Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayer for attention to Ruth chapter 2, and we'll read part of verse 18. In the middle of that verse, we read these words, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Reading the whole verse, and she took it up and went into the city, And her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned, and she brought forth and gave to her that she had reserved after she was sufficed. Gleaning in time of harvest.

In recent months, there have been many of the Lord's dear people that have been taken home. We sung in our first hymn of referring to the taking home of God's people as an in-gathering, as the Lord gathering His people. We think of Lance Morley at Okington, Dennis Hodgson at Southery, John Stern, his funeral was today, from Van Stanton, David Parrish, whose funerals are a couple of weeks' time that I hope to take God-willing. That's Swayze, Christine Lawson at Clifton, and Ruth Bass at, I think, possibly Stotthold. Mrs. Dawson, Colin Dawson's widow at Bethesda. And then we think of the wider world scene. John MacArthur, Charlie Kirk, Wladimir Buckram. Those who've been real stalwarts for the truth, those we wouldn't fully agree with everything that they set forth, but those that God used, and the Lord has been taking them home. There's been a harvest. And the question with us, is there a gleaning? Is there profit that we can have at such a time as this? gleaning instruction, gleaning warning, gleaning comfort from the time of harvest.

You might say with Ruth, well, she could not have gleaned if it hadn't have been harvest time. There was a time of the harvest and a time of gleaning. When that finished, then there was no more gleaning. And today is the day of grace. Today is the time when the Lord's people are being taken home and we're reminded of this. So it's a time when in a spiritual way that we can also glean. We think of the word in Isaiah 57 verse one, that the righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart. Those that are merciful are taken away and no man is considering it. it'd be a good thing if we do consider it and do think upon it. Most people, they kind of push it to the back of their minds, think, well, it'll never come near them, won't affect them, and they do not profit from such times at all. But may that not be us. May it be that we do profit. There is that which we can glean at such a time.

On to look this evening then at three points. Firstly, Ruth gleaning in time of harvest. Look at her case in a natural way and drawing some instruction from that. And then secondly, what the Bible, the word of God has to say about harvest in a spiritual sense. And then lastly, what we may glean when the Lord is gathering His people home.

But firstly, we want to think of the actual context here with Ruth that is gleaming here. She's been brought to be in a very low and dependent place. She lost her husband, her mother-in-law has lost Her husband, she is dependent. Dependent upon, you might say, begging or gleaning. No welfare state in that day. I remember that. No handouts, no unemployment benefits. They needed to glean, they needed to beg. How easy it is to forget that. but she was brought low so that she was in a gleaning position naturally.

Then she was brought to Bethlehem, the place where they were harvesting at that time. How did she come there? Well, she'd been married to, no, my son. The connection to Bethlehem And she had been given, unlike Orpah, her sister-in-law, a love, a love to Naomi, a love to her God, cleaving unto her. And though she felt to be a stranger, and she was a stranger in Bethlehem, she was a multites, yet she was brought in God's providence, in God's way, to that place and at that time. And there she is, and the timing of it coming just at the time when there is that provision, there was the harvest, and then when she goes, the Lord directing her to the very field of Boaz.

You know, even when she came back, and in a text, her mother-in-law saw what she gleaned. I've no doubt with Ruth, she did not recognize that what she had gleaned was any more than any other gleaner. But Naomi did. She realized that someone had taken notice of her. And that was why she acted and spoke as she said. Blessed, in verse 20, be he of the Lord who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. This is one step further, I'll come to that in a moment, but the previous verse, she said, wherefore, where hast thou gleaned today? Where wroughtest thou, blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee? She realized someone had taken knowledge of her, had shown her favor, had given her that extra.

And then the part where we've just read, she realizes the import of what that man Boaz was. I think even when she told Ruth that, that Ruth even then would not have realized the import that Naomi was saying, he is a next of kin, the law in Israel makes provision, he is able to redeem you. He is able to marry you and bring you into wealth and prosperity and a means of giving that child that I said just before that it was impossible in cleaving with me, that there was no sons in my womb, there was no possibility of raising up children. Boaz is that one. He could do that. She doesn't tell. Naomi that. Not at this point, it does not appear. There are things that Naomi knew that Ruth did not. But Naomi used that knowledge to direct and guide Ruth.

I think of our Lord's words where he said to his disciples, I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. There are many things Naomi could have said, but she just let it go for that time of the harvest until afterwards and then there was the work to be done, then there was the petitions to be made. But it was a very important time. The whole reason why the Book of Ruth is in the Word of God is to show that clear lineage to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the summary of it at the very close of the book.

Now these are the generations of Pharaohs. Pharaohs begat Hesron, Hesron begat Ram, Ram begat Amenadab, And Aminadab begat Niasson, Niasson begat Salmon, Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David. And the clear line unto Christ involving a Gentile and a Moab of all nations. The providences, even in a natural way, are wonderful. The providence is when we think of the lineage of Christ, a wonderful, and the spiritual teaching as well, is wonderful when we consider Ruth as a gleaner in time of harvest. This was when she was getting food and nourishment. This is when she was being kept alive. This is when she was seen, first seen, The Lord go before her.

She and us, we are not to despise the day of small things, but to notice the Lord's hand, to notice His providences. It's a blessed thing that we can do that. You know, before I was called by grace, the Lord was doing wonderful things in my life. I could not see them then. And there may be those of you young ones as well, the Lord is doing things in your life and you can't see it, you can't recognize it, but you know, I remember them now. I still remember them. I go back to those times and they are a marvel to me, what the Lord was doing when I did not pray, I did not like the things of God, I did not want them, did not even mark His providence and His care. And yet afterwards, looking back, be able to see it when I was Satan's blind slave. And so it is a good thing to trace the Lord's goodness.

So here we have Ruth in a time of harvest. We have come through a natural time of harvest. And as I mentioned, the Lord is gathering His people, a time also of harvest. Well, how do we know that? What does the Bible tell us in a spiritual way concerning the harvest? Well, there's three real ways. The first thing is that it is a type of gospel days. People are being called by God's grace, brought out of nature's darkness and into His You remember in John 4 where our Lord met the woman at the well of Samaria and He spoke to her and drew out from her that desire of living water. It went from natural to spiritual. You might say, isn't that what we're doing tonight? We're looking at a natural harvest but we're thinking in a spiritual way.

But when the Lord spoke to her, and then she left her water pot after he told her who he was, she goes into the city, the city of the Samaritans, and says, come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? She doesn't say, he has told me that he is, but he lets them decide on that what she had heard him say. No, the Lord began with her in the very things she knew about Messiah, that when Messiah's cometh, he will tell us all things. And he had just told her all things about her life, about the five husbands she's had, and the one that she now had that was not her husband. But when the disciples come, the Lord says, I have meat to eat that ye know not of, He said, look on the fields, they are now white to harvest. He was not meaning in a sense that they might have been miraculously so white in a natural way, but he was meaning in a spiritual way. There are souls to be saved, there are people to be gathered, and how many of those Samaritans believed

Just thinking of the parallels between the natural and spiritual. The word of God is very clear. The natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And when we think of John chapter three, our Lord is insisting on the new birth. But Nicodemus, he can't get round to spiritual, he's saying, how can a man that is old be born and enter into his mother's womb again and be born? He is all the time thinking naturally while the Lord is talking about a spiritual birth, those that are born spiritually. Then we have in the next chapter, the woman at the well, that again is saying, the well is deep, thou hast nothing to draw with. She is thinking in natural water, the Lord is speaking of spiritual, and he brings her to desire and ask for that spiritual water. The next chapter, or one chapter forward, in chapter six, we have our Lord miraculously giving them the bread. They did not have to harvest, they did not have to cook it, they did not have to make it. He changed the loaves and few loaves and fishes and multiplied them for a multitude. And then they followed Him over the sea. And He says, He saved me not because He saw the miracles, but because He did eat of the loaves and were filled. They could understand that need for their bodies. And they overlooked completely that a wonderful miracle that pointed to him as the Messiah, the eternal Son of God, had been wrought in their midst.

He says, labor not for the meat that perishes, but that which endureth unto everlasting life. And later on, when he's insisting, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. And they said, this isn't hard to say. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? They're offended. Again, they're looking at natural. They cannot understand. The Lord says, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are light. We naturally just look at natural things and cannot go past to the spiritual.

But our Lord there was clearly saying that, well, here is a harvest. And this is a spiritual harvest. This is souls to be converted, to be born again, to be brought out of nature's darkness and into His marvellous light. We think of our Lord also saying concerning the harvest, that the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. pray ye the Lord at the harvest that he will send forth labourers into the harvest." The Lord was not meaning men to jump on combines, or they didn't have them in those days, but he meant those to preach the gospel, to labour in word and in doctrine. That is what he meant. So it is very clear that the harvest is a direct link to spiritual harvest.

So when we think of this time of year, there's a harvest. Am I saved? We think of the Word of God, summer is ended, winter is ended, harvest is past, and we are not saved. Does that describe you? Does that describe me? We've come through another harvest, and we're not saved. You know, years ago, we had Ray Farley and Zeta Farley as members with us. at Cranbrook and Zeta Farley was diagnosed with cancer and it came to fall or autumn time and she knew that would be the last time she saw autumn, the last time she saw those leaves fall. Before that happened again she knew that she would be taken from this world. And it always struck me how she observed that, she realized that. But how many of us, maybe, have seen for the last time a harvest, have seen for the last time a summer, last spring that we'll ever see, and yet we do not realize it, and we do not love it to heart.

But dear friends, there will come a time that we do have a last harvest. Literally so. We don't see the next one. The question is, are we gathered? Are we converted? Are we born again? Has the Lord given us life? Have we been gathered or harvested in, in a gospel day? As soon as death comes, it is too late. While there is life, that is the time that God quickens his children. That is the time, the day of grace.

The second way is in the day of death. That is what we've been thinking of, of those that have passed away. The children of Israel were a typical people. They were brought out of Egypt, literal Egypt, which in a spiritual way is typical of this world. They are brought through the Red Sea, They are brought out of Egypt through the blood shedding of the Paschal Lamb, a type of the death and sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are then brought through the wilderness. We have in Hebrews a common testimony of all the people of God, that they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth. This world, to God's people, is like a wilderness. They do not have a resting place here. This is not where God has designed them to be. They have a heavenly canyon. They have a promised land set before them.

Here below, they are given manna from heaven. They need that. There's nothing like in the desert. There was nothing for the children of Israel. They needed the manna from heaven. They needed the water out of the rock. And so the wilderness journey, those 40 years, those testing years, that represents this life, from the time of conversion to the time of our death. The River Jordan is like death. It borders the wilderness to the promised land. I know the time doesn't follow through all the way, because once they were in Canaan, then there was wars and conflicts. There's no wars in heaven. None of the times will follow through in every particular. And why? Because as soon as we see they don't, we immediately know they are pointing to something greater. They are pointing to something far above that time. You think of with the veil of the temple that was not rent, and that they could only go, or rather the tabernacle, only go in once every year into the holy place. The Spirit does signify that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made, and there's a significance in that action.

So when the children of Israel then come through the wilderness, then they come to the River Jordan. And what time of year is that? It's harvest time. And we read that the banks of the river, the river Jordan overflowed his banks all the days of harvest. And that was the very time that they were to go through.

You know, you and I may look death at a distance. We can look at something, anything, in the distance. And it's but a speck. You can hardly see it. But as you get closer, it gets There's a wonderful thing with the children of Israel going through that Jordan. They were told to put the ark a long way in front of their main congregation. That's so they could see it on the shoulders of the Levites. And that ark, when it touched the waters, the waters stayed up, a wall on one side and the river kept flowing below it.

And then they went into the midst of that river and stood in the midst of the river. And they stayed there until every one of the children of Israel were passed over on the other side. Now what would have happened? Those at the back, they would have seen the ark just as a little dot. But as they got close and right into Jordan, they would have been walking right past it. They would have seen it so clearly.

Our Lord says, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may also. And we think of Stephen, the first martyr, that as I was stoning him to death, he looked up into heaven and he testified that he saw the Lord standing at the right hand of the Father. the Lord then coming, manifesting, showing himself to his servant as he was in the valley of death, as he was in death. And this is what the Lord has promised.

But all of us must see death, not at a distance, but near at hand, close at hand, facing it. May we always remember that. And so the harvest time, is indicative of death when God takes his children from this world and brings them to himself.

The Lord says in John 17, Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. He says to the thief that is crucified beside him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. His body was still on the cross, but his soul was with the Lord in paradise.

The third way is at the end of the world. You think of the parable of the tares. We sung of that in our first hymn, didn't we? The Lord spoke of the parable where the far laborers had said that when the wheat came up, there was the tares as well. They said, shall we go and pull them up? And the farmer said, no. Let them grow together until their harvest, and then gather the tares, burn them, gather the wheat into my garden. Why? Because in pulling up the tares, you pull up the wheat. How often that happens, we need a lot of wisdom in that.

You know you can have a church, and there's one person in that church, they might be like Judas, he was not discerned by the other apostles. And there's things that do show that that person does not really know the Lord, they're not really converted. And one or two of the church members might see it. They might decide we're going to take action. We're going to pluck this one out. We're going to get him rid of out of the membership. But it's not clear. And the rest of the church can't see it. And they're offended. They think, why? Why have you touched these of our brethren? Why have you done this? And it splits the church in two.

Now if there's open sin, open error, then we are to deal with it. We read the letters in the Revelation where they suffered those in their membership that held error, and others they suffered them to teach error in their midst. The church should deal with that. Paul dealt with that with the Corinthian church. But where it is things that are not clear and cannot be really seen and recognized by that church, then we are to remember this parable because otherwise it causes great, great damage in the church of God.

But it's a solemn thing, isn't it? I don't know how many of us have really laid it before the Lord, am I a tear? Am I just really an imitator of the people of God or am I true wheat? Am I just playing the part It's a searching thought, isn't it? That the Lord suffers it until the harvest. And in that, when the Lord explained that parable, he says categorically, he says that the harvest is the end of the world. That is when the world is rolled up, when he gathers his people together, brings them all safely home.

For many of us, it will be the day of our death that we appear immediately before the judgment seat of Christ. But these three times, the time of the gospel, the time of our death, the last day, the end of this world, those things we must pass through. Nothing so precious as the soul, that the Lord should come, his only begotten Son into this world. and suffer, bleed and die to redeem His people, to set them free. Fear not then, the Lord says, which kill the body and after that there's nothing more they can do. But fear Him who after He hath killed has power to cast both body and soul into hell. Fear Him. Our soul, do not neglect our souls.

But it is this second harvest that I want to really consider and think of gleaning, think of what we may glean from such a harvest time. And when I'm thinking of this, I'm thinking of what we see and hear of those who've lost loved ones. When we go to a funeral, when we may hear the testimonies of the people that have passed away, there are things that we may glean from such a time. I want to suggest several of those to you so that when we think of this text here, her mother-in-law saw what she gleaned. She saw what she gleaned. Put this in a spiritual way, others, especially those concerned with their soul, will notice and see what we have gleaned, how we have profited from such a time.

There's many a testimony, I believe Matthew Hyde is one of those, that can point to the death of one in a funeral as to the beginning of the work of grace in their souls. We read when the early church heard that at Antioch they had believed, they sent forth Barnabas, who when he came he saw the grace of God and was glad." How can you see the grace of God? In this building, how can you see electricity? You cannot see electricity unless you plug a light into it, an organ into it, a microphone into it, and then you know that there's electricity there. By their fruits ye shall know them. Another analogy to a harvest. Where the Lord gives grace or where the Lord gives there to be a prophet from a time or from a servant, from a ministry, then there'll be the effect as Naomi there saw what she had gleaned. So those who are discerning, those who are godly will notice when there are those under their care in a praying way start to glean and profit from such times as this.

One thing to glean is the certainty of death. Again and again it's reminded Now the sentence that God gave in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. But instead of us just having to remember that, we are given constant reminders of those, not just that are written in the Word of God, but that we have known and live with. Our parents, our grandparents, those of our church members. Those who are buried out in the graveyard here, Michael Pickett who is a pastor here, the priest here in this book, he is buried there. And it's a constant reminder to us, if we glean in the time of harvest, one thing to glean, the certainty of death, to have that impressed upon our heart, that we must one day also pass this life, we must die.

The second thing is the solemnity of death. The world is trying very much to erase this from any funeral service. They make it a celebration of life. They make it that the word of God is erased and that men are caused to not glean in this way. They don't want it to be so. But it's the best thing, where we do glean, ministry of the gospel at a time of a funeral, because the word is very clear that after death, the judgment. The Apostle in Acts 17, he gives a reason why there must be the judgment. And he says this, that God hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. Assurance unto all men that there will be a judgment.

You think of what the Lord Jesus Christ did upon Calvary's throne. He endured the eternal wrath of God that was due to His people. But what about the rest? What about those for whom He did not die and did not endure that wrath? there remains a punishment, eternal punishment for them. How shall they be judged to that? It shall be at that judgment. At that judgment the Lord shall clearly acquit His people that He has paid their debt. But those who have rejected His word, they have not believed the gospel, Those, they shall bear their own punishment and own wrath. That shall be the judgment.

If there is no judgment, then you might say the Lord has suffered in vain. If it could be, well, the Lord has to suffer for His people, but the rest, well, just pass over that debt. Don't, just let them get away with it and just let them perish. Just don't let there be a hell or a torment to come at all. That is not the case. That is not what is set forth in the Gospel. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, to die without believing, without the knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ has suffered, bled and died in our place. gift of eternal life. I pass by thee when thou hast in thy blood, and when thou hast in thy blood I bid thee live. That is the gospel, that is the work of God. May there be a real concern. Lord, pass me not by, but bid me live. And save my soul, bring me into concern. Impress the solemnity of death upon me. The next thing to glean is the hope of God's people in death. You know, it's a wonderful thing to see those that you know, they are seeing death close at hand. They know they are just about to pass into the presence of eternal God. But they have hope. They have quietness. Some have joy. They have gladness. They have one that they are trusted in. And to actually see that in practice, it takes the doctrine, it takes mere words out of the Word of God, and it puts it into practice. These are they that have really lived and testified. This is why the Lord sends not angels to preach the gospel, but men. Because we that preach must trust the same God, the same salvation. We must have the same hope as those that we preach to. And if we glean in a time when God's people have been taken home to notice that which really impresses upon our hearts, why have they got such a hope? Why have they got such comfort? Why are they so helped in that way? The next thing is this, do we glean how precious the Lord Jesus Christ is? We sang earlier today at the funeral with those of us who gathered online, I could from all things parted be, but never, never, Lord, from thee. The Lord Jesus Christ, most precious, unto you which believe he is precious, says Peter. Why is he? Because it's only through the Lord Jesus Christ that we shall be saved. There's none other name given among men whereby we must be saved. A name that's in the beginning as in Isaiah 54, is a root out of dry ground. It may be with those of you here, some of you here, there's no form or comeliness that we should desire. Nothing special, nothing precious at all. But when we see those are nearing their journey's end and the Lord Jesus is precious, He is lifted up, He is exalted in those that are in the very article of death, a religion that doesn't save in death, that doesn't give a hope beyond the grave. The apostle Paul says, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we've all made most mistakes. Just a hope for this life. Well, a lot of people do. They want to live this life just as they like. But they'll cast the Lord's name in the scale, just like an insurance thing. But that won't avail in the time of death. The greatest assurance is that we've lived and walked with the Lord and we know the Lord. And the Lord has been precious to us. And He is more and more precious to us. as we near our journey's end. Blessed thing if we glean this from the harvest that the Lord is gathering his people, that Jesus is precious to them. And may it search us, is he precious to us? Is he the one thing needful for us? Another thing that we may gather as well, that there is comfort in sorrow. Or when he writes to the Thessalonians, he says, wherefore comfort one another with these words. And he's writing to a people that thought that their loved ones had perished. No, he says, they are with the Lord. And when the Lord comes at the last day, then though the dead in Christ, they shall rise first and we shall be caught up with them in the air. They are not perished. They are alive, they're with the Lord. And what a comfort that is to the people of God. A comfort that those whose loved ones perished without hope, they have not got that comfort. But when we know where those have been taken. Now I remember years ago when I took my first funeral when I was 25. They didn't let me take the committal, so I didn't see where the, I think the undertakers just took it on their own, with no one present. But it was a proper burial. But later on, I went to see, there's been a large cemetery where that grave was, a sister in faith. And as I was driving along the roads of that cemetery, the Lord dropped in, why seek ye the living among the dead? And it was so powerful. I kept driving. I saw where her mortal remains were laid. But the realization that she was with the Lord, that she was alive, that is a pleasant thing. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. And when we realize that, yes, we have sorrow. We miss those that are taken. We mourn for them. that we are born, we don't sorrow without hope, is that which really comforts in a very solid way. And I hope that is gleaned in a time when God's people are taken home. That reminder, there is a hope beyond the grave, and that which takes away the bitterness and sorrow of death. Another thing to glean, very often in a funeral, you'll hear a testimony, a testimony of that person's life, what their hope was upon, the things that they went through, their trials, their difficulties, and very often those times are very precious times, and we can glean, glean help, glean comfort. Sometimes we might think our path has been the only one like that, and then to hear another's walk through a similar path is a hell. Another thing to glean is that there is such a variety of experiences. I don't think you could go to, say, five funerals and find out that their experience was all the same. They'd be all different. Some were called as children, some were called later in life, some were called in a gentle way and others in a way that was more akin to the Philippine jailer. in great terrors of soul, the Lord deals with His people, not all in a mapped out way, but all will be brought to know their sinnership, and all will be brought to know the Lord is precious. Never lay down lines and say, I must have this measure of the knowledge of my sin before I can be saved. If you have enough of the knowledge of your sin to need the Lord Jesus Christ, and that He only is your hope, you have no trust in your own good works, no trust in your righteousness, but only a trust in His, that is enough. It's not what depths you go into, it's not what eyes are experienced, it's when the Word that is preached that is nigh you, even in your heart, that Word that we preach. And the last thing, that's the takeaway. is a need for us to be prepared. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people and hell is a prepared place for an unprepared people. May you be prepared. Prepare me gracious God to stand before thy face. Thy spirit must the work perform for it is all of grace. There are those things I believe that we can glean when the Lord is harvesting His people. Things that we will have our ears open to and to profit from that we won't in another time. Times of sorrow, times when we see one after another be taken away. Our text says her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Have we gleaned anything from these times? Are those things seen and known and read of all men? Has it changed our lives? Has it changed our attitude? How we think concerning the Lord, how we come to the Lord's house? You know, when the Lord began with me, others would have seen it immediately because I went from one week not wanting the things of God at all, going to the house of God under sufferance, to the next week wanting to go to every service, in the week, every time I could hear the word of God, I wanted to. And that was because the Lord had begun with me. I hadn't got assurance, I hadn't got comfort, all I knew was a sinner, and an ignorant sinner, and one that was unprepared to die. But it changed my attitude, it changed my desire for the things of God. The true grace of God will make a difference. I am not now what I once was. I am not now what I once will be one day. I think it was John Newton who said that. But the grace of God makes a difference. It changes a soul of Tarsus into Paul the Apostle. And what a difference that made. May the Lord make that difference. in our hearts, in our souls, in times of harvest, times when the Lord brings His people home. The Lord have His blessing. Amen.