Alright, brethren, let's turn
to Ruth, the book of Ruth. Now, Naomi left Bethlehem with
her husband, Elimelech, and their two sons due to a physical famine. And they went to live in that
idolatrous land of Moab where there was no way that they could
worship God together with God's people. And by trying to provide
for themselves natural bread, they left spiritual bread. And
that's what we do when we lean to our understanding in any way.
We lean to our understanding and the moment we try to provide
for ourselves, we cease trust in Christ and His provision.
The moment we look to our wisdom, we cease trusting Christ our
wisdom. The moment natural bread becomes
our focus, we cease feeding upon Christ the bread. That's what
they did. So following their father's example,
the two sons, Malon and Chilion, they disobeyed God as well and
took Moabite women. Ten years passed. God removed
Naomi's husband and removed her two sons by death. So Naomi's
left poor. She's a widow in a godless land. And she's got two daughter-in-laws
who are also widows. And then God sent someone there
to tell Naomi and these two daughter-in-laws the good news that God had visited
Bethlehem and given them bread. And so we pick up in verse 7
and it says, Wherefore she went forth out of the place where
she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her. And they went on the
way to return unto the land of Judah. Now, if we're going to
follow Christ, we have to depart from Moab. We have to leave the
world. We have to quit dependent on
the world and serving the world and being friends with the world.
Turn to 1 John 2 real quick. 1 John chapter 2. We can't serve God, cannot serve
God and the world. It's an impossibility. We have
to live in the world. We have to work in the world.
But there is a difference between doing what we have to do to get
by in the world and serving the world, becoming ambitious for
the world. Listen to this, 1 John 2.15,
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in
him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the
lust of the eyes, And the pride of life is not of the Father,
but is of the world. Now, see what those three things
are. The lust of the flesh, I'm going
to have my way, regardless of what God says. The lust of the
eyes, I'm going to look upon this and have this, no matter
what God says. And the pride of life, That's
not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth
away, and the lust thereof. All of that's natural and it's
going to pass away. But he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever. God's Word abides forever. You
obey God's Word, follow God, trust God, you'll abide forever.
Whatever He's made, He's created, will abide forever. And so those
who repent and believe on Christ, truly repent, believe on Christ,
they break ties with this world. They sever from this world and
from the way this world does things. And we don't do it boasting
of our strength or of our righteousness. We do it boasting in the Lord.
The psalmist said, I'll go in the strength of the Lord God.
And I will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only. We don't boast that we separated
ourselves. God separates His people. We
don't boast that we made ourselves holy. God makes His people holy.
We don't boast that we made ourselves righteous. God makes His people
righteous. And we don't boast that our faith is righteousness
or that it is sanctification. It's the fruit of Christ our
holiness and our righteousness. Faith and repentance and being
severed from this world and being willing to not live after the
world, run after the world, that's a fruit. That's produced by God. That's a fruit of what Christ
has done for His people, making us righteous and holy. So true
believers part. Now, where we come to here in
our text, all three of these women have left Moab and are
on their way to Judah. Now this is a picture of a confession
of faith. But we have here the confession
of faith and we have a false confession of faith. So we're
going to focus here on the confession of faith, the true confession
of faith. So it says here in verse 8, Naomi
said unto her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's
house. She's telling them to go back.
Go back. Go back to your mother's house in Moab. The Lord deal
kindly with you as you've dealt with the dead, that is with my
sons that are now dead, and with me. They were kind to Naomi and
kind to her sons and she said, Now I pray the Lord to be kind
to you. You go back to your mother's house. Verse 9, The Lord grant
you that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. When they say that you might
find rest, this was a way they spoke of finding a husband. You'll
find that again over in chapter 3. Naomi, her mother-in-law said
unto her, My daughter, shall not I seek rest for thee? She's seeking a husband for her.
It's called rest, seeking a husband. The Lord grants you that you
may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. And
then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept.
Now listen to what they said to Naomi. And they said unto
her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. And it
meant, we're going with you to your people and we're going to
worship your God. That's what that phrase means.
And it says, verse 11, 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 husbands? Turn again, my daughters,
go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. And if I should
say, I have hope, if I should have a husband also tonight,
and should also bear sons, Would you tarry for them till they
were grown? Would you stay for them from having husbands? No,
my daughters, for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the
hand of the Lord is gone out against me." And they lifted
up their voice and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. She kissed her, she said goodbye,
and she went back to Moab. But Ruth clave unto her. And she, Naomi, said, Behold,
thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people and 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 whither
thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy
people should 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 she,
when Naomi saw that Ruth was steadfastly minded to go with
her, then she left speaking unto her. Now, the point I want you
to get tonight is this. Only the grace of God makes a
sinner steadfastly minded to follow Christ, together with
His people, and to do it until the end. Only the grace of God
makes a sinner to be strengthened so that they continue following
Christ, they continue with God's people, and they continue to
the end. Only God can give a heart for
Christ. And only God can give repentance
and faith to follow Christ. And only God can make us forsake
everything and follow Christ. And only those called by God's
grace and kept by God's grace will let nothing deter them from
following Christ together with their brethren and continue right
to the end. Now that steadfastness in faith
is what we see in Ruth. She's the focus here. She makes
the confession of faith. This is the true confession that
faith makes. Now we see three things here,
and I want to begin and show you this first thing. First of
all, true faith confesses. This is what true faith is confessing.
We're following Christ by God's grace. We are following Christ
by God's grace. And by God's grace we will not
turn back. That is the confession of faith.
I am dependent upon His grace and I am following Christ by
that grace. And by that same grace I am going
to keep following Christ. By that same grace I am not going
to turn back. Now, Naomi urged these girls
to go back. They were wanting to go with
her and they set out to go with her and she urged them to go
back. And the reason she did that is she didn't want them
following her to Judah just because of their sentimental attachment
to her. She didn't want them, in other
words, she didn't want them making a false confession of faith. She didn't want them professing
to be followers of Christ when they were really just followers
of Naomi only. If they went, she wanted them
going because God had them in the heart, and by grace they
were following Christ. Now the first time she urged
them to go back, this is what happened. It says there in verse
9 at the end, it says, They lifted up their voice, and they wept.
And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto
thy people. Now here's an example of a public
confession of faith right here. But you notice their emotions
were running very high. This was a very heart-wrenching
moment. They had come out of Moab and
they are probably at the border of Judah and Naomi turns to them
and she urges them to go back. And they began to weep loudly.
I mean this is some high emotion here. They are weeping loudly.
And so they make this confession. Surely, surely, they are saying
this is certainty. Surely we will return with thee
unto thy people. We will not only dwell with you
and your people, we are going to worship your God. That is
what they are confessing. Well, Naomi urges them to go
back a second time. She turns to them again and this
time she gives a lot stronger reason. She chose him. I'm not going to have a husband. And I'm not going to have a son.
And if I did, surely you wouldn't wait that long to marry my son. And she gives this stronger reason.
And this is what happened the second time. Verse 14. It says,
they lifted up their voice and they wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth claimed unto her. They all wept again. There were
still some emotions in this thing, still running high. Emotions
are involved in following Christ. There are some emotions involved
in following Christ. When you talk about breaking
the heart and giving a new heart, giving a heart of flesh, a heart
that's tender, there's some emotion involved in following Christ.
But it's not only emotion. It's not only sentiment. Orpah
thought about these things. She thought about her saying,
go back to your mother's house. And she thought about that, you
know, leaving her mother and all her people. And she thought
about not having a husband. And Orpah went back. She kissed
her and she went back because she could go back. She kissed
Naomi goodbye and she went home. Now when she kissed her, that
showed that she had some affection for Naomi. That's what made her
follow her as far as she did. natural affection she had for
her. But that natural affection was not as strong as that natural
affection for her mother's house and for Moab. So she turned around
and she went back because she could. Now there's a lot of people
that see the value in following Christ. Our Lord spoke of a parable
of the sower and He talked about four different kinds of people.
The first one, the seed just fell by the wayside, and they
didn't even follow because Satan just took it away. But the second,
the seed springs up fast, and they have some joy. And these
are people that see some value in following Christ. And the
third kind, it springs up, but the second kind, because they
don't have any root in them, they wither. The third kind spring
up and they last a little while. But then the cares of the world
choke away the word and they perish. One out of the four,
one out of the four was good ground, made good by God where
the seed was planted and grew up. One out of the four. Many
see the value in following Christ and many have an affection for
Him. You can do that naturally. And
they get excited and they follow Christ for a season. But now
listen to this. Those that profess Christ only
because their emotions are high, only in order to satisfy somebody
else, these girls were wanting to satisfy Naomi. At least one of them was. Well, both of them I'm sure were.
Ruth didn't want to do anything to hurt Naomi. But if that's
the only reason we follow Christ, or if it's only because we have
a trial so that we fear death or something like that, or if
it's only for some other natural reason, those who do so only
for reasons other than Christ and His grace always end up being
false converts. They always do. Because the natural
man cannot And he will not forsake the world and follow Christ.
Somewhere along the way, he's going to go back into the world.
Because God's not keeping him. And so he can. He can. But Ruth
wept too. Ruth wept too. You see, there
are some emotions involved. Both the girls wept. There are
some emotions involved. But it was not only emotion.
The true God-given faith does what Ruth did. She claimed to
Naomi as Naomi claimed to Christ. You hear me? She claimed to Naomi
as Naomi claimed to Christ. Notice what Naomi said when she
urged him to go back. Here in verse 8. Look at verse
8. Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law,
Go, return each to her mother's house. Go and return each of
you to her mother's house. And then look down at verse 16.
Listen to how Ruth answered this. Entreat me not to leave thee,
or to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest,
I will go. You see, Ruth was made willing
by God to forsake not only that land of Moab, she was made to
forsake her own mother's house. She was made to forsake her own
mother's house. And Ruth took Naomi to be her
mother because Naomi followed Christ. She was not really following
Naomi. She followed Naomi as Naomi followed
Christ. Do you remember what Paul said?
We haven't come to it yet in 1 Corinthians. But in 1 Corinthians
11, Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. And that's what's happening
right here. Ruth's not just following Naomi.
She's cleaving Naomi, but she's doing it because Naomi was following
Christ. She's following Christ. And that's
the heart of true faith toward Christ. What she said to Naomi
is the heart of true faith toward the Lord Jesus. And treat me
not to leave thee. Don't be angry against me to
turn me from following thee. I need Him to make me follow
Him. And our prayer is don't allow me not to follow you. or to return from following after
thee. Don't let me return from following after thee. For whither
thou goest, I will go. Now, if a man just makes that
confession on his own, he'll be like that fellow that told
the Lord, wherever you go, I'll follow you. And the Lord said,
well, I'm not like a fox. I don't even have a place to
lay my head. And that man said, well, wait a minute now. I don't
know if I want to follow you after all. You mean I'm going
to have to give up all those kinds of comforts? But when a
person is made willing in the heart by God, they'll say, I'm
following you wherever you go. That's what, if you're a true
believer, and I'm a true believer, since the day Christ called us
to faith, you know what we've been doing? Following Christ
wherever Christ goes. Wherever He'll have you to go,
He makes it known, and that's where you go. It may not be where
you want to go. It may not be a place that you
ever thought about going. But wherever He goes, that's
where you're going. Because that's where He's leading you. And you're
going to go where He goes. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. In the beauties of holiness from
the womb of the morning, thou hast to do of thy youth. He separates
you and makes you holy. And when He makes you holy, He's
speaking in the heart now. He's dwelling in the heart now.
And He's turning you just like you turn the tiller on a boat.
He is making you go wherever He wants you to go. Because He
is leading you. And when He has begun that work,
the reason you don't go back, the reason we pray, Lord, don't
let me go back, is because He is the only one that can keep
you from going back. We don't trust ourselves for not returning
and going back. We pray what she said to Naomi. Don't turn me from you and don't
allow me to turn from you. Because I need you to keep me.
And when he's begun that work, he will continue it. Let me get
you this from Philippians. You know this. Philippians 2.
I'm sorry, Philippians 1. Paul said to the Philippians
in Philippians 1.5, he said, I'm thankful for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now. What had made
them continue? What would make them continue?
Being confident of this very thing. that he which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. My marginal reference says, he
will finish it. If he started the work, he will
finish it until the day of Jesus Christ. And wherever he's given
this desire, so that you pray, Lord, keep me. from going back. Don't let me
go back. Let me follow you and keep me following you. Don't
let me forsake you. Wherever He's given that heart,
and that's the true heart that you pray between you and the
Lord, that you want Him, and you want to follow Him, and you've
got to have Him. Where He's given that heart,
and He's got to give it, but where He's given it, this is
His answer. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. That's
why there's a difference with this thing where people talk
about once saved, always saved. That's a big thing they used
to always say down south. Once saved, always saved. And
what they mean is you make a profession, you go back, get baptized, and
you get your name on a church roll, and then you got it all
cinched. Then you can just go out in the
world and live like hell the rest of your day. That's not
what we're talking about. We're talking about when he started
this work, and He's given you this heart, and He's made you
willing to follow Him, He's going to keep this work going on in
you, and He's going to continue it, and He's going to keep you
to the end, and He will not lose one. That's what we're talking
about. So first of all, true faith confesses that I've been
made willing to follow Christ by His grace, I'm dependent,
keep following Him by His grace, and as long as He keeps me by
His grace, I'll never go back. And if you're His, you will never
go back. You'll never go back. Alright,
here's the second thing. True faith confesses that our
rest and our lodging is Christ our husband in His house. That
means we're looking to Him for all provision. Look here, Naomi
urged him to go back and she said in verse 9, she said, The
Lord grants you that you might find rest, each of you in the
house of her husband. That's what she told. The Lord
grants you that you might find rest each of you in the house
of her husband. But when Ruth heard her speak
of that rest in the house of her husband, look how Ruth answered
in verse 16. The second part there. Where
thou lodgest, I will lodge. Where you rest, that's where
I'm resting. You see, Naomi no longer had
an earthly husband. The Lord took her earthly husband.
Naomi didn't have an earthly husband, but through faith she
had Christ her husband. And so did Ruth. Ruth had that
too. And Naomi's rest now, her lodging,
was in the house of Christ her husband. And so through faith,
when Ruth heard her say this, the Lord grants you that you
might find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband,
Ruth is thinking, he already did. He already granted me that
rest in the house of my husband. I've got it in Christ. And she
says to Naomi, the same place you're resting, that's where
I'm resting. Where you're lodging, that's where I'm lodging. Now
that's the spiritual. of this. Where you're resting,
the husband you have provided for you, that's the husband I
have provided for me. She sold out to Him. Christ is our husband. He's the husband of God's elect
church. Now what does that mean? It means
He is the Savior of the body. He's the Savior of His bride.
He's the Savior of every chosen child that God gave to Him that
makes up this elect body, this bride. Christ loved the church
of God's elect and gave Himself for it. That's Ephesians 5. And
what that means is when He loved her, He laid down His life for
her because He loved her. And when He laid down His life
for her, each member in particular, He made her the righteousness
of God in Christ. The law's got nothing else to
say to her because He justified her. She's righteous in Him.
And then it says Christ sanctifies and cleanses His bride with the
washing of water by the Word. We don't sanctify ourselves and
we don't cleanse ourselves. Christ does it. And He does it
by the washing of water. The Holy Spirit regenerates us. You go in that water on Sunday,
that's not going to wash you. If you go in there dirty, you're
coming out dirty. Christ washes us. He washes us by sending forth
the Holy Spirit of God who regenerates you and gives you a new heart
and purges your conscience from dead works by the blood of Christ.
And He does that by the Word, by the preaching of the Gospel.
You hear this Gospel go forth and He purges you, He washes
you by giving you a new heart. Born anew. And so he presents
his bride to himself, a glorious bride, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, but she's holy and she's without blemish.
Without blemish. He does that. He makes her righteous
and he makes her holy. And not only that, Ephesians
5 says, as we pass through this world, Christ our husband nourishes
and cherishes his bride. He nourishes her. We are going
to see later on. We saw this Sunday or whenever
we were in this last. I kind of lost track of time.
When we were here last, we saw they left the house of bread
going to find bread for themselves. And anytime you do that, you
are going to perish. And they end up, because Naomi
is God's leg, He brings her back to the house of bread and it
says over there at the end of the book that the kinsmen redeemer
Verse 15, He shall be unto thee the restorer of thy life and
the nourisher of thine old age. You see, they left the husband,
they left the bread, they left the kinsman-redeemer when they
went down there to Moab to try to provide bread for themselves.
But if you are His and you do that, He will bring you back
and He will show you the kinsman-redeemer. Christ is your husband. He is
your nourisher. He is your provider. And He does
that, He nourishes her and He cherishes her because we are
members of His body and of His flesh and of His bones. How well
do you nourish and cherish your own members of your own body?
You just haplessly care about any of them just getting chopped
off? You just put them in a meat grinder or something like that.
I don't care. It's just a member of my body.
No, you cherish the members of your body. And you protect the
members of your body. And you provide for the members
of your body. Well, the Scripture says the reason He nourishes
and cherishes His bride is because we are members of His body, of
His flesh and of His bone. Member. One with Him. One with
Him. And therefore, with the whole
church of God, you know what each member of His body does?
You know what the bride does? You know what we do? We confess,
He's my husband. I'm in submission to Him. If He says jump, I jump. If He
says run, I run. If He says stop, I'm stopping.
If He says go to the right, I go to the right. Whatever He says,
that's what I do. Because I'm dependent entirely
upon Him. He is the only one I can have
righteousness in and holiness in and be nourished and be cherished
and bring me all the way to glory. I must submit to Him because
He is my life. He is my breath. And so when
Orpah heard Naomi speaking of finding rest and finding a husband
in Moab, she got to thinking about it. And all she heard was
a natural husband. and natural nourishment and natural
provision and a natural roof over her head and natural lodging
and natural rest. That's all she heard. And she
thought, you know, old Moabite girl up there in the land of
Israel is probably not going to have good odds finding her
a catch. I need to get back down there to Moab. So she just left
and went on back down there. But Ruth heard it and she didn't
hear a natural husband. She heard Christ her husband. And she said, I'm going where
He is. I'm following Naomi. So true
faith confesses we follow Christ and we'll continue following
Him by His grace. And true faith confesses we're
submitting to Christ our husband, trusting Him for all provision,
all provision. And lastly, true faith confesses
that we're one with Christ and His people. We're one with Christ
and we're one with His people. Naomi urged him to go back and
she said back up there in Ruth 1 verse 13, She said there in
that last part, she said, I'm saying all this because I have
much bitterness. It grieves me. I have much bitterness
for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is going out against
me. You know, you think about that.
If you've got somebody that's come, say somebody comes to me
and they tell me they want to confess Christ. Make a profession. Public profession. Public confession
of Christ. And I start talking to them about
the bitterness of the hand of God. That's not a real good way to
encourage somebody, is it? To follow after the Lord? You
talk about the bitterness of the hand of the Lord against
you? Naomi said, the hand of the Lord
has gone out against me. She's telling Ruth, faith in
our God won't always be sunshine and roses. Some people follow Him for what
they can get out of Him. Some people follow Him because
they want health and wealth and prosperity. They won't be happy.
It's given to you, Scripture says, not only to believe on
Him, but to suffer for His sake. There's a cross to bear. There's
afflictions and trials and suffering. And our faithful Father chastens
those He loves and when He does, His hand sometimes seems like
it's just against you. It's never against us because
Christ shed His blood for His people and He won't lose one
of them. But it feels like it's against us because unlike our
mothers and our fathers, God will tell us no. If it's not
going to be good for us and it's going to end in death, He will
tell us no. And that grates against us. That's why it seems uncomfortable. And if it needs to, Naomi lost
her husband, she lost her son, she lost everything. Brother
Rob just prayed how wise and good God is in the things He
gives us and the things He takes away. But when that happens,
it's bitter. It's bitter. It grieves you. And that's what Naomi told her.
The hand of the Lord He's caused me great bitterness and grieved
me much. I came out of Bethlehem full,
I'm going back without a penny to my name. Don't have a husband,
don't have sons, don't have anything. That was needful to get her back
to the house of bread. What does faith answer that?
Orpah heard that and Orpah said, I'm going back down here where
it's good. We've never experienced anything like that down here
in Moab. We're living high on the hog down here because there
are hogs being fattened for slaughter. God's not even chasing them at
all down there. There's no bitterness there.
But when Ruth heard that, look at verse 16. She said there, Thy God shall
be my God. That very God whose hand feels
like it is against you, Naomi, that God is going to be my God.
That is faith. That God will be my God. Because
I know whatever He does will be good. Whatever He does will
be right. And He will give me the grace
to bear it. It won't be pleasant. It is not supposed to be. But
He will give me the grace to bear it. Because it is what is
going to be needful to keep me in Christ. And then look at this. Naomi warned that loved ones
will leave you. She said in verse 15, she said,
Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back to her people, to her
gods. Return there after your sister-in-law.
You think about this. They've been together for ten
years. You know she liked this girl.
That's her sister-in-law. And she confessed faith together.
They left Moab together, started Judah together. They confessed
to believe Naomi's God together. They said, surely we're going
with you. We're going to worship your God.
And now this dear one that she loved so much has proven that
she don't really believe Christ. And she turned around and went
back. What happens when your dearest
loved ones forsake Christ and return to their people and their
gods? Will you go away also? Faith answers in verse 16. Thy people shall be my people. Thy people shall be my people. You see, the faith God gives
counts the cost and can't be turned away. because everything
you have to give up. Once you've met Christ, once
you behold that Christ is the believer's all, He's my redemption
from the curse of the law, He's my righteousness and my holiness,
He's my reconciliation and my restitution to God. Once you
behold how lovely and altogether lovely He is, whatever you have
to give up for Him, Paul said, I count it lost. It's just done. I haven't given up anything compared
to Him. Nothing. And that's what faith
does. Faith doesn't go back. He's my
fullness. He's my acceptance. He's my all.
He's my keeper, my husband, my provider. And God is my God. That means He's my rule of faith
and practice. Somebody asked me on the plane,
what confession of faith do you hold to? I said, I hold to the
first article of every one of them. We hold that the Bible
is our only rule of faith and practice. All of them start with
that article. If that's so, throw the thing
away and go back to the Bible. That's our rule of faith and
practice, whatever He says. And that means He makes the decisions
in what I can and can't do. I'm led of His Spirit, not my
own. I'm directed by Him, not my fleshly desire. I'm submitting
to Him and obeying Him and everything as He enables me to. And I'm
praising Him for all of it. I'm never going to boast about
my obedience and my willingness and my following and my this
or my that. If I follow Him in all, it's
because of His grace. And that's it. And His people are my people.
His people are my people. Now when we baptize these two
believers Sunday, they'll be confessing these things before
all. They'll be confessing, I am steadfastly minded by God's grace. Number one, to forsake all for
Christ and be not turned back. Number two, to look to Christ
my husband and find all provision and rest in Him. And number three,
to obey my God according to His Word and be one with His people
as I am with Him. That's what they'll be confessing.
That's the true confession of faith. Amen. And don't forget, Sunday, 11
o'clock at...