Let's take our Bibles, and I
want you to turn to the book of Ruth. Ruth. If you're looking
through your Bible, and you come to like 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, you
just missed it. It's just before 1 Samuel, right
after Judges, Joshua, Judges, you'll see Ruth is right in that,
just before those books. We've heard a lot about, you've
heard this term before, the kinsman redeemer. The kinsman redeemer. In the book of Ruth, in chapter
3, verse 8 and 9, it's recorded, it says, and it came to pass
at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself, and
behold, a woman lay at his feet. And he said, Who art thou? And
she answered, I am Ruth, thine handmaid. Spread therefore thy
skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman." A near
kinsman. That is, one that hath the right
to redeem. Now, this book... One day, Lord willing, I'll just
go verse by verse. I'm going to go kind of through
this book. There's four chapters in the book of Ruth. I'm going
to go through and touch a few verses here and there. But I
want us to consider this glorious, position, title of a near kinsman,
a kinsman redeemer. Almighty God established by His
law that there was going to be a redeemer, a near kinsman redeemer
for one group of people. There's only one group of people
that have a Redeemer. There's only one. And it was
the Jews. The Jews are the only ones that
have a Redeemer. But that does not mean that Jews,
the natural Jews, as I've said over there across the ocean,
is who I'm talking about. He is not a Jew that is one outwardly. That's what Paul said. Paul was
a Jew, but he's a Jew that's one inwardly. I'm speaking of
spiritual Jews. Now spiritual Jews are God's
elect. They're the people of God's pleasure. Those that He's everlastingly
loved. Those that He's chosen in Christ from before the foundation
of the world. They are the spiritual Jews. and are the only people in this
world that have a Redeemer. They're the only ones. Almighty God declared, He told
Moses, when Moses said, show me your glory. And the Lord said,
I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. You've heard that. We've read
that, quoted that. Now the book of Ruth sets forth
this glorious picture and type of the kinsman redeemer, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the redeemer, the near kinsman redeemer,
near kin of his people. Let's look at this right here. This book speaks of numerous
people, but there's two people in particular. It deals with
a woman named Ruth. She was a Moabite. A Moabite. If you don't know where the Moabites
came from, I'll tell you where they came from. Remember when
Lot was taken out of Sodom? God Almighty delivered Lot and
his wife and his two daughters out of Sodom. and told him, said,
you get out, but don't look back. But his wife looked back. God
turned her into a pillar of salt. So there was Lot and his two
daughters left. As far as they knew, the whole world was destroyed
as far as they knew. God rained fire and brimstone
on Sodom and Gomorrah and as far as they knew this was it.
But they knew that God had promised that there was going to be of
the seed a woman. There was going to be a Messiah.
And these two girls, these two daughters of Lot, they said,
look, we don't have any children. So what they did, you know what
they did. One of them got her dad drunk. Laid with him one
night, she conceived. Next night, got him drunk again,
and the other one laid with him, and she conceived too. And one
of those girls, they both had children. One of those children,
one of those boys, was the father of the Moabites. Moabites. Land of Moab. And out of an incestuous
relationship, the Moabites were born. And this woman, Ruth, was
out of Moab, a cursed nation, a Moabite. And it also speaks
of a man named Boaz. He was a wealthy landowner, a
righteous man, out of the land of Bethlehem, Judah. And here's
Boaz is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Ruth, a Moabite,
is a picture of all God's elect. A wicked nation, lost. Separate from God, that's where
we are. That's who we're talking about.
Now, let's look in the book of Ruth for a few minutes. Ruth
chapter 1 verses 1 to 5. 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, his two sons,
and the name of the man was Elimelech. The name of his wife, Naomi,
the name of their two sons, Malon and Chileon, Ephrathites of Bethlehem,
Judah. And they came into the country
of Moab and continued there. And Limelech, Naomi's husband,
died. And she was left, her two sons. They took them wives of
the women of Moab. The name of one was Orpah. The
name of the other was Ruth. and they dwelt there about 10
years. Maulan and Kalyan died, also
both of them, and the woman was left of her two sons and her
husband. Now God had caused a great famine
to be in the land of Limelech and Naomi in Bethlehem Judah,
Elimelech, his name means my God is king. And his wife Naomi, her name
means my delight. And he had two sons, Molon, his
name means sick. And his brother Jileon means
pining, that is mentally or physically wasting away. And they left. They left the house of bread.
They left Bethlehem, Judah to live in a country called Moab. Moab. A country whose name according
to Psalm 60 verse 8 means wash pot. That is a place to wash
your hands, your feet. Just a country put in subjection
to God's people. And these two boys They each
married women from Moab. Orpah means gazelle, and Ruth
means friendship. Well, in time, Naomi's husband,
Limelech, and her two boys, they died. And here's now Naomi and
her daughters-in-law. They're left to fare for themselves. They've come to poverty. And in time, verse 6, they heard
that God had visited Bethlehem, Judah, with bread. And the Lord revealed to them
some food. back in Bethlehem, Judah. So Naomi says to her two daughters-in-law,
I'm going to go back to Bethlehem, Judah. I don't have anything
left here. I'm destitute. Well, along the
way, Naomi encourages both of her daughters-in-law to go back. I want you to go back. Won't
you all go back? and start over. It appeared that,
you know, it seemed for a while that maybe both of them, look
at verse 10, was going to do it. It says, they say unto her,
surely we will return with thee unto thy people. We're going
to go back with you. But that didn't prove to be the
case. Before they reached Bethlehem,
Judah, verse 14, One of them decided, well, I'm going back. Verse 14 says they lifted up
their voice and wept. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth clave unto her. Orpah, she listened to her mother-in-law,
and Naomi told him, said, you know, look, I'm not going to
do you any good. If I remarried today, and had
kids today. Would you stay up and wait for
them until they grew up? She said, y'all go on back. And Orpah said, I think that's
what I'm going to do. She went back to that heathen
place, went back to her gods. But here's what Ruth said. Ruth
said, entreat me not. to leave thee, nor to return
from following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will
go. Whither thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my
people. Thy God be my God. Where thou
diest, will I die. There will I be buried. The Lord
do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part of thee."
So these two went on. It was amazing. I read that passage
of scripture and here's what Naomi did. She told these two
girls, two of them from Moab, didn't know God, they just cursed
people in a cursed land. And Naomi said, y'all go on back. One of them did. But the other
one didn't. Why didn't she go? Prevenient
grace. Grace kept her there. Why? This woman is an object of God's
mercy. This is an object, a vessel of
God's everlasting love. And we're going to see, God's
going to show mercy to that woman, Ruth. There wasn't any difference
in her and Orpah, her sister. They were both dug out of the
same pit. Slew of despond. Just like all
of us. There's nobody in here In ourselves, we're not worth
anything. Crown of our head, sole of our foot. We're all as
an unclean thing. The only difference in one over
the other is the grace of God. Almighty God moved upon Naomi,
that you tell Orpah and Ruth to go back. And Naomi said, y'all
go back. One of them did and one of them
didn't. You think about this. If the Lord has given you a heart
to stay, somebody comes up, you that believe. Let me ask you
this. Why don't you go back? Kevin, why don't you go on back?
Why don't you go over there and sit under something that honors man? Talks about man's free will.
Why don't you go on back? But for the grace of God, you would.
You'd leave. But by God's grace, this woman,
Ruth, she said, I'm not going back. I'm not leaving. Will you
go away also? Peter said, where are we going
to go? Where am I going to go? The only hope I've got is Christ.
I'm going to be where He's honored. I'm going to be where He's praised.
I'm going to be where He's preached. And any place that He's not honored,
I ain't going back. If He slays me, if I die in this
place, I'm going to die trusting Him. But I'm not going back. But for the grace of God, everybody
would go back. Well, Naomi and Ruth, they go
on in. They come back to Bethlehem,
Judah. And upon entering in, Scripture
says in verse 1, Verse 19, they went till they
came to Bethlehem. It came to pass when they came
to Bethlehem that all the city was moved about them. And they
said, is this Naomi? Is that Naomi that went out with
Elimelech and her two boys? They looked at her. She was broken. She was a broken woman. How do
you know? He says, well, verse 20, she said unto them, Call
me not Naomi. Don't call me pleasant anymore. Call me Mara. Call me bitter. God's dealt bitterly with me. God's taught me something. The
Lord brought me down. He said, I went out full. I went
out with A husband and some sons, I had
some integrity. And she said, I've come back
empty, broken, penniless. Don't call me that anymore. Well,
scripture says in chapter 2 verses 1 to 3, And Naomi had a kinsman
of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Limelech. This was Limelech's kinsman. This was the Limelech's kinsman.
Which meant that this was Naomi's kinsman. Everything that belonged
to a Limelech belonged to his wife, Naomi. So it says Naomi
had a kinsman of her husband's. Mighty man of valor of the family
of a Limelech and his name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess
said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field and glean ears of
corn after him, in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said
unto her, Go, my daughter. And she went and came and gleaned
in the field after the reapers. And her hap was to light on a
part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the kindred
of a limeleck. Just went out there and she got
to looking around and she thought, well, I think I'll go, I think
I'll go here. Yeah, I think I'll just have,
she just, as far as she was concerned, her hap, just luck, luck, you
know, lucky, just her hap was to go over here to a place a
field and there were some reapers out there. She said, I think
I'll just go over there. But you know the steps of God's
people are ordered by the Lord, aren't they? It wasn't luck that
put Ruth in Boaz's field. Almighty God had determined before
the foundation of the world. This is where Ruth Ruth going
to leave Naomi's house one morning and she's going to go out to
Glean and she's going to Boaz's field. That's where she's going.
Pre-destinated unto the adoption of children. What does that mean?
Their destination was determined beforehand. That means pre-destinated.
That's what it means. This is where you're going to
go. This is where you're going to step. Why am I right here? I've told
you before, I've got four people, this is all of my natural family,
this is all we've got left right here, my natural, earth-born
family. There's just five of us sitting
here this morning, all five. And I can tell you this for a
fact, all four of them would give a test to me, you know. You talk about a woman out of
Moab, I'm going to tell you something, this is a fella out of Moab right
here. How in the world did I ever end
up standing in this pulpit right here? There ain't a bit of difference
between me and anybody else. Almighty God determined for the
foundation of the world. You're going to do like you did
Jeremiah. He said, before I formed you in the belly, I ordained
you a prophet. That's what he said. Well, her
hap. So she goes out and here she
is in this field of Boaz. And here's Boaz. Now remember
a beautiful picture of Christ. And he looks upon Ruth. Here, a picture of God's elect,
verse 5, chapter 2. Boaz said to his servant that
was set over the reapers, whose damsel is this? Who is that? And then the scripture says,
he looked at her and he says, after hearing, he says, that's
Ruth. She's a Moabite. She came out of Moab when Naomi
came back. Remember Lemelech? Her husband
died and her two boys, and Ruth came back and brought this woman
with her. And the scripture says in verse 8, then said Boaz unto
Ruth, he said, now you hearest thou not my daughter? Go not
to glean in another field. Neither go from hence, but abide
here fast by my maidens. This is what he said. I want
you to gather your food right here, where my field is. That's what God Almighty by His
Holy Spirit says to His people. You stay right here where there's
bread, where the bread of heaven is being set forth. You set forth
where you can feast upon spiritual bread. You stay right here. This
is where I want you to stay. So Boaz, as the Lord does for
his own, he instructed his laborers. He said, you just leave her alone
And Ruth's heart, seeing that kindness that was shown unto
him, said like in verse 11, when she asked him, she said, I'm
a stranger in verse 10. I found grace in your sight.
What is it that you should take knowledge of me? Verse 10, seeing
I'm a stranger. And Boaz answered and said unto
her, it had fully been showed me all that thou hast done unto
thy mother-in-law, since the death of thine husband, and how
thou hast left thy father, thy mother, the land of thy nativity,
you come into a people which thou knewest not heretofore."
Boaz said, he said, I know, I know all about you. I know everything
about you. Let me ask you this. What does
the omniscient, you know what that means? All knowing God. What does he know about his people?
He knows everything about her. Boaz told her, he said, I know
it's been shown me the kindness that you've shown to your mom-in-law.
He said, I know you left your father and mother. You left the land of your nativity. And you came to a place that
you know nothing about. Is that not what the Spirit of
God causes God's elect to do? They leave father, mother, land,
so-called security, and God draws them out. He said, come out from
among them, be separate. And that's what they do. Somebody
would say, you mean to tell me you leave your father and mother
and you leave the security where you, you know? Yeah, that's exactly what I'll
do. I've told you before. My mama,
she was one of twelve. One of twelve. Twelve children.
Youngest of twelve children. They're all gone. Except one. As far as I know, God called
one out of darkness and unbelief. One. Why did He have mercy on
my mama and pass the others by? Because He said, I'll have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom.
Boaz told her, he said, I know what you've done. I tell you,
Almighty God, He looks upon His people and that which He has
wrought in them, faithful is He who calleth you, who will
also do it. The Lord works in His people,
giving them faith to believe, and then honors what He's wrought
in His people. When He says unto His elect in
that final day, separates the sheep from the goats, and says
to them, enter in, thou faithful, good, faithful, faithful, faithful,
all that righteousness earned by the Lord Jesus Christ and
charged to God's elect is theirs. That woman that had an issue
of blood, she came to the Lord Jesus Christ. She done spent
all of her money on doctors. She was none the better. And
she came to him and she touched the hem of his garment. He stopped. He said, who touched
me? The disciples said, everybody
touched you. They're all around you. What do you mean? He said,
no virtue has left me. Somebody touched me by faith.
Where'd she get the faith? He gave it to her. It's given
unto you to believe. And then he turned around and
honored what he had done for her. He said, woman, thy faith
hath made thee whole. Boaz told Ruth, he said, I know
what you've done. You've treated your mother-in-law
with respect. You left your mother, father,
you left the land of your nativity. Then he told his reapers, he
said, this woman right here, you see that woman right there?
He said, all these others, they're going out here and picking up
the crumbs. Just a little bit of stick, a piece of weed or
something, a little bit of ear or something. He said, I want
you to lay handfuls on purpose for her. He said, don't you just
happen to leave this. I want you to leave piles of
stuff for her. Well, they did. And scripture
says that Naomi, I mean Ruth, went out there and she was picking
up Handfuls, on purpose. Doesn't God bless His people
with abundance? You ever just, there's times
you hear the gospel preaching, it's just more than you can contain,
and you just, in your heart, you just want to cry. You just
think, it's so good. This is more than I can contain.
It's handfuls. How'd it get there? The Lord
left it on purpose for me. grasp hold of it by faith and
believe it. Well Ruth came home from gleaning
one day and She brought in all that she picked
up. And Naomi said, verse 19, her
mother-in-law said to her, Where hast thou gleaned today? And
where wroughtest thou, blessed be he that taketh knowledge of
thee? And she showed her mother-in-law
with whom she had wrought, and she said, The man's name with
whom I wrought today is Boaz. And Naomi heard that, She said,
boys. She said in verse 20, Naomi said
unto her daughter-in-law, blessed be he of the Lord who hath not
left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi
said to her, the man is near kin unto us, one of our near
kinsmen. She said, praise the Lord. Do you have any idea who that
is? Boaz? She said, Boaz is my and
your near kinsman because of a limeleck. That's a limeleck. My husband that died, he is near
kinsman. And what I want you to do is
you listen to what I say. I want you to go and look at
verse 4. of chapter 3. I want you to go,
verse 3 says, wash thyself therefore, anoint thee, put thy raiment
on thee, get thee down to the floor, but make not thyself known
to the man until he shall have done eating and drinking. I want
you to know something. Limelech, my husband, related
that man, that makes me and you his near kinsmen. We're family
now, we're one. I want you to go down there and
listen to what that man has to say. And it shall be, verse 4,
when he lies down, I want you to mark the place where he lies,
go in, uncover his feet, lay down, and he will tell thee what
thou shalt do. So Ruth did just exactly what
her mother-in-law told her to do. In chapter 3, verse 8, The scripture said, it came to
pass at midnight, the man was afraid, turned himself, behold
a woman laid at his feet, he said, who art thou? She answered,
I'm Ruth, thine handmaid. Spread therefore thy skirt over
thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman. And he said,
blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter, for thou hast shown
more kindness in the latter end than in the beginning. And as
much as thou followest not, young men, whether poor, rich, and
now my daughter, fear not. I will do to thee all that thou
requirest, for all the city of my people does know thou art
a virtuous woman. And now it is true that I am
thy near kinsman, how be it there's a kinsman nearer than I. tarry
this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will
perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well, let him do the
kinsman part. But if he will not do the part
of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to
thee, as the Lord liveth. Lie down until the morning."
Now, let me tell you real quickly as I wrap this up. Let me tell
you what a near kinsman was responsible for. God Almighty had ordained
that the nation of Israel, natural Israel, here spiritually speaking,
you'll understand what I'm saying. They could not forever lose their
inheritance. They couldn't lose their inheritance.
When they came out of Egypt, God divided up the land of Canaan.
That belongs to you. That belongs to you, your family.
This was according to the law. Picture, until the Lord Jesus
Christ came and fulfilled all these pictures and types, this
was what was being set forth in the Old Testament. If you
had some land and it belonged to you, you couldn't lose it
forever. If you fell on hard times and
you had to mortgage your property, well, you had to survive You
had to sell it, mortgage it. But in the year of Jubilee, there
was going to be a settling of all the accounts. That lamb's
going to come back. Here's the pictures being told.
Whatever Almighty God has eternally purposed to give His people,
even in their fall, Larry and Adam, they still couldn't lose
that inheritance. If Almighty God has made a sinner,
an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ. I tell you, Adam's
rebellion could never separate them from that inheritance. They're
going to have it. They're going to have it. But
how are they going to have it? Well, they're going to have to
have a near kinsman redeemer to do something for them. What
did the near kinsman redeemer do? Well, first of all, if somebody,
a Jew, now only a Jew, a picture of the spiritual Jews. If they
had mortgaged their property, the near kinsman, he had to in
full pay the full price. What's that property worth? Whatever
the property's worth, the near kinsman has to become responsible
for the debt. The near kinsman, he's responsible
for the debt and he's going to have to deliver back to the one
that had mortgaged his property what he lost. Secondly, he was
going to have to restore all the privileges that were forfeited
because of the indebtedness and put him back in good standing
with the people. Almighty God, was offended in
Adam's fall. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
I'm going to restore that which I took not away. Separated from
God, outcast, no peace. And the Lord Jesus Christ established
peace before God. Reconciliation, all that broke
by. But there was one more stipulation.
With that responsibility to redeem the land, there was another one.
If there was no children to continue the name, let's see, okay, so
you can understand where I'm going. Limelech had two boys
and his two boys died. Limelech, now his inheritance,
Naomi sold the land because she's destitute. And that land, who
did that land belong to? Well, it belonged to Limelech
and Naomi because she was married with him. But Naomi had sold
the land. And it's going to have to be,
something's going to have to be done about that. Whose land
does that belong to? Well, it belonged to Limelech.
What's going to happen? Well, it's going to have to be
redeemed. Why? Because that belongs to, but
Limelech doesn't have an heir. His two boys didn't have kids.
So what's going to have to happen? How are we going to settle this
thing? We're going to have to have an heir, you know, for the lineage
to continue. Well, if there was no children
to continue the name of the deceased husband, the widow of the deceased
must be married by the near kinsman in order that an heir be raised
up for the deceased. So that their name, their lineage,
it continues. That's the law of the near kinsman. That's the way it's going to
be done. That's the way it has to be done. Well, Ruth comes and she
says to Boaz, she said, you're my near kinsman. I'm part of
this family. And so you're her, Naomi's near
kinsman, so you're mine too. And when she laid down at his
feet, and told him, you're my near kinsman. He knew just exactly
what the rule was, what the law was. He knew what it was. He
said, I'll do it. He said, but now, listen. He said, there is a nearer kinsman
than me. And so he's going to have to
be dealt with first. Now if he'll redeem you, it falls
on him. But if he doesn't, or he can't,
or whatever, then he said, I will. She said, OK. Well, the next
morning, chapter 4, then went Boaz up to the gate, set him
down there. And behold, the kinsman of whom
Boaz spake came by, and unto whom he said, ho, such a one.
Turn aside. Sit down here. And he turned
aside and sat down. And he took 10 men of the elders
of the city and he said, sit you down here. And they sat down. There's going to be some witnesses
now. This is going to be done right. It's going to be done
open. It's not going to be done in a closet, you know, behind
closed doors, no shady dealings. This is all going to be done
according to the law, according to right. He said to the kinsman,
Naomi, that has come again out of the country of Moab, selleth
a parcel of land, which was her brother Elimelech's. And I thought
to advertise thee, I thought to be able to reveal it to you
in your ear, saying, by it before the inhabitants, before the elders
of my people, if thou wilt redeem it, redeem it. But if thou will
not redeem it, then tell me that I may know. For there is none
to redeem it besides thee, and I after thee. And he said, that
is the one that was nearest, he said, I will redeem it. Then
said Boaz, what day thou buy'st the field of the hand of Naomi,
thou must buy also Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of the dead,
to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. And the kinsman said, I cannot
redeem it for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance. Redeem thou
my right to thyself, for I cannot redeem it. Now this was the manner
in the former time, Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing,
for to confirm all things a man plucked off his shoe and gave
it to his neighbor. This was a testimony in Israel,
therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, buy it for thee, so he
drew off his shoe." Now this is what just happened. Boaz said,
I will redeem you but there's a closer one than me. and we're
going to have to talk to him first. Basically this is what
Boas said, there's somebody that holds the first mortgage on you. And it's going to have to be
done right. It's going to have to be done
openly. This man's going to have to have these things heard in
his ear and it's going to have to be taken care of and it's
going to have to be fair and it's going to have to be done
before these witnesses. So he called him sat down with the
10 elders and he asked him, asked the first mortgage holder, will
you redeem the land of Limelech that Naomi sold, sold into bondage? You're the nearest kinsman, you
got first right, you got first priority, you owe the first mortgage. You're the nearest kinsman and
you have the right of redemption, but if you will not redeem the
land, then I will. Mortgage holder says I will redeem
it. And Boaz says that's fine. But one other stipulation here. There's a woman involved in this
thing. And her name is Ruth. And she's
Naomi's daughter-in-law, which makes Ruth also part of this
deal. All this land's got to be redeemed.
Ruth is going to have to be taken care of, too, because she's part
of the family. And what that means is, according
to the law, you're going to have to marry Ruth to raise up an
heir so that the lineage of Limelech doesn't evaporate. Because the
limelight's two boys didn't have any children. So it's your responsibility. Well, here's the spiritual type. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
kinsman redeemer. But there's one that holds the
first mortgage on all of God's elect when it comes to deliverance
and freedom from the bondage and indebtedness and that's the
law of God. That's God's law. We're not going
to be able to bypass God's law. People preaching a message today
and it says all you got to do is just the Lord wants to forgive
you and all you got to do is just believe and the Lord says
you're into heaven. Well, we got one problem here.
God is just. God is just. And the law of God
is going to have to be considered here. First, the Lord said, I'm
a just God and a Savior. And so Boaz, a picture of the
Lord Jesus, says to his nearest kinsman, the law, if you're a
Redeemer, you're a Redeemer. But for you to redeem Naomi's
property, here's what you're going to have to do for Ruth. Absolute justice is going to
have to be honored. You're going to have to pay off
her debt. Everything, everything that Limelech's wife Naomi sold,
you're going to have to buy it back and pay for it. And it's going to have to be
done to the penny, whatever's the going rate. You're going
to have to show her mercy and compassion. You're going to have
to become her nature. You're going to have to marry
her and live for her and die for her. You're going to have
to answer every demand and infraction for justice that she's ever occurred. And you're going to have to restore
everything that she ever lost. In Adam's fall, every bit of
it is going to have to be given back in mercy. You're going to
have to finish the work of redemption. And you're going to have to make
her holy and fit for heaven, an heir, an heir of God. You're going to have to give
her a right to everything that God's promised to all who have
been found faithful and righteous and holy. You're going to have
to forgive her of all her trespasses and sins. And the law said, I can't do
that. I can't do that. If I do that, I'm going to mar
or I'm going to destroy my own inheritance. Here's what the
one that holds the first mortgage of the law says. She's a sinner. And the soul
that sins is going to die. Wages of sin is death. To show mercy where wrath is
due will mar my inheritance. Here's what the law says, I will
in no wise clear the guilty. She's a Moabite. She's a sinner. She's an outcast. I am not going
to redeem her. And Boaz, spiritually speaking
of the blessed, willing, able, kinsman, redeemer says, I will. I will. I want you to lay all
her debt. What does she owe? What does Ruth and Naomi owe?
What do they owe? Well, they owe everything. What's it going to cost? What's
it going to cost? What's it going to cost? debt. That's the only payment.
That's the only payment that will pay. Without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission. No remission of sins. None. You
lay all of her debt to my account and I'm going to answer. And
I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to pay her debt
and I'm going to restore unto her all that she lost in Adam's
fall. I'm going to restore that which
I took not away. And I'm going to take that filthy
sinner, that Moabite, and I'm going to robe her in my robe,
in the robe of righteousness. I'm going to live for her, I'm
going to die for her, and I'm going to make her accepted in
me. And that's exactly what Boaz
did for Ruth. Look at verse 7. This was the
manner in Israel concerning redeeming, concerning changes to confirm
all the things. A man plucked off his shoe, gave
it to his neighbor. This was a testimony. It was
Old Testament custom. Go back and read, I can tell
you this, it's in Deuteronomy 25 verses 7 to 9, I can tell
you exactly what it says. Go back and read it. If there
was a kinsman redeemer, a near kinsman redeemer, and they could
not or would not, that's what this nearest one said, I can't
do that. The wife in the Old Testament
would come to the one that could not do it, would not do it, and
she would take off his shoe, and spit in front of him. And
it was a sign of reproach. You were the nearest kinsman
and you wouldn't do it. You wouldn't do it. And he went
through with that reproach. He was the man without the shoe. Back in Ruth right here, the
scripture says the man that wouldn't do it Verse 7, to confirm all
things, the man plucked off his shoe and gave it to his neighbor.
This was the testimony. Therefore, verse 8, the kinsman
said to Boaz, buy it for thee. And he drew off his own shoe. He said, you're the one that's
worthy. Not me. You're the one that's worthy
to redeem. You're the one that's due all the honor and glory and
praise. unto this woman right here. So
Boaz, verse 13, took Ruth, and she was his wife. And when he
went in unto her, the Lord gave her conception. She bears a son. And Scripture says, the women
said unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee
this day without a kinsman. That this, his name, may be famous
in Israel. He shall be unto thee a restorer
of thy life, a nourisher of thine old age for thy daughter-in-law,
which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons hath
borne him. And Naomi took the child, laid
it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it. And the women, her neighbors,
gave it a name, saying, there's a son born to Naomi. And they
called his name Obed. He's the father of Jesse, the
father of David. And let me tell you, here was a woman. She was a mole
pie. Picture of every one of God's
elect sheep, born in Adam, all of them, outcast, spiritual heathens. And Almighty God sent a famine
to Bethlehem to make Elimelech and Naomi, her two boys, go to
Moab. Why? Because there was one of
God's sheep there. And one of those boys married
that woman. And then God killed him. Took
that woman out of Moab. Took her out of darkness. Brought
her to the house of bread. That's what God does for all
His sheep. Brings them to the house of bread. And caused her
to cross paths with a man named Boaz. Picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what God does. He causes
his people to cross paths with Christ through the hearing of
the gospel. The message of Christ. And Boaz loved her. Christ everlastingly
loved his people. He gave Boaz a heart to redeem
her. That's what Christ did for his
own. They got married. And he had a son. His name was
Obed. Obed. You know who Obed was?
That was Jesse's. That was Jesse's dad. Now who's
Jesse? That was David's dad. And just not many generations
later, right on down the line, he was the Lord Jesus. He was
born. Almighty God caused a A wretched,
heathen woman, just like all of us, brought him to himself,
taught him the gospel, redeemed her, and showed that through
her, Christ was born. Can you imagine? Everything that
Boaz had, he was a wealthy landowner, everything that Boaz had was
Ruth's. We're heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ. I pray God bless this message
to our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.