Turn with me, if you would, this evening to the book of Ruth, chapter 1. Ruth, chapter 1. We wish this evening to look at the words that we have in verse 16. And Ruth said, 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 and my God and thy God my God where thou diest will I die and there will I be buried that all do so to me and more also if aught but death part thee and me this morning we considered Judas and the many privileges that Judas entertained. And yet, how despite all of these privileges, he was lost. He wasn't saved. He was among the Lord's people. He was part of the visible church. He was with the disciples. He was with the Lord himself. He saw the great and mighty works that the Lord did. He heard the preaching of the Lord. And for all of that, and all the warnings that he received, Judas was lost. Now, as is our wont very often, we try to preach something in the evening that would compliment, if you like, what is preached in the morning. And I thought this evening we would go to another person who in many respects is the very opposite of Judas. If Judas was someone who was in the house of God and had all the privileges that you could think of, Ruth was the opposite. And yet Ruth was saved. Ruth turned to the Lord and went down into Bethlehem, Judah. And you see something of the very opposite in the life of this young woman. The morning sermon is a sermon or a topic that is very somber, very sobering, very solemn, much dark about it. Judas and his being lost. This evening surely brings us to a text that is warm and encouraging. A text that I hope this evening will be an encouragement to the Lord's people. That's the way I would hope to view the text. It's a warm text. It's a text that most people would know. It is in one of the texts of the Old Testament that really warms the heart. You see the declaration of this young woman to Naomi, entreat me not to leave thee. I will go with you. Thy people are my people. Thy God is my God. What a contrast you have. What a warmth there is in the text that is before us, it should bring us joy and rejoicing. If the one this morning brings sorrow and warning, the one this evening should bring us joy and comfort. We see in it the sovereign grace of God, don't you? You see that written across the scriptures. You have a Judas in the one hand with all his privileges he's lost and you have this young woman and all you can say is that it's God's sovereign grace that draws one, passes by another. See God's wonderful sovereign grace in the life of this poor sinful woman. What an encouragement then and a comfort it ought to be to us this evening. I want to see first of all with regards to Ruth The difference that there is between Ruth and Judas, the very first one you'll notice is that she was not an Israelite. She wasn't like Judas who had all the privileges of being someone who was born, found within the bounds of the visible church. She wasn't someone who was found among 70 going out two by two. Twelve disciples, Judas one of them. When the Lord Jesus was preaching, the crowds that were there, it was a feeding of 5,000. Another time a feeding of 7,000. Judas saw that. That can't be said of this woman, can it? That can't be said of Ruth. What did she have? She had a family. Naomi and Elimelech and her two sons. She had one family who came down from Bethlehem Judah down into Moab. Just one family. One family that witnessed and showed for somethings of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet Ruth herself was from a pagan religion. She wasn't born and brought up an Israelite. She was a Moabitess. And as a Moabitess she was pagan. That was her background. That is where she came from. That is what she knew. She had a pagan background and she would have been largely ignorant of Jehovah. But you know, through her meeting with Naomi and Elimelech and this family, she was able to come and say, Thy people are my people. Thy God is my God. She came to witness and to show and to see the value of God's people, of Naomi's God and of her people. She came to value the privileges that Naomi and Elimelech had. Now if the subject this morning and the text this morning brought us a warning that we would not reject the privileges that belong to us and that we've had The vast majority of us in here, probably all of us in here, the privileges that we've had of the house of God, that we do not scorn those the way Judas did. The service, the text this evening gives us to value them the way Ruth came to value them. Ruth came to see the value of God's people. came to see the value of the great privileges that Naomi and her family had as coming down from Bethlehem, Judah. So much so that she said, I'll go back with you. And there is nothing that will stop me from going and the resolve that I have to return with you. Because they're my people. He's my God. In order to encourage us this evening that not only that we would not neglect the privileges that we have but that we would come to value the privileges the way Ruth came to value the privileges that she saw when she met this family. Privileges that she hadn't had before. Sometimes you see we can take the privileges that we have, the privileges of the Lord's day The privilege of being able to preach the word without fear and without fetter. The privilege of being able to gather in the Lord's day with God's people. The privilege of having God's people in our home and the association and the fellowship that we have with the Lord's people. We can often come to the point where we simply take these things for granted. You take them for granted. It's like everything else. You have something and you're using it a lot, you take it for granted. Ruth didn't take it for granted. Because when the Lord began to deal with her, she saw the great value of God's people and of being with God's people and of God himself. Thy people will be my people. Thy God, he's my God. Let us then in the first instance see that she was not an Israelite and she came to value the great privileges that she saw and was set before her in this family. The second thing you will notice is that she saw no great works. Now we saw this morning how Judas saw great and mighty works. They were set before his eyes. He saw the miracles that the Lord performed. Works that when they said that no man spake as this man, but no man did these things. No one had ever done these things before. He was casting out devils. And the blind were seeing and the deaf were hearing and the dumb were speaking and even the dead were being raised out of the ground, out of the tomb. Judas saw all of that. saw these mighty works and yet wasn't saved. We saw that this morning. But what about Ruth? What mighty works did she see? Well she saw Naomi and Elimelech and these two boys coming down from Bethlehem Judah and the first work she sees is that Elimelech is dead. Naomi loses her husband She's on her own. That must have been a very telling blow to Naomi when she was down in amongst the Moabites. Here she is, a woman with her husband there and these two boys and then her husband dies. Terrible blow for Naomi. And Ruth and Opa They both witnessed and they know that. It's not a mighty work, is it? But nevertheless, she still has her two boys, Mahalon and Chileon. They're still there, they will be able at least to look after her and give her some assistance and they're married to Ruth and Orpah. And then her two boys die. They're both dead. What a difference! On the one hand you've got Judas seeing once Jairus' daughter being raised from the dead. You've got him witnessing Lazarus coming forth from the tomb. And Ruth sees Elimelech, Mahalon and Chilion dead. And all you've got left is Naomi herself. Bereft of her husband and bereft of her family. It's hardly very promising is it? It's not very promising that anybody down in Moab would see anything of favour in Naomi. And yet, Judas is lost. and Ruth is saved. And that ought to encourage the Lord's people today, don't it? That ought to encourage the Lord's people. It's not by might nor by power, is it? It's by my Spirit, saith the Lord. It's the Lord alone who is able to turn the life and take the heart of a Ruth, of this young woman, and turn her around And it's not because of the circumstances but you would almost say despite the circumstances that she here turns. Now, we ought to be encouraged, shouldn't we? Because we are living in a day when the church itself is looking more like Naomi. The church is looking in a very poor state. The church is looking as though she's in a foreign land, in amongst a people that have no time for her. And certainly don't understand her God. And you might say to yourself, well, is there any hope that anybody will be saved out there? And then you come down to Naomi and you discover Naomi down in that foreign land and you see her down there and she loses her husband, she loses her two sons and yet she wins a Ruth. Ruth is so taken. And that ought to encourage us. How many Ruths that we don't know about are walking in the streets of Edinburgh today? We don't know. How many Ruths are there up and down the length of this country from John O'Groats to Land's End? How many Ruths are there? And they're out there. And you think to yourself, well, there's nobody going to believe in the Gospel because look at the way the church is, look at how poor she is. She's not what she used to be. You can understand how people would believe in a day when there's a great outpouring of God's Spirit and the church is doing mighty works in the land and you can understand that. My friend, Judas saw all that. He wasn't saved. But here's Naomi down in the midst of Moab and she has a trophy in Ruth. I wonder if it's true when she says, I went out full and I came back empty. Did she really come back empty? Did she come back with a trophy of grace? Did she come back with a Ruth? Ruth never saw all the mighty and great works that Judas did, and yet Ruth's life has changed. There's a third thing as well, because we saw this morning that Judas saw and listened to the preaching of none other than Jesus Christ himself. If you want to know who's blessed, you go to what Jesus has to say. You want to know the man that's blessed. You want to know what Judgment Day is all about. You want to know about building your foundation. You go to what Jesus has to say. Judas heard it all. He heard all of that. He heard all of that. What did Ruth have? She didn't have a preaching. She had a woman. Her mother-in-law. probably the best part of it, Elimelech and her sons she was the only one that was a preacher and yet she had a preacher who spoke to her in her life as to her people and her God her life showed forth something of who her God is and who her people are And Ruth saw that in the life of Naomi. You know, that ought to be an encouragement to ourselves, shouldn't it? We think that the great salvation of the church is going to be evangelism, going out round the doors and up and down stairs. I don't believe that's the case. Naomi witnessed simply with her life and her conversation, so that her daughter-in-law was at the end of the day able to say, thy people are my people, your God, he's my God, he's the one that I want to know, he's the one that I love, he's the one that I want to know, it doesn't matter where you go, where you take me, he is my God. It's said of Murray MacShane, that it very often wasn't what he said, It's the way he said it that affected people. He said it with his life and he said it the way he spoke about his Lord. People were affected simply by the way that he spoke about the Lord Jesus Christ. And should that not also be true of us whenever we speak of the Lord? Not just what we say, not just the words that we utter, but the very way we say it. Ought to draw people and show to people, I am his and he is mine. She was drawn, not by the great preachers of the day. She was drawn, not even by Judas Hart, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. She had her mother-in-law, but her mother-in-law preached with her life so much that Ruth was drawn. She was drawn to her God. And if you look at the circumstances in which Ruth is found, see all this is telling us It's not of man, is it? That's what it's all telling us. It's all of God. It's all God's grace. It's all of God's sovereign grace. God can do it when you and I can't do it. God can do it when you probably think it will never happen. You come to Judas and you see Judas and you see the circumstances in which Judas finds himself. He's sitting at a table with other disciples, with others who are who love the Lord Jesus Christ, and there he is, he is sitting with eleven others, and the eleven others are listening to what the Lord is saying. You say to yourself, well surely he would be affected by that. He is not. But here is a Ruth, and who is beside her? A Norba. And who is in front of her? Her mother-in-law. The mother-in-law is saying, Listen, go back to your own people. There is a test you see before her. There is no point in Ruth or Orpah coming down into Bethlehem Judah. There is no point unless their heart is there. And Naomi knows that. She says to her, go back. Go back to your own people. You've been kind to me and you've been good daughters-in-law to me, but go back to your own people. And then you've got Orpah with tears in her eyes, turning and going back to her own people. What circumstances there are. What circumstances there are that we find here. And yet, In these circumstances, you discover Ruth saying, entreat me not. Don't go any further. Stop who you are. Don't entreat me any more than you have. Because let death itself be the only thing that will come between me and you and my going down. Isn't it wonderful? What a testimony. Now why is it? What's the difference? What's the difference between this young woman with all the circumstances that she has around her and Judas with the disciples and with Jesus there and with the warnings and you've got this young woman with circumstances that she's been told not to go and her fellow sister-in-law, Orpah, she goes back and yet she's resolved. Nothing's going to stop. What is the difference? What is the great difference between the two? Well, it's God's sovereign grace that changes the heart of Ruth so that she loves. She loves Naomi and she loves Naomi's God and she loves Naomi's people. And she says here, I don't know what route this is going to take me. Which he says here, that where you go, wherever that is, and I don't know the route that's going to take us there, but whatever that route is, I'm going with you. And I don't know what the dwelling place will be like when you get there. I haven't got a clue. But I'm going, and I'll dwell where you dwell. And I don't know at the end of the day where I'll even be buried. It's unknown. The route's unknown. Where we will dwell is unknown. And ultimately where I'll be buried is unknown. But there's one thing I do know. That where you go, I'm going. Where you will dwell, I will dwell. And where you're buried, I'll be buried. Because your people are my people. And your God, He's my God. And I love your God and I love your people. And you see, that's the difference between this woman, this young woman and Judas. She loved. She loved. And nothing was going to stop in the way and stand in the way of this young woman going all the way with Naomi. You see that's what love does because you not only discover that she has a love now and the Apostle Paul says the love of Christ constrains us. If Ruth had every reason to love Naomi and Naomi's God, how much more do we have today and ought we to be constrained to love the Lord Jesus Christ and our God? The Apostle Paul says that, doesn't he, in 2 Corinthians and in chapter 5, he says, because the love of Christ constrains me. He has seen what Christ has done. He has witnessed the love of Christ to sinners and it is such a constraint upon him. It constrains him to follow the Lord wherever he will take him. it constrains him to dwell wherever the Lord would have him to dwell and it constrained the apostle to say wherever I die then as long as that's where the Lord would have me to be same as the love she loved Naomi and she loved Naomi's God and because of that you discover that there was a total surrender a total surrender. The Bible tells us that God will not give his glory to another. The Lord Jesus Christ demands that total surrender of his people for nothing at all. It's that total surrender that Peter came to know. When Peter is sitting on that shore and he says, Lord, thou knowest all things, there's total surrender. Where you will go, I will go. Where you will lead me, that's where I want to be. Total surrender. It's what Judas never had. Judas never had that. Because he didn't have the love, there wasn't the surrender. Do we love? This evening, the Lord Jesus Christ, do we love our God so much that there is that total surrender. Wherever you would have me to go, there will I go. I will pick up my cross and I will follow Thee. I will follow Thee whithersoever thou shalt take me. Peter had to learn that, didn't he? Because Peter had come and Peter had a love of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he had to learn that total surrender. It had to go by the way of the cross. Have you that total surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ? Has he conquered you with his love? Has he drawn you and constrained you? And is he drawing you after him day by day? And because of that, Ruth's life was totally changed. Wasn't it? It was totally changed. And this change is signified I think by, can I suggest to you five things. First of all, the Lord was our God. That's the difference, wasn't it? Not the gods of Moab, the world, the flesh and the devil. But there was one thing now that typified and changed the life of Ruth. That was that Jehovah was her God. And that wasn't just her God in terms of acknowledging but you can see that it was now from the heart. It was heart submission, it was love of the heart, it was submission of the heart and now it was faithfulness to God. The first thing that changed Naomi's life is that the Lord, He was her God. Thy God is my God. Are you able to say that this evening? Are you able to say that you not only don't scorn the privileges that you've had, but you value these privileges so much because they show you that the Lord, He's your God. And He's your God forever. Secondly, we discover that even as poor and as unlikely as it may seem when you look and think about Naomi and her family and who she was and what she was Ruth loved the Lord's people She loved the Lord and she loved the Lord's people. There was Naomi down in the midst of Moab. Many friends she had down there. I think the picture I have of her down there for these 10 years is that she was a lonely. There were Israelites down in Moab. and her husband dies, her sons die and now she's there and she wants just to go back. I don't know whether the Moabites were bad to her or not but she wasn't among her own people and yet in that situation it was such that Ruth saw in her something that she knew that the Lord's people, they're my people. They're my people. that the world would see something in the Lord's people, that they would desire to be with the Lord's people, that they would see something among the Lord's people that would say, that's my people, they're my people. The Lord was her God, the Lord's people were hers. Thirdly, Ruth recognised that in her place now, she now had to pick up a cross. She now had to pick up the cross and go with Naomi. What was ahead of her? What was ahead of her? She didn't know. He was a young woman and she was leaving her own people. She was turning her back on Moab. She was taking a route down to Bethlehem Judah with Naomi. She didn't know what was ahead of her. But she did know that God would look after her. She did know that when she took that step of picking up that cross that the Lord was able to do for her and to keep her. My friend, it's the same God today that we have and we read of here this evening. It's the same God that was there with Ruth and it's the same God in which we may be able to place our hands and to walk and follow Him. We may place our hand into His hand and He will take us and we will have to pick up that cross and we need to follow Him. But we know that when we pick up that cross and when we follow Him, He is able to keep us. Fourthly, she believed in the perseverance of the saints. Now wonderful, way back in these days she believed in the perseverance of the saints. She said because nothing but death will separate the two of us. Just in thinking about it, you know how Judas and the Lord Jesus says about Judas and it's prophesied in the book of Psalms, he was my familiar friend, he wasn't my foe. He was my friend. He sat at my table. He took my meat and he betrayed me. He turned his back upon me. He went among those whose evil devices, he says, may their devices be cast into hell. That's who Judas went to. And he sold me for 30 pieces of silver. What a difference! when you now come to the heart that is touched with love, the heart that is there now committed and picking up its cross when it says, will I betray you? Will I turn my back upon you? Nothing but death will ever separate me from you. Such is the love that she had for Naomi and for the Lord's people. And finally, fifthly, she had a resolution. A resolution to go forward that bound her heart to her friend, to her people and to her God. Five things that Ruth had that changed her life. A love of God A love of God's people, a willingness to pick up that cross, a faithfulness to the things that belong to Naomi and to her people and a resolution and a binding of her heart and her soul to go forward. And what a difference, you know, to Judas Judas goes away and he has nothing. He has no love. He admired the Lord, but as time went on, it was obvious what the Lord was saying. He was turning from it. And ultimately, we are told, he went to the place that was prepared for him. He went to a lost eternity. The Lord tells us it was better for that man that he was never born. And what about Ruth? Well, Ruth goes down into Bethlehem. Oh, she has many hard times, but the Lord paves the way before her. She marries Boaz and she becomes the great grandmother of King David. What a blessing! What a blessing, eh? What a difference! In the line of the Lord Jesus Christ, even greater still, the Lord, the Messiah, the King of Glory descends from a poor, young, Moabite girl who comes to know the Lord and who says, I will never leave thee. I will never forsake thee. thy people are my people thy God he is my God and nothing but death will part thee and me my friend two people Judas and Ruth one is solemn and dark the other is light and joy may it be that we would know the latter, the light and joy and the blessings of following the Lord and following Him fully. Let us pray. Most gracious and ever blessed Lord, we thank Thee this evening for the goodness of Thy mercy and of Thy grace. We pray that we would know something of the commitment and the love and the joy and the faith that Ruth had the faith when she left there and the submission that she had to the will of the Lord for her as she came down and we pray that we would too know something of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that the love of Christ would constrain us even this day. Bless us now we pray thee and undertake for us in the rest of the week and pardon us our sins for Jesus' sake. Amen.