Judges or Ralaruth? Chapter one, right after judges. Ruth is the eighth book in your Bible. Little book of Ruth. And verse one. Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land and a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife, and his two sons. Now the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Nehemiah, the name of his two sons, Melon and Phileon, Ephesites of Bethlehem, Judah. They came into the country of Moab, and continued there. And Elimelech, Nehemiah's husband, died, and she was left in her two sons. And they took them wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah, the name of the other Luke. And they dwelt there about ten years. For Mayong Manchurion died. Also both of them. The woman was left of her two sons and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread. wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah. And Nehemiah said unto her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. the Lord grant you that he may find rest each of you in the house of her husband. Now the husband had died, and I presume that Nehemiah was thinking of them being remarried back in the land of Moab. That's why she said, rest each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept. They said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. And Nehemiah said, Turn again, my daughters. Why will ye go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb that they may be your husband? Turn again, my daughters. Go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hoped if I should have a husband also tonight and should also bear sons, would ye carry for them the labor of gold? Would ye stay for them from having husband? Nay, my daughters, for it grieves me much for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. and they lifted up their voice and wept again, and Orpher kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth played unto her. And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back unto her people and unto her God. Return thou after thy sister-in-law. And it is said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou doth will I die, there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. when she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her then she left speaking unto her so they too went until they came to bethlehem they came to pass when they were come to bethlehem that all the city was moved about them they said is this neomai she said unto them call me not neomai which means pleasant call me mara that means bitter for the almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Neomai, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? So Neomai returned, and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, with her, was returned out of the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of Barley Harvest. Last week we were speaking on the setting of this remarkable little book, the scriptural setting of it, and also the sinful surroundings of this little book as given us in the closing verses of the book of Judges, the book prior to this, and in the sterling characters that are presented in Boaz and in Ruth. But now tonight we want to speak on the sorrowful start. I doubt if we'll have the... sequels to this story till possibly next Sunday night. But here is the sorrowful start of this story as given us in the Book of Ruth. You have the three characters in our chapter. You have Neomai and her two daughters-in-law, Orpha and Ruth. Neomai was a backslider. Orpha was the worldly, and Ruth was the true believer. night to see those three, and I presume our congregation is divided into those three classes. There are those here tonight who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. They have never been born again, and they're like Orpah. There are those who are like Ruth, who've made the decision, and they know Christ. But then there can be those who are like Nehemiah, who has backslidden heart and in their affection, and are not enjoying the Lord. So we have the state of the land of Judah or the sinful surroundings of this story, where this family of four lived, the father and the mother, Alemelech and Nehemiah, Neon and Chileon. In other words, there was religious blindness and apostasy. There was political disorganization and poly and social and civic corruption in the land at this time. Now you can add something to all that. You see that dark picture? And yet it's made darker because God permitted a famine in the land. Well, you think that's kind of severe. Conditions were indeed bad, but now they're made worse by God permitting or sending a famine into the land. Why did this famine come? It was judgment from God. His people had so declined and so departed, had sinned against them, that God now sends a famine and punishment upon them. So the famine is in the land. You know I'll read in Amos chapter eight, I think it is, words like this, that in the last days there will be a famine not of bread nor of water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. I think we're in that day today. There's not a famine of bread or of water that it seems to eat the necessities of life and this country. We're prosperous, flourishing, living like kings. But there is a famine of hearing the old-fashioned gospel or the word, the true, unadulterated word of God. You hear all kinds of tradition and programs and so on, but... How many times do you go and sit down and listen to a half an hour or forty-five minutes of nothing but the teaching of God's precious word, and that's what God intends today? Give them my word. But here is a famine in the land. Now what did God say, and what should Nehemiah and Limelech have done on this occasion? When the famine came... It's true their two sons were sickly. In fact, one of the boys, the first one, Neon, means sickly, and Chilion, means pining. And if those names are indicative of the boys, their health, then these two boys were sickly boys. One pining and the other sick. Well, now, you can understand these parents, the Limelech and the Omi. There's a famine in the land. We can't get the necessities of life. Things look better down in the land of Moab. Let's go on down there. But there's a verse that God gave them. And what is that verse? You'll find it in Psalm thirty-seven three. Trust in the Lord and do good so shall thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Now Limelech should have taken the lead in this case. and said to his wife, now we know the conditions in the land are bad. We know there's a famine in the land, but we've got a living God. And God says that if we trust in him, if we dwell in the land, for he's told us not to go out of the land, this is his land, it's our land. If we dwell in the land, thoroughly we shall be fed. Now, just let us believe God. God will feed us. When they crossed the border from Judah into Moab, they left behind them that promise. The moment they stepped over the border into Moab, that promise ceased to be effective. God says, you dwell in the land, and I'll see you. You leave it, and you pay the price. You leave the conflict. And here we find this man and his wife and two sons taking themselves right out of the hands of Almighty God, throwing down to Moab, a heathen country. What a lesson for us. You know when Christians go down to the world, it just simply means this, it's a downward course, just like Sampson went down to Timnath, Abraham went down into Egypt, And here you find Nehemiah and her husband going down into the world, and it's always a downward course whenever Christians go away from the Lord. It's a downward course. It can't be anything else. And you have the case of Samson, Abraham, and Nehemiah, and when they went down into the world, the world gained nothing. And remember that Samson and Abraham were... Servants of God as well as Nehemiah and Eliminate. The world gained absolutely nothing when the children of God went down into it. And I want to say this, Christian. If you're a born-again Christian and you go down into the world and engage in worldly things, the world's gaining nothing, you're doing the losing. The world is not going to gain a thing by Christians being backsliders and getting away from God. The world gains absolutely nothing. Neither the Philistines gain from Samson's backsliding. Neither did Egypt gain from Abraham's backsliding. Neither did Moab gain from Elimelech and Neomai's backsliding. But I'll tell you what they lost. Samson lost his eyes. He lost wisdom. He lost strength. He lost his life. Now who lost? Samson did. The one who backs him. The Philistines didn't profit. Absalom lost, or Samson lost. Yes, what a painful experience that was. He lost wisdom. He lost his strength. He was so strong and powerful. He lost his vision. They took out his eyes. They gouged his eyes out. And then they had him grinding in the prison, and finally he lost his life. When he pulled the pillars from under the pavilion and three thousand Philistines were slain, he lost his life in that destruction, that judgment of God. So Christians are always lose. What did Abraham lose by his going down into Egypt? He lost respect. He lost honor. He lost fellowship. He said to them, Say that Sarah is my sister. Don't say that she's my wife, because she's very beautiful, and in the inhabitants of the land, these Egyptians, even the king, may be covetous of her and take her for his wife. Just say she's my sister. Imagine Abraham, a man of God, saying anything like that. He certainly didn't profit when he went down to Egypt and exposed his own wife to such danger and degradation. He lost his honor. He lost respect. And he lost fellowship with God. The same thing happens here in the case of Elimelech and Nehemiah. What did Nehemiah lose? She must have been the stronger of the two in character because she gets the emphasis. For Nehemiah, she went down into the land of Moab with her husband and two sons. She wasn't there long until she lost her husband. Not long after that she lost her two boys, and three graves was the price she paid for disobeying God. Moab turned out to be a graveyard for Niova. There she is in Moab. She left Judah. God says if you dwell in the land, I'd have fed you, and you leave my land, and you go to another land, and you'll have to take the consequences, and she did. She attended three funerals. You can imagine a woman who would bury her husband, bury her two sons, fine young men, evidently, unless, as we've already said, their names indicating they were sickly, but undoubtedly they were very loyal to their parents. And here she loses the two of them. of all human support and comfort, this is the price she pays for Max's life. You know, when your Christian gets away from God, what does he lose, or what does she lose? Well, I'll tell you one thing. You'll find that it's a graveyard. You go into the world as a child of God and go to places you have no business to go, and you'll lose. I know one thing, you'll lose joy, you'll lose peace, you'll lose fellowship, you'll lose usefulness to God, you'll find that Moab will hold no rest, no contentment for you, you're out of your place. That's exactly what Moab was. And so this is the price of backsliding. You know, Al-Imoab, his name means my God is king. When you stop to think of that, how he betrayed his name. Had he really believed that and lived up to it, he would have stayed in the land, saying, my God, if came, he's overall, everything will be all right. But he didn't live up to his name. It's like a lot of people today who profess to be Christian, but they don't live up to their name. What a disgrace that is, not to live up to the name of a Christian, Christ one. You just can't play both sides. It won't do. both ends against the middle. It won't work. So's tragedy strikes. After the two boys had married these two more righteous girls, Orpah and Ruth, it wasn't long, and of course there's another case of further disobedience. These two boys were Jews. God said that his people were not to marry those of another nationality. And here you find Neon and Chileon. They marry a few more by these girls. There's the unequal yoke. They disobeyed God. And the New Testament says that we should not, Christians should not be unequally yoked together with unbelief. And if a born again child of God once truly saved marries one who's not a Christian, they're disobeying God's word and they can't expect the blessing of God. Disobeying God's word always has a sad harvest to follow. Here we find these two young men, that's exactly what they did. Wet and Married, Orpah and Ruth. So it wasn't long till they died. And here we find Neomai, and all she's got left, her two daughters-in-law. And they're of another nationality. You know this Neomai's reaction to all this as tragedy had struck poor soul, famine in the land, and now she goes down. husband dies, two sons marry against the will of God and marry two more by this girls. Not long when the two sons die and here she's left. How does Neomai react? Very interesting. Notice verse thirteen. She says, My hand of the Lord has gone out against it. Verse twenty. The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. Verse twenty one. the Lord hath testified against me. And that same verse, the Almighty hath afflicted me. In that same verse, the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Five things. She says, God hath done to me. You know, God will chastise his own. Make no mistake about that. If you were born again, Christian, and you get away, you're going to get If you're not a Christian, you may make a profession of being one, but if you're not truly a born-again Christian, you can do things and get by with it. Because God's not going to bother you if you're not one of his own. But if you're genuinely his, you start playing fast and loose with this word, now you're going to get it sooner or later. It's got to come. And here is the way the Lord dealt with Neoma. No spiritual progress in Moab. Notice. She says, he has brought me home again empty. I went out full. Isn't that it? Well, why did you go in the Oman? You say you were full here in the land of Judah. You had your husband, you had your two sons, and all over the family in the land, you admit after the stories all over that you were full. And you left that fullness. along with the promises of God, then God brought you home again empty. But you know there's one word I love there, and that's the word home. She knew the meaning of that too. The Lord has brought me home again empty. There's no place like home. There's something about home. I've known Christian and they've been happy in fellowships in the church enjoying the fullness of the Lord and the fullness of the fellowship of other Christians and they backslid maybe they've been away a few months some of them a few years and they're not happy I could mention some names right here tonight some who I know are not as happy as they were three or four years ago when they trusted Christ one of these days God is going to restore them and when he does It's going to be like coming back home. I went out full, she says, for the Lord has brought me home. Again empty. Empty as far as having my husband and my two sons and other things. But I'm home. I'm back in fellowship with the Lord again. I'm back in Jehovah's Land. I'm back home here in Bethlehem. That meant a whole lot. Just like the prodigal, he went out full. My sister and father gave me the portion of goods that belonged to me, and his father gave him the money. When he went to the far country, there wasted his substance with riotous living. And he lost everything. And there he is in the swine trough, feeding with the hogs. Imagine the Jew doing that. Finally he saw how much he had given up, how much he had lost. and he began thinking of home again, in my father's house he said. There is bread enough than to spare, and I perish with hunger here in the far country. Just like on this occasion she heard news that God had visited his people and giving them bread. Nehemiah hears this good news in the far country. She takes the blame. It's wonderful about that. She knows she deserved what she got. She gives God credit for restoring her in verse twenty-one, as I've already quoted. She says, God has brought me home again. She didn't say I came on my own will. God brought me home. Yes, He created circumstances that made me willing to come home. That's it. God gets all the credit for restoration like you have in Psalm twenty-three. He restores my soul. The Lord does it. He always loves his own. and he goes after them. She heard news that God had visited his people. And you notice where he visited his people in giving them bread. It was in Bethlehem. The last verse tells you that. Verse twenty-two. Here's where they had been living. That's where they went away from. Now they come back to Bethlehem. A violent bit more have they heard that God had visited his people in giving them bread. Now you don't even have to be a Christian to see the lovely thought there. let alone a preacher, did God visit this world nineteen hundred years ago? And where did he visit? Bethlehem. And what did Bethlehem receive? Bread. And who was that the one who was the bread from heaven? God visited this world and visited with his son, giving this hungry world bread. And that bread came from Bethlehem. Another remarkable thing here is that they came home at barley harvest time, the last verse. Now that's very significant. You know your Bible is a beautiful book. They came back to Bethlehem at the time of barley harvest. Now barley at that time was planted in October and they reaped it in April, the first of April. And you know that was the Passover time. You remember the Passover was killed from the tent or kept from the tent to the fourteenth day of April, and then it was slain, and that's the very time they're gathering in the barley harvest. They came back to Bethlehem at the Passover time, and that refers to the death of Jesus Christ, for he was our Passover sacrifice for us, and the Passover time and the harvest that also accompanied it. speaks of the abundance that is in Jesus Christ to meet the need of hungry heart. It was five barley loaves and two fishes he fed the five thousand with. Remember that five barley loaves. It was barley heart. Let me say, Christian, there's an abundance in Jesus Christ and his death upon the cross and his present life at God's right hand to meet the need of everyone. And it's still him and his work on Calvary and his work upon the throne that backsliders are restored. The Omy came back, the beginning of Barley Haas, back to Bethlehem. So it's a wonderful story when you stop to think, but now notice this conversation that goes on between these three widows on this Bethlehem Road. Here they are. They're getting near Bethlehem. And the Omy, what does she say? Possibly they hadn't left the place where the three men had died. I wouldn't be surprised the last place they visited was a graveyard where the three men were. Now Neomai, an orphan route, three widows, they're starting back to Bethlehem that heard the good news of bread. Now the conversation begins. Neomai says to two girls, girls, I want you to go back. I appreciate what you've done. And in verse eight, she says, you've been kind to me and to the dead. The Lord bless you for your kindness to me and to the dead. They must have been good wives, good to their husband. She said, you've been kind to me, but I want you to go back. And four times over, she entreats them to go back. Return, she says. Go on back. Don't follow me back to Judah. Go on back to your people. Go back to your idols. Go back to your God. Four times over she entreats them to go back. Go back. Go back. On two occasions these young women wept. In verse nine they wept. In verse fourteen they wept again. As their mother-in-law fled with them to go back. Go back. Now Nehemiah wasn't restored here. Had she been in fellowship with God, she'd have said, My daughters, come with me. I'll take you back to Judah. I'll get you in touch with the true God and the living God. I'm glad you're coming. You're going to leave your idol. And I'm glad you're coming with me. And I want you to come. Get acquainted with the Jehovah of Israel. And get to know the Lord's people. She had been in fellowship with God. That's what she would have said. But she said, no, you go back. Go back to your idols. Go back to your gods. And four times over, she urges them to return. Both of them went, but one yielded. Orpher kissed her mother-in-law, and she went back to her gods and to her people. reminds of Judas who kissed the very door of heaven and went to hell. For Judas kissed the son of God and went out and committed suicide. That's exactly what this girl did. You know she's never heard of again. She went back to the world. She went back to her idols. She went back to her old crowd. And she's never heard of again. That's the end of what... But what about Ruth? I love the story of Ruth. Rose, she refuses to follow suit. I'm not going back with all that. I'm not going back. Even though my mother-in-law insists I do, I won't go back. What does she say? She says, entreat me not to leave there. She desires no more persuasion. She says to her mother-in-law, please don't entreat me any more to leave. I don't want you to entreat me to go back. Reminds of Peter. What did Peter say when the Lord had put his followers to the test? And so many went back and the Lord turned and he looked at the disciples. He said, Will ye also go away? And Peter speaks up, To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Lord, we leave you. What have we got? To whom can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Ruth says entreat me not to me then. I won't go back. I've heard enough. She will know you've been out of fellowship with the Lord. I've heard enough from you about your God that I want to know him. I want to know her. So she urges her mother-in-law not to entreat her to go back anymore. She had fallen in love with the path of life. She says, whither thou goest, I will go. She chooses... Leomai's people and Leomai's God for her company. And just like Moses, he made a choice too. He chose to suffer, rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. That was quite a choice, wasn't he? He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. No one ever regrets making a choice like that. I know it's a little hard to make, especially if you're young. I know that. I think I've told you on several occasions. When I got saved up in Canada at the age of nineteen, I was saved in May, on the third day of May. I got by that summer all night. I was very happy, studying my Bible, going through the church and learning the Scriptures. But the fall of the year came around, and, oh, this was the great test, the hockey season began. And now this is what I had been in. Naturally, I wanted to follow the team. Naturally, my heart was in it. It was part of my very system to get into this game. But I had memory. I knew of some of the trips we had taken and the hotels we had lived in that the team was on the road, and I was the youngest player in the team. I knew the drinking, I knew the gambling that went along with it another thing. Can I go along with that? I'm a Christian now. I know Christ. Can I go along with that? No, I can't. I can't, and I didn't. But I'm not going to say that I didn't have a struggle, I did. I'd go once or twice, I remember, going to the prayer meeting on Wednesday night and went into the old barber shop where the players used to hang around next door at the pool room. Here were two or three of the players getting their hair cut ready for the game. Oh, I'm going to tell you, there was my Bible over there in the chair. If I listened to the conversation about the game that night, oh, I wanted to go, and yet something else says, no, that wouldn't be all I mean to the Lord. And when I got out of that barber's chair and took my Bible, I went to the little chapel and had a lovely evening. It was a hard battle. It wasn't easy to do, but I had to weigh the two. Could I glorify God in going? What was I to do? I was a new creature in Christ. It was hard at the time to make those decisions. But as I look back on them now, I thank God I made them. And it wasn't long until I found that I'd done the right thing as I would read in the paper time and time again of those boys dying for many of those fellows I played that died before they were thirty years a day. And if any one of them is alive today, I don't know. It's hard at the time. That's what it was with Ruth. She chose the Lord's people. She desired to die the death of the righteous. You'll notice what she says. where thou doused will I die. There are seven things, if you want to note them, in verses sixteen to seventeen. Seven things, Ruth said. Entreat me not to lead to your return from following after thee. That's the first thing. The second, whither thou goest I will go. The third thing, where thou lodgest I will lodge. The fourth thing, thy people shall be my people. The fifth thing, thy God shall be my God. The sixth, where thou doused will I die. It was a lifetime decision she made. Where thou doth will I die? The seventh, the Lord do so to me, or the Lord judge me if ought but death part thee in me. Seventh day. What a decision this young woman made on that Bethlehem Road. A noble decision, wonderful decision, and she turns out Ruth chose the true God that became the great grandmother of David. You know, she's read about wherever the Bible's printed, wherever the Bible is read, they read about Ruth. She's talked about all over the world. She's been talked about for centuries since God's word has been in circulation. She's been honored here on earth that she's going to be more rewarded in heaven because of that decision she made on the Bethlehem Road. Yes, what a decision it was. Hard at the time, but, oh, she's raked her glorious harvest in being in the link that led to Jesus Christ. And her name is in the genealogy. And the lovely story of Ruth has been read down the centuries and read all over the world. Practically everybody knows about Ruth. And if I had all the girls whose name is Ruth in the world taken from this, you'd have a mighty hope. Ruth is well known. She's well repaid for a decision. What about Orpah? She's forgotten. Because she chose to go back from Moab to the world. She had her chance. She turned it down. She went back to her old religion and her old companions and she paid the price. The question to you tonight, who will you follow? Orphal, Orpha, or Ruth. You've got to make a choice. Choose you this day, whom ye will follow, the Bible says, and it's a choice you've got to make. A choice between a savior and a destroyer. Christ is the savior. Satan is the destroyer. A choice between two masters, Jesus Christ and the devil. A choice between two lives. The spiritual life, the life that glorifies God, and the sinful life. Two lives. Choice between death, two deaths. Death in your sin or death in Christ. One means hell, the other means heaven. Two resurrection, either the resurrection of the just or the resurrection of the unjust. It's a choice between two judgments. the judgment seat of Christ where you'll be rewarded for all that you've done as a Christian or the judgment of the great white throne, where you'll be judged. Your name is not found written in the Lamb's Book of Life and you're cast into the out of darkness, into the lake of fire where there's weeping and wailing and gnashing of feet. You've got your choice between two judgments. You've got your choice between two destinies, heaven or heaven. Seven being. And these are the choices. Only a little act it seems on the Bethlehem Road, just three widows talking. Here a world likely passed by, didn't pay much attention to this widowed mother and the two daughters-in-law. What are they talking about? Earth didn't hear, but heaven heard. Heaven was looking on at three widows on the Bethlehem Road. Two of those widows are in heaven. the other ones in head just because of the choice that he made. Faith is not a sentiment about which we sing, but an attitude of life based upon the convictions of one's soul. Faith's a real thing. It's a genuine thing. It's something that can change your life. It's something that can turn you right about. If you put that faith in the right object, the Lord Jesus Christ. After I was saved, a lot of people came. They said, well, you're about the last one we'd ever think and return religious. Some says, oh, we'll give him three months. He'll be back. Some said, no, he's stubborn. He's bullheaded. He'll be back. We'll give him six months. Well, I'm not going to tell you how many years ago that was, but I'm not back yet. And there's no possibility me going back. None what else. I went through my trying years just after I was saved, and God by His grace enabled me to take my stand. And I've rejoiced ever since and prayed for it. And so will you if you make the right choice. Oh, the value of one life to God, and that one life to God, the fullness of it, is only known in heaven. And I wish you young people would get that. The value of one life to God is only known in the fuller life beyond. I trust that you'll realize that. You may think you're giving up a lot here. If you wait till you get to heaven, you'll see you really gave up nothing. I don't know whether I can quote those words. I have them somewhere in my Bible of Eliot, the young fellow Jim Eliot, one of those martyrs, who laid down his life down with the awkward Indians a few years ago. He has written a book under the shadow of the Almighty, and I think the whole book is worth one statement he made, and that was this, and he made it in high school at Wheaton. college we said he is no fool who loses that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose that's why that's why he is no fool who loses that which he cannot keep you can't keep this world to gain that which he cannot lose eternal in the presence of god forever So we urge you to consider these things, ponder them, make the choice. May it be the wise, accept Christ as your personal Savior. Make up your mind, you're going to live for him. He'll give you grace from day to day. It may be hard at times, but it is better on before. The day is coming when you will praise him for every test. and you'll glorify him for the strength he gave you to make that decision, to live for him. You've only one life. It will soon be passed, and only what's done for Christ will last. I often think when I was a young fellow running around with a wild, a bunch of boys, about fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years of age, quite often I heard this statement. It came from the lips of boys who didn't go to church or Sunday school. The subject of death would come up when we'd hear about somebody getting killed. Oh, I don't care about dying. You only got to die once. Oh, is that so? You've only got to die once. But remember, after death, you've got to live. Only one life will soon be passed. And I mean soon. And only what's done for Christ will last. Everything else has a letdown. Everything else has a left. I'm going to say something right here. Happened this only last week or two about the Albany football team. Everybody was hoping they would win. But when they lose, what a left out. Almost sick. What a left. Your hopes are dashed. When I thought of that, we could go Friday night when I heard the outcome of the game. You know what my thoughts were as I went to bed. Jesus Christ is no letdown. There's no letdown in Him. Everything else in life will let you down. Even if it's a victory, it's only for a little while. You're going to have your defeats. There'll always be a letdown. But if you have Jesus Christ, if you're living for Him, He's never a letdown. There's no defeat in association with Jesus Christ. And if you want a life with no letdowns, accept Christ and live for it. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come to be. We thank you for thy precious word. We thank you for all here tonight. who have accepted Christ and are saved on the way to heaven. God bless them. Especially we pray for the young. Their lives are tender, and the world is alluring, and Satan is setting traps and pitfalls. O God, we pray thee to cast thy mantle over them. protect and preserve them from harm, from danger. Use these young lives for thy glory. We pray for any who know not our Lord Jesus, who as yet have not trusted him. May they be like Ruth on the Bethlehem Road and make a lifetime decision for Jesus Christ. It's the light that really comes, the light that has solid joy. and eternal results. We ask that you give him thanks in our Savior's precious name. Amen. Let us sing with those in the twenty-three. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me. See on the portals he's waiting and watching. Watching for you and for me. Two hundred and forty-three. If you're not a Christian and you would like to become a Christian, we give you this opportunity to come and trust Christ as your Savior or ask us to help you. We'll take the Bible and be glad to read the scriptures to you and show you how you may be saved. No, we're not asking you to come and join the Albany Gospel Chapel. We want something to happen in your heart before you do that. We want you to come to know Christ. And if we can be of any help, come and tell us as we stand and sing.