Let us turn again to God's Word
in that portion that we began to consider this morning in Ruth
chapter 1. Ruth chapter 1 reading verses
16 and 18. 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 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 we fought but death part thee and me we started to consider the several
parts of Ruth's confession and tonight I want us really
to consider a confession of God as we have it here at the end
of verse 16 and then in verse 17 Thy God shall be my God she says
where thou diest will I die and there will I be buried to the
Lord do so to me and more also if aught but death part thee
and me earlier we were looking more particularly at the first
part of that sixteenth verse and saw true faith's attitude
to the world and I mentioned basically two things there is
to be that forsaking of the world which means that the person becomes
a pilgrim in the world and certainly we saw Ruth's willingness to
forsake to forsake the world as it were she will not return
to the land of her nativity she's not going to go back to the country
of Moab but she is determined to cleave and to cling to her
mother-in-law this woman who belongs to God's ancient covenant
people she was of Bethlehem Judah we are told and what does she
she say with her thou goest I will go or she won't return then with
Orpah her sister-in-law remember how there had been that separation
how Orpah kissed her mother-in-law there in verse 14 and and then
went away but Ruth Clave on to Naomi we're told and she said
Naomi said to her behold thy sister-in-law is gone back unto
her people and unto her gods return thou after thy sister-in-law. But no, no she will not return. She is forsaking now the ways
of the world, forsaking her old life as she cleaves unto Naomi. We referred, I believe, to this
morning to that godly king, Ezekiel, who with all claimed to the Lord
and departed not from him, a gracious king in Judah. was another who
claimed unto the ways of the Lord. And so here we see this
determination in this woman. Steadfastly minded, it says in
verse 18, to go with Naomi. Or thy people shall be my people,
she says, and thy God my God. Is she not amongst that blessed
company of whom the prophet Zephaniah speaks when he says, I will leave
in the midst an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust
in the name of the Lord. She is one of that company of
whom the prophet is speaking, trusting in the name of the Lord. And this is really evidence of
the grace of God in the soul of this woman. we know that we
have passed from death unto life says John because we love the
brethren and what love there is here what love towards Naomi
and the life that she's now going to be a part of and so they come
together they come together now to Bethlehem
when Naomi saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her then she
left speaking on to her so they too went until they came to Bethlehem
so Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabites her daughter-in-law
with her which returned out of the country of Moab and they
came to Bethlehem. There is a forsaking, a forsaking
of one life and moving over into a very different life. And now
she's going to be, as I said this morning, a pilgrim in the
world. pilgrim in the world. What does
she say? Where thou lodgest, I will lodge. She's referring
really to that that is temporary. It's a temporary dwelling, a
lodging. It's not something that is permanent. That's a force
of the word that's being used. Or she's one with those spoken
of, remember, in Hebrews 11. They confess that they were strangers
and pilgrims in the earth. And this is what Ruth has now
become. We're told there again in Hebrews
11 how they wondered about in sheepskins and goatskins being
destitute, afflicted, tormented. That's people, that poor people,
that afflicted people. They are followers of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And what are we told concerning
the Saviour? The foxes have holes and the
birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath nowhere
to lie his head. Nor the strangers on the earth,
their affections are set on things above, they recognize that the
things that are seen are the temporal things and the unseen
things are those eternal things. This is the life then that this
woman is being brought to, that she is confessing. This is her
desire. Entreat me not to leave thee,
or to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest
I will go, where thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall
be my people. But now, coming to what we have
at the end of that 16th verse, and then the 17th verse. Thy
God's my God, where thou diest will I die, there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me and more
also if ought but death part thee and me. Here we have a confession of
God, a confession of God. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. With the
heart man believeth unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation. All the importance of that confession. The significance then, We are
Baptists, we believe that it is right and proper that there
is a public profession and confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
identifying with Him. If we know anything of a real
spiritual union, will we not desire to make that a public
profession, the confession of our faith? Well, let us consider
a confession of God as we have it here and observe that the
language that she uses is strong language it's a language of appropriation
she can speak of God as my God little words and yet so much
in those two letters my God she says thy God my God to have that
saving knowledge that true knowledge of God not just a notional knowledge
not just a doctrinal awareness as to who God is but that that
is wrought in the soul that experience of the grace of God Remember
the words of the Lord Jesus in his great high priestly prayer
when he says to the Father this is life eternal that they might
know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent
to know God not just to know something about God but to know
that this God is my God and to use that language and it's not
the language of presumption you're not presuming here there's something
that is so so real something has evidently happened in the
soul of this woman these daughters-in-law seem to be so very similar in
many ways each of them so supportive of their poor mother-in-law so
affectionate in their attitude towards her but in the end there
is a separation. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law
but Ruth clave onto her. And what is it, what is the bond
between Ruth and Naomi, it's in those words that we have at
the end of that 16th verse. Thy God, my God. And how important
that is, really, when we think of the life of the local church. What is it that binds us one
to the other? We're not blood relations in
the main. There are those of course who are blood relations.
But what is it that binds the people of God together? It's
the grace of God. It's that that is wrought in
their souls. It's that common knowledge that they have. That
experience of the grace of God. Not all experiences are the same.
Some experiences are deeper than others. But we're not those who
are simply assenting to a set of articles. There's something
more than just a belief in certain articles, important as right
doctrine is. But there is that saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what we see in this
woman's confession. It is thy God, my God. Now, she may well have had some awareness
of the eternal, the invisible God of Abraham and of Isaac and
of Jacob. There had certainly in times
past been contact between the Moabites and the children of
Israel. They may have been at enmity,
they were at enmity so often. But those Moabites must have
had some some knowledge of just who the only living and true
God is we know that there's a sense
in which we have to be brought to confess that God himself is
in many ways the unknowable one God is infinite and we are such
finite creatures God is eternal and we are creatures of time
creatures of a day and of course God is holy and righteous and
just and we are those who were conceived in sin and shaped in
iniquity we have fallen natures and we were born in that state
of alienation from God How can we know God? God in some ways
is unknowable. I often quote those words of
Job 11. Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find
out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as heaven. What canst
thou do? Deeper than hell. What canst
thou know? The measure thereof is longer
than the earth and broader than the seas. What remarkable words
they are. That God is so great He fills
heaven and earth. He is the creator of all things,
the vastness of the universe. And yet what is that? Before
the Eternal God. Again, in the language of Job
37.23, in the words of Elihu, touching the Almighty, He says
we cannot find Him out. We cannot find Him out. How then can we know God? How
could this woman make such a confession and utter those two words, My
God? It's only because God reveals
Himself. There is a revelation of God
and that revelation is all about us. God has revealed Himself
in His works, His creation. All remember the
language that we have there in the 19th Psalm. The heavens declare
the glory of God it says. The firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech.
Night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language
where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through
all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. He
then may have set a sabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom
coming out of his chamber and rejoices as a strong man to run
arise. Creation, creation speaks. Day unto day uttereth speech,
night unto night showeth knowledge. There is a revelation. The invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen
being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal
power and Godhead, says the Apostle Paul. Therefore they are without
excuse. Because there is that revelation
in creation, men are without excuse. The fool has said in
his heart, there is no God. All God reveals Himself. He's unknowable, but He condescends
to show us something of Himself, His greatness, His glory, His
majesty, His power, when we think of the vastness of His creation. And how God created, simply by
His word, His fear, God said, and it was so. And as God works,
or has worked in creation, so God works in providence. The deists would deny that of
course. They didn't have any doctrine of God's providence. Things just happened. No, the
scripture indicates to us that having created all things, God
now governs his creatures. He does according to His will
among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth.
He's working out His own purpose. The psalmy says, O Lord, Thou
preservest man and beast. As in God said, As long as the
earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer
and winter, day and night, shall not cease. There are the laws
of nature. retire to our beds later tonight
and we anticipate the dawning of a new day? Why is it so? Because God, God is sovereign
in all these things and it's for us to observe God's providences. Who so is wise and will observe
these things even they shall understand the loving kindness
of the Lord says the Psalmist. All God's works revealed Himself
to us and in His providence we see Him as that God who is faithful
and true and kind making His sun to shine on the evil and
on the good and the rain to fall on the just and on the unjust
He is a good God but then we remember how ultimately God has
come and revealed Himself here in Holy Scripture Oh, what a blessed people we
are that we should have the Word of God. All Scripture, we're
told, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. Do we find our profit here in
God's Word? Do we read it that we might be
profited? Profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, we're told, that the man of God
may be perfect. throughly furnished unto every
good work, that's the purpose of it that the man of God may
be perfect, mature it matures us, the Word of God, if we read
it aright it establishes us it's God's Word it's that special
revelation that He has granted to us and favoured us with such
a faithful version in our own language and a version that He
has honoured now for so, so many years what a blessing it is to have
the Word of God and when we come together we come under the sound
of that Word it's no chance thing that the the pulpits, the lectern be so
prominent in the in the house of God as we come together we
want to give that right priority to the Word in its reading and
its preaching. And then ultimately we see that
God reveals Himself in the person of His only begotten Son. God
who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets as in these last days, spoken unto
us by His Son. whom He has appointed, or, how
does it go, those opening words there in Hebrews chapter 1. He's
the image of the invisible God. God has given us then this revelation
of Himself in His works, in His words, in the person of His only
begotten Son. But what is man's condition? What was the condition of Ruth
by nature? He was exactly the same as ours.
Man's natural condition is dead in trespasses and sins. He's
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that's
in him. He's impotent. He cannot help himself, he cannot
save himself. the natural mind, it's enmity
against God, it's not subject to the law of God neither indeed
can be and so the natural man doesn't receive the things of
the spirit of God he accounts them as foolishness all his understanding
is so darkened, he's so alienated because of the blindness and
the hardness of his heart and yet here we have a woman called
Ruth who makes such a confession as this she says thy God my God
my God she can use that language a language of appropriation that's
how we're to address God when we pray to him we say our father
or like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him he knoweth how frame he remembers that we're
dust this woman what a favoured woman she was She was of the
people of Moab. And what do we read concerning
these people? We go back to the days of Moses and the beginnings really
of Israel becoming a nation as God delivers them from the bondage
of Egypt and brings them through the wilderness and brings them
into the possession of that land that he had promised to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob to establish them as a people. But what do
we read concerning the Moabites? In Deuteronomy 23 verse 3 It says, And Ammonites or Moabites
shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to their tenth
generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the
Lord for ever, because they met you not with bread and with water
in the way when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they
hired against the Balaam the son of Beor of Pitha of Mesopotamia
to curse them. So the Moabites are excluded,
cut off, it says to the 10th generation, cut off from the
congregation of the Lord. And yet here is a Moabite who
is brought into the congregation of the Lord. Here is a Moabite
woman who is taught of God. What a blessing! It's written
in the Prophets and they shall be all taught of God. every man
therefore that hath heard and have learned of the Father cometh
unto me says the Lord Jesus Christ and you know how in time she
does come to the Lord Jesus she comes to her Boaz she comes to
her Boaz or she is one then who can confess
her God that this God is her God it's a mighty work that God
has wrought in the soul of this woman that brings her to utter
such words as we find in our text today we have a confession
then, a confession to God but then also here in the second
place we see a commitment, there's a real commitment to God there's
nothing half-hearted about this woman as she continues in verse
17 where thou diest will I die and there will I be buried she
says what a remarkable thing this
is as I say she's identifying not just with Naomi but with
the people of God with the congregation of Israel thy people shall be
my people she says how committed she is all her days even past her days she'll be
buried amongst them they're very much her people now and how we
see her ultimately brought to Boaz and Boaz brought to her
We're told how it was a hap. It so happened that she went
into the field of Boaz. But it wasn't a chance happening.
It features powers of chance and fortune. I defy my life's
minutest circumstances subject to his eye. It's all under the sovereign
hand of God that she comes into that field. and then Boaz appears and Boaz speaks to her and what
does he say? there in the portion we read
in chapter 2 it has fully been showed me all that thou hast
done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband and
thou hast left thy father and thy mother and the land of thy
nativity and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore
the Lord recompense thy work and the full reward be given
thee of the Lord God of Israel under whose wings thou art come
to trust. Oh she's come to trust you see
in this God she is so so committed and Boaz as I say is a remarkable
type of the Lord Jesus Christ and we see him there how he takes
account of her and how He feeds her so tenderly that 14th verse
we refer to it only last Lord's Day as we came to the Lord's
Supper. Thou hast said unto her at mealtime come thou hither
and eat of the bread and dip thy morsel in the vinegar and
she sat beside the reapers and he reached her parched corn and
she did eat and was sufficed and left and now the Lord Jesus
Christ feeds his people. and we see it there in that sixth
chapter of John where he speaks of himself as the bread of life
and how his body is his meat indeed, his blood, his drink
indeed oh we sang of it did we not in that opening praise at
hymn 831 I don't recollect ever choosing that hymn before or
singing it at any time previously One is always discovering wonders
in Gadsby's hymn book, but it speaks of that free feast. And what is that free feast?
It's the person, it's the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. His
creatures all are filled by Him with proper food, with all He
gives to every child, His Son's own flesh and blood. God bids us bring no price, the
feast is furnished free. His bounty is hand the poor supplies
and who more poor than we? He feeds us then with his royal
dainties, even the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this really is the experience of Boaz in type as we see it
in that second chapter. she's so committed, she has the
same faith as so many of the patriarchs said this morning she has the
same faith as Jacob when Jacob was cleaving to the angel of
the Lord and would not let the angel go she's a cleaver too,
clinging to Naomi and she also has the same faith as Joseph. Remember what we're told there
at the end of Genesis when Joseph comes to die and he gives specific
instruction unto his brethren. The last verses of Genesis, Genesis
50, 24, Joseph said unto his brethren, I die. And God will
surely visit you and bring you out of this land unto the land
which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph
took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely
visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph
died being 110 years old, and they embalmed him, and he was
put in a coffin in Egypt. but they were to take his bones
up hence out of Egypt. He was to be taken into that
land that God had promised to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. Is it not the same faith in what
this woman is saying here in her confession? Where thou diest will I die.
and there will I be buried. There will I be buried. It's faith. We're told it was
the faith of Joseph that was in those words that we've just
read at the end of Genesis. Again the language that we have
in that catalogue of the faithful, Hebrews 11. By faith Joseph when
he died, made mention of the departing of the children of
Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. That was an act of
faith. By faith he gave commandment
concerning his bones. He knew that they would be taken
into that promised land and so this woman is determined, you
see, there's such a commitment to the God of Israel. Where thou
diest, will I die. There will I be buried, she said. And the All Particular Baptist minister
John McGowan says of believers that bodies as well as souls
are bought with a price. Bodies as well as souls. There
will in that great day at the end of time be a general resurrection.
Our bodies are to be raised again and reunited to our glorified
souls. if we are those who go to the
Lord in heaven? How we are to have a regard for
our body then? Isn't our body the temple of
the Holy Ghost? Remember the language of the
Apostle? He writes to the Corinthians there in 1 Corinthians 6 verse
19. What? He asks. know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have
of God and ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price
therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which
are God so she's concerned as to where her body is going to
lie there will I be buried amongst the people of Naomi, she so identifies
with them. Recently we were preaching from
those words in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul's prayer for the sanctification
of those believers. He gives them all those various
exhortations, remember? All of them really commandments,
having the imperative. He's telling them how they are
to live their lives. It's the practical part of the
Epistle. The last two chapters of 1 Thessalonians
are very much concerned with the way in which they are to
conduct themselves. As he begins chapter 4, he says,
"...furthermore then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you
by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us, that ye
ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more."
And then he goes on, remember, to say that this is the will
of God, even your sanctification. There at verse 3. And then he
gives them various directions, exhortations, instructions. And
in the midst of it all, he prays. Right at the end of it all, we
should say. Verse 23 of chapter 5, the very God of peace, He
says, sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit
and soul and body be presented blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. All we are to be concerned then,
that we glorify God in our body and in our spirit. And this is
what this woman is concerned to do she has such a commitment
to Naomi and to Naomi's God that this God is truly her God and
then having confessed God having expressed her real commitment
to God she finishes her confession by calling upon the name of God
isn't that what we have at the end the end of verse 17 she says
the Lord's do so to me and more also he fought but death part
thee and me what language is this what remarkable language
she calls upon God's to be a witness a witness to her sincerity a
witness to the reality of what she has been saying really she
she is taking an oath she's taking an oath and we're
told aren't we in Hebrews 6.16 men verily swear by the greater
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife
this is the oath for confirmation I know in the context there of
Hebrews 6 it's speaking of God taking an oath because He could
swear by no greater, He swore by Himself when He blessed Abraham
He didn't just give His words His promise He confirmed it and
He confirmed it by an oath, He swore by Himself all that He
is, all that His name declares Him to be He magnifies His word
above all His name. That's what God is doing. And
this is the same spirit that we see in some measure in what
this woman is saying at the end of her confession. The Lord do so to me and more
also if ought but death part thee and me. And what does the wise man say
to us in the book of Ecclesiastes when thou vowest a vow to God
defer not to pay it's no light thing to make a vow to God when
thou vowest a vow to God defer not to pay or the righteous man
he swears to his own hurt his word is his bond really what
he says he will do and this is what we have here it's so much
the language of faith that we see in this woman's confession
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 ought but death part
thee and me it's a language of faith and you see at the end
as she as she speaks his oath what is she doing she's really
praying she's really praying at the end she's calling on the
name of God neither cometh to God must believe that he is and
that he is a rewarder of all them that diligently seek him
she believes And so she concludes by calling upon God Himself.
Not now simply speaking to her mother-in-law. It's very much
an address to Naomi. But at the end, no, she turns
from Naomi now and she speaks to God she prays. And what is
prayer? It's worship. and it's worship
in its highest form. The highest part of all our worship
surely is when we come and address our prayers to God. Remember what we're told at the
beginning after the entrance of sin, after Cain murdered his
brother Abel, And then we come to Genesis chapter 4 and there
at the end it says, upon the birth of Enos, when Seth was born to Adam and Eve
and then Seth as a son called Enos, then began men to call
upon the name of the Lord. Then began men to call upon the
name of the Lord. There's a godly seed. And what's
the mark of the godly seed? They called upon the name of
the Lords. And this is what this woman is
doing. Oh, she's calling upon the name
of the Lord. She's a Moabitish woman. One
who in a sense was excluded from the congregation of Israel, yet
she's calling upon the name of the Lord. We think of that woman
in the Gospel. She was a Canaanitish woman.
and she comes to the Lord Jesus with her poor child and you remember
how the Lord doesn't take account of her initially and the disciples
wanted to be dismissed she's a troublesome creature to them
but she will not be denied and then she comes and she worshipped
him saying Lord help Lord help me was her prayer and that's
worship and that's the highest form of worship and we see it
here with Ruth as she comes to the end of this confession 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 there will I be buried the Lord do so to
me and more also if ought but death part thee and me what a godly woman Naomi also
a godly woman I want us to go on as I said this morning and
consider the words that she speaks later here in verses 20 and 21 but all the record that we have
in Scripture concerning these godly women. I like that opening section of Luke chapter
8 concerning the women who ministered to the Lord Jesus during the
days of His humiliation here upon the earth. Remember, He had nowhere to lay
His head. and we're told there at the beginning
of Luke 8 and he came to pass afterward he went throughout
every city and village preaching and showing the glad tidings
of the kingdom of God and the twelve were with him and certain
women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities
Mary called Magdalene out of whom went seven devils and Joanna
the wife of Chuzza Herod Stewart and Susanna and many others which
ministered unto him of their substance they ministered unto
him they supported him they supported him what blessed women these
women were I don't know maybe when you read Christian biography
often read it's the easiest form of reading I suppose biography
is most interesting to read of the lives and experiences of
others, but I like reading the experiences of some of those
godly women. You might know that book that
was put together by Mr. Ramsbottom, The King's Daughters.
And there's a character there, one of my favorite characters
really in all of the reading that I've ever done, the account
that we have there of Henrietta Gilpin. the wife, the first wife
of Bernard Gilpin she was only in her late thirties when she
died in childbirth what a gracious experience what a blessed thing
it is that we have on record here in Holy Scripture the confessions
of women such as Ruth the Moabitish damsel and as I said she is there
in the lineage of the Lord Jesus we have the generations at the
end of the book the generations that go right back they rejoice when the son was
born to Naomi it says they called his name Obed that was a child
that was really born to Ruth of course Ruth and Boaz but here
is Naomi she's like a nursing mother to that child they called
his name Obed he is the father of Jesse the father of David
and then the generations are counted from Phares who begat
Esron and Esron begat Ram and Ram begat Amaladab and Amaladab
begat Narshan and Narshan begat Sammon and Sammon begat Boaz
and Boaz begat Ebed and Ebed begat Jesse and Jesse begat David
and Christ of course comes of that line we trace his lineage
back then to Boaz and to this woman Ruth. You see why then? It was that Naomi and Elimelech
must must go into the country of Moab because this woman was
to be brought in and to have that honored and that blessed
position. May the Lord be pleased to bless
these truths to us. Amen.