shall become one flesh. How can two walk together? unless they agree what fellowship
hath light with darkness. This is a vow that two believers
make to one another to follow after Christ together. And I
would say to our young people, choose wisely. It's a very sad
thing when a believer is united in marriage with an unbeliever. For better, for worse, it gets
a lot worse than better. For richer, for poorer, the poorer
gets a lot poorer than richer. For sickness and for health,
the sickness of sin will destroy a relationship And the only hope
that a good marriage has is that the husband and the wife are
both looking in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ and are able
to make this kind of vow to one another. But we also know that
this wedding vow is a picture of the bride and the bridegroom. It is a a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ and his church and how he has committed himself
in an unbreakable vow to remain united to his wife. And so we look in faith. Marriage can be filled with distractions
and disagreements, but If a man and his wife are able to make
this confession together, the Lord will sustain them and grow
them and help them in their troubles. This is the open confession of
a new believer. Naomi's name translated means
pleasant. and how pleasant and how beautiful
the Lord is in the sight of his bride. We think about all the
glorious things that are told of us in the Song of Solomons
in particular about the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so Ruth is attracted to her and wants to follow after her. Ruth's name translated means
friendship. And what a glorious friendship
the Lord Jesus has made with his bride. If a marriage, back
to the marriage, if a marriage is to be successful and healthy
and fulfilling, the husband and the wife not only need to be
believers, but they need to be friends. And what a friendship
that the Lord gives. in his relationship with his
church. The Lord said, I no longer call
you my servants, for a servant doesn't know what his master's
doing. I call you friends. And the Lord has made us to be
his friends. And there is a friend, there
is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. And that friend is none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. What a beautiful picture here
we see of Ruth and Naomi leaving Moab together and coming back
to rejoice in the house of bread in Bethlehem, Judah. The Lord Jesus Christ, as I said
earlier, left his rightful place in glory and came into the Moab
of this world in order to redeem his people, in order to find
his roots and bring them back with him. And when he ascended
back into glory, he left Moab. And he took with him those for
whom he lived and died. And the scripture makes it very
clear that we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ right now. So when the Lord Jesus Christ
ascended back into glory, he took his bride with him. Just
as Naomi leaving Moab is bringing Ruth with her. This is every believer's confession. This is the evidence of the effectual
call. Another truth that is revealed
here in God's Word for the people of God is that Ruth was not ashamed
to confess openly her belief in Naomi's God. When the Lord
calls his roots out of Naomi, out of Moab, and brings them
back to Bethlehem, Judah, they make a clear confession. They
not only don't return to Moab, but they confess clearly that
your God is my God. Your God is my God. We believe
in our hearts and we confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Here's our confession. We confess Him publicly in baptism. We confess Him in conversation
with our brethren. We rejoice in the things that
we hear and the things that the Lord has taught us as we recount
the evidences of His grace in His Word and in the lives of
His children. This is an open confession. This
is not a secret society of people that are ashamed. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel. And we're not ashamed. And as
we become more verbal and more bold, the Lord gives us more
opportunities so that we are ready to give an answer to anyone
that asks us for the hope that's within us. always doing it with
meekness and with fear, and yet not ashamed to speak up for the
Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the confession that every
believer has. And this is Ruth's confession
to Naomi. And I would say this while we're
thinking about that. My experience has been that the
vast majority of opportunities that we have to share our faith
with others, at least in my experience, has been more for my benefit
than for theirs. It is a rare thing when the Lord
gives someone ears to hear and We hope and pray that it happens
every time, but we know by experience that it doesn't. Most, like Orpah,
hear the demands of faith and they go back to Moab. But even
in that case, it was of great benefit to Naomi to express to
both her daughters, daughters-in-law, what the condition would be for
following her. She says in verse 16, and here's
every believer's confession, entreat me not to leave thee. Lord, don't send me away. Don't
leave me to myself. This phrase actually literally
means do not be against me. Lord, if you're against me, I
have no hope. If God before me, no man can
be against me. Naomi is pleading, Ruth is pleading
with Naomi not to be against her. And so it is with every
believer when we come before the Lord. Lord, I'm a man of
unclean lips. I live among a people of unclean
lips. My eyes have seen the king. Lord, if you exercise your judgment
against me, I will be forever lost. I will be forever condemned. Lord, don't be against me. Don't
send me away. Don't do for me what Abraham
did for Hagar and Ishmael. Lord, let me be that child of
promise. Let me be like Isaac. Lord, what did the disciples, when
the Lord told them, the disciples came to the Lord and said, Lord,
don't you know that you've offended the Pharisees? And the Lord said,
leave them alone. Leave them to themselves. They
are blind guides leading the blind, and they'll all fall into
the ditch. Just leave them alone. Lord, don't leave me alone. Entreat me not. Entreat me not
to leave thee. Lord, if you send me away, I'll be condemned in Moab. Bid me. Isn't that what Peter
said? Peter saw the Lord walking on the water. What did Peter
say? Lord bid me to come unto thee. Just the opposite of entreat
me not to depart from thee, but Lord bid me to come unto thee.
Call me. Lord, call me. Pass me not. O gentle Savior, hear my humble
cry, while on others thou art calling, don't pass me by, do
not pass me by. Here's what, here's every believer's
confession. Lord, if you leave me to myself,
I'll get what I deserve. Don't entreat me to leave thee. Don't depart from me. Have mercy
upon me. David said in Psalm 28 verse
one, unto thee will I cry, O Lord, my rock, be not silent to me. Be not silent to me. Lest if
thou be silent to me, I be like all of they that go down into
the pit. Entreat me not to depart from
thee. Lord, don't be silent to me.
Lord, be active in my life. call me, persuade me, woo me,
make your call irresistible to me. If you leave any part of
my salvation up to me and up to my decisions, that's what
Ruth is saying. I won't be saved if that happens.
Entreat me not to depart from thee. David said, Oh Lord, be not far
from me. Draw me, turn me and I'll be
turned. Save me and I'll be saved. What
is Ruth saying? Ruth saying to Naomi, all of
the hope of me worshiping your God and being in Bethlehem, Judah
is dependent upon you. If you send me back, I'll have
to go back and treat me not. Don't let me go back where I
came from. I'm just as, and here's, you
say, well, this is every believer's confession, even years after
they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Child of God, you know
that you're just as dependent upon him now for his grace as
you ever were. Matter of fact, you're more aware
of your dependence now than you were then. And so we are always
saying, Lord, keep me. The Lord did not admonish us
to remember Lot's wife for no reason. Lot's wife, look back. And the Lord admonishes us, remember,
remember Lot's wife, don't look back. This is our continual prayer,
isn't it? Lord, entreat me not to depart
from thee. or continue to have mercy upon
me. Lord, I'm as dependent upon you now as I've ever been. Lord, if you lead me to myself,
I'll depart. I'll do what Orpah did. This is the evidence of the effectual,
irresistible call. This is the evidence of being
in the family of Ruth. By the way, you remember in our
story, we're going to study, Lord willing, the whole book
of Ruth. And Ruth ends up with Boaz, her
kinsman, redeemer. And Boaz and Ruth have a child. And that son has a son. And that son has a son. And the
third generation from Ruth is none other than King David. And
in the lineage of King David comes the Lord Jesus Christ. And Ruth is mentioned in the
New Testament as in the lineage of Christ. And so if we're, if
our confession is the same as Ruth's confession, then we have
the hope of knowing that we too are in that lineage. We too are
in that family of God. Is this not our constant plea? Lord, entreat me not to depart
unto thee. Lord, don't let me go back to
Moab. Lord, don't let me put my hand
to the plow and look back. Don't let me be like Michael
Lott's wife. Lord, keep me. Wither thou goest, I will go.
You know, I've realized in my own experience and in talking
to others, Oftentimes when men speak of wanting to know the
will of God, what they mean by that is, well, I'd really like
to know what God's plan is for my life so I can look it over
and give it my approval. And I'll do those things that
are pleasant and profitable, and those things that are painful,
I'll avoid. But I really want to know God's
plan. I had somebody express that to me recently. You know,
I pray every day just to know God's plan for my life. Here's the plan for your life. Where you go, I will go. That's pretty simple. Where you
go, I will go. You see, that's what Naomi was
saying to Ruth and to Orpah. This is going to be a walk of
faith. You're gonna have to look to me every day. You're gonna
have to feed on me every day. You're not gonna have a roadmap.
You're not gonna have a plan laid out for you that you can
look over and decide what parts you want and what parts you don't
want. This walk is a walk of faith. And the confession of
faith is where you go, I will go, wherever that is. We're going
to follow after Christ. Now we know some places where
he is. He manifests his grace and his glory right here. When
God's people come together for worship, he said, where two or
three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst
of them. He inhabits the praise of his
people. He walks among the candlesticks. He's here. And so when God's
people make that confession, Lord, where you go, I will go.
I want to gather together with God's people and hear the gospel
and worship together and join my heart in praise with God's
people. We know that he manifests his
grace and glory in his word. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. And faith comes by hearing, and
hearing comes by the Word of God. And so to say, Lord, where
you go, I will go. Lord, I want to spend some time
in God's Word. And I want to meditate on these
things. And ask the Lord to reveal Himself to my heart by the revelation
that He's given in His Word. We know that the Lord has promised
to meet us in prayer. Where you go, I will go. And
so we find ourselves coming before the throne of grace in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, seeking his face. These are the places,
brethren, if we say with Ruth to our Naomi, Where you go, I
will go. We will find ourselves worshiping
God with His people, looking to His Word, spending time with
Him in prayer. And you know what? Figuring out
the daily activities that He has pleased for us, that'll come
as a result of that. Don't be looking for God's will
as a as a roadmap of activities, be where He is. And He'll guide
you. He'll lead you. Delight thyself in the Lord,
and He will give you the desires of your heart. You see, when
we delight ourselves in Him, He forms desires in our hearts,
and then He fulfills those desires. But it begins and it ends with
delighting oneself in the Lord. That's where he is. With the thou goest, I will go. In Genesis chapter 24, Abraham
sends his servant Eleazar to get Isaac a wife. And he makes Eleazar make a vow. not to bring a pagan wife, but
to bring one out of his household. And so Eleazar goes to where
Abraham came from to bring his son, Isaac, a wife. But before
Eleazar leaves, he says to Abraham, what if she won't come with me?
What if she's not willing to go where I go? And Abraham said,
the Lord will send an angel before thee. And then when he met Rebecca
and Rebecca's brother asked her, are you willing to go? She said,
I will go. I will go. I will go wherever you go. Eleazar
had told Rebecca about Isaac. She had never met him before,
but she was willing to go with Eleazar to meet her husband. And so it is with all the descendants
of Ruth, all that are in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ,
all who refuse to go back to Moab, all who will walk by faith,
where you go, I will go. Whatever it is, whatever it is. You say, well, I don't know if
I can say that. Then you're still hanging on
to Moab. That's the sad truth of it. You're still hanging. You see, there's only two. There's
no purgatory here. There's no, you know, foot in
both camps here. There's no in between. You're
either of Ruth, where you go, I will go, or you have Orpah. I'm going back to Moab. I feel
safe there. I'm familiar with that land.
I can't risk walking by faith. The Lord makes his people willing.
He makes his people willing in the day of his power. You remember
the story of Hosea and Gomer. Hosea, a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Gomer is a picture of us who
was made to be the wife of Hosea out of harlotry. And then she
returns to harlotry. And she thinks that it's her
lovers that are leaving gifts at her door only to find out
that it was that it was Gomer, Hosea, that was doing that. Finally,
she ends up on the slave block. And what does Hosea do? He goes
and purchases her. And he says to her, follow me. And she willingly followed him.
This is the experience of all the descendants of Ruth. Ruth,
you should go back to Moab. You're familiar with that land.
You got relatives there. You got friends there. You got
job there. You got security, worldly wealth there and safety. If you follow after me, it's
gonna be a pure walk of faith. God done a work of grace in Ruth's
heart and caused her to say, I don't know where you're going. Never been there before. But
wherever you go, I'm going. There I know, I'll be safe. Moses in Exodus chapter 33, after
having received the law of God, the Lord said, pack things up,
we're gonna leave. And Moses said, Lord, if thou
goest not with us. Leave us not. Don't let us leave
this spot. Lord, we'll just stay right here.
I need the assurance of knowing that you're gonna be with me. And that's the assurance we have.
You say, well, how do you have that assurance? Because God said
so. And we believe God. You see, we remember we're walking
by faith. We're walking by faith. I will
never leave you nor forsake you. Tedious and tasteless, we sing
that hymn. While blessed with a sense of
his love, a palace, a toy would appear and prisons Would palaces
prove if Jesus would dwell with me there? Paul and Silas, chained to a
Roman cell, having been beaten to the end of their life, were
praising God. Why? Because that prison had
become a palace. The Lord was with them. Wherever you go, I, will go. And thy people shall be my people.
Notice in our text, this is the confession of every believer. Is this your testimony? Is this
your testimony? Lord, don't leave me to myself.
Don't entreat me to go back to my web. When I look back over
my shoulders, Lord, turn my head back. Lord, keep me. Keep me. Wherever you go is where
I'm going. And your people are going to
be my people. We have a new family in Christ. We have a bond with God's children
that we don't have with a natural family. We love our family. We don't pray for them. Hope
God will have mercy upon them, but if they're not believers,
we know, we know that as a child of God, we have a bond with one
another that doesn't exist with our own family members. Ruth is saying to Naomi, your
people are gonna be my people. We're gonna have a new father,
new brothers, new sister, Well, they came to the Lord once and
they said, your mother and your brethren are outside asking for
you. And the Lord looked at his disciples
and he said, who is my mother and who is my brother? And he waved his hand over those
that were sitting at his feet, listening to him. And he said,
behold, my mother, my brothers, and my sisters are they that
believe on me. What a glorious family we have. Your people shall be my people. I love when the Lord said to
Mary at the open tomb, she said, go back and tell the disciples
that I go to my father and to your father. One God and father
of us all. The world may speak of all people
being of the family of God. It's not true. To as many as
received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons
of God. Not everyone is a child of God.
People say, well, you know, everybody's a child of God. No, they're not.
No, they're not. They may be the creation of God.
God reigns over them as Lord, but To be his child, you have
to be birthed into the family of God. And that comes in the
new birth. What a what a family it is. Oh, just like the natural family,
we may we may rub each other wrong once in a while and aggravate
each other. But all that being said, if you're a believer, you
have a love for your brethren. You have a bond with your brethren
that you don't have with anybody else in this world. Amen. And
that's true. That's true for me. You say,
well, I can't relate to that. Well, I'm very, very sorry about
that. I hope the Lord will have mercy
on you. Because if He does, you will find a bond with your brothers
and sisters in Christ that you don't have with anybody else. Your God will be my God. Naomi no doubt had told Ruth
about Jehovah. And she wanted to know Him more. She wanted to worship Him. She
believed the testimony that Naomi had given her. Just as some of
you believe right now the testimony that Ruth is giving to Naomi. Some believe and some believe
not. Joshua said, who's on the Lord's
side? Who's on the Lord's side? How
long halt you between two opinions? If God be God, worship Him. If Baal, worship Him. There's no middle ground. As
for me and my house, we'll worship the Lord. That's what Ruth is
saying. And that's the confession of every believer. that Baal
is not God, that there's no hope of salvation in Moab, that wherever
he leads, we will follow, that we continue to plead with him
not to leave us to ourselves, and that his God will be our
God, and that his people will be our people. Ruth concludes her confession,
and this is every believer's confession. with where you die,
I will die. Now the Bible says precious in
the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints. Now that's true
when a child of God draws their last breath in this world and
is ushered by the angels of God into glory, that their mortality
is made immortal. Their corruptible flesh is left
here and God makes an incorruptible body. We see him as he is or
made like him. What a glorious day. The angels
in heaven rejoice. The Lord rejoices. What a glorious
day of promotion that is. for every child of God. Where
you die, I will die. But again, thinking about Ruth
as a type of the elect, the people of God, and Naomi as a type of
the Lord Jesus Christ, here's our confession to our Lord. Lord,
when you died, I died. When did the Lord Jesus Christ
die? He died in the covenant of grace. When he became our
surety before God Almighty, the scriptures call him the lamb
that was slain before the foundations of the world. And so the salvation
of God's people was secure. In the covenant that Christ made
with his father, when he agreed to die on Calvary's cross, as
far as God was concerned, it already happened. It already
happened. Everything that happens in time
has already taken place in eternity. Time is just fulfilling what
God has purposed in eternity. So when Christ died as the Lamb
slain before the foundation of the world, all those that were
put in Christ by the Father died in Him. Where you die, I will
die. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
suspended between heaven and earth, when He became our sin
bearer, when God poured out the full fury of His wrath on the
Lord Jesus Christ as our substitute and satisfied His divine justice,
we died in Him. We died in Him, crucified with
Christ. Oh, that I might know the power
of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering, that when He
suffered, I died in Him. Where you die, I will die. When we hear the gospel, and
I hope and pray someone perhaps may be hearing it right now for
the very first time, I'm talking about an effectual hearing. I'm
talking about a God-given ear to hear, just like Ruth had,
able to make this same confession, this same testimony. Perhaps
you're hearing it for the first time. If you are, you are finding
yourselves dying to Moab. You are dying to all the hopes
of salvation that Moab offered you. You are dying to your own
righteousness. You are dying to your works.
You are dying to the pleasures of this world. And God is making
Christ everything to you. We die. See, in order to be made
alive, you have to be put to death. In order to be saved,
you have to be lost. And it's a glorious death. Because
through that death comes life. Unless a grain of wheat died
and be put into the ground, it cannot bring forth life. That's
of Christ. And that's of those in Christ.
We have the seed in us. We continue to die daily. Precious
is the eyes of the Lord. You're dying daily right now.
You see, we're always looking over our shoulder to Moab. We're
always tempted to follow after Orpah. And every time we hear
the gospel, we're reminded again, we're reminded again of the hope
that we have in our Naomi leading us to Bethlehem Judah and saying
unto us, saying unto her, oh, entreat me not to depart unto
thee. Where you go, I'll go. Your people
be my people. Your God be my God. Where you
die, I'll die. Lord, I have to die again today?
Yeah. Yeah, we die daily, don't we? Christ. You see, in order
for Christ, who is our life, to be our life, we have to die. We have to die. Where you die, I will die. This is every believer's confession. Pray that the Lord will make us like Ruth, not like Orpah. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, Thank you for your word. Thank you for this story of salvation. Lord, we pray that. You would give us the spirit
of Ruth. Follow after Christ. Trust him. Our salvation. And for our life. Christ will be all and in all. Thank you for this table. Thank
you for the simplicity of it. The body of Christ, the blood
of Christ, be in our righteousness and our justification before
thee. I pray that you would bless your people with faith as we
receive these elements, that we would do them with an eye
and a heart to Christ, For it's in His name we ask it, amen.
Number 12, in the spiral hymn note, let's stand together. ? Amen, amen, amen,
amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen,
amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen,
amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen,
amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen,
amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen,
amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen,
amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen ? Upon my great and sovereign throne
?