message that I would have preached
this Wednesday night, so bless my heart that I thought I would
bring it this morning and then go to the next one for next Wednesday
night. But the title of my message this
morning is A Complete Confession. A Complete Confession. Now, Naomi
had two daughter-in-laws. She lost her husband, lost her
sons. And these two women, one of them
went back One of them continued on. And there was no difference
in these two women naturally. Both were Moabites. They were
sister-in-laws. Both of them were kind to Naomi. Kind to her sons. And they was
easily moved to tears. Naomi would be talking to them
and they would break into weeping. And two times it talks about
how grievously they wept. But between these two women there
was a great eternal difference. A great eternal difference between
these two women. And it was shown in the decisions
that they made. In the decisions that they made.
Orpah, it says in verse 14, it says here in chapter 1 verse
14. And they lifted up their voice
and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth cleaved
unto her. But now she left her mother-in-law
after she said that she would not. She said back up in verse
10, and they said unto her, Surely, surely we will return with thee
unto thy people. But she went back. But Ruth Cleve,
and that word Cleve or Cleve means to be glued to. You know,
Paul, he told him in Acts, he says, you cleave unto the Lord.
Be glued to the Lord. Cleave to Him. And I tell you
what, that Ruth claimed to Naomi. Well, who made the difference
between these two women? Why did one go back and the other
one stayed? Why did one kiss Naomi and head
back to the house? Back to her own country? What
made that difference? Did they make the difference
in themselves? Was it a matter of their free will? A matter
of their own making or something? Is that what it was about too?
No, I tell you what it was. The difference between the two
was that Ruth was a vessel of God's sovereign mercy. Ruth was
a vessel of God's sovereign mercy. One who was saved according to
His purpose. She was one of His predestinated
people. As many as were ordained to eternal
life, they believed. And we'll see how she believed
here. But I'm telling you, God makes the difference between
men in this world. He makes the difference in even
the natural things that a person has in this world. God's the
one that's running this world, not us. And not the Democratic
or the Republican Party or nobody else. God's running this world.
And I'm very thankful for that. But those whom are called according
to His purpose. And I tell you, she's one called
according to His purpose. And you know, there's people
that carry out the purpose of God willingly, willingly, even
though they was called according to God's purpose. And they do
what they want to do and don't know that they're carrying out
God's purpose. The cross is a perfect illustration of that. I mean,
you know that the death of Christ, you go over to Luke and 24 it
says that Pilate, willing to content the people, he delivered
Jesus to their will. Now you see, those folks done
exactly what they wanted to do. They hated Christ. They said,
we'll not have this man to reign over us. They despised him. He was rejected. He was hated
without a cause. And those men cried crucify him,
crucify him. They had a mock trial. They beat
him. And they done exactly what they
wanted to do. They did it with their own wicked
hands. But they was carrying out God's
purpose at the same time. Doing exactly what God willed
for them to do. And that's why they done what
they wanted to do. And that's what people do in
this world. They do what they want to do. But still yet they're
carrying out God's purpose. The death of Christ, he was delivered
by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God. But men
with wicked hands took and crucified him. Wicked hands did it. And
all Judas. Did anybody make Judas be a thief? Did anybody make Judas betray
the Lord Jesus Christ? The other eleven didn't. And
a multitude of peoples not betrayed him. But Judas betrayed him.
Why? because he was a son of perdition
from the beginning. He was doing the will of God,
he was carrying out God's purpose and yet at the same time he sold
the Lord Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. And Peter,
did anybody make him deny the Lord three times? And our Lord told him he was
going to do it. He said, there ain't no way I'm going to do that.
That's not going to happen to me. Somebody else may do it,
but I won't do it. That's what he said. That's what
he said. But he denied the Lord three
times, and he was doing exactly what he wanted to do. And he's
carrying out God's purpose at the same time. And that's why
we see here that God, she's one of God's vessels, one called
according to His purpose. And you see, we see Ruth's humility
here. Her childlike submission. And
the Scriptures teaches us that God giveth grace unto the humble.
In her life, let me tell you something. This, in her life,
she always took the lowest place. She always took the lowest place.
And you know the Scripture said over in 1 Peter 5.5, You younger
be subject to the elders, and be ye subject one to another.
and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud, giveth
grace unto the humble. Humble yourselves therefore unto
God, that God may exalt you in due time. And I tell you what,
beloved, this business of humility, this business of taking the Lord's
place, that's the hardest thing that this flesh will do. You know what flesh wants to
do? Lift up his head, it's me, it's me. I've done this, I've
done that. I accomplished this, I accomplished
that. Humility just keeps his mouth shut and let everybody
else do the brain. Humility keeps his mouth shut and it takes the
Lord's place. Well, I know a preacher friend
of mine and he goes and cleans the toilets. Somebody else won't do it. Somebody's
got to do it. You know, is the preacher
any different than anybody else? Should he not do it? So, you know, let somebody else
do that. No, no. That's why she had this
humility. She took the lowest place wherever
she sat. And Naomi said unto her, here
in verse Verse 15, look what she says. She says, Behold, thy
sister-in-law is going back unto her people, unto her God's return
after thy sister-in-law. And oh my, go back. But look
what, I'm going to give you something here. Look what she said now.
And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee. Don't be against
me. Don't make me go back. And then
she says, 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, 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 of ought, but death part thee and me." And
I tell you what, here we have a complete and absolute submission
of a lady here. And a glorious commitment from
Ruth. Glorious commitment. And there's
six things, six things I want us to look at about this commitment
here. Six things. And here's the first thing I
want you to, and you know Ruth looked as far into the future
as she could possibly look. She looked from where she was
right then, to the day she'd be married. She started out from
where she was, and she says, I'll even be buried where you
die. She went from where she was to
her death. Now that's what kind of commitment
she made. She didn't know what the future held, but she knows
who she's going to commit herself to. Look what she says. Now she
says, whither thou goest, whither thou goest, I'll go. And when you and I, as men and
women, when we come to a path to choose, we come to a path
to choose, out of many different places we could go and things
we could do, we want to have the most complete freedom of
choice. We want to have the freedom of
choice to choose which road we want to go, which path we want
to choose. But now look what Ruth done. Ruth renounced all
freedom of choice. She renounced all freedom of
choice. She didn't know where she'd end
up. She said, wherever you go, that's where I'm going to go.
She didn't know where she was going to end up. But her course,
from beginning to end, is determined by another, who the you-go-est.
That's where I'm going to go. She said, I'm giving up. Where
you go, that's what I'm going to do. Course from beginning to end
was determined by another where you go And it's like Moses when
he went to the Lord. He said Lord if your presence
go not up with us We ain't gonna go Wherever you go if you go
with us, we'll go if you don't go I ain't going And I'll tell
you something beloved we we as believers We as believers, we've
renounced our freedom of choice in the sense of what we want
out of this world. You know what? God gave us a
path. And He sent the path forth. The
path of the judge is as a shining light, just keeps on going. And I tell you what, we've renounced
our way for the path of life, for the narrow way. Most folks,
they say many, the broad is the way and many which go in there. But we have chosen the narrow
way, the path of life, the only way, the only way. And I'll tell
you what, you keep Bruce and look with me over in John chapter
10. Look in John chapter 10 with me. Let's look at this. You know, Our Lord Jesus Christ, He's the only way. This is the only way there is.
There ain't no other way. God put us in this path. Jeremiah says, turn us and we
shall be turned. Save us and we'll be saved. And if you had a choice today
to choose some other way besides Christ, would you do it? You know why? You'd give it up. You'd
give it up to Him. You gave your will up to Him.
You gave up your freedom to Him. You said, Lord, wherever You
take me, that's where I'm going to go. And look what He said
here in John 10, talking about our Lord. He guides His sheep.
Listen and we put it forth at John 10 for when he put it forth
his own sheep. Listen to this now He goes before
them He puts them out and he goes
right in front of them the Lord's my shepherd I'll not want. He puts out his
sheep and he says, now go on and make it the best way you
can. No, no, no. When he puts his sheep out, he
gets in front of them and they start following him. And why
do they follow him? Look what he says here. He calleth his
own sheep by name and he leadeth them out. And he goes before
them and the sheep follow him. Why? They know his voice. Oh my word, I tell you what,
He guides His sheep through this wilderness. And I tell you the
path of the just is as a shining light and shines until when?
The perfect day. And I tell you what, she said,
she committed her life, where you go, that's where I'm going. And whichever way Christ goes,
that's the way we're going. He called us by name brought
us out and beloved. He guides us through this life
and bless his holy name that he does I'll tell you what. I went on my own way. I went
on my way for years and you know where it ended me up at? In misery
I'll tell you I was miserable in the world and then I got miserable
in religion And I'll tell you what being miserable in religion
is a bad thing to do Oh, listen, I tell you a minute
ago, she said, where are you going? Here's the second thing.
Look what she said back over here in verse 16 of Ruth. She
said, where are you going? That's where I'm going. Listen
to what she says now. Where you lodge or where you live, I'll
live. Where you live, wherever you
settle down, and wherever you go live, where you lodge, I'll
lodge. Now listen to her. She makes no stipulation as to
where it's going to be, what kind of sort of place it'll be,
what the lodging should be. She had one desire, one desire
to be always, always in the presence of the company of the one she
was committed herself to. That's all she is interested
in. Where you lodge, she didn't say, listen, I want you to find
a real nice place for us to live in. I want you to find us a four
bedroom, three bath place, and I mean, I want service when we
get there. No, she just said, wherever you
lodge. If it's in a tent, that's where we're gonna lodge. If it's
by the river, that's where we're gonna go. If it's sleeping under
the stars, that's what we'll do. Wherever you go, wherever
you lodge, that's where I'm going to lodge. Look what she said
over here in verse 23. Look what somebody said about
her in chapter 2, verse 23. Says now look what she said here
first so she kept fast by the maids of Boaz to glean under
the end of barley harvest and Weed harvest and listen what
it says here now and dwelt dwelt with her mother-in-law To dwell with our Lord Jesus
Christ To dwell with our Lord Jesus
Christ. I want to show you again in John chapter 1. Gary wrote
a song about this here recently. Oh, to dwell with Christ. Oh,
to Lord, wherever you are, that's where I want to be. You know,
to dwell with Him. John 1.38. You know, they dwelt
in an earthly house with Him. And we see this here in a minute.
But look at John 1.38. Then Jesus turned and saw them
following. Who? Andrew and Simon Peter. And then Jesus turned and saw
them following and saith unto them, What seek ye? What are you looking for? They
said unto him, Rabbi, which is said to master, Where do you
live? Where do you dwell? Huh? Where do you abide? Where dwellest
thou? What's what he said? He said
then to them, come and see. And listen to this, and they
came and saw where he dwelt and they stayed there. They stayed there. You know our
Lord Jesus Christ He said, he says, he told that
thief, he says, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. And he told, he prayed for us
in John 17, he says, father, I will that thy whom thou hast
given me be with me where I am. And he says, I'm going to prepare
a place for you and I will come again and take you where I am
to be with me. So where He lodges, that's where
we lodge. That's where we want to go. Oh,
bless His name. I tell you what, when they visit
our Lord in an earthly house, we have a heavenly house prepared
for us in glory. And Isaiah 57, 15 says that I
am the high and the lofty One that inhabits eternity. But listen,
not only did he say that, but he said, I also dwell. Dwell. Live with. He that is of a contrite
and a humble spirit and shimmers in thy word. I am the high and
lofty one. I have had an attorney. But I
come down and dwell with people. I come down and live with people.
I come down and it's Christ in you that's the hope of God. I
come down and live in people. I live among people. Oh listen, where I am now you
may be also. One of these days, one of these
days, we'll drop this robe of flesh Drop this rose of flesh and away
we'll go. So listen, where you live, that's
where I want to live. And where Christ is, you know
what? David said, we'll not be satisfied
until we awaken your likeness. God, when He saves us by His
grace, He makes us right away, He makes us desire a heavenly
place, a glorious place, someplace beside this earth. We're strangers
here. We're pilgrims here. This world's
not our home anymore. We have to live here. We have
to work here. We have to abide here. We have
to make a living here. But Christ Himself is our life. He gives us all these things
so that we can come and enjoy Christ here. Is there anything you've got
that you won't leave behind when the Lord calls you to go home?
Is there anything you want to give up? Is there anything right
now that would keep you from going to Christ right now? Where you go, I'm going. Where
you live, I live. And look what else she said over
here. Look what else she says. Back over here in verse 16. Will you lodge? Will you go?
I'll go. Will you lodge? I'll lodge. And listen to this,
thy people shall be my people. Your people and my people, whatever
your people are, they're going to be my people. And I tell you
Orpah, the scripture says she returned unto her people and
to her God. And Ruth's decision means a separation. She separated herself from her
former life, her former God, everything about her former life.
Like Abraham. Abraham, God said, Abraham, go
out to a land that I'll show you. Leave your father, leave
your mother, leave your kin, folks, and you go to a land that
I'll show you. And the scripture says that Abraham
went out Where are you going Abraham? Sarah said, where are
we going Abraham? I don't know. Scripture said
he went out not knowing where he is going. That's kind of like a free will
Baptist, ain't it? He don't know where he's going. He's in for
a while, out for a while. Kind of like a Camelot or something. But oh, listen. Abraham, he said,
oh, and he did. And when she says, thy people
shall be my people, she was forgetting her land. She was forgetting
her land. She was leaving her people. And
she committed herself to a people of whom she knew nothing about. What's in there? Huh? Nothing. Look over here in verse
11 of chapter 2. Oh my, I tell you now, Boaz answered and said unto her,
it hath been fully showed me all that thou hast done unto
thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband. And now thou
hast left thy father, listen to this, thy father and thy mother,
the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which
thou knewest not heretofore. She left everything. Did she
lose anything? Did she lose anything? Did we
lose anything coming to Christ? Do you want to go back to that
hog slop we had as lost men and women? Of course not. And I'll
tell you what, she forgot everything about her. She left it all behind. And I'm telling you what, I don't
think she ever thought about it again. I don't think it ever
entered into her mind that I ought to go back. I need to go back
and visit my folks. I need to go back and let them
know how I'm doing. I need to go back over there and let them
know what a fine life I've got right now. No, no, no, no. And the world, her folks, it's
like they don't exist anymore. And the world don't know us.
You know why the world don't know us? Because they didn't
know Him. How many of y'all got crosses
on your cars? How many of y'all got fish on
your cars? How many of you got some kind of religious symbol
on your car or in your house? You know why you don't do that?
Because you know that Christ, the cross is not something that
we make an emblem of. We don't have any of those religious
things. And why not? You know, when we go out into
the world, the world does not know that we are believers no
more than the world knew that Jesus Christ was the Son of God
when He was in this world. One day He was standing in Nazareth
and He was preaching. Stood up and the day He entered
in the ministry and He began to preach. And when He got through,
He says, you know, there was lots and lots of widows. in Israel
in the days of Elisha. But Elisha is only sent unto
one. And there was lots and lots of
lepers in Israel but Elijah was only sent to one. Both of them Gentiles. They rejoiced and said, oh such
gracious words come out of them. I've never heard such gracious
words. But when he started telling them that God is sovereign in
who he gives his grace to and who he saves to and who he sends
his prophets to, the scripture says they tried to throw him
off of a hill. And I tell you what, if the world
don't know us, and we don't have to go around here wearing lapel
pins and everything else to let folks know we're Christian, we
don't have to do that. But I tell you, who does know
us? You know who knows us? God knows us and God's people
know us. Ain't that wonderful? You know, here we are. Here we
are in this building this morning. We know one another. We get together
and do things privately together and things like that. Eat and
work and do things like that. But I'll tell you what. We know
one another. And I was telling Joe yesterday,
I said, I got two friends, no finer friends than a person could
have on the face of the earth than these two men. And I said,
they've seen me at my very worst, seen me at my weakest, seen me
at my most miserable state. And you know what? They don't
hold it against me. They love me still. Still ask me to come preach for
them, and they come preach for me. And we know one another here.
We know what we are. We know what we... You couldn't
turn the hand for the... We know what we are and know
who we are. And in spite of that, we still love to get together
and rejoice in the gospel. Oh, and here's the thing about
it. I can go off in other places and you can go off in other places
and other conferences and go where other meetings are and
you feel just as home there as you do here. How can that be? Because the people of God are
the same everywhere. And we love all of Christ's people.
And what Noam is saying is, I'm going to identify myself with
your people. And that's what we do. We identify
ourselves with Christ and His people. If we go somewhere where
there's a Grace Church and somebody's preaching, that's the place we
want to go. And we're going to pitch camp there. And I want
to be identified with the people who believe Christ and trust
Christ. I'm not interested in going to
a Calvinistic church. I'm interested in going where
Christ is. And where Christ is preached.
Where Christ is loved. And Christ is bound to it. Christ
is worshipped. And I want to identify myself
with those people. Don't you? Oh yeah. Alright, here's another one.
But what else she says here, not only will your people be
my people, that all my, and thy God, my God. Orpah returned to
her God. That all in your God is gonna
be my God. And thy God, my God. And you
noticed how that's in capital letters? Orpah's was little g,
little g. She's talking about God. Because
of the Bible. And I'll tell you something,
this was probably the hardest thing for her to do. Saying,
you're God, you're God, be my God. And why would it be the
hardest thing for her to do? Well, how hard was it for you
to give up your false profession and your false religion? Pretty
tough, wasn't it? It's pretty tough to find out
that everything you believed all your life was wrong until
God crossed your path with the gospel. Ain't it? It's pretty tough. And here's
the reason why probably the hardest thing was because the natural
man clings to his religion. He clings to it. It doesn't matter
how ridiculous it is. How foolish it is. How absurd
it is. Do you know how absurd it is
to have a priest say that he can forgive you of your sins?
Do you know how absurd it is for somebody to tell you that
when they give you a piece of bread, a wafer, and a taste of
wine, that you're actually taking the body of Christ and He's being
crucified again? Do you know how ridiculous that
is? How absurd that is? Do you know how absurd it is
and how ridiculous it is for somebody to stand up and tell
somebody that God loves them and Jesus died for them and tell
them how and then it's up to you now to make your decision
for Christ and you come up here at the front and you pray and
God will save you. If you've got enough faith and
you've got enough repentance. Do you know how ridiculous that
is? And that's what we all believed at one time. And we held on to
it. And you know how ridiculous it
is to be a legalist and a fundamentalist? To be a legalist in the light
of the death of Christ and His righteousness? To hold on to
our own righteousness and think that we are absolutely living
holy lives and dedicated and committed. And if the church
doors was open, we was right there no matter where it was
and whatever they were saying. Just had to be in church. Had to dress a certain way. Oh,
it don't make no difference. The natural man, he don't want
to give it up. And you know why he don't want
to give it up? Because it's his. It's his. It's his. I heard somebody saying the other
day, if it's good enough for grandma and good enough for grandpa,
it's good enough for me. Give me that old time religion.
Well, I tell you what, my grandma didn't have none. My grandpa
didn't have none. So I'm certainly grateful that
I ain't got theirs. But oh, listen, it's his religion. That's what gives its value in
his eyes. And you know what? He'll resent
anybody that slights him. That's why I don't know how many
people I've hurt and they come here and other places where you
go and said, I just hate it when they pick on other people's religion. No matter how ridiculous it is.
But I tell you what, he'll resent any slight on it. He'll fight
for it. He'll die for it. And history
is full of people that do that. And today, it's just the same
way. It's the same way. But I'm going
to tell you something. If you don't get anything else
I say today, you get this right here. But Christianity is not
religion. It's not a religion. No. And
you know, people say it's one of the greatest, one of the great
religions in the world. Now, let me tell you something.
Our Lord Jesus Christ did not come into this world to start
another system of religion. There's plenty of religion in
his days, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, the
Maccabees, oh, they just go on and on and on with it. Christ
did not come into the world to found a system of religion. You
know what he came into this world to do? First thing he came into
this world, from heaven itself, getting unbosomed himself from
his father, and came into this world, he said the first and
foremost thing he came to do was bring glory and honor to
his father. That's the first thing he came to do. I'm going
to glorify my father. Father, I've glorified you with
my own self. And the second reason he came
into this world after he glorified his father is to save sinners. Not make a try to save sinners.
Not make a stab at saving sinners. Not making salvation possible
for sinners. But saving sinners. come to seek and to save that
which was lost and he came into this world to put away the sin
of those sinners he saved come to put it away to drive it away
to put it as far away as the east is from the west and he
came not only to do that but to destroy the works of the devil
and to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify unto himself a
people to himself and then to save his people from their sins
to fulfill the law and to fulfill the prophets. And one thing he
did not come into this world to do is to introduce a system
of religion into the world. Religion talks about what they
do and what they need to do and what everybody else needs to
do. But Christ always tells us to come to Him. And any true
preacher of the gospel always tells people to come to Christ.
Come to Christ. We don't need no symbols of religion. We don't need no proof of religion. We don't have a church constitution.
We don't have any bylaws. We don't have any hierarchy. You know what we got? We just
got the gospel. We just got Christ. What else
do we need? What else do we need? You know, I'm going to stop and
tell you a story. When we was building this building, there
was some fellas in here doing the drywall. And one of them said, boy, you
know what would be great for this building? Put your cross right down the
middle of this thing and come out over this way. Start down
there and come out this way. Put your big cross in here so
when people walked in they'd see that cross. I said, I don't
think so. I know we're not going to do
that. We're not going to do that at all. You ever been in churches
where they have a cross up here made out of two by fours and
they paint little white paint, red paint, and paint on the corners
of them and on the bottom of them and on the top of them? Boy, they think they're doing
something. Christ is not a religion. Christianity is not a religion.
Life is Christ. Salvation is Christ. Our hope
is Christ. You know, we're like Thomas when
he said, except I see the nails in his hand, and put my finger
in them, and see that side, stick my hand in it, I'm not going
to believe he's raised from the dead. I'm not going to believe
it. He no sooner said that, I mean it didn't get out of his mouth.
And the Lord Jesus standing in front of him said, reach into
your hand. You know what? Old Thomas just
fell on his knees and cried out, my Lord and my God. And that's what we do. We just
fall on our face and say, my Lord and my God. My Lord and
my God. We confess one God. One Lord, one faith, one righteousness,
one person in whom we accepted God's beloved. Oh my! He saved us from the world. He saved us from his religion.
And you know where our citizenship's at? I got a passport. I use it all the time. But you know where my, I suppose
I'm a citizen of the United States and everybody's got a passport.
But listen, you know where our citizenship's at? In heaven. Already got my name up there.
Already got my way fixed to get there. Everything's all too clear
for me to go. And I won't have to have any
proof when I get there. But proof's already there. Who
is he? The Lord Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of
God. I don't need no more proof of
that do you Brad? That's what we confess. And I
tell you there's no contradictory doctrines in Christ. Like when
they built the Tower of Babel God caused them all to speak
in different languages and they began to babble. There's no babble
languages in the doctrine of Christ. One doctrine. One truth. It's all in Christ.
But how in the world can someone turn on the God of their imaginations,
turn on themselves, and turn on their religion that they had,
and relieve every hope that they ever had, and every false hope
that they had, how can they turn from that and turn to Christ?
How can he do that? He came in his own power. You
know what caused that to happen? Life. When God gives you life,
you automatically start calling on Him. Huh? Oh, listen. It's not just joining
from one church to another church. It's leaving religion and coming
to Christ. Huh? No wonder He said, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I've
got to give you another one real quick. I'm taking too long. Go back
over here again. Look at this. And look what she
says in verse 17. Where thou diest, Will I die? Will you die? I'll die. Ruth was making a lifelong commitment,
a lifelong confession and it was complete all the way to the
day that her life would end. She doesn't think, well I'll
go and see how the land is and how the people are and what their
God is like and see if it suits me. What she's saying is, I'll
not retrace a step. I'll not retrace a step. I'll
not take a step back. No backward look. Any man having
put his hand to the plow and looking back, looking back. Our
Lord says, not even fit for the kingdom of God. We're not like
Lot's wife. Oh my, well I sure hate to leave
Sodom. And she turned back and got turned
into a pillar of Sodom. We're not going back.
We're not retracing one step. So I'm not taking one step back. And she's saying, oh my. She
steadfastly said her face. She had no idea of what awaited
her. She had no idea of the riches
of grace that God was fixing to give her. She had no idea
of the glorious life that she was going to have. She had no
idea that she was going to have a wealthy, wealthy husband and
have a king in her womb, David. She forgot the things that are
behind. You know what she did? She pressed toward the mark of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. She pressed for that and
I tell you what, you know it's like making a lifelong commitment
in marriage. That's what you say when you
get married. The last thing you say, through life, through poor,
through poverty, through health, through sickness and until death
do us part. That's the only thing that a
part, a husband and wife. Death. Death. And then you say, well I'm going
to die where they died. I'm going to stay right there.
Where they died, I'm going to die. That's where I'm going to
stay. And wherever they be buried, take me out there and bury me
right with them. I think that's the way we are about
it. Oh, bye. Where you die, I'll die. And
guess what? We've already died. That's why
death ain't going to bother us. It has no sting to it. In our
Lord's death, we died with Him. Our sin was put away. We died
to the law, we died to sin, we died to the world and someday,
someday we will die finally, finally die to self and be done
with this old man. Well, let me give you the last
one. And she says, not only will you
die, will I die. And listen to this. Her commitment
to Naomi didn't even end in death. I'm so united to you in my heart,
I'm going to be buried with you. I'm going to be buried with you. And I tell you what, you know
we've been buried with Christ. And for those of you that's never
made a profession of faith, let me tell you how it's done. How
it's done. A believer is buried with Christ
as a typical thing and a figuratively thing in water baptism. You know,
I'm so united that I'll be buried with you. This is how we are
buried with Christ figuratively in baptism. As He died unto sin
once, we die unto sin once. As He was buried, we was buried.
And we rise again to walk in newness of life to the glory
of the Father. And that's what baptism represents. You come
and you're baptized and what you're saying is, is that I've
died with Christ. I'm going to be buried. That's why sprinkling and infant
baptism, that's why it don't work. You cannot bury somebody
in a glass of water. Can you? It takes enough water
to put you under, and you're buried with Him. And then you
raise up, and you say, I've been raised, I died with Him, I'm
buried with Him, and I'm gonna rise again with Him, and from
my confession of faith right on right now, I'm gonna live
to the glory of the Father. My life is new. That's what it
means. And that's what we've done. But
oh my, and when we rise from that sin, but we look beyond
the grave, we look beyond death. I look beyond death right now,
don't you sometimes? I look beyond death. You know
why we look beyond death? Because we want to go where He's
at. We have to go through that in order to get there. We've got to go from here to
get to there. But I tell you what, there's
no separation from Him whom we've committed ourselves. The grave
is as far as Ruth could see. We see beyond the grave. We see beyond the grave. Just as quick as a believer dies,
we say, oh my, they're going to be with the Lord. They're going to be with Christ. Can you imagine what it's like
the moment you close your eyes here? Where do you go? We even now look beyond death.
But we got to go through that to get there. One of these days, one of these
days, we'll be forever, forever with the Lord. What a day, what a day, what
a glorious day that will be. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, thank you for your abundant of mercy and
grace given us in Christ before the world ever began. And oh,
Father, Father, Father, again we give ourselves to you. And
we're amazed, oh Lord, that you took us, you took us from where
we were and brought us to where you are. And one of these days
you'll take us from here Take us from this world into the next. And oh Father, our eyes already
see by faith that glorious place, that glorious, glorious place. And oh Father, we'll stay here
to you through with us. But Lord, when you are, we're
just waiting, waiting for that call. God bless these dear saints
today. Save you people in this place.
bring glory to yourself for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. was lost, but now am found, was
blind, but now I see. T'was grace that taught my to fear and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear
the hour Through many dangers, toils and
snares, And grace will lead me home. We've just begun. You know, when you get into eternity,
you've always been there. I'll see you tonight, God willing,
at six o'clock.