TRUE REST IS IN JESUS ALONE
April
14, 2002 am
MFBlume
(Matthew 11:28-30) Come unto me,
all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in
heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light.
(Ruth 3:1-5) Then 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
of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth
barley to night in the threshingfloor. 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 he shall
have done eating and drinking. And it shall be, when he lieth
down, that thou shalt 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.
Although a Moabitess herself, Ruth's husband was a Hebrew who
had died, causing wives at that time to lose their husband's land
that was both their's to enjoy.
- Naomi was Ruth's mother in law.
- She vowed to Ruth that she would help her find rest in having
a husband and a home again.
- And to get back her deceased husband's land through marriage
to a kinsman, as the law of Moses decreed.
- The work of a woman at such labour would be ended if Ruth
could marry again.
Naomi told Ruth some specific
instructions.
- Go to Boaz.
- He is the near kinsman.
- He is the one.
- She needs to come to a rest.
- Wash and be cleaned.
- Then go to the floor where Boaz is.
- Mark the place.
- Watch Him eat and drink.
- When He is done, and lies down, then go there and uncover his
feet and lay down.
- He will tell you what you need to do.
Boaz means
STRONG ONE.
- Christ is our strong one.
- And we need to come to Jesus and find rest.
(Matthew 11:28) Come unto me, all
ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.
Unsaved folk race around in life's
worries and problems, and all the world is stressed out.
- There are saints of God who are worn out, and are weary from
the toils of this world.
- As Ruth who worked and laboured and was weary, Jesus tells us
to come, who are weary.
- And we will find rest to our soul.
Naomi told Ruth to
go to Boaz.
- He is strength, while she is weary.
And the
Instructions involved getting cleaned up from work, and finding
Boaz.
- She must watch him eat and drink.
(Hebrews 2:9) But we see Jesus,
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of
death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God
should taste death for every
man.
(Matthew 26:39) And he went a
little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my
Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me : nevertheless not as I will, but as thou
wilt.
Jesus drank
sin and death.
- He swallowed death up.
- But it was a victory!
(1 Corinthians 15:54) So when this
corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall
have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying
that is written, Death is swallowed up in
victory.
If you want to find rest for your
souls, you are going to have to go to Jesus, and look carefully at
the picture of Him eating and drinking.
- In other words, realize that Jesus tasted death for you.
- He drank the cup of your sins and death.
- The Bible refers to His death as "tasting death" for us.
- In other words, experiencing our deaths as us.
- We had to die, so Jesus did something about that.
- He said He'd suffer our deaths, and we can turn around and
claim that we died the death penalty already!
- So we're free of the judgment!
- And the Bible called that tasting death for every man.
Stay there with the story of Jesus.
- Study that Bible until it speaks to you!
- Until some light shines on you and God uses that truth to give
you a veritable revelation!
- Until you get the point!
- And when you get it, it will hit you like a ton of bricks!
After He ate and drank, Boaz laid down.
- Mark the place where he ate and drank and laid down.
Jesus laid His life down in death after He ate and
drank.
- And we must mark that place in our hearts.
- Where was He laid?
- In the tomb.
- In the grave.
- Mark that grave.
- Take very special note of that place.
- Go in and uncover His feet and YOU LAY THERE, TOO!
We
need to realize that where He laid in death was where we laid in
death, because He did it FOR US.
- He did it as us!
- We need to put ourselves in that grave.
- You might say that He died 2000 years ago way over on the
other side of the world.
- Yes, but its the death penalty we had coming to us that is the
point.
- And He died that death penalty.
- In God's eyes it was our deaths.
- Its the deaths of everyone who will put faith in it.
- This is why we must believe and be baptized into His death.
- Water Baptism is the acknowledgment that we died with Him.
- We accept that death as our deaths.
- When you accept His death as your death, you will want to be
buried in HIS NAME!
He was crucified as you, and so you
must get baptized in His name, indicating that He died your death
and was buried as you.
Nobody else died your death, because
nobody else was sinless, and had to die themselves, anyway.
- But Jesus had no sin except the sin He took upon Himself when
he ate and drank, that came from you and me.
- So you recognize that HIS DEATH is YOUR'S, when you get
baptized in HIS NAME.
So see yourself as dead, now.
- Realize that where He laid in death, after drinking and
eating, it was for you.
- So its actually your grave.
He did not lay in a grave
made for Himself.
(Matthew 27:57-60) When the even
was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who
also himself was Jesus' disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged
the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen
cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb,
which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great
stone to the door of the sepulchre, and
departed.
Joseph laid Jesus in his own
tomb.
- Joseph represents every person who has faith and sees the
actual purpose and point of Jesus' death.
- Since Jesus died our deaths, then He is in our graves.
- And another angle is to say that we find the story of His
death, and apply ourselves to that death, and sort of lay
ourselves in the tomb where He laid.
She uncovered His
feet.
- This is a position of submission and obedience.
(Luke 10:38-42) Now it came to
pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a
certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she
had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard
his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to
him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left
me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus
answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and
troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary
hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from
her.
Sitting at the feet of Jesus is a state
of our hearts.
- We learn from His word.
- Ruth would hear instructions for her while at the feet of
Boaz.
- Martha was cumbered about with much serving.
- She was like Ruth had been -- working all day.
- But Naomi told her to rest at the feet of Boaz.
- Jesus told us to come if we are weary and heavy burdened, and
find rest.
When we really get the message of His eating
and drinking our deaths, then we will surely find rest.
How
many of you are getting this today?
- Are you actually receiving revelation?
- You can.
- Its up to you.
- Open your heart and expect God to speak a revelation to you!
- Hunger and you will be filled.
Boaz was a judge.
- He knew all the particulars of the laws for a woman, such as
Ruth, who sought to be married to a near of kin to experience
redemption.
- Jesus will explain all the truths we need to know.
- When you truly find rest at Jesus' feet, through finally
seeing the truth that HE TOOK YOUR SINS and DIED YOUR DEATH,
TAKING YOUR JUDGMENT and penalty, then you will receive so much
truth!
- You won't worry yourself about thinking you have so much to do
to please God.
- You'll realize He did the work through Jesus on the cross.
- The work is finished.
Satan told Eve that she would be
like God.
- The fact was that God already made her in His image.
- But the devil knew that messing her mind up to thinking that
she needs to make herself what God already made her, would weary
her for the rest of her life.
- Satan will weary you and heavy lade you with works to improve
yourself and make yourself pleasing to God.
- Wrong!
- Jesus did the work to make you pleasing to God.
- Just accept it and lay down where He laid by getting baptized
into His death.
- Make the step and get right with God.
Learn the truth
of the Bible and REST.
- Learn the truth of the cross.
- Get the message.
- Through the cross, God destroyed everything about people, who
are now Christians, that He hated.
- The answer to please God is not to improve your life.
- The answer is to accept the work Jesus did on the cross for
your sins, and God will be pleased with you.
Stop running
around.
- Clean up from all that foolishness to work yourselves to
pleasing God.
- That is not where people who please God exist.
- Without faith it is impossible to please God.
- And the FAITH we need is faith in the work of the cross.
- Faith that Jesus did the work for us.
Only by putting
yourself in the grave of Jesus' death will you ever find real rest
for your soul.
- Only through the death of Jesus on Calvary, believing and
fully convinced that Jesus' experience counts as your own and
alone pleases God, will you ever find what life was meant by God
to be.
Clean up.... REPENT.
Lay down where He
lay... BE BAPTIZED IN HIS NAME.
Receive.... THE GIFT OF THE
HOLY GHOST.
We talk of repenting of sins.
- However, we also need to repent of DEAD WORKS.
- Efforts that are futile in actually pleasing God.
(Hebrews 6:1) Therefore leaving
the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto
perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from
dead works, and of faith toward God,
LEARN OF
JESUS.
(Matthew 11:28-30) Come unto me,
all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in
heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light.
(Ruth 4:13) So Boaz took Ruth, and
she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her
conception, and she bare a son.