Thank you, brother. I am so delighted
to be here. My dear wife, Pat, and I, we're
so grateful. And I'm so honored to be with
you, where some of God's greatest servants of this generation have
stood. And I'm honored to be here. I am truly honored to be here. Good to see some of you that
I have seen before and see some of you that I haven't seen before.
And that's OK, too. And it's a real delight to see
Sister Shelby again. And I want to thank you, the church,
for the superb accommodations last evening. And everybody has
to sleep somewhere. We could have slept in the car,
I just didn't want to. But thank you so much, it was
such a blessing. But most of all, looking forward
to today. And I could say much, as I'm
sure many have, by way of precious memories at Grace Baptist Church
in Danville through the years. Even though I was only here a
few times, had a profound impact in my life. I would just take a moment to
remind you, and this may not happen every day, but I would
remind you of the tremendous ways in which God has used you
as a local congregation to minister to so many people in so many
ways. I realize, just as it is in my
town, most of Danville don't know or care that you're even
here. And that's sad, but so be it. God's running right on
schedule. And so we're thankful how the
Lord's blessed you and used you and the mighty things he's done
from this place through the preaching of Brother
Don all over the country and around the world. And then to
have the writing he's left us. I treasure it and I use it. And then of course the grace
bulletin that you mail to us from time to time. It's a tremendous
blessing and I use that. You never know. A preacher never
knows what when the Lord is going to give you a thought. to bring
a message from. And it's oftentimes not even
where I expect, but the Lord uses these things. And then also,
I want to thank you also for the tremendous Free Grace Radio
website, and how graciously you allow other preachers to post
sermons on there, quite a few. Me being one of them, and I'm
so thankful for that. I get feedback, and I know the
other preachers do, from around the world. And all of that springing
from right here at Grace Baptist Church in Danville, Kentucky. What about that? And you may feel like you're
not doing anything. That's the devil's line. But
I repeat, God's running right on schedule. Amen. Amen. So I admire you and I commend
you for your continued faithfulness in the Lord's work here. I want
to be turning in the Old Testament to the book of Ruth. Ruth chapter
one. Ruth chapter one. And our subject this morning when God calls, when God calls. It is, has been the most blessed
path in my life and in any life when God calls, when God calls
effectually. It's then that you stop running
from God and start running to him. then and only then. And then this call, it never
ends. It's a continuing thing. How
very blessed. Now in a congregation this size, and even smaller, let's take
the 12, for instance, that followed our Lord, that he called to follow
him, including Judas Iscariot. Who would have thought None of
them thought that one of their company could betray their Lord. They were very close. They never
dreamed that one of them would do such. And they certainly never dreamed
it would be Judas Iscariot. Because when the Lord told them
clearly that one of you is going to betray me, the Bible says
that they begin to ask every one of them Lord, is it I? It wasn't any of this high-powered
religious hoo-ha, bless God, I know it's not me. No, they
were all concerned and they were all very serious and asking,
Lord, have I been deceived? Lord, is it me that will finally
betray you? And so I said that to say, in
a congregation this size, we never know, we never know our
own heart, let alone anyone else's, and what the Lord may be doing
on a morning like this. Ruth chapter one, now that came
to pass in the days when the judges ruled,
that there was a famine in the land, And a certain man of Bethlehem,
Judah, went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife
and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech,
and the name of his wife, Naomi, and the name of his two sons,
Melon and Kilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they
came into the country of Moab and continued there. We'll stop
our reading for now there. The Book of Ruth is a beautiful
and blessed story of God's sovereign grace. I'm sure most of you are
familiar with it, but it's beautiful that it is positioned in the
Old Testament following the gloomy days of the judges, or actually
in the gloomy days of the judges. And then it's before the glorious
days of King David, the nation of Israel at its peak, the books of Samuel. In between
there, Judges, is the little book of Ruth. And this is ever
the order of grace, from gloom through grace to glory. That's
the order. And it's ever the order. In verse one, now it came to
pass. We read right over that, but
to me, that's one of the greatest sovereign grace statements in
the Bible, and you'll find it hundreds and hundreds of times,
and it came to pass. You'll never read it just so
happened. You'll never read as luck would
have it. But you do read, it came to pass. It came to pass. And the only
way anything can come to pass is if it was already ordained
and decreed to come to pass. It comes to pass in God's way,
in God's time. So when you read that, know that
it's not this filling up space. It's God's purpose being carried
on through. And it came to pass. In this first verse, that's the
first thing, it came to pass. And then the period we read that
this occurred when the judges ruled, one of the darkest periods
in Old Testament history, Israel's history. And then third, the
awful plight that the people were in in Israel, specifically
Bethlehem, Judah, there was a famine in the land. It was a fearful
time, to say the least. And then we read about a man
here of Bethlehem, Judah, his wife, two sons, went to sojourn
in the country of Moab. Four people, four people. And before getting down to the
verses I want to get to about Ruth, I'll just say that there's
three things that stand out to me in this first part of this book, beautiful things. And I've lost my place, but they
are beautiful things. One, the man's name was Elimelech. He took his wife, Naomi, and
their two sons to sojourn in Moab. They never went there with the
intention to stay, but to sojourn means to journey or to travel. There is such misunderstanding
about this man and what he did. It says he's a certain man. A chosen
man. Named a limelight. And he is
so misunderstood. Most of my life, I've heard many,
many criticize this man and speak negatively about him. and declare
how that he was out of God's will, and just really give him
down the road for going down to Moab. I don't know really
how a man can do that without setting aside scriptures
like Ephesians 111, that God worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. Or Isaiah 46, 10, my counsel
shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Or the prophet Nahum 1, 3, the
Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm. Or Isaiah 46, 10, I have spoken
it. 11, I will bring it to pass. I've purposed it, I will also
do it. Or maybe even Psalm 115, verse
three, but our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased. And yet, so-called religious
authorities have concluded that Elimelech was out of the will
of God. The Bible does not say that.
And I suppose men do not consider that our God, who decreed and
declared the end from the beginning, had purposed that before he created
this earth, a Moabite girl named Ruth would be in the lineage
of his son. And she has to be brought out
of Moab into Bethlehem, Judah somehow. So I say this family,
Elimelech and his wife and sons, were really a missionary family.
They didn't know it, but they were God's ordained means. And God never decided after this
family got down there, this is why they went down there and
never even knew it. This move was as certainly ordained
of God as any other thing is. So I'll just leave it to others
to cuss Elimelech and tell us how out of the will of God he
was and ought not to have been there. But it's a very blessed
thing when you look into this Bible, when you can cut loose
from today's religious mindset and just read and believe what
God said. Most people have never understood
that this Bible is to read out of, not into. But apart from the blessed Holy
Spirit, you just can't help reading into it. But we're not supposed
to read into it. We're supposed to read out of
it, out of it. So great misunderstanding, that's
the first thing. Secondly, there's great misery.
You know the story, Elimelech and his two sons died in Moab. And Naomi had to walk to the
graveside three times. So what's left of this family
consists of three widows. That's, that's amazing. Three widows,
all that's left. All the men must die. Because you see, the man who
is to be in the seed line of the Messiah is back at Bethlehem,
Judah. His name is Boaz. Elimelech and
his sons represented Adam, and they died. First Corinthians
15, 22, in Adam all die. Boaz represents Christ, and he
proves to be not only Ruth's life, but Naomi's life as well. In Adam all die. How many die? All that are in Adam. Even so
in Christ shall all be made alive. How many are made alive? All
that are in Christ. So in Moab here, there's great
misery. All the men of the family die.
And then the third thing, there's a great miracle. In verse six,
we read that Naomi heard. We're not told how she heard.
If we needed to know, the Lord would
have told us. But we read that she heard. God saw to it that she heard. She heard that the famine was
over back at home. back at Bethlehem, Judah. In
verse six, she heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had
visited his people in giving them bread. That word visited is very interesting
through the Bible. You'll find it several times. And it does not mean just to
pay a social call. That's what we call a visit.
But what it means is to minister to the need of. The Lord met
the need. He ended the famine. He blessed
the fields and the crops again around Bethlehem, Judah. I don't have a problem believing
the sole purpose for the famine to begin with was to get this
family down to Moab. And the rest of the miracle is
this. A longing was birthed in Naomi's heart to go home. She'd been in Moab for 10 years.
She had suffered much misery and defeat. And no doubt Satan
had drilled it in her mind and affecting her heart. Such an
awful message that it's all over. You've been such a failure, you
may as well forget anything more than the sorrow and grief that
you're in. You may as well just make the best of it. You're here,
live here, and die here. But God, but God, don't you love
that phrase? But God, in spite of it all,
he worked a miracle in her heart to pack up and go home. Well, her two daughters-in-law,
Orpah and Ruth, said in verse 10, we'll go with you. They loved
Naomi. And she tried to persuade them
to stay behind in Moab. She really felt it was best for
them. And one of them, Orpah, was persuaded
to stay behind. The other, Ruth, was not persuaded. Nowhere do we read that Ruth
was any more intelligent than Orpah. Probably the other way around. But God had worked in Ruth's
heart and had attracted her Not just
to Naomi, but to Naomi's God. And the real picture is God is
calling Ruth out of Moab. So the question today, has God
called you? When you read and study this
chapter, you learn some amazing things. If God has called you, he still is calling you. If he's not still calling you
to himself, he never has. He don't quit. I hear people talk about People
serve the Lord and they say, you know, if you won't do what
he wants you to do, he'll get somebody that will. Try telling
Jonah that. That won't fly. God has set his love on you from
eternity. Chosen you in his son, he will
bring you around. He don't quit. Somebody else
says, well, yes, he's called, but I haven't answered yet. That's
not the kind of call we're talking about. The effectual call of God's grace
is not an invitation you can and will refuse. Because you
certainly will, but it's an actual intervention. It's the power
of God by His Spirit working in a sinner's heart that you
cannot and will not refuse. It is a powerful, effectual,
irresistible, irreversible, life-changing, God-honoring call out of the
Moab of your sins into the Bethlehem Judah of Christ's love. When he does this, you're coming
to him and you want to come to him. He changes your want to. I say today's so-called. Free
will religion, I say this. A God that can be resisted successfully
is not God. You are. You are. I heard Brother Henry
Mahan preaching along these lines one time. I mean, he got rough, and he's
talking to religious. He said, you hate God. And you
say, we don't hate God. And he said, you don't hate your
God, the one you've created right here. But the God of this Bible
is not the one you would imagine. This God has his way all the time and every time. You see, most people think this
is just about getting a little case of religion. Quit cussing out loud. Come to church once or twice
a month and that's enough. Oh, the apostle Peter said something
about this calling of God. He said, God's called us out
of darkness into his marvelous light. That's the difference. Tremendous difference. What does he mean? Well, not
the darkness that we talk about after the sun goes down at night. No, not that darkness. All you
need for that's a flashlight. But there is no flashlight for
the darkness that an unregenerate sinner is in. And don't even
know it, let alone can help it. Spiritual darkness, spiritual
death. And before God called us, we were dead to the life
of God. Oh, I knew there was a God. There's
never been a time I didn't believe there was. But I was dead to the life of
God, spiritually dead. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2.14,
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
He just can't. They are foolishness unto him,
for they are spiritually discerned. Neither can he know them. But
God's call, his quickening work, life-giving work, results in loving what we once
hated and hating what we once loved. That's been my experience. And for the first time in your
life, you understand that you really are at the mercy of God. I've heard these clowns talk
about, well, you know, I got saved and I hadn't had any trouble
with sin since. Well, I never had any trouble
with it before. I've had nothing but trouble
with it since. See the difference? Life. Life. We're at his mercy every day. And apart from his merciful intervention,
we'd all perish. People say, well, bless God,
I can get right if I want to. Yeah, but you can't want to.
You can't do anything about your want to. God has to do that. So let me read Ruth's confession
down here in Commitment, verses 16 and 17. And you've all heard this. I've
even had people Wanted me to read it at a wedding. Well, guess
what? I do it. But it ain't got diddly to do
with no young man and woman getting married. This is to do about
it with a commitment to God. And here's what she said. Ruth
said, entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following
after thee. For whether thou goest, I will
go. And where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my
people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die,
and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more
also, if aught but death part thee and me." This is the effect when God calls. It's not the call of a weak,
and desperate Jesus that so needs you to cooperate to keep him
from looking bad in this world. Oh, no. Oh, no. And the common
message of today, would you give Jesus a try? Oh, may I say the darkness man's
in my nature. The answer is always this. No, not today. Not now. I won't give Jesus a try, maybe
later. But you see, it's not just a
matter of somebody making up their mind. Your mind was made
up in Adam. In Adam, we all shook our fist
in God's face just like he did and said, we'll be our own God. And I hear it every week all
across this country. Don't put God off. Don't ignore
God. Don't leave God out of your life.
If you can do that, it's because he's left you out. You've got
it backwards. He's not on the little end of
this thing. You are. His calling is effectual. It's
a heavenly calling. It's a holy calling. Changes
everything. Ruth couldn't follow Naomi and
stay in Moab. And you and I can't follow Christ
and stay in Moab. It don't work. Ruth was saying
to Naomi, you and your God, this is my life. Paul says to us, Christ is our
life. This is not about some little
fleshly emotional religion. Somebody passes away and the
preacher has to go around asking family and friends, does anybody
know if maybe anytime ever sometime back, he might have made a decision. Who gives a flip about a decision?
Do you have a heart for the Lord right now? That's the issue. heart for the Lord. When God
calls, the new never wears off. He don't quit calling and you
don't quit coming. He don't quit ringing the dinner
bell and you don't quit getting hungry. He don't quit spreading
the table and you don't quit eating. Peter wrote, where Brother Rex
read, Peter wrote, to whom coming? That is, continually. He don't
quit calling, and we don't quit coming. Somebody said, I know somebody
that used to be a Christian. No, you don't. I know somebody that used to
be a preacher. No, you don't. God never aborts a mission. He don't start something and
not carry it through. And if he's put his hand on your
life, if he's put his spirit in you, there's something for
you. And you must pursue that all
your days, all your days. God don't quit. The last line
of verse 14, Ruth, Cleave unto Naomi. She held on. Wouldn't let go, didn't want
to let go. She couldn't let go of the pull
of the living God in her heart. Because the living God wouldn't
stop pulling. That's who he is. Cleave, cleave unto Naomi. Barnabas exhorted the saints
at Antioch that with purpose of heart, they would cleave unto
the Lord. Nothing else matters. And then God's calling is contrary
to human reason. Naomi was being honest. She really
thought it best that Ruth not go with her. There's nothing for you. there,
but she never knew what God was doing. She just never knew. When God calls, it's settled. Let me say this, then we'll look
at Ruth's commitment. One of the greatest religious
deceptions of our generation is profession without commitment. Easy believism. Where there's life, there's appetite.
And where there's appetite, there's eating. And there's growth. So Ruth is not just making a
decision. She is really declaring the decision
God already made in her heart. It cannot and will not be otherwise
than what she's about to say in these verses. If anyone can talk you into forsaking
Christ, they will and you will. A conviction no greater than
that is worthless anyhow. But these statements she makes
here, verses 16 and 17, are statements that couldn't possibly spring
from sinful flesh. They are impossible to what men
call free will. This is God talking in Ruth's
heart. This is heart given her by the
Lord. This is sovereign grace that
one belonging to a people like the Moabites could embrace the
living God of Israel. That's sovereign grace indeed. And so it is for you and I. Such
sinners we are, such a mess our lives have been, such a background
of corruption, forefathers, not to mention all we've added to
it. Hey, to have the God of glory work in your heart and bring
you to embrace his son, sovereign grace indeed. And that's what
Paul said in Philippians 2, 13, for it is God which worketh in
you both the will and to do of his good pleasure. What was Paul
saying? He was saying you cannot will
let alone do God's good pleasure on your own. You can only do
it except the Spirit of God, God work in you. Now look at
the things Ruth says in verse 16, entreat me not to leave thee
or to return from following after thee. She is a chosen vessel from among a heathen people.
And she's responding to the powerful and effectual call of God. So she says to Naomi, entreat
me not, don't ask me to go back anymore. It ain't happening. I won't do it. I can't do it.
I'm going with you. For whether thou goest, I will
go. I'm not going to try to run ahead
of you. I'm not going to try to take over. I'm just a passenger. You're the driver. This is your
journey. But I'll follow you. Will thou goest? I will go." Very plain. Ruth deliberately
denounces all freedom of choice. The whole course of the journey
beginning to end, is to be determined by another, Naomi. And oh, what
a blessed thing that is in life. And I wouldn't say that I'm there,
but to understand, to be fully committed, that the whole business
of your journey, beginning to end, is determined by another. It's our Lord. Ruth understands
it won't be easy. Like Moses, the Lord put it in
her heart, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people
of God than to stay in Moab. Grace has already taken her through. She's already there in her heart. Birds have nests. Foxes have
holes. But Ruth, I can't promise you
anything, Naomi said. And Ruth replies, it's settled.
I'm going. I'm not asking you to promise
me anything. God's got a hook in my heart. I love you and I
love your God now. And I'm going. And then she said,
where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Sleeping on the ground is no
big deal if I'm with you. She wasn't committing to pleasant
living quarters. She's committing to Naomi's God. And then she said, Thy people shall be my people. I've quit Moab. I'm leaving all I ever knew or
loved in my sins. And I'm embracing you and your
people. Later on, Moab, later on, Boaz,
We'll commend her for this. In chapter two, in verse 11,
he says to her, thou hast left thy father and thy mother and
the land of thy nativity and are come unto a people which
thou knewest not heretofore. That's what the call of God does. And she said, thy God be my God. She's fully convinced the gods
of Moab are nothing. I want your God is my God. This was probably the hardest. Well, I mean, it wasn't hard
because her heart was done fixed, but it was a great statement. Your God is my God. People will fight over their
gods. People fight over their religion, which has nothing to
do with God. But when God calls, you're willing to leave all that and follow him. And then she
said, where thou diest, will I die. This was a commitment
for life. It's the effectual call of God,
never ending. And then she said, when I die,
there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me and more
also, if all but death part thee and me. Ruth has burned all bridges
behind her. I'm not only going to turn around
and look at what I'm leaving in and consider and weigh it
out again. No, no, no. It's a done deal.
God's called. And that settles it. She's burned
all the bridges behind her. Some folks say, well, it's not
wise to burn your bridges behind you. If you're following Christ,
it is. Because he'll not send you back.
He'll lead you on. When God calls, it's effectual.
And whether you know it or not, you're more blessed than all
the rich and famous of this world combined. How blessed. If he calls you,
you'll come to Christ and you'll keep coming every day long as
you're in this world. Somebody said, well, I've got
to go back and straighten some things out for you. Remember that fella
told Jesus that? You know, bought these oxen,
got to go back and straighten something out. You can't go back. And you couldn't straighten anything
out if you could. Christ calls us to follow. Come on. It's a brand new day. You're
a brand new creature. An old preacher once said that
the saints are neither men nor angels, but a new creation. That's what your life will be
when God calls. Something you've never been before. Oh, I aim to come to Christ,
but not now. What they don't know is that
except God shows mercy, they'll never come. I want to live and die coming
to Christ, don't you? So come to him if you can. And
if you can, it's his mercy. No man can come, he said. John
6, 44. No man can come. Not just won't
come, but can't come, no man can come, except the Father which
has sent me draw him. Oh, blessed election of God,
when God calls. John 6, 37, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. That's who's coming to Christ,
not one more, not one less. that the Father giveth me shall
come to me. And when they come, I will in
no wise, that is never under any circumstance ever cast them
out. So today, if you truly desire
to come to Christ, you not only can, you will. because he's the one who's worked
it in your heart to come to him. Many of us here for many years
have prayed for and witnessed to and cried over loved ones. We've never succeeded in seeing
the change in their heart that we desire to see. We've seen
some, but many we haven't seen. But when God calls, he gets it done. So we should
spend our energy crying to him. He's the one that'll have to
do it. I had a person follow out me
one time. I preached on election pretty hard. They said, well,
I believe God knows who's going to be saved. I said, well, duh. Since he's the one who got to
do it, I'd say he does. It's of him. It's of him. So we see it in Ruth's life.
We see it in her own lives. Most of us maybe haven't made
the break, the full commitment that she did all at once. But
oh, to see God working it all. How blessed, how blessed. We
see it in her life, we see it in our lives, and oh, that we'd
see it in the lives of others around us. What a blessed, positive
effect it has when God calls. When God calls. And that's it. Thank you, brother.