If you will, turn with me to
Ruth chapter 2. Ruth chapter 2. What I have to say this morning,
I base on verses 1 through 23. The lesson this morning is about
the romance of redemption. In the book of Ruth, redemption
is set forth in the light of love. Love is the wellspring
of everything that God does for His elect, and everything should be set
forth in the light of that love when we study it. The book of
Ruth is filled with lessons concerning everyday life, lessons about
commitment, Trials, hardship, marriage, family, and you can
go on and on. Everyday life is in one way or
the other set forth in the book of Ruth as it is in many of the
books of the Old Testament. But none of these things are
why it was written. The book is about the Lord Jesus
Christ and the redemption that he accomplished by way of his
union with his bride. Were there no marriage, Ruth
wouldn't have received anything. But there was a marriage, there
was a union brought to pass, and through that union she gained
everything. It's interesting that very little
history is recorded concerning those first marriages of Ruth, even her early days in Moab,
nothing's mentioned about those things. Simply says that after
the death of their father, that Malon and Chileon took them wives
of the women of Moab. And all that's recorded concerning
their marriage is that Malon and Chileon died. The experience of grace begins
with the knowledge of death and poverty. That's where it begins. That's not the end of it, that's
the beginning of it. In Adam all died. That's what
the scripture says. His family history is a history
of death. In Adam all died. You had the
Quirkin who were dead. We weren't struggling to breathe.
We weren't going down for the third count. We were dead. You,
Hethy Quicken, who were dead. And Orpha and Ruth were Moabite
women. Their ancestry is that of the
ancestral conception of Lot's two daughters. And people, they
like to trace their roots, don't they? A man called me and he thought
he was the son of my oldest brother and wanted me to do a DNA test
with Ancestry.com. And he paid for it and I did
it. But he found out later on that they'd made a mistake and
there was no... But people like to trace their
roots and find some successful person back there, a prince or
a king or a president or something back there. and then talk about
their ties to him. My friend, I promise you this,
you don't really want to know what's in your bloodline. Most
people get angry when I tell them. They do. They don't really want to know
what's in their bloodline, what goes back and dates in your
family. It's filled with prostitutes
and murderers and idolaters and thieves and extortioners And
the list goes on. Paul named a long list of crimes,
including abusers of themselves with mankind. That people that
are gay is what that's talking about. And he said, and such
were some of you. But you're washed, you're sanctified,
you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. and
the Spirit of our God. And Ruth and Orpah were daughters
of a cursed race. And so were we. So were we. And then they married two Jews. And these two sons picture a
false hope. That's what they're picturing
in this story. Folks join themselves to those
who are Jews in name only. What am I talking about? I'm
talking about people who have false professions of faith and
say that they're saved when they're not saved. False religionists,
false professors of faith. And they join themselves to them who have Christ in name only,
believing to improve their standing with God. So what am I talking
about? I'm talking about folks who join
a church. They join a church. taking the
name of Christian to themselves, and it's not salvation. Salvation
is in Christ. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God, whatever else he has, he don't
have life. And soon that relationship dies. And one or two things accompany
the dissolving of that hope. Now, keep in mind what I said. This is a picture. It's a picture. They're going through that. All
of us have been there. Every man who's ever come to
Christ, he's going to go back in his life and he's going to
see that what he did before was wrong. He was ignorant. He did it because everybody else
did it. And one of the two things accompanied
the dissolving of this hope, Orpah went back to live with
a people cursed of God. She went back to what she came
out of. And that happens a lot in religion.
People join a church, they make a false profession of faith,
and they go down the ways, and they find out what their religion's
all about, and they throw their hands up and go back to where
they came from. That's what Orpah did. That's the Word. All that's in
the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and
the pride of life is not of the Father, but of the world. And
the world passeth away, John said, and the lust thereof, but
he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Demas, Paul said, hath forsaken
me, having loved this present world. He went down the road for a while. And then persecution arose. And
he said, well, you know, I had it pretty good back there. I'm
going back home. I'm going back home. And some whose hope had been
shattered by their marriage to a dead Savior, they turned again
to the world. John said, they went out from
us. They went out. Why? Hundreds of reasons. Nobody leaves a congregation
without an excuse. They have an excuse. I didn't
like the way he talked. I didn't like what he said. I
didn't like what he wore. They all have an excuse of some
kind. But here's what John said. They
went out from us because they were not of us. Had they been
of us, they no doubt would have continued with us. The second thing that accompanies
the dissolving of that first union is that the widow clings
to one who has, or at least seems to have, the truth. I'm convinced that Naomi was
responsible for whatever truth that Ruth had come to know. She
learned from her mother-in-law. And also that The truth she learned, she learned
from one who loved her. Naomi loved those two girls. She did. And Naomi in her sorrow
and grief and in her helpless state of being, pleaded with
her two daughters-in-law to go back to their people. She didn't
see any hope for them. They were Gentiles. They had
no hope. There was no reason for them
to go with her back to Israel. All she saw for them was sorrow.
They'd be despised. And so she said, you go back
to your people. And Orpah, weeping, she loved
Naomi. She kissed Naomi, weeping, and
turned back to Moab. But Ruth claimed to Naomi, no
matter what lie ahead, she wasn't going back to Moab. And I'm going
to tell you something. If God ever shows you what's
in this world, you won't go back to it. Whatever else, wherever
else you go, you ain't going that direction. What's the expression everybody
uses? Been there, done that? Yeah. Yeah, we ain't going back
there. And Ruth sobbing and clinging
to Naomi said, entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from
following after thee, for wherever you go, that's where I'm going
to go. And where thou lodgest, I will
lodge, and thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God,
and where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried.
Ain't nothing going to part us but death. The romance of redemption begins
with an experience of death and poverty. This young lady was
reduced to nothing. To nothing. And divine providence and prevenient
grace accompanied that bankrupt widow all the way to Boaz Field. God the Holy Spirit, called the
Spirit of Christ in 1 Peter 1.11, inspired Ezekiel to picture the
true Israel of God. And they pictured true Israel
as an unwanted and abandoned baby girl at birth, cast out
into the sand, out into the desert sands, threw it down. Out there in the wilderness,
fresh from the womb, her navel not cut or tied, unsalted, unwrapped,
naked, lying in her blood. And when the Lord passed by and
saw her in her blood, that's how God sees you. He sees you
like you are. That's what He's telling us here. When He saw her in His blood,
He said, Behold, thy time, not my time, God not under time,
thy time, He said, was a time of love. This is where love is
manifesting, when God passes by. There's no way Ruth could
have possibly imagined that all that happened to her was leading
her to the love of her life. She couldn't imagine that, and
neither can we. You look back on your life, Russell,
and you see this, and you see that, and you see... All that
while you were walking that journey, you couldn't imagine what lie
ahead for you, what God had prepared for them that love Him. You just
can't imagine. She couldn't either. Her birth, her life, her marriage,
her poverty, her suffering, her sin. She had no way of knowing
what grace was about to bestow on her. She was brought to his
field and accepted as a poverty stricken widow and a stranger.
Actually, there was three requirements set down under the law of God
for those who would glean in the field. You were to allow
them to glean if they met these things. One was to be poor, poverty
stricken. The other was to be a stranger,
that is, not that they didn't know who you were, everybody
knew who Ruth was, but a stranger being a Gentile, strangers from
the covenants of promise, strangers from the promised Messiah. And then the third thing was
to be a widow, and she met all these qualifications to glean
in Boaz Field. God brought her down to that
And there's a time when the Lord of the Harvest will come and
woo his bride to be. She didn't know that she was
going to be wooed. She went to that field because
she's hungry. She went to glean because she's
poverty stricken. You don't work, you don't eat.
That's what the Bible said. You couldn't run down to the
welfare office and get a check. You had to work. But there's a time when the Lord
of the harvest will come and woo His bride to be. Listen to
this. Paul writes in Titus chapter
3 and verse 3. For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceiving, serving divers lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. That's
where God finds us. That's how it really is. But after that the kindness and
love of God our Savior toward man appeared, how did it appear? In the gospel. In the revelation
of Christ. Not by works of righteousness
which we've done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. which He shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior that being
justified by His grace we should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. Now there's a time when we begin
to glean in Boaz's field that Boaz comes to us in person. And he begins to show us special
favor and attention. Now let me tell you something.
The Lord Jesus Christ is showing everybody in this room this morning
special attention. Because in His providence, He
puts you here. Now you may not know it, you
may not own up to it, but it's so anyway. Nothing happens outside
the providence of God. He's speaking to you this morning. That's special favor. Boaz didn't
speak to everybody in the field. But he spoke the truth. He spoke
the truth. There's a time when Boaz comes
and begins to show us special favor and affection. Now listen
to me a minute. The fact that Boaz planted a
field, and the field was successful. And everybody there, everybody
in Israel was partaking of a great harvest, and that showed his
love, his concern and commitment to the Israel of God. Much the
way the gospel ministry does in a general way. But God's Israel, God's elect,
are made up of individuals. And He comes in a personal way
and with special favor to each one of them, and He calls it
the time of thy love. That's what He calls it. There's
a time when everybody... You know, I used to talk to my
kids and they said, well, we believe. I said, no, we don't
believe anything. I believe and you believe. It's
a personal thing, not a general thing. It's a personal thing. And the question is always, what
do you believe? What do I believe? Not what we
believe. God's Israel, God's elect are
made up of individuals and He comes in a personal way with
special favor to each one of them and He calls it the time
of thy love. I can only compare my own experience
to hers to enter into how she must have felt when Boaz began
to speak to her. She'd been spoken to by the one
left in charge of the field, the superintendent, whatever
you want to call him, that's how she got permission to go
in. But now Boaz comes. And boy,
he don't bark at her. present the gospel in such a
way that God ain't barking at you. He didn't come over barking
at Ruth. His speech was warm and welcoming. He calls her affectionately,
my daughter. My daughter. He tells her individually
and personally and specifically, don't go into anybody else's
field. You stay right here in my field.
Was he afraid he was going to lose her? That's what religion
says. There's always a danger, you know. There's no danger if you're in
his field. He wasn't afraid of losing her.
Who else in all Israel held such a reputation as Boaz? He was
the lord of the manor. He had it all. She had title and wealth and
reputation and respect. She had nothing. But he told
her to glean in his field, because in his field was full provision
that was purpose for her. Abide here, he said, with my
maidens. Let your eyes be on the field
they reap, and go thou after them. And then Boaz come to Ruth,
And in that coming alone, he showed great affection. My soul, when I think about how
many people there is just in the United States, not in the
world, but just in the United States, let's narrow it down,
just in Arkansas, when I think about how many people are listening
to lies and listening to ignorant men, this morning who don't know
anything at all about God or His Gospel or His Word. And people
sitting and listening to them and obeying them and trying their
best to do what that man tells them to do. What a privilege if the Lord
Jesus Christ would single you out and talk to you. Huh? That's what happens. That's what
happened. After a while, when the Lord
enters into a man's life, intervenes in his life, comes into his heart
by his spirit, he's still listening to the preacher, but he ain't
hearing the preacher, he's hearing the Lord. And it makes all the
difference in the world. Just the very fact that he was
addressing her so overwhelmed this poor widow that she fell
on her face to the ground. And said, without any doubt in
her trembling voice, she said, why have I found grace in thy
eyes? Is that what you see in these
churches around? Boy, that wasn't my experience.
These people were coming down the aisle to give themselves
to the Lord. How can you imagine a criminal
doing that to a judge? Coming down in the courtroom,
coming up, and now I'm going to give myself to you. No, you're
already mine. You're already mine. The laws
delivered you to me. You belong to me. I can put you
in prison or I can set you free. But you ain't got nothing to
give me. She threw herself on the ground
with her face in the dirt and said with a trembling voice,
why have I found grace? Grace. Oh boy, let that word
sink in. Unmerited favor in your sight. Now listen. That thou shouldest
take knowledge of me. Oh, my soul. You don't think
I'm still asking that question after many, many, many years? Why has he taken knowledge of
me? You'll never get over that. You
never will. Oh. And then she said, Slim, I'm a stranger. I've got no connection. I've
got no rights. I have nothing. And yet you've
taken knowledge of me. You know all about me. You know
about my mother-in-law. You know about my marriage. You
know about the death of my husband. You know everything there is
to know about me. She was a stranger in the sense
of being of heathen birth, a stranger to the covenants of promise,
not being a Jew. And oh, the love of God that
floods the heart of a chosen sinner when Christ comes to them
with tokens of His love. For the first time you realize
that this field in which you've been gleaning is His field. It's
His. You're not here by accident,
you're here on purpose. It's not just a field or any
old field, it's Boaz's field. And it's not just a field hand,
not just a servant of Boaz appointed and approved by him, but it's
Boaz himself. And it's not just a common entrance
into the field, but a glorious privilege to glean in Boaz's
field. It was a privilege. When Ruth got hungry, she sat
at the table with Boaz by his invitation. He himself reached her parched
corn and she did eat. Christ ever reached you a piece
of parched corn? He will if you're his. And you'll
know what it is and who it come from. Mealtime, he said, you come hither. You come hither. And it's mealtime
every Sunday at 10, 15. Mealtime. Time to eat. And then at 11. At mealtime, he said, you come
hither and eat of the bread. God has bread. Christ said, I
am the bread. You come to his table, you're
going to eat bread. And then he said, dip thy morsel
in the vinegar. You're eating this bread. You're
going to take a little morsel and dip it in the vinegar. Now,
Yvonne's Italian. She's all Italian. And she makes
bread, and she's got this little thing she does out of olive oil
and spices and things, and we dip bread in that. And I'm guessing,
it doesn't really say, but I'm guessing that's what he's talking
about in this vinegar. It's a vinegar, oil, and spices,
something to dip that. It was something special at his
table. And she said, you take that bread
that I've given you, and you dip it in here. You dip it in
here. And I tell you, the Lord does
that to us, don't he? At mealtime, if you're hungry
and you sit at his table, he's got things prepared for you that's
not like eating out in the field. You're not opening up a sack
and getting a cold sandwich. You're sitting at the king's
table. You're sitting at Boaz's table. Wealthy. And he's got this little dish.
And boy, it's something. And you take that bread and you
dip it in there. When we begin to see things concerning Christ,
His eternal appointments, His accomplishments, where He reigns
in glory, sitting on authority, that's spice for the bread. That's
what that is. She sat at Boaz's table by his
personal instruction. One writer I was reading by called
it an invitation. I'm not too fond of that term. Boaz didn't invite Ruth to come. He instructed her to come. He
said, when you get hungry, come to my table. Well, what if she bowed up and
said, well, I don't want to come today. Mm. Mm. You see what I'm saying? That's
the difference between invitation and instruction. And if he's king and we know
that he is, then everything he says is a commandment. Is it
not? He didn't invite her to come,
he instructed her to come. And listen to me. His instruction
was with loving authority. Some of you in here will never
know what that means. But everybody in here that comes
to know the Lord will know exactly what that means. There is a loving
authority. My father loved me. And he had
authority over me and he would exercise it. But it was a loving
authority and I knew it. And it was different When I went
in the Navy, that's a different deal. That man, there wasn't
no love in his eyes. He said, do this and you did
it or else. Now, there may be repercussions
with my father, but I'm telling you this, I knew that authority
was a loving authority. He loved me. Being overwhelmed by his personal
knowledge of her, she was quick to come to his table. Can you imagine being that poverty-stricken,
that bar down, just on the bottom? And the wealthiest man, the one
man that could do anything he wanted to do for you, says, come
to my table. Come to my table. Oh, she was
quick to come to the table. And there she discerns the hand
of love reaching her, that which he himself had prepared. Overwhelmed by his kindness and
affection, she returns to the field and there's this, so she
finds out, she gets back out in the field and she learns that
This poor widow, this poverty-stricken widow is treated not only with
respect, but she's granted by the Master's command that handfuls
of purpose be dropped in her path. She's not just gleaning
anymore. But she's gleaning now according
to his instruction, and he instructs everybody concerned, drop handfuls
of purpose. What's that? That's the gospel,
isn't it? Handfuls of purpose. My understanding, I've never
harvested by hand wheat or barley, but it's my understanding from
what I've read that they would cut so many stems and get a good-sized
handful of stems, and it would almost resemble a bouquet. That's
a handful. And they said every now and then
take that handful and just drop it. So she wasn't picking up
a grain or two that they left behind, but she's picking up
handfuls of purpose. The Lord never reveals something
to you special. I mean something that just opened
the Scriptures up. You begin to look into things
that were so far over your head that you didn't know how to react
to them, and He opens them up. That's handfuls of purpose. And he commanded those reapers,
that's preachers, he commanded them, you leave her handfuls
of purple. And when she goes over here by
the sheaves, that's what was already wrapped up, ready to
throw on the wagon, Russell. He said, you let her glean among
the sheaves. My soul. Let me tell you something. It's
productive to clean a bohass field. You won't ever go away
empty. You'll never go wishing you just
stayed home to start with. When Ruth came home, she was
packing over six gallons of flour that she'd beaten out of what
she'd cleaned. And when Naomi heard and saw what Ruth had, And then she said, where you
been gleanin'? Well, there's this man, his name's
Boaz. Boy, Naomi knew exactly what
was goin' on. Blessed be he of the Lord who
hath not left his kindness off, not left off his kindness to
the living or the dead. Now when we saw more than a flower
in the hands of Ruth, she saw a kinsman redeemer. She saw in
this loving man full provision for her and Ruth. And oh, how
I pray as we glean in his field today that Boaz will come with
tokens of his love and drop us handfuls of purpose and show
us something of our kinsman redeemer.