You can go ahead and turn with
me to Ruth chapter one, beginning in verse 14. It says, and they, speaking of Naomi,
Ruth, and Orpah, they lifted up their voice and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth clave unto her. And she said, behold, thy sister-in-law
has gone back into her people. Naomi's speaking to Ruth. She's
gone back into 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, thy God my God. And 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." And when she,
Naomi, saw that she, Ruth, was steadfastly minded to go with
her, Then she left speaking unto her. You know, when I read these
verses, these few short verses here, the first thing that comes
to my mind is commitment. Ruth here is committed to Naomi. Commitment means the state or
quality of being dedicated to a cause. Synonyms for the word
commitment are responsibility, obligation, duty, dedication,
devotion, allegiance, loyalty, faithfulness, fidelity, commitment,
commitment. You know, in the institution
of marriage in our day, there seems to be little commitment
anymore. Today, folks go into holy matrimony,
the holy matrimony of marriage. That's what the Lord calls it.
Most people don't give it much mind when they get married and
be in an institution of God. But they go into it with the
idea and the attitude, well, if it doesn't work, we'll just
get a divorce or an annulment. No big deal. There's no responsibility
taken by either party, no obligation to the institution of marriage,
no dedication, no devotion, no loyalty with little or no fidelity. And it's the same in many areas,
whether it's the workplace or especially religion. In religion,
no commitment to the cause. Religion has actually diminished
commitment to mean nothing more than a sinner making a free will
decision to make Jesus Lord and then to trust in that choice,
that decision that they made as their salvation. If it doesn't work out or suit
them, well, they can just find another denomination that caters
to their thoughts, their opinions, their beliefs and practices,
and never miss a beat. There's so much wrong with that.
First of all, we don't make Jesus Lord. Jesus Christ is already
Lord. And He's been Lord from the foundation
of the world. And secondly, we don't have any
will, especially one that's free. You see, our will is in bondage
to our nature and our sin. We can only will to do what dead
men will to do, and that's nothing. I wonder if folks really believe
that they're dead, spiritually dead, as the scripture declares
them to be. Salvation is not of him that
will it, because one dead has no will. And all of us are dead
in trespasses and sin. And if we convince ourselves
that we're saved by our will, then our will will most certainly
become meritorious to us. a work be
done by us and we'll be easily convinced that our will and so-called
work of righteousness has the means and the cause of our salvation
instead of the result of God's love and mercy and grace to us
in Christ. How many times have I been to
a funeral service where the The person that was dead had never
had any interest in the things of Christ, and yet the preacher
preached them right into heaven because of a decision they'd
made as a young child or whatever. You know what I'm talking about. But we're talking about commitment,
true commitment to Christ. is really only made when true
love is involved. And let me say that I fully understand
that the result of love is an act of the will, I know that.
But we must always remember that we love Christ because He first
loved us. And anything and everything that
we believe to initiate in the matter of salvation, especially
our love for Christ, is nothing but a farce because we didn't
initiate it. He did. And we love Him because
He first loved us. The Lord is the first cause of
all things. We say that, especially our love
for Him. So we see that salvation, first
and foremost, has to do with His commitment toward us, not
our commitment toward Him. We would have never loved Him
had the Lord not first loved us. But when we are, by His grace,
made to love Him, the love He freely gave us is the motivation
in everything that we do. We're not doing things in order
to be saved. We're doing things for Christ
because we are saved out of love and commitment to Him. A man or a woman that knows Christ
gives all to the God that loved them, gives all to those that they
love, the honor, They give honor to the God whom they love, and
they guard the honor of all whom they love. They're committed
to preaching Christ and Him crucified, and they're committed to the
well-being of all God's people. They're jealous for the God who
gave Himself for them, and they're jealous for God's people everywhere.
Why? Because we love Him and His people. And why do we love Him? Because
He first loved us. The record of all the scriptures
is that God loved His people from the foundation of the world.
And because of that, Christ was made the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world to save and redeem those that God loved.
And in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son made of
a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law that they might receive the adoption of son. Why? Because
he loved them. He's committed to them. True
love, unconditional love cannot be explained. You know, anyone
can tell you that they love you. And I hear people say, oh no,
I love you, love you too. I hope that we truly mean that. I hope that just doesn't become
a matter of going through the motions,
but true love can only be demonstrated truly by the actions of the one
that says that they do love you. Christ's love and commitment
to us, dear friends, is the cause of our love and commitment to
Him. How obvious This is seen in Ruth's actions and words towards
Naomi. Now we got an emotional scene
here before us in verse 14. Naomi has endeavored to persuade
both Ruth and Orpah to return back to their homes in Moab. And as we read, they lifted up
their voice and they wept again. This is not the first time. They've
been weeping for a while. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth claved unto her. It's my prayer again tonight
that God will cause us and enable us to cleave to Christ and to
be unable to turn loose from Him. Cling to Him and hold on
to Him. Orpah heard Naomi's words Just
the same as Ruth did. But she went back to her people.
She was moved by Naomi's words. Her affections were stirred,
her emotions were moved with sorrow. She went back to Moab
weeping, but she went back to Moab. She kissed the one she
claimed to love, but she left her with a kiss. Not one time
is she mentioned again in all the scriptures. And we all know
from our own experience and our own nature that though Orpah's
heart was broken, she soon got over it. No doubt that Orpah
was sincere, just as many who are moved by the gospel are sincere. But when the Word takes no root
and it doesn't bring forth Naomi here, I think, beautifully
pictures the gospel. Her words are a message of that
gospel. She had no doubt told Ruth and
Orpah about Jehovah, how he delivered them out of Egypt, how he sent
the plagues. How he had said, these are my
people, you let my people go. How he delivered them at the
Red Sea. How he led them through the wilderness,
how he fed them with manna from a rock. I know she had told these
two young women that. How he quenched their thirst
out of a rock and delivered them into the land of Canaan and defeated
all their enemies. Don't you imagine they talked
about this a lot, had to have. how He defeated all their enemies,
how He gave them the land that He promised them. She told them
both all that God had done for His people, and yet Orpah does
what's in her heart to do. She goes back. Her love for Moab was greater
than her love for Naomi. I can think of many who've heard
the gospel in this place. and rejoiced in it for a while.
But they've gone back. They love the world more than
the preaching of the gospel. They love the things of the world
more than the things of Christ. And let me just interject this.
If not for the grace of God, so would I. And so would you. John said they went out from
us, but they were not of us. If they'd been of us, they would
no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they
might be made manifest that they were not all of us. You know,
folks make excuses for their reasons of leaving the gospel,
but the real reason in the end will prove to be that they were
not Christ's sheep. The Lord Himself said that. but
you believe not because you are not of my sheep, as I sent unto
you. If you'd been of us, you would
have continued with us, but they went out. They went back, and
it's manifested that they were not God's sheep. As Orpah kissed Naomi and left,
I thought about Judas portraying the Lord with a kiss. And Orpah
returns to Moab giving Naomi a kiss. But this is what I love
thinking about. I can just see it. It just moves
my heart. Ruth clave unto her. That word
clave means joined. It means stuck to. It means one
with. You see the picture? She claimed
to Naomi. She claimed to the gospel. She
claimed to the good news of what Christ had done for sinners.
She was one with Naomi, just as we're one with Christ. She
would not be separated from her. That's what the believer is with
the Lord Jesus. They're one with Him, joined
with Him, in complete union with Him. flesh of His flesh and bone
of His bone. Here we have two women, both
Moabites, both widows, and they demonstrate the dichotomy represented
in this world. You know, there's only two types
of people in this world, we've said this many times, the lost
and the saved, the unbelieving and the believing, those chosen
and those not, those loved by God and those not loved. Just
as the two thieves on the cross. What made the difference? No,
who made the difference? God did. God had mercy on one, He left
the other one to Himself. That's God's prerogative. One
bowed, worshipped, and was saved. One cursed and blasphemed and
was lost. No middle ground. It's one or
the other. Just as it was with Cain and
Abel. Both from the same parents. Both taught by their father,
I'm sure, just as Naomi and Orpah was. One God loved, the other
God hated. It's the difference that God
makes. So Paul asks, is there unrighteousness with God? God
forbid. You know, God would have been
right. to send all of us to hell. Men and women divide themselves
into many categories. God just has two. Men say they're
rich and poor, educated and ignorant, young and old, healthy and sick,
good and bad. But God says it's just two types
of people. There are the Ruths and there
are the Orphans. There are the Abels and there
are the Kings. There are the Jacobs and the
Esau's. And tonight, dear friends, I
tell you, I so want to identify and I desire to identify with
Ruth. I want her confession to be mine.
And if it is, it'll be by grace because we haven't chosen him.
He's chosen us. To follow Naomi would be a walk
of faith. And it'll be the same for us
who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 8, Naomi said unto her
daughter-in-law, go return each of you to your mother's house. In verse 9, she said that they'd
find rest in the house of their new husband. You'll find a new
husband. You'd be better off to go back
and do that. I'm too old to have more sons. You know what it says there.
And it wasn't she told them to do this because she didn't love
them. She's letting them know the same thing that the Lord
lets His people know. That He makes them to know if
they follow Him. This is going to be a walk of
faith. This walk is going to bring much tribulation. This
isn't a little rose garden walk. Following Christ is a walk of
faith. You'll have to walk by faith
and not by sight. And Orpah considered what Naomi
said as she went back. She had too much to lose. But
Ruth, in verse 16, she said, entreat me not to leave thee
and to return from following me. Now, if you have a marginal
Bible, you see that the word entreat here means be not against
me. I thought that was very interesting.
And this is what every believer that follows Christ says. Lord,
don't be against me. Before me, not against me. Lord,
if you send me away, I'm gonna die in Moab. You know, in the storm, when
Christ walked on the water and came to the disciples, Peter
said, Lord, bid me to come to you. Lord, don't send me away,
bid me to come unto you. Just the opposite. Ruth said,
don't make me leave. Her intent was to go with Naomi.
It was clearly the desire of her heart. And she wasn't at
all presumptuous. She didn't say, now Naomi, I'm
going with you, and that's all there is to it. And she didn't
say, Miss Naomi, I'm going with you whether you like it or not.
No, she begged Naomi not to send her away. That's how the child
of God comes to Christ. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. That leopard didn't show up and
say, hey, I'm in bad shape here, and I've heard what you've done
for other people, so I expect you to do that for me too. No,
he said, Lord, if you will, I know you can, but if you will, will
you make me clean? And the Lord said, I will. Oh,
the sinner doesn't come to God presumptuously, they come, seeking
mercy and grace. We attribute all sovereignty
to His will. We attribute our salvation to
His purpose. We attribute salvation to Him. If you will, Lord. We await His
permission. What Naomi saw in Ruth is what
our Lord sees in those who love Him. And that's an unquenchable
desire to be by His side. Commitment. Lord, I'm committed. I'll perish if you don't keep
me, if you don't let me stay. Ruth expressed one desire to
be with Naomi. And is it not the same with the
believer? Did you know that Orpah's name means to turn quickly? Isn't
it amazing? We've talked about that so many
times, what names in the Bible mean. It means to turn quickly. When she was given opportunity
to go back, she turned quickly and went back. But not Ruth. She said, don't make me leave.
Don't make me leave. In verse 16, she said, for whither
thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge, and
thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou
diest, will I die, and there will I be buried, and the Lord
do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and
me. That's the way every believer
feels. That's the heart of every child
of God. And oh, that Orpah may serve
as a warning to us. We can't look back, remember
Lot's wife, and we can't go back. Any man or woman having put their
hand to the plow who looks back, the Lord Jesus said, is not worthy,
is not fit for the kingdom of God, Luke 9, 62. And besides that, to whom will
they go? That's what Peter said. The Lord said, you're going to
leave me also? And Peter said, where are we
going to go, Lord? You have the words to eternal
life. We can't leave this gospel. We can't leave our Lord and Savior.
And the wonderful thing is, is those that are truly His, He
won't let. Ruth said to Naomi, your God
is my God. Your God is God first, and your
God is my God. And you know, that only comes
by divine revelation. Flesh and blood have not revealed
this unto you, the Lord Jesus told Peter, but my Father which
is in heaven. But when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, to reveal
His Son in me. He's revealed in the hearts of
men and women that the Lord chose. And Paul said, I didn't confer
with flesh and blood. No, this was God that revealed this
truth. And it was God who revealed it to those who know it. And
I love how verse 18 reads. It says, when she, Naomi, saw
that she, Ruth, was steadfastly minded. That's what every believer
is, steadfastly minded. She was steadfastly minded to
go with her. Then she left speaking unto her. She's like, she's not gonna go
back. She's steadfastly minded, that
means strongly resolved. It means obstinate, stubbornly
refusing to change her mind, not going anywhere. Ruth was resolved to this course
of action despite Naomi's attempts to persuade her otherwise. I'm
telling you, you can't convince a saved sinner not to follow
Christ. You can't discourage them. They
might get discouraged, but you can't discourage them from following
Christ. You can't persuade them otherwise. You can't run them
off. Ruth's words here read like wedding
vows. As I read those again, I thought,
that sounds a lot like a wedding vow, a commitment, a promise. And that's what they are, they're
wedding vows to our heavenly husband, they're vows of commitment.
Naomi's name means pleasant. You remember when she returned
back and everyone saw her, she said, oh, don't call me Naomi,
don't call me pleasant, call me Myra, bitter. But the name
Naomi means pleasant and she pictures the gospel, which is
pleasant to the believer's ears. Oh, it's the most pleasant thing
you could ever hear. And Ruth's name means friendship.
Christ's people are no longer servants, but friends. The Lord
Jesus left His throne in glory and He came into this Moab of
a world in which we live in order to find His Ruth's and to redeem
them and bring them back with Him. And the Lord uses the means
of preaching to do that, the preaching of the gospel. And
when he ascended back into glory, he left Moab and he took with
him those he came to die for. And that's what we have a picture
of here. Naomi is leaving Moab and bringing Ruth with her. What evidence this is of God's
effectual call. Naomi heard there was bread in
Jerusalem. And you know what? So did Ruth.
So did Ruth. Ruth was not ashamed to confess
openly her faith for Naomi's God. She said, your God is God
and your God is my God. Orpah went back to her gods and
Moab, but not Ruth. She said, no, I've changed gods. That's what repent is. It's not
just to change our actions. It certainly is that, but it's
to change our God. And that's what Ruth did. She
wouldn't have shame to confess it either. God's people are gonna
make a clear and an open confession as just as Ruth did. We as believers
confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. God's people are always ready
to give an answer to every man for the reason of the hope that
he has in Christ. We're not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation. It's the only way sinners are
saved. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that what believes. To the Jew first and also to
the Greek and we could say to the Jew first and also to the
Moabite. Ruth is telling Naomi that her
hope of being saved is to have her God. Entreat me not to leave,
she said. Be for me, not against me. If your God is for me, none can
be against me. And that's what every child of
God knows. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Don't let me go back to where
I came from. That's one of my constant and
continual prayer. Lord, don't let me go. Don't
let me go back to where I came from. That Moab of a world in
which we live. Lord, keep me. Don't let me have
my way. Don't leave me to myself. When folks say that they want
to know the will of the Lord, I hear folks say that quite often,
but I just, I'm just seeking the will of the Lord. Usually
what they mean is they want to know what awaits them. But whatsoever awaits the believer
is really not the issue. If I'm with Christ, all is gonna
be well. If I be with Christ, it's well
with my soul. For where he goes, I'll go. Where
he dwells, I'll dwell. His people be my people. Where
he dies, I will die. Where he's buried, I will be
buried. But here's the wonderful thing.
Death cannot and will not separate me from Him as it would Naomi
and Ruth. For when He rises from the dead,
so will I. And when He ascends into glory,
so will I. And where He is, I'll be also,
because He's gone and prepared a place for me. And because of
my union with Him, I will forever be where He is. And isn't that
good news? That's the gospel. Well, one last word on Ruth's
commitment to Naomi. First, we see that Ruth desired
to be with Naomi. The believer desires to be with
Christ. Lord, where you go, I'll go.
Where you lodge, I'll lodge. Secondly, Ruth's commitment means
that she would have new relationships. She said, to Naomi, your people
will be my people. Ruth would, she's left family
and friends. She's left it all behind, but
she'd gained much more than what she lost. And I know some of
you that have lost family and friends because of your stand
for the gospel, but you'll gain much more than what you've lost. We may lose relationships, family
and friends, but God will restore the heavenly, the spiritual relationships,
and they're so much better. Thirdly, Ruth's commitment required
her to leave her God. She said, your God's my God.
To have the God of the Bible as your God, all other gods has
got to be abandoned. Our form of religion got to be
abandoned. We can no longer worship at the
altar of free will. We can no longer glory in our
self-righteous works. If we're committed to Christ,
all rivals are disallowed, can't have them. Fourthly, Ruth's commitment
was for life. She said, where thou diest, I
will die. This is a commitment all the
way to the end. Don't do us any good to start
building a house and not consider the cost to finish it. It'll
do you no good. Can't live in that house. Following
Christ, trusting Christ, believing in and on the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's not a contingency plan for escaping hell. Jesus Christ is
not a far escape from hell. No matter how some people preaching,
and no matter how they try to scare people into a profession
of faith. Listen, that's not gonna take. Not gonna take. It's a commitment
for life. For life. A lifelong commitment. And fifthly, Ruth's commitment
to Naomi was such that she wanted to be buried with her. But that was as far as Ruth could
go with Naomi. But our commitment to Christ
goes beyond the grave into life everlasting. Matter of fact,
it's just the beginning. Just the beginning. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God about him. But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him, Christ said, shall never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life. Barely, barely, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from
death unto life. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life. And I'll raise Him up at the
last day. In our commitment to Christ,
we're gonna fail time and time again. I know you know that because
you have. But His commitment to us will
never fail. And because of that, we'll never
be lost and we'll have everlasting life. And I love the thought
of this, and I've been told so many times, well, you can't say
that. You're going to give people false
hope. You're going to cause people
to perish. Our salvation cannot be obtained. I've said this so many times.
It's the most glorious thing, and we don't use it as an excuse
to sin. Not a believer does it. But our
salvation cannot be obtained by what we do, and because of
that, it cannot be lost by what we do. Because it's based 100%
on the finished work that the Lord Jesus Christ did for us. Aren't you thankful for Christ's
commitment to you? It's the only way any of us can
be saved. Because of His commitment to
us, we're steadfastly minded, just like Ruth, to follow Him. Yes, because we love Him. But we love Him only because
He first loved us. So again, we're right back to
where we started. Salvations of the Lord. We love
Him because He loved us. We're committed to Him because
He's committed to us. And He keeps us by His power.
One day, very soon, very soon, we'll be with Him forever, face
to face. And I think that's good news,
don't you? I think that's the gospel. And what a picture we
have of it right here in Ruth chapter 1.