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One of my favorite theologians, R .C. Sproul, said there are four kinds of people in the world. I wonder in which category you find yourself. Four people. First category, those who are not saved and know they're not.
They know they're not a Christian. Category two, those who are saved and not sure they are. Assurance is lacking. Number three, those who are saved and are sure. They're positive that they're a Christian.
And fourthly, the fourth category, those not really saved but somehow are sure they are. What about you? What category do you find yourself? Are you a Christian? Are you converted? Have you repented and believed on the risen Savior Christ Jesus, our substitutionary King?
The Bible talks a lot about conversion. Now at this church, and rightfully so, often we focus on God's work, God's initiating grace, God's sovereign distinguishing work prior to what we do. After all, we're dead in trespasses and sins.
We're blinded by Satan. So God must work first. God must initiate salvation. But man does respond. Women must respond. And the response of conversion is not, walked an aisle. Not, I joined the church.
Not, I attend church, even Sunday nights. Not, I accepted Jesus in my heart. Not, I walked forward. I walked an aisle. I signed a card. I signed my Bible. But the human side of conversion, biblically speaking, is repentance and belief.
Repentance and belief. God doesn't repent for you. God doesn't believe for you. And there is a true conversion where men and women respond with repentance and belief. Nothing with baptism or anything else.
It's repentance and belief. God works and we respond to that very thing. So let's turn our Bibles to Ruth chapter 1 this morning as we're in this wonderful book. And we're going to look at Ruth's conversion.
Now, if I was a Bible teacher, I would say, let's learn about Ruth's conversion today and see how wonderful it is that God's working in Ruth's life. And it is and it was. But since I'm a preacher and not just a teacher, I'll ask you the question at the beginning, at the middle, and at the end.
Have you counted the costs? Are you converted? Are you a real Christian? I've prayed for you, if you're not a Christian today, that God would use this text to open your eyes. How does God save people?
Through the preaching of the Word of God through fallible men, through frail men, God uses His work at the pleasure of the Holy Spirit and grants life, ex nihilo, out of nothing. That's what I want to have happen here.
It's one thing if you really know you're going to go to hell and go. And it's another thing if you think you're going to go to heaven and then go to hell. And I think this book, Ruth, especially our passage today found in verses 6 through 18, will help every one of us understand the biblical doctrine of conversion.
And then we'll ask the question from a New Testament passage, are you converted? Have you counted the cost? Ruth counted the cost. She weighed the cost, and it cost her family, friends, societal issues, cultural issues, ethnic issues.
But when God turned her, when she was turned by God, she turned to God. The stakes couldn't be higher for you. Ruth's already in heaven. The eternal stakes could not be higher. Satan is a fraud. Satan is a deceiver.
Satan masquerades as an angel of light. And Satan likes to lull people straight to hell. Hell is real, and I don't want you to go there. I want God to use this word today to prick your conscience and to awaken your soul.
And if you're a Christian, I hope you say, I'm so glad I'm saved. If you're a Christian, I hope you say, I ought not to cut corners when I preach the gospel because Jesus never did. George Gallup, the pollster, said, We find there is very little difference in ethical behavior between churchgoers and those who are not actively religious.
The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkably similar in both groups. Eight out of ten Americans consider themselves Christians, yet only half of them could identify the person who gave the Sermon on the Mount.
And fewer still could recall five of the Ten Commandments. Only two in ten said they would be willing to suffer for their faith. The old spiritual said, everybody talking about heaven ain't going there.
And I want you to go. I don't want you to be caught by Satan. I want you to examine yourselves. I want you to say to yourself, there's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of what? Death.
I don't want that to be me. Now, Ruth, in general, as we think about the book overall, is a great story. One person called it the perfect story. It's a love story, but it's not only a love story. It's not just history.
It's a theological love story, my favorite kind. I love love stories, but I like theological love stories better. Sir Paul said, you think that the world would have had enough of silly love songs, but I look around me and I see it isn't so.
Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs, and what's wrong with that, I'd like to know. So here I go again. If a Moabite can be converted, anyone can. The life-death of Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, is so great.
If a Moabite can be saved, so can you. God's that great of a Savior. This book, Ruth, has lots of purposes, and one is for you to see the providential hand of God, quiet though it may be, but authentic it certainly is.
If I had hair, I'd want to pull my hair out after reading Judges. Sin, chaos, depravity, and what's worse than that? No resolution. No good ending. No happy ending. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
And here's the great thing about Ruth. There's an end. You see a resolution. In a barren land with a barren womb, and no hope of a future king in Israel, and therefore no hope of the ultimate king, Jesus, we see David is going to be born through the line of a Moabite.
Ruth is going to providentially take us through this great book, and there is going to be resolution. Now let me just read verses 1 through 5 to set us up in context so we can then jump into chapter 1, verses 6 through 18.
We'll go through the passage today, see Ruth's conversion, and then ask the question, are you converted? Ruth 1 .1. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from the house of bread, Bethlehem, in Judah, went to sojourn in the country of Moab.
Remember the cave? He came and his wife and his two sons. Or he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, my God is King. The name of his wife, Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Malon and Shilion.
They were noble. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab, remained there, but Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. There's a crisis.
The dream is over. When you hear language in the Old Testament narrative, she was left, that's bereavement. Elimelech's line is dying out. We know the ending. The readers didn't. How can the line of David be rescued?
Verse 4, they took for themselves. Repeat, they took for themselves. That language is abducted women. And then later it's used for marrying, in this case, marrying non-Israelites. They took for themselves Moabite women as wives.
The name of one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years. They shouldn't have. They're worshiping the false god Chemesh. They're not in Israel. They're trying to run from God.
Grass is greener. And God has disciplined them. God has judged them. The famine in the land. The barren womb. The death of the sons. I mean, the death of the husband. Some say that, according to tradition only, that Ruth was the daughter of Eglon, king of Moab.
Remember Eglon and Ruth in Judges? Verse 5, then, both Malon and Chilion, now the sons, also died. And the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband. We get disciplined for leaving Bethlehem.
We get disciplined for intermarriage. Can any good come out of this? Barren land, barren hope. And now the main narrative arrives. Chapters 1 to 5, short staccato, little bits of information so the reader is figuring this out.
Little bread crumbs thrown along so you just go down this path. Famine, judgment, Moab, the cave, all this other stuff. Lines dying out. What about David? What about the son of David? What about the Messiah?
And now we kind of broaden it out a little bit. Here comes the narrative and here comes the dialogue. No dialogue yet. Life in Moab didn't turn out so well. So we come to verse 6. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab.
For she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord Yahweh had visited His people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters. They went on their way to return to the land of Judah.
Something happened. The Lord visited Israel. We're not told exactly but certainly it must have been the people repented and God then gave them rain and God gave them crops. That's what it means to visit.
Do you see that in verse 6? The Lord had visited His people. Want to come over for a visit? Well, when God visits His people, He's kind to them. He's good to them. I think of Exodus 4. The Lord visited the people of Israel and saw their affliction.
There's famine in the land. The people cry out. God gives them forgiveness and rest and grace. Happened in Judges but when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer. Happened in Judges again.
The people of Israel cried out to the Lord and He gave them a deliverer. The people of Israel during the times of Ruth cried out to the Lord and He gave them water and grain. So they better go back. Verse 7, set out for the place with their two daughters-in-law.
They're on the return. They're on the trip. The trip is about from here to Providence, T .F. Green Airport or so. And you go down about 4 ,000 feet in elevation and then you go back up about 3 ,000 feet.
It's all just compacted here. It's a long trip. Moab to Bethlehem. And finally we get dialogue. Verse 8, but Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go, return each of you to her mother's house. Go back to your mom's house and at your mom's house, that's where you get arranged marriages.
That's where you're going to get your husband. Go back home. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. You follow me, grim prospects, but go back and try to find yourself a husband.
You've been kind to me and it's time for you to go back. Verse 9, and the Lord grant that you may find rest. What do you mean rest? What's he mean there? Well, it tells you, comma, each of you in the house of her husband.
Then she kissed them and they lifted up their voices and wept. I want you to go get married. You hear marital bliss? What is marriage? It's rest, the rest of marriage. Provision, protection, security, offspring, a husband.
You just need to have rest. You think about Sabbath rest, eternal rest, the rest of a marriage. Kissed them and lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, no, we will return with you to your people.
We want to go with you. And then Naomi said, now you could read it in maybe a nice way. I'll try that first, but it's really a rebuke. Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Have I sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?
That's not really how she said it. I don't really know how she said it, but here's the theological meaning and interpretation. But Naomi said, turn back, my daughters. Why do you go with me? I don't have any sons in my gut.
See? Not quite as nice. That's literally the way she said it. I don't have any sons in my gut. Go back. Warren Wearsby rightfully said, if it was right for Naomi to go to Bethlehem, where the true and living God was worshipped, then it was right for Orpah and Ruth to accompany her.
Naomi tried to influence the two women to go back to their families and their false gods. Now remember, if there was a woman, an Israelite woman, or a woman associated with Israelites, and they had a husband, and their husband died, the younger brother of the husband could marry them in a Leverite wedding, so the deceased son, the deceased husband rather, would have a son.
And Ruth has basically heard this from Naomi. If I get pregnant tonight, will I have to meet a man, get married, and then get pregnant tonight? You've still got to wait 16 years before you marry the guy.
So just go back. There's going to be more men back at home. Pragmatically, practically, it's a better decision. I'm out of sons. Verse 12, Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I'm too old to have a husband.
Most commentators think she's really about probably 50-ish, super old, AARP, of course. I don't know why I touched my glasses when I said really old. It's just like automatic. Go your way, for I'm too old to have a husband.
See, it's all the pragmatic stuff. It's all practical. Take things in your own hands, just like, hey, where's bread? There's no bread here. We could repent and get bread here. So let's go raise our kids on the Vegas strip or sunset strip, any strip.
If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you remain there? Would you wait there? Would you therefore wait until they're grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying?
You've got to be married back in those days. You can't be a woman on your own. Horrible is difficult. Know my daughters, really daughters-in-laws, but know my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord, he doesn't have a real hand, it's a figure of a speech, but the hand of Yahweh has gone out against me.
Armies go out and attack. The Lord is like an army. He's gone out against me. And I have lost my husband. I've lost my sons. And everywhere I go, the disciplined hand of God follows me. You go back and get yourself a husband.
At least she knew that God was sovereign over everything. I'll give her that much. But she wasn't figuring out that God was in reality gracious and generous and kept the remnant alive. She only sees judgment.
And you know what? If God didn't exist, it'd be the right decision to go back. If there's no hell or heaven, it'd be the right decision. If there's no sovereign God, it'd be the right decision. If God's deistic, it's the right decision.
Go back. Stay in Moab. At least Naomi knows God sends the rain. It wasn't just random precipitation. At least she knows God's in charge of the womb and God's in charge of life and death. Everywhere you look in Ruth, here's something that's preached through a bullhorn of narrative.
God's sovereign. God's providential. No signs, no wonders, nothing spectacular. But the quiet, providential hand of God. Fortune is a lie. Chance is made up. And serendipity doesn't exist. From the human perspective, you might say so.
But from a divine perspective, no. Where is God? What is He doing? Verse 14,. Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And we're going to see Orpah walk off the pages of Scripture and you won't hear from her again until a lady with her name has a TV show in the 90s.
See, even younger ones are listening. Actually, Oprah Winfrey was named Orpah, but no one could pronounce it very well. So they called her Oprah. Tradition says, the line of Oprah, Orpah, I knew I was going to make a mistake sooner or later, so I'm glad I got it out of the way.
Out of Ruth, David. And out of Orpah, Goliath. It's just tradition. Ruth loved Naomi. She clung to her. I'm not going anywhere. That's marriage language. Glued. Cleaving. Husband cleaves his wife. Glued to his wife.
There's just that bond there. And here, same to her mother-in-law. But the mother-in-law still has quite a few faults. And she said, verse 15,. See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people, and that God Chemesh that requires child sacrifice, return after your sister-in-law.
Go back to the false gods. Not go back to God, but go back to the gods. Go back to polytheistic paganism. This kind of God is alluded to in 2 Kings 3. Then He took His oldest son who was to reign in His place, and He offered him as a burnt offering on the wall.
Go back to the God that wants babies to be burned for good crops. No wonder Psalm 106 calls that kind of behavior. They sacrifice their sons and their daughters to demons. Go back to demon God. That's where you need to be.
See what's happening? Don't miss the clue here. Don't read too fast. Orpah wrongly does what her mother-in-law says. But Ruth does the right thing in spite of. Look at the contrast. How do you know how wonderfully God has worked in Ruth's life?
See what she could have done, what she should have done if God didn't exist. Naomi's words don't sound like Joshua's dying words, do they? Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods which are your fathers, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.
But as for me and my house, we will serve Temash. No, we shall serve the Lord. And now we come to loyalty. Now we come, you can see it bracketed off in your Bibles even, verses 16 -18. One man called a hallmark expression of loyalty.
Ruth was loyal to Naomi, but was she loyal to the Lord? I think the answer is yes. I think she was converted. Let's look at verses 16 -17. But Ruth said, Do not urge me to leave you. Literally, the idea would be, Don't pressure me.
Don't give me the mother-in-law pressure to go. Stop urging me to leave you, or to return from following you, for where you go, I go. Now watch it. This is like a ratchet. This is like a cable tie that keeps getting tighter and tighter and tighter.
So you, the reader, say this, I see all kinds of hints of conversion, and at the end we go, Yes, she was converted. This is a converted Moabite. For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge.
Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you. What significance do these words play?
We read them at weddings. Actually, these were read at my wedding, I think. Is there something more? Yes. Embedded in these two verses, we can see for certain that the author wants you to know, Ruth was converted.
So much so that what are Ruth's first words in all of the book of Ruth? These words of loyalty. The very first words. First impressions are often correct, and especially in a Hebrew narrative. And it shows in this section, real repentance.
Turning from a false god, Chemish, unto the real God, Yahweh. That's repentance. See 1 Thessalonians 1, 9 -10. Turn from idols to the living God. That's exactly what's happening here. The Hebrew is kind of truncated.
Here's what the Hebrew says in verse 16. Your lodge, my lodge. Your people, my people. Your God, my God. Fast forward one chapter to Ruth 2, verse 12. No wonder Boaz said this. May the Lord reward your work, and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.
She has turned from false gods to the real God. Renouncing her Moabite ancestry. Renouncing her old gods. In spite of family pressure. Look at verse 16. Where you go, I'll go. Where you lodge, I'll lodge.
Naomi is doing everything she can with the power of the mother-in-law to force her back. Look at chapter 1, verse 11. Naomi said, turn back. Chapter 1, verse 12. Turn back, my daughters. Chapter 15.
Return after your sister-in-law. The pressure of the family. Go back to those false gods. Go back to idolatry. She's converted. That's what the writer wants you to know. Ruth is converted. Think about even naturally and culturally.
Verse 16. Your people shall be my people. What do you mean your people shall be my people? Now people get converted. You go, I got converted to a different religion. Back in those days, if you were a Moabite, you were a Moabite.
You weren't going to change religion because you couldn't change your skin color. And it would be easier to change your skin color than it could humanly to change your God. Now she says, I'm going to be an Israelite.
That's what I'm going to be. Say goodbye to my old past Moabite people and my old ways. And it cost her too. Personally, costly for Ruth. No husband. No future. No sons. I'm going to follow Yahweh. I'm going to go back with Naomi and follow Yahweh.
Commentator Hubbard said, Ruth's leap of faith even outdid Abraham's. She acted with no promise in hand, with no divine blessing pronounced, without spouse, possessions, or supporting retinue. She gave up marriage to a man to devote herself to an old woman, throwing herself on the mercy of God.
Now, Kim and I had a conversation just a few months ago. Where should we get buried? Do we get buried in California? Do we get buried in New England? I don't know about you. Do you have a plot of land?
Do you have a little cemetery spot? Where do you get buried? Sri Lanka? I mean, I heard the burial plots there go cheap. There's something probably in you that says, I'd like to be buried at home. I want to have...
I mean, I'm dead and gone and all that, but that's where I want my bones. That's where I want my body. One of the reasons why I know Ruth is converted and the writer, most likely Samuel, is trying to push this even farther is because when you talk about, I want to be buried at a certain spot back in these days, you want to be buried where your heart is.
That's my country. What did they do with Joseph's bones when they were in Egypt? We've got to get those things back. And as for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem.
The place where you were buried was very important, very significant. That's my real home. Bury me in my real home. Israel. The writer wants you to know, she thinks that's her home. She's converted. But the coup de grace really found at the end of verse 17, she uses God in curse language.
But she doesn't just use God like most people do. She uses the personal, covenanting name of God, Yahweh. Look at verse 17. I know she's converted. I know she's regenerate. This is post-cross, so we can't call her a Christian.
But she's a believer. She's justified by faith alone. Thus may the Lord do to me and to worse, if anything but death parts you and me. You appeal to your own deity when you make a curse. Stick ten needles in my eye.
Cross my heart and hope to die. I don't even remember these. I'm glad I don't. I swear to God. You don't swear to someone. I swear on my mother's grave. You swear on something important. I swear on Yahweh.
I swear on Yahweh's name. She's a believer. Oath formulas, by the way, in the Old Testament, are usually not with Yahweh. They're with Elohim. Saul said, may God do this to me and more also, for you shall surely die, Jonathan.
For Samuel 3, what is the word that He spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. May God do so to you. And she doesn't say, you know what? I swear on Chemish's grave. I swear to Chemish that I'm going to do this.
Not at all. Personally calling God His personal name. Ruth is converted. I will forsake family, pleasure, marriage, culture, ethnicity, my home country, gone. Verse 18. I mean, something. If you're reading this, there's something good in Naomi's life.
I mean, in Ruth's life. I think this is such a classy lady, a godly lady, someone who's received the grace of God so much. I think something good is going to turn out at the end. Someone this wonderful, of course, by the grace of God, but the human side still of conversion is she repented, she believed, she did these things.
Something has to be happening and there's a trajectory. See Ruth and you go, something good's going to happen out of Ruth, through Ruth, because of Ruth. When Naomi saw that she was determined, verse 18, to go with her, she said, thanks, I could sure use a partner.
Thanks, I'd love to have you help me carry some stuff. Thanks, I know I kind of run my mouth, but you know, I know you're with me through thick and thin. Thank you. You've just given one of the most emotionally moving love poem speeches in all of history.
Secular, pagan, or sacred. And her response is, to use another pop song with Simon and Garfunkel, the sound of silence. Couldn't you say just like, thanks, thank you. You know how when you say to someone, if it's proper, you say, I love you.
We've got this truncated thing in America, especially in the West, especially men, if they're not careful, and it's like, you know what, I don't really want to say, I love you, because that means a lot, so you're just like, love you, love you, love you.
She can't even say, thanks. My family gets on me all the time, because I don't say, you are welcome. That's way too much work. You're welcome, still too much work. Welcome. Naomi can't even say, welcome.
Welcome. The writer wants you to know, God is doing something in a Moabite. This is something fascinating going on. Ruth is converted. Now we turn the hinge to you. Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew, excuse me, Mark chapter 8, and I want to ask you the question, are you converted?
Have you forsook all ties, familial, ethnic, national? As you're turning to Mark chapter 8, Spurgeon said, this was a very brave, outspoken confession of Ruth. Pleased to notice that it was made by a woman, a young woman, a poor woman, a widow woman, and a foreigner.
Remembering all that, Spurgeon said, I should think there is no condition of gentleness, obscurity, poverty, or sorrow, which should prevent anybody from making an open confession of allegiance to God in Christ Jesus.
Have you done that? Are you a Christian? Have you been converted? Now, Mark chapter 8, I really want to get to verses 30 some and following, but we're going to pick it up in verse 22 because I love context.
I want you to see the context, and this is just so mind-boggling and so fascinatingly wonderful. I've got to pick it up early because I'm just dying to talk about the Lord. Mark chapter 8, verse 22, and we're going to end this section with, Are you a Christian?
James would say, You call yourself a Christian? Prove it. But before we get there, Mark 8, 22. They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought to Him a blind man and begged Him to touch him. Of course, they knew Jesus could heal.
They knew He was the compassionate Savior. They knew about Isaiah 35, Isaiah 61, who the Messiah would be and what He could do. Blindness back in those days? Blindness? How about no eyeglasses? Let alone all the hooks and the lances and the salves and the balms people would put on their eyes and have put on their eyes so they could see?
This man's blind. From the birth canal, from leprosy, it doesn't matter, cataracts, he's blind. And He took the blind man, Jesus did, by the hand, led him out of the village, led him out. And when He had spit on his eyes and laid His hands on him, He asked, Do you see anything?
He looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking. Maybe they're the disciples. I think I see something like trees walking. Now wait a second. I thought when God heals, He heals organically.
I thought when God heals, He heals to such a degree that even pagans go, Yeah, He heals completely, fully, instantaneously. I thought when God heals, He doesn't need a two-step deal. Oh yeah, I know.
Jesus didn't have quite enough power to heal the first time, so He healed a little bit, kind of letting His energy bar increase a little bit, health meter, it's going back up again. Now He's going to heal again.
That's it. I see people, but they look like they're trees walking. Why is Jesus doing a two-step healing? Verse 25 gives us a second step. Then Jesus laid His hands on His eyes again. Why a miracle performed in stages?
Too hard for the first time for Jesus? His eyes again, and He opened His eyes, and His sight was restored, and He saw everything clearly. Why would Jesus do two-step healing? Jesus does everything for a reason.
What's the reason? Physical healing. Two steps. You see a little, then you see clearly. And now we're going to look at the disciples and what happened to this man physically. The disciples need spiritually.
They're going to see Jesus as Messiah. That is a God-ordained miracle that God opens their eyes. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and then God is going to need miracle number two. You even have to follow Jesus, the Messiah, who suffers.
Blind step one, partial. Blind step two, complete. Now we're going to see the disciples. They see Jesus gradually. He's first the Messiah, then the suffering servant. Let's take a look. It's two stages for a reason.
The disciples need their spiritual vision to be healed and sharpened. Their understanding of Jesus as Messiah came at the first touch of spit, spiritually. But they're going to need another touch to see clearly, because you've got to have your eyes wide open.
Nobody says, when you think about the Messiah of Daniel chapter 7, that Jesus is going to be dead on a cross, crucified, beat, mocked, spit upon. Who can just come up with that? God's got to open your mind to Jesus as the Messiah, and He's the suffering Messiah.
Two stages. Verse 26, and He sent Him to His home, saying, do not even enter the village. Jesus went on with His disciples to the village of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way He asked His disciples, who do you say that I am?
They told Him, John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and the others say, one of you is a prophet. And He asked them, but who do you say that I am? And Peter said, you are the Christ. And He strictly charged them to tell no one about them.
God the Son lets them know through the Spirit's working, Jesus is the Messiah. That's the first set of spit on the eyes. But here's what happens, verse 31, and He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed.
Oh yeah, that Messiah. And after three days, rise again. What a slap in the face to this Messiah that's going to come back. Lion of the tribe of Judah doesn't quite sound like it. Suffer, death, blood, kill, condemn, reject.
This is all wrong. And He said this plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. That's the language of you rebuke demons. Now Peter is rebuking Jesus. As one man said, he went from A student, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God, to dunce cap.
Get thee behind me. Jesus. Peter is doing exactly what Satan does. Jesus, you don't need the cross. Go straight to glory. Crown before suffering. Glory before the cross. That's not God's MO. And in light of all this, Jesus gives His call to discipleship.
And now I give you these. Three spiritual gut checks for you. Do you call yourself a Christian? Let's find out from Jesus' perspective. Not your church, not your denomination, not your friend, not even yourself.
Jesus determines the divine side of salvation, the sovereignty of God. He also determines the response to the sovereign initiating grace. He also determines the conversion, our man's response. We like to say repent and believe.
Here's what Jesus says. You want to have a Messiah? You want to go to heaven? You want to believe? Three spiritual gut checks in light of who Jesus is. Mark 8 verse 34, And calling the crowd to Him with His disciples, He said...
I mean, this is a perfect time for a good convert. It's a perfect time to get a lot of numbers and assets and attendance, buildings and cash. This is the time. And calling the crowd to Him with His disciples, He said, If anyone would come after Me.
And then He gives three demands. Here comes the first gut check. The person who wants to follow Christ must deny himself. That's number one. Oh, you know what? Lent's coming up and I'm just going to say no to chocolate, tobacco and alcohol.
Maybe diet coke. I mean me. This isn't deny things. I'm going to cut down on my fat intake this week. This is renounce. You see the passage? Deny what? Deny who? Deny himself. Now you think about what the world says.
Affirm self. Recognize self. Esteem self. It's exactly opposite of everything that the world is saying. You want to be my disciple? The problem is you. This is not self-denial of things. You are the problem Jesus is saying.
Yeah, but you don't understand Jesus. If I come and follow you, I've got dreams, aspirations, thoughts, hopes, plans, five-year plans, ten-year plans, career, money. I've got all this stuff planned.
That's the problem. Now Jesus might give you a wife, kids, a career, money, fame, fortune. Or He might give you the second gut check. You want to follow Jesus? You want to be converted? Christ's non-negotiables.
Deny himself, number one. Number two, take up your cross. Deny yourself, take up the cross. Oh, this is good because my wife sure is a nag, some people would say. And I can't believe that I've got this cross to bear.
I've got this bad back and I have to bear this cross in my life. Is that what this means? Just as we imported ourselves into Ruth's culture, you import yourself into New Testament culture. Pick up your cross.
You say, I want to be forgiven, I want to believe in Jesus, I want to have Him as my Savior, Advocate, Redeemer, Reconcile, Friend. I want to go to Heaven, I need my sins forgiven because I know I'm a great sinner.
Here's what Jesus said, then you better be willing to pick up a cross and go out in the middle of the town square and be crucified for my name. Public execution. You want to follow me? Get ready to be led out, carrying a cross and be crucified naked.
I could ask you the question using Jesus' words. You shouldn't call yourself a Christian unless you're willing to be crucified naked at the Worcester Common for Jesus' sake. That's what He's saying. And everything in you should be saying, standards are too high.
How could I do that? Remember, this is the response to this initiating grace, but still this is conversion. And we, I, it's like, yeah, but if I believe, then my Catholic grandma is going to be mad at me like my Catholic grandma was going to be mad at me.
Yeah, but then my society, then my husband, then my kids, then the culture, then those people at work. Those are all real questions. But Jesus said, deny yourself and take up your cross. Capital punishment was done publicly back in those days.
Here's the idea. Lord, in light of what You've done and who You are, I'm ready to submit to You and whatever You call me to do and whatever You want me to do, and from martyrdom to non-martyrdom, to public execution to not, I've been bought with a price and I'll do what You say.
I'm willing to go. I'm willing to go. And some of these men listening, according to tradition, had to pick up a cross. Andrew crucified in a Grecian colony. Peter crucified upside down. The other Simon died on a cross in Iran.
Philip hanged against a pillar. I found it fascinating that one of the councils called the Nicene Council, meeting in the fourth century, they had 318 men there discussing doctrine. 318. Only 12 had both of their eyes, both of their legs, both of their ears, their tongue, and no damages to their body.
Only 12 had not received torture for their Christian faith. And Jesus says, you want to follow Me? Pick up the cross and are you willing to die for Me? You still confess Me as Messiah if you have to maybe die for Me?
To me, that's Jesus' point. I see with Ruth, that was exactly what was happening. Turn her back on her old gods. Turn her back on herself, her identity, her ethnicity, her future. I have to distrust it all to God.
I have no future because God's my future. And the third gut check is follow Him. Didn't say sign a card. Didn't say get baptized. Present tense, keep on following Jesus daily. I said no to self once and for all and keeps coming back to haunt me, but there's that definitive break and now this is the ongoing forward coming after Christ.
You know what's so wonderful about the Lord? He gives some reasons for these demands. There's some thought to this. Look at verse 35. He gives one reason for this. God's ways aren't our ways. For whoever would save his life physically will lose it eternally.
Why should you pick up your cross and be willing to follow Jesus even to public execution? But whoever loses his life temporally by living for Jesus, for my sake and the gospel's, we'll save it eternally.
As Hugh said, losers are keepers. He asked another question, verse 36. It's reasonable, it's profitable to do this. Doesn't seem like it, but it is. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit its soul?
Answer. Forfeit a soul? Nothing. No profit of any kind. You have everything and you lose your soul and go straight to hell. Then what profit is it? No profit. Yeah, but you don't understand about my wife and my kids and my family and my Catholic background.
You're right, I probably don't understand. But I've got a question for you that I hope it rings in your ear. What profit does it give a man to gain the whole world, even his family relationships and forfeit his soul?
I'm not talking about your family, I'm talking about you. You know what then? If that's the case, I want to go to heaven. I won't lose my family so maybe I can earn my salvation. Maybe I can work. Maybe I can do good things.
Verse 37, question 3. For what can a man give in return for his soul? Answer. Nothing. And there are serious consequences. Verse 38. For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, don't tell me you were influenced by peer pressure.
That won't work. Of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when He comes in glory of His Father with the holy angels. Could it possibly be that when God thinks of those in hell, they're the place where, of course, rebels go, blasphemers go, liars go, sexually immoral go, but there is the place where I put people who are ashamed of Jesus.
I'm ashamed of these people and therefore off to hell they go. Could it be? This is the place God puts those He's ashamed of. See, I don't want to think about this. That's why I'm preaching because there are some people here who are not born again.
You must be born again. If Ruth doesn't get converted and she follows Orpah, she lives a life with a husband and then dies and goes straight to hell. Jonathan Edwards said, the punishment that is threatened to be inflicted on ungodly men is the wrath of God.
God has often said that He will pour out His wrath upon the wicked. The wicked, they treasure up wrath. They are vessels of wrath. They shall drink of the cup of God's wrath that is poured out without mixture.
God sometimes executes judgments upon sinners in this world, but it's mixed with mercy and restraint. But in hell, there will be full and unmixed wrath. I don't want you to go there. George Whitefield said, if Christ not be your righteousness, for God's justice must be satisfied and unless Christ's righteousness is imputed and applied to you here, you must hereafter be satisfied in the divine justice and hell torments eternally.
Christ Himself shall condemn you to that place of torment. Christless wretches standing before the bar of God crying out, Lord, if I must be damned, let some angel, some archangel pronounce damnation.
But all in vain. Christ Himself shall pronounce the irrevocable sentence. Ruth is a nice little love story of a woman who is converted by God. Are you converted? Are you converted? Father, would You seal these words to our hearts, the words of our Lord Christ Jesus and these words in Ruth?
How thankful are we Christians that there is a Redeemer, a Redeemer nearer than I, as Boaz would say. Thank You that You graced us so that we could commit ourselves to You. We would acknowledge openly and honestly today that if it was left to ourselves, we would never repent, we would never believe, we would never trust, we would never commit, we would never follow, we would never deny self, we would never pick up our cross.
But Your salvation is so great that it allows us to do that very thing in response to what You've done. I pray for everyone here today. I pray not one person would go out of this room converted. I pray that You would grant them by divine grace the desire to do this very thing.
Come what may, with family, friends, work, relatives, help us to consider our souls and for us as Christians, to God be the glory, great things You have done to save a people like us. Thank You for forgiveness.
Thank You for Jesus. Thank You for His life. Thank You for His death. What else could we sing about? Who could we sing about? In Jesus' name we pray.