Turning the Bible to Ruth, I
wanted to spend most of this evening focusing on what is no
doubt one of the most famous passages in the Old Testament.
What a glorious, glorious word from God. What a glorious word
He puts in the hearts of His chosen ones. Ruth said, entreat
me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee, for
whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will
lodge. Thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God. Where thou diest, will I die,
and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more
also, if aught but death part thee and me. And Naomi's response
was in verse 18, chapter 1, when she saw that she was steadfastly
minded to go with her. It's one of those passages of
scripture that I have been waiting to speak on, and the more you
study it, the more delightful it is. It's the story, of course,
of the simple story of three women, but in the story of these
three women we have a picture of all the history of God's redemption,
and the history of all humanity is wrapped up in these pictures.
I love the way the scriptures both give us Books like Romans
and Hebrews and books where we can spend a lot of time contemplating
logical serious progressions of thought and revelation of
our God and I love the fact that they are too deep for my simple
mind often and we have books like Revelation and Daniel which
lead us into extraordinary places which takes the nothing out sometimes. But in these simple, simple stories,
we have beautiful pictures of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Just to put a little bit of background in order again,
we recall that Elimelech took his wife and his two sons down
to Moab against, against the clear command of God for those
people not to have anything to do with those neighbouring countries. It was an act, a faithless act. But we have in Elimelech a picture
of us has fallen. And Ruth, the Moabites, typifies
all of Adam's fallen race, born into a cursed land, born to cursed
parents, strangers to the covenant of promise, without hope and
without God in this world. And she wasn't even aware of
the situation. And she typifies all the elect
of God. She must be brought. She must
be brought to the kinsman-redeemer. She must be brought to the house
of the kinsman-redeemer, the house of bread where he reveals
himself, where he visits his people. And she typifies that
journey as we've seen in the last couple of messages. And
Naomi hears, doesn't she? She hears the word. She hears. that there is bread in Israel,
that God has visited His people. And it's a beautiful description,
isn't it, of how God had visited His people in verse 6. He's visited
them by He gives them bread. That's how
he visits his people. He gives them bread. He doesn't
offer bread to them. He doesn't tell them how they
can make the bread for themselves. He doesn't give them a plan where
they can get the bread. He gives them bread. Eternal
life is a gift. And in the scriptures, as you
would recall from passages like John's gospel and others, the
Lord Jesus is the bread of life. So bread in the scriptures is
equivalent in so many ways, pictures bread. He says, I am the bread
of life. Salvation is coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
not coming to doctrine. It's not coming to a church.
You've got to come to Him. He that believeth on me shall
never hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. He that believeth on me shall
never die. And Ruth and Naomi picture those
that are made willing in the day of His power. And faith acts,
doesn't it? She arose in verse 6, and in
verse 7 she went forth, out of the place where she was. Faith
causes God's people to act. He'll get the attention of His
people. He must have Ruth, and He must
have Ruth because she's a chosen child of His from eternity. She must be brought to the kinsman-redeemer. She must be wedded to the kinsman-redeemer. And God makes His Christ sweet,
and He makes this world bitter. He who has the power to move
her heart gives her a new heart. to forsake all that Moab offers. And it was a time of prosperity
it seemed in Moab. He gives the heart to forsake
the gods of Moab. He gives the heart that moves
her to forsake her family, her companionship and her security.
He gives her the heart to forsake her dear friends. He gives her
the heart to forsake all, even when the wisdom of Naomi seems
so compelling. And He moves her heart to go
to a land whose people she doesn't know. She goes to a future that's
uncertain. Naomi returns empty and to go
to a God who Naomi has declared has afflicted both her and her
daughters-in-law. And she must return, Ruth must
return emptied of everything, emptied of everything. Ruth was drawn, she was drawn
by her Lord. She was compelled and constrained
by love. She was drawn by an attractiveness
and drawn with a power that no law could impose. In verse 14,
she clings, she clave to Naomi. We do want to make clear the
distinction between a do and live gospel and a live and do,
between a spirit of bondage and a spirit of adoption. From a constraining hand of man
to the leading, the powerful leading of our God. From the bondage of being a slave
to the adoption as children. We might just read the passage
briefly, look at it and then we'll look at these five particular
things that are characteristic of steadfastly minded children
of God. Verse 8, And Naomi said unto
her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with you,
as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant you
that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.
Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept.
And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto
thy people. This is both Ruth and author. And Naomi said, Turn again, my
daughters. Why will you go with me? Are
there yet any more sons in my womb that they may be your husband?
Turn again, my daughters. Go your way, for I am too old
to have a husband. If I should have a husband also
tonight, and should also bear sons, Would you wait? Would you tarry
for them till they were grown? Would you stay for them from
having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for it grieveth
me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out
against me.' And they lifted up their voice and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth clave unto her. She clung unto her. And she,
Naomi, said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back. Unto her people,
unto her gods, return thou after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said,
Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after
thee. For wherewith thou goest, I will
go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my
people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die,
and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more
also, if aught but death part thee and me. And when Naomi,
when she saw that Ruth was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she
left speaking unto her." What a glorious picture of the work
of grace in the lives of His children, made willing in the
day of His power. Ruth made a decision that was
costly, but it was the right decision and it resulted in salvation. It resulted in the birth of our
great King David and David's great, great son, our Lord Jesus
Christ. And the extraordinary thing was,
isn't it, that you picture those three ladies on that path out
of wherever they lodged in Moab. There they were in a lonely,
possibly a desert place. And there this encounter that
we read about took place. Three women having a discussion
in a desert place and two of them act in faith. What a remarkable thing. I suppose
the lesson that I pray the Lord would lay on our hearts is that
there are no little acts of faithfulness. True faithfulness is God's gift
to His people. They are accounted as precious. See Ruth's choice. involves a
complete commitment of herself to Naomi, to her people, to her
God. It's a picture of the work of
God in the lives of his people. And so I wanted to look at these
five things. I wanted to look just briefly
at faith's path, and faith's lodging, faith's people, faith's
God, and faith's destiny. See Ruth, Entered on a path. Orpha joined in that path for
a little while as well. They were both led, weren't they,
with great sense of emotion. It must have been running high.
Emotions running high. Such was the love that they had
for Naomi. Real and genuine love. What a
remarkable woman she must have been. They'd had ten years in
that land. a long time to grow close. And yet in the Lord's providence to get their attention and to
get them to go back to the house of bread, He had to kill three
of them. I often think of what the Lord
did in my life 20 odd years ago to get my attention from having
played games running away from God for some considerable time. He killed my brother-in-law in
shocking and tragic circumstances and then he killed my next door
neighbour. in even more appalling circumstances. Both committed suicide. The one
who was my neighbour with five little children in my job that
morning, having gone down and seen what had happened, I was
told by the chaplain and the other people there that my task
was to go to the school and pick up these little kids and take
them home but to make sure that on the journey home from school
they weren't to be told what had happened. It was the hardest
half hour or so of my life and to take them back to what I knew
was distressing and I remember one of the girls ran out of the
door and she screamed and ran out in the garden and she looked
at me and she must have so easily thought that I had deceived her
and I remember thinking in my fearful Prayers to God that I would do
anything, I would do anything if this never ever befell me
and my family. May God protect us. He says in
Hosea, doesn't he, that he'll hedge our way with thorns. He'll
hedge our way so that we are left with him and left in his
hands. So Ruth said, Ruth who had no
choice, author has to make a choice, but Ruth had no choice. She says,
entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after
thee, for whither thou goest I will go. The steadfastly minded
have a path that they go. See she deliberately renounced
all freedom of choice in the affairs of her life. She committed
herself to a path not knowing where it might take her. Naomi had nothing. She was a
stranger and a malebitus, a refugee into a strange land. She committed
herself to a course of life that would be entirely determined
by someone else. It's a great description, isn't
it, of faith. So that's exactly she come to
Naomi. That's what sinners do when they
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. They lay their lives in His hands. Trusting Him. We commit ourselves
to Him. You see the yoke that the Lord
Jesus speaks of in Matthew 11 is a glorious picture, isn't
it? He says, Come unto me, all you that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. That's the declaration, isn't
it? When we baptise people, that's the declaration that they're
making, aren't they? They died. They died in the grave. They died with Christ and they're
risen to newness of life. We walk in Him and we walk with
Him. That is, there is a highway. Isaiah 35 is one of those glorious
descriptions of the Lord's people in this highway through this
world. There is a highway. There is a highway that shall
be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. Christianity was called the way
in the early church. It be called the way of holiness,
the unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those,
the wayfaring men, those fools, shall not err therein. What a
great description of us. Wayfaring men and seemingly to
the world fools will not err therein." It is, as the Lord
Jesus says, it's a narrow path. The door is narrow, the road
is narrow. Jeremiah 6.16 is a beautiful
verse and he says, it's the way of truth. Ask for the old paths,
where the good way, where is the good way? And walk therein
and you shall find rest for your souls. It's the way of humility. These ladies were brought low. It's the way of faith. These
ladies were brought to trust Him. It is the way of grace. Who made them to differ? What was the difference between
Ruth and Orva? It was a difference that Christ
had made. It's a difference that God had
made. See, faith's path, the steadfastly
minded on faith's path are put on a path to where the Lord is
their shepherd. He leads them. He leads them
and if He leads, He will lead us to a place where He and His
people are and He'll continue to do it despite our wanderings
and despite the assaults of Satan and despite the temptations of
this world. He'll lead His people back to
that path. It's the path of grace. And he'll lead them, he'll lead
his people to be steadfastly minded to faith's lodging. Where you go, I will go, says
Ruth. I don't know exactly where you're
going. Bethlehem seems like the destiny, but that's just a town.
I don't know what the journey is. Where you go, I will go. And where thou lodgest, I will
lodge. I'll make my home with you."
She didn't say where it was going to be. She didn't say what sort
of a lodging place it was going to be. It wasn't going to be
a mansion in Bethlehem. It may have been, as we see later
on in the book, it was a place of poverty, a place where the
best she could do to sustain her life was to go gleaning in
the fields, picking up the leftover heads of wheat and taking them
home. But she had steadfastly in her
mind that she was going to be with Naomi. She was going to
be with her. She was going to dwell with Naomi.
It's interesting, at the end of the book, after all of these
things have brought to a remarkable resolution, that she's still
clave to Naomi. She's clung to Naomi at the end
as well. This is a picture, this is a
picture isn't it again, of redemption. The believer wants to be with
Christ, they want to dwell with him. If he is there, it doesn't
matter what the lodging place looks like. If Christ is there,
Everything is perfectly fine. It doesn't matter where the path
takes me if Christ is there. I love that verse in John 12,
26, and I quote it often because I love it so much. It says, if
any man serve me, let him follow me. And then these remarkable
words from the Lord Jesus. We think, don't we, that we wander
on our little path and he sort of follows along and catches
up with us. It's exactly the opposite, isn't it? If any man
serve Me, let him follow Me, and where I am, there shall My
servant be. Isn't that glorious? Where He
is. That's why He'll never, ever,
ever leave us nor forsake us. Never, ever. We cannot get outside
of His love and His care and His protection. And if He's lodging
there, then it's a good place to lodge. If there at where I
am, there shall my servant be, and if any man serve me, him
will my Father honours. It doesn't matter where we worship,
under a tree, in a building like this, in some other building
in the Lord's good providence. If He is there, Then there is
the worship of God. It doesn't matter what happens
in this world. If Christ is there, it's a great
place to lodge. That's the description of the
New Jerusalem, isn't it? The Lord is there. And God's
children are made to be steadfastly minded about the path that the
Lord takes them on, about the path they lodge. And God's people
are steadfastly minded about the faith, isn't it? They have the faith of God's
people. So Ruth's choice involved a separation. She left her people, she left
Moab, she left all of that world and she took up with Naomi and
her people. If we follow Christ, then He
will make it such that we follow His people and we are consecrated
to Him. To be sanctified is to be separated. That's the root of the word holiness. To be set apart for Him. Set apart and to be with Him. We can only worship, as the Lord
Jesus tells us over and again, we can only worship and serve
one. We cannot serve two masters. The Lord Jesus looks at his people
and he says, this is my family. Ruth loved Naomi, but she loved
Naomi as her sister in the Lord Jesus. She loved Naomi because
she loved Naomi's Lord, and He had made her steadfastly minded. He had made them as one. Ultimately it is the Lord that
binds his people together. She is steadfastly minded about
the God of Israel, the one and true and living God. She says,
I'll go where you go, I'll lodge where you lodge, your people
will be my people and thy God be my God. Man by nature is religious. It's interesting, isn't it, the
first activity in the garden, the first activity of fallen
Adam and Eve was to get busy about religion, working to cover
their shame, thinking that they were doing something that would
cover the depths of the iniquity that they were involved in. Running
from God is what they were doing. Natural man will cling to religion
and he will cling to his God. It's horrifying to think what
happens in this world in the name of these false gods, isn't
it? Just imagine what has to go through
the mind of someone to fly an aeroplane full of people into
a building to kill yourself and more people. But religion, The
religion of man does that. The gods of Moab will lead people
to that sort of decision. God's children, like Ruth, are
led to follow Christ, and if they follow Christ, they'll abandon
the gods of our fathers. We will abandon them. I drive
past the Masonic Temple every day, sometimes several times
a day, and the problem is the Lord has put a set of traffic
lights there, and I am forced to stop. Coming from Terrera,
I am forced to stop beside the place and look across at the
notice board and the other things where my father worshipped. And coming the other way I'm
forced to look across the road and there it is with its insignias,
its satanic insignias. And it's all about the religion
of man. And it's so typically of the
religion of man, isn't it? Because up at the top of this
sort of pyramid type structure is a thing called the great architect
of the universe, a figment of man's imagination. And you can
get to the great architect of the universe by almost any path
you choose. You can get there by a Christian
way, a so-called Christian way. You can get there by a Muslim
way, a Catholic way, a Hindu way, and you put your special
book on the altar and you can get to God that way. I'm horrified
when people tell me that issues of truth don't matter when I
think of how much I loved and respected my dad. And he was
led into that and encouraged in that by his family and by
the ministers in the church down the road here who were all participants
in it. We must, by the grace of God,
abandon the gods of our fathers. It's impossible for anyone to
follow Christ without forsaking the religion of Babylon and the
gods of Babylon. Come out from among them is the
constant, constant cry of the scriptures. We cannot worship
God at the altar of free will and the altar of free grace.
Ruth had to leave. And it's interesting, isn't it,
that the scriptures talk about the gods of Moab. In verse 15,
she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back. She's gone back
to her people and to her gods. If you go back to Moab, if you're
in Moab, then you can worship any one of those gods. When you
go back to Moab, you have a choice to make about the gods that you
worship. Ruth had no choice. She was led by conviction. She was led by something, an
invisible hand to the eyes of this world, but a hand of a sovereign
God led her to himself. We can We can, as the children
of God, be led into all sorts of paths, but God will hedge
our ways with thorns. Even if he has to kill Ruth's
husband, he'll bring her to himself. And He'll bring her to Himself
because He reveals Himself in His Word. He reveals Himself
in remarkable ways to His people. And we cannot go back. We cannot. The true and living God, as we've
seen earlier, is just both gracious and He's sovereign. He absolutely
rules and we love it that way. We love His sovereignty, we love
His justice, we love His characteristics, we love that He is merciful.
We love a God of eternal electing love. We love a God who sent
His Son and His Son accomplished the redemption of all His people. We love a God who draws His people
by sovereign, irresistible grace. We love a God who visits His
people. He visits His people and He gives
them bread, the bread of heaven. There is just one God. And when people leave that one
God, there is a multitude, there is a multitude of gods to go
to. When Ulfa went back, she had
so many gods to choose from. But Ruth was steadfastly minded. She was steadfastly minded about
where to go and where to stay. She was steadfastly minded about
the people who were going to be my people. She was steadfastly
minded about my God. She steadfastly minded about
where her faith's journey would go. She steadfastly minded about
faith's destiny. Ruth said to Naomi, where I die,
where I die, where thou die, I will die. All of God's children died in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Where He died, we all died together. Her commitment was a commitment
that was for all of life. She says, I will be with you.
I'll be with you always. I'll be with you till the end. We come to Him. We come to Him
by simple, simple faith. May God draw us to Him and may
He cause us to walk with a steadfast mind as Ruth has. She comes to Christ recognising
that in Him is the bread. In Him is what our souls desperately
need for eternal life. And a believer's commitment to
Christ is a permanent commitment. It's a persevering commitment
because we are kept, not by our own activities, we are kept by
the power of God through faith. And when a true faith is exercised
in the hearts of God's children. There is a place where we die,
isn't it? And there, where you die, I will
die. And where you are buried, I will
also be buried. You see, we're buried together.
We died together in Him and we are buried with Him. We were
buried with Him in baptism. Their lives were so knitted together. The lives of God's children are
so knitted together that they are as one. They'll follow Him
and they'll follow Him to the grave. It's very interesting,
isn't it, to contemplate that all of the nation are our There
was just one person recorded in the scriptures who came out
from Moab. Just one. I don't know about
you, brothers and sisters, but there are very many times in
our lives where we feel as if it's quite a lonely journey.
And you keep saying, where are the other fellow travelers? And
each time you open the Book of God, you find that the children
of God seem always to be a remnant. And yet, when God works in the
heart of people, all of that matters nothing. All of that
matters nothing. If we have the Lord Jesus, we
have everything. Faith's destiny looks not only
to where we'll die and where we'll be buried. Faith's destiny
looks to that glorious day when we will all be gathered together.
The death of God's saints is but another necessary journey
on the way to a great marriage. What lies before the people of
God? been doing for this past 3,000
years? What fellowship have Naomi and
Ruth had in the presence of our Redeemer? What extraordinary
future is laid out before them? Eternity. Eternity. Author had choices to make, true
faith, And true faith is led by God to be steadfast, no matter
what the world does. As Joshua said, and I think Joshua
typified the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't he? He said, as for me
and my house, we will serve the Lord. But he asked a question,
he asked a question which is still a question today, isn't
it? Does it seem evil to you to serve the Lord? It's not evil to serve the Lord.
It may seem so in the eyes of many. I pray that the Lord would
continue to work in our hearts and to give us a steadfast faith
in a steadfast God with a steadfast destiny amongst steadfast people,
all of them made that way by the grace of our God. Let's pray.