Open—Eric James
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Let's turn to a verse that we know well in Psalm 42.
Psalm 42.
And verse 7.
Deep calleth under deep at the noise of thy water spouts all thy waves, and thy billows are gone over me.
I want to speak about something for a few minutes.
It's been on my heart for some time.
The subject is love. I know some years ago Mr. Ironside wrote a little pamphlet called Holiness, the False and the True. I don't want to speak about that, but I do want to speak about love, which we've been speaking about, the false and the true. And this follows up somewhat with what Wayne was speaking about. We had lunch together and spoke about some of these things, but.
I came across a little chart here on the Internet not too long ago that touched me. I just want to read parts of it. At least it speaks about on the one side of the chart, the biblical Jesus, and on the other side the postmodern Jesus.
We don't have time to go in much detail about what postmodernism is, but it comes down. We'll see as we go through this chart comes down partly to the idea that we live in a relativistic world.
There's no absolute truth. We make up our own truth. We live in the moment. It's all about me. Let me read through this because this is so predominant in the world, first of all. And then it invades Christendom, and then it invades the assemblies as well. The biblical Jesus. I'll read that side first. It says born as God.
In the flesh, the postmodern Jesus.
Born as a man who was promoted to deity, Biblical Jesus again warns of sin, judgment and hell. The postmodern Jesus never says anything negative. Maybe that sounds familiar. The biblical Jesus commands repentance of sins.
The postmodern Jesus disregards repentance of sins.
Biblical Jesus gives you salvation, hope, peace and joy, while the other gives you health, wealth, and happy feelings.
Biblical Jesus is hated and despised by the world.
Postmodern Jesus is loved and accepted by the world.
The biblical Jesus hates sin and exposes the truth about sin.
The other condones sin and never corrects you or your sins.
The biblical Jesus commands with divine authority. The other gives suggestions instead of commandments. Biblical Jesus offends the world with the truth.
But the postmodern Jesus hates to offend you, loves political correctness.
The biblical Jesus brings division when necessary. The other promotes unity and tolerance at all costs.
The biblical Jesus preaches God's righteousness.
The other preaches only on love.
The biblical Jesus exalts God the Father's will. The other serves your will, not God's will. The biblical Jesus warns of false signs and wonders, magnifies God's word. The other exalts, signs, wonders, and mysticism above God's word. The biblical Jesus demands that emotion.
Experience and opinion.
Conformed to sound doctrine. The other exalts emotion, experience, and opinion above sound doctrine.
The biblical Jesus commands you to deny yourself and allow Christ to work in you.
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The postmodern Jesus encourage you, encourages you to love yourself and gratify all your fleshly desires. And then the question at the end is, which Jesus do you follow? It's a good question for us, isn't it? We are affected by these principles that invade the world.
And invade Christendom. And I'm afraid that we've been affected by the false love.
Of covering things up and that's why I read this verse in Psalms. Sometimes we hear the expression unconditional love. Well if used properly that's fine, but it can be used improperly. And I believe what this verse means in Psalm 42 verse 7, deep calleth unto deep.
At the noise of thy water spouts, I believe the deep is the love of God, satisfying the demands of the holiness of God.
I know it's been applied to God satisfying the needs of man, and I don't object to that as an application, but I believe that the true interpretation is that love and holiness go together. God is light and God is love. Deep calleth under deep at the noise of thy water spouts. What's that mean? Water spouts?
Well, I think it means as we sometimes say.
The cross is the center of two eternities. It broke up the universal order, and it brought in and introduced a new order, and that's the order of which Christ is the last Adam. And then we have all thy waves, and thy billows are gone over me. Just what our brother Wayne was speaking about.
The awful sufferings that our Lord passed through.
In order to inaugurate this new order, without which there could be no blessing for the broad creation. Thank God for it. Now I just like to take a couple minutes. We've spoken about the false love and how we're susceptible to it. Scripture teaches didactically, that is one verse after another, the text.
Scripture teaches by example. It teaches by type.
Let's turn back to the book of Ruth, and I have enjoyed for some time how we have an expression in the four chapters of Luke about the true love according to scripture in Ruth.
Ruth, Chapter One.
Beautiful little book, as we well know. In fact, the very name Ruth means beauty. She is a spiritual beauty. She's a picture of one who takes God's side at all times. We could be a Ruth too. God would desire that. We would be a Ruth in our little corner. And so we have Ruth in chapter one. We spoke about Agape this morning.
That's very helpful. Agape, as we mentioned, is the love of devotion.
Commitment, not so much an emotion. We see that a little bit later. It's that which is unconditional in that sense. But of course it's always consistent with the holiness of God. And so we have Ruth speaking as we read in verse.
14 We know the story here.
Ruth and her husband went down into the land of Moab to escape the famine.
Maybe there's a famine in your little assembly.
They tried to escape it and all they found was death and finally.
Naomi returns or begins to return, and one of her daughter in laws, Orpha in verse 14, kisses her mother-in-law. But Ruth clave under her. And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back under her people, and under unto her gods, return thou after thy sister-in-law. I suppose that was a test for dear Ruth.
And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee.
For Withers outgoest I will go, and where the largest 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. That's the key, isn't it? The Lord had touched her heart. The Lord do so to me, and more also.
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If aught but death part thee and me. When she saw that, she was steadfastly minded to go with her.
She left speaking under her, so they returned back to Bethlehem. Was it an easy thing to do? Ruth had left some time before, and she comes back in many respects broken. She says to call her Mara. That's where our name Mary comes from.
But she did repent and that was the beginning of blessing. I have a note in my Bible.
It says that she returned to the place of blessing. That's good. Isn't it important for us to return to the place of blessing? But then let's read in chapter 2. You know I love this Chapter 2.
I think it's a beautiful illustration of what we have in the New Testament of the order of God's house. We have the different people that are involved. We have Naomi, who's an older sister. We can read in First Timothy and in Titus about the place of the older sisters in the assembly in the Christian community. We have Ruth, of course, who's the subject.
We have Boaz, who's a picture of the risen Lord Jesus, the one who's commanding everything.
We have the One, the servant to Boaz, who's over the reapers. He's a picture of the Spirit of God who carries out the will of Boaz, the exalted Savior. We have the reapers, a picture of those that are helping us to understand the scriptures as we've been speaking, that go out into the fields and service.
We have the young men that draw water out of the wells.
Help us understand the Scriptures as well. We have the maidens that were to be the companions of Ruth. And so we have Phileo love here, don't we? This is the love of affection. And so once we've turned to the Lord and laid ourselves in consecration to the Lord to lead us into a place where there will be.
Companions that will be a help to us with them, that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
So if the 1St chapter is the place of blessing, I have a note here in my Bible that says the 2nd chapter is the blessings of the place. It was a happy place, a happy community, the order of God's house. This is what God has prepared for us. And so they all work together. Well, we see that Ruth is diligent. We're thankful for that. We don't have time to go into details, of course, but look at the end.
Chapter, if you would please, verse 20.
And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness of the living and to the dead. Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen. And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men until they have ended all my harvest. Now watch your young people.
What the older sister counsels the younger sister? And Naomi said unto Ruth, her daughter-in-law. It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maiden, not his young men, that they meet thee not in any other field. So she obeyed. She kept fast by the maidens of Boaz the gleam unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest. And.
By her mother with her mother-in-law. Remember what it says in Revelation chapter 3 we see bowing to the word of God here the Lord Jesus says as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. That's not the postmodern Jesus, is it or not rebuke and chasing, but too often times.
It's we avoid conflict and allow people to go on in a pathway.
That's not help, not helpful or helpful. But here we have that balance. First of all, Naomi repenting and coming back to the place of blessing. And then she corrects Ruth. Ruth naturally would have liked to follow the young men. She apparently was a young person, not too old, yet a widow we know, but nonetheless an attractive young lady. She would have liked to have followed the young men, not what Boaz said. And Ruth.
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Is corrected by Naomi. She said no, you follow the maidens. That's good advice, isn't it? The order of God's house. So as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. We don't like that word so much today, do we? And I've seen others that the young people get in trouble.
The tendency is to cover it over and excuse it.
And then the next tendency is that too often, as Wayne was alluding to, they follow the young people out and it's not a happy path, though it's not the place of blessing. So she returns to the place of blessing. Chapter one, she gets the blessing of the place by submitting to the order of God's house. Have you noticed? We didn't talk about it, but in First Corinthians where we read.
In the the House of God is the main subject up to the middle of chapter 10.
And then the Lord's Table is taken up in the middle of chapter 10. And then in the 11Th chapter, the Lord's Supper is taken up. But there's something in between, and it speaks of the subjection of the sisters. I so well remember our brother Albert Hales speaking about that. Such a help to me. He says the secret to maintaining the Lord's Supper and the Lord's Table.
In its proper place is subjection. Otherwise it seems like this thing about the head coverings is out of place. But what's the point? The only way to be maintained in the path of blessing is subjection and obedience. Naturally we don't like that, but that's the path of blessing. You know, when we get home, there won't be any differences between male and female.
The lessons learned will be lessons we'll have for all eternity.
But at the present time there are distinctions that God makes and their distinctions for His glory and for our blessing. So we have the blessings of the place. And then in chapter 3 we have something else, something also that our brother Wayne alluded to. The blessings are a nice thing. We've been speaking about many of the blessings.
But look what Ruth said. At least Naomi says in chapter 3.
When Naomi, her mother-in-law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? And now is not Boaz our kindred? With whom maiden, with with whose maidens was? Behold, he went with barley tonight in the threshing floor. Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor. But make not thyself known unto the man until they have done eating.
Drinking in it shall be when he lieth down with thus up mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in and uncover his feet, and lay thee down, and he will tell thee what thou shalt do. And she said unto her, All that thou sayest unto me I will do.
I think what we have here is not simply the place of blessing as we had in chapter one, not simply the blessings of the place of our position and as we have in chapter 2, but we have the blesser himself. This is the real secret of Christianity, isn't it? Not simply.
To seek what the Lord has to give, but to learn to walk in communion with the Lord Jesus himself.
Remember when I was first married, somebody handed me a book by a physician who is also a marriage counselor. I don't read a lot of that kind of thing, but that book was helpful to me. And this marriage counselor brought out four terms that are used for love. The first, of course, was agape, and he said many people missed that. He said, people come into my office, like Bob was saying the other day, and they say I'm not in love with my spouse anymore.
And he explained the truth of Agape, that it's a love of commitment.
It's not an emotion. The emotion will come if there's the right commitment. And and then thirdly, he said there's the word in the Old Testament, Ahava, and that embraces out something a little differently. It's a general word, but another thing it embraces is romantic love. And in a sense, that's what we have here. Who can read this book of Song of Solomon?
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And not see that there's romantic love there, the attraction in that case between a remarkable man and a unremarkable woman, we might say. But the Lord has grown us after him with those cords. And this is the real secret of Christianity, is it not? Let's just hold our finger there and our time is short. But let's turn to Philippians again.
We don't need a list of laws and rules like we've been saying.
With the secret spring for the Christian.
The true love is the secret spring, and this is what we have, for instance, in second in the Philippians chapter 3. Notice what the Apostle Paul says in verse 7.
But what things were gained to me? Those I counted lost for Christ? That was past tense, wasn't it? Perhaps when he was a young man he made a great decision, and now he comes into the present, years later.
Yeah, doubtless, and I count present tense all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith.
Of Jesus Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection.
And the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable under his death, by any means I might attain under the resurrection of her from among the dead.
Not as though I had already attained either, were already made perfect.
But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that through which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. It's that love that draws us, and the more we learn of Him, the more we realize that everything else in the world is but done compared to the Excellency that's in Christ Jesus.
Our Lord. And so in this chapter we have that side of a hava, I think.
First, the place of blessing. Second, the blessings of the place. Thirdly, the blesser himself. A wonderful truth that is the great secret of Christianity, to walk in the Lord's presence. And it's interesting.
To that, she finds out we don't have time to read through it, but she finds out when he wakes up. Not only does she desire to have him as as as her companion.
But He desires to have her as His companion. The more we learn, the more we walk in the Lord's presence. We find how much He loves us and cares for us and wants to walk us, to walk and His company and grow in His presence. Blessed be His name. That right, Matt? He likes to say that.
Blessed be his name. Now we have chapter 4.
Claim is just about gone. I like this chapter. I think we get something else turned if you would just put your finger here and turn over to Romans chapter 12.
We have a word that's used only once in scripture as I understand.
But it brings an interesting perspective to this theme of love, the subject of love.
Romans chapter 12 and verse 10.
Be kindly affectioned 1 to another with brotherly love. Well, that brotherly love is phileo. That emotion, that love of friendship between 1:00 and another believer. But what's that word kindly affection mean Well, this man who wrote this book that was given to me some years ago.
He said it's the love of belonging. It's Stargate is the Greek word, or at least it's the word that's based on.
That word be kindly affection, he said. It's like an old shoe. I remember my parents passed away here several years back.
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And they had lived in that house for, if I remember, some 40 years, and my brother told me about going to that house one day when the other people had moved into it. It had been sold, said, you know, it seemed awfully strange. I had to knock on the door. Never happened before.
Used to just walk in that store gate. It's the love of belonging. That's a wonderful thing, stability and the love of belonging. The Lord Jesus loves us. He wants us to walk in his presence to get the great blessing, but He also wants us to be a blessing. I think that's what we have in this chapter.
Ruth now becomes a blessing. She almost disappears. Really.
But she becomes a blessing. Let's just look at the end here.
In verse.
Verse 15 of Ruth chapter 4 and verse 15. And he said under under thee. And he shall be under thee, Speaking of of the child that would be born. He shall be under thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thy old age for thy daughter-in-law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons.
Hath borne him. This is what the woman said to Naomi, one mark of a mature Christian.
Is joy.
It's a sad thing to see a Christian come to the end of his life and not to be able to finish his course with joy. And that be our prayer that we would be able to finish our course with joy. We know of some that it's not true. It's a sad thing. But the Lord wants us, his mature believers, to be joyful believers and He will give us that joy.
If we keep close to him now look at this also.
Verse 16 And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom.
And became a nurse unto it. And the woman, her neighbors gave it a name, saying there is a son born to Naomi. And they called his name Obed. What's Obed mean? Means worshipper. So not only is the Christian pathway when walked in the Lord's presence a joyful path, it's also a pathway of worship.
The Lord deserves that worship. It's the overflow of the heart to the one who loves us.
Has given himself for us. And then finally I wanted to read verse 17. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. What's Jesse mean means gift. There's service involved too. Service. So there we have joy, we have worship and we have service.
We think the other ten books.