I invite you this morning to
turn with me to the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth. The book of Ruth is the eighth
book beginning with Genesis. And it's, I suppose you'd say
it's numerical order. It's the eighth book of the Bible. It's nestled between the book
of Judges and the book of 1 Samuel. The first five books of the Bible
were written by Moses. And they basically account for
the history of creation, the call of Abraham and God's
promise to him, the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, account
for their sojourn in the wilderness up to the edge of the promised
land. You can read about it in the first five books of the Bible.
It gives you an accurate account of all these things. And next
in order in the Bible is the book of Joshua. God buries his
servant Moses on the mountain, but before he dies, The Lord
took him up on the mountain and Moses, not being able to lead
the people into the promised land because he represented the
law, but Moses was able to look over at the promised land. And the law looks for us and
shows us and pictures the redemption. It pictures all the promises
of God. It pictures them in the sacrifices
and in all these things that's in the law, but the law can't
lead you into the promised land. Only Christ can do that. And
Christ appeared in this world as a man they called Jesus. The word Jesus is the New Testament
Greek for the Old Testament name, Joshua. If you read in Hebrews
chapter 4, he talks about if Joshua could have given them
rest. And he talks about Christ in
that passage. As the book of Joshua is ending,
it says this, so Joshua let the people depart, every man to his
inheritance. He brought them there, he led
them, they conquered the land, And he let them enter into their
inheritance. And then next in the order of
the Bible is the book of Judges. Now this is a record of men during
a time when Israel had no king. And men called Judges ruled in
Israel. And some of the more well-known
Judges to you, men that you may recall, is Gideon. You remember
Gideon? As he set forth in the Old Testament,
Gideon was a judge, and so was Samson. He was probably the most
famous of the judges. And then after this, the Holy
Ghost inspires a man to write an account of a Moabite woman
named Ruth, and her kinsman-redeemer, whose name is Boaz. It's titled
simply The Book of Ruth. I like simple titles, don't you?
But it almost seems out of place. You look at it and he's coming
along here in order and he's talking about creation and talking
about Abraham and then Isaac and Jacob and the patriarchs
and then he's talking about Israel. And then all of a sudden right
in the middle of all this comes the book of Ruth. This is a book
about a Moabite woman. seemingly out of place as that
in the Old Testament. And yet he writes this book. He doesn't call the book the
book of Boaz. He calls it the book of Ruth.
Boaz was the kinsman redeemer. But her name was Ruth. And God
attributed the name of this divinely inspired book, the book of Ruth. The time of its writing is somewhere
around 1322 years before Christ. And most attribute its writing
to the prophet Samuel. Now, because, and we'll get into
that in a minute, but because there was a famine there, people
put this between, and I can't even pronounce his name, but
there was a judge in Israel And this big old fat king, who was
ungodly king, and that judge went to him with a dagger. And
he said, I got a message from God for you. And he thrust that
dagger in his belly and killed him. Sometime between him, his
being judge, and Gideon is when this was written because of the
famine. There was a famine in the land.
That kind of shrinks it down to a certain time. The Jews,
to whom the Old Testament was given, carried it around, transcribed
it, taught from it. They consider the Book of Ruth
to be an appendix to the Book of Judges, because it was written
during the time of the judges. So it's inseparably connected
to the judges. But they also consider it as
an introduction to the Book of 1 Samuel, which is the first
account of the king. 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings,
1 and 2 Chronicles. They're all chronicles about
the kings of Israel. And so before he will introduce
the first king, he inserts this Book of Ruth. It's inseparably
connected over here to the Book of Judges, and yet it introduces
the time of the king. And for my part, It's certainly
all of that. All the studies that I've done
on it, I certainly see that it's all of that. And there's countless
lessons. If we go through the book of
Ruth, there's countless lessons throughout the book. Lessons
about what men call practical godliness. And these are lessons
concerning faithfulness, trials, marriage, devotion. all of these
kinds of things and much, much more. That's just a few of the
lessons taught in the book. But none of these are the reason
for its place in the Word of God. This book is a book of redemption. That's what this book's all about.
And I believe that's why the Lord's led me here to do this
study. This book is a book of redemption. Now the Old Testament lays the
foundation for the New. If everything that happened in
the New Testament is not exactly according to the Old Testament,
then it's not of God. This book is in perfect harmony,
Old Testament and New Testament. This was not a people back here
and then a new people over here. Same people. Same people. His church, he said, which was
in the wilderness. God's church didn't begin in
the New Testament. God's church was way back yonder.
I'll tell you who his first member was, Adam. First member of God's
church, Adam. And he'd been calling out his
elect ever since, all the way down through time. This book
is a book of redemption. It's a book about Christ and
the redemption of his bankrupt bride. That's what it's all about. Now titled the lesson this morning,
Handfuls of Purpose, we're not going to actually get into where
Boaz looks on Ruth. Ruth came to Gween in his field.
She came there because she was poverty stricken. She came there
with her mother-in-law. Her husband had died. Her sons
had died. And there she was bankrupt with
two daughter-in-laws. And so she bids her daughter-in-laws
to go back to their family. I've got nothing to offer you.
There are no more sons in my womb, and even if there was,
you ain't going to hang out with me for 20 years waiting on one
of them to reach adulthood. Go back to your family. Go back
there. And the same God that's been
gracious to us over the years, may He be gracious to you there.
So Orpah, the one daughter-in-law, she did that. She loved Naomi,
but she went back. She heard what she said and decided
that was the best thing, but not Ruth. Ruth said, I'm going
with you. I'm going with you. And God do
to me even more. She said, lest I be parted from
thee by anything other than death, I'm going with you. Your place
is going to be my place. Your God is going to be my God.
I'm going to get it. And so she did. And now she comes
back to the land of promise, but they're still pulpers. When
they left, they were rich, very wealthy. The reason they left
is because Elimelech wanted to hang on to what he had. And there
was a famine there, and rather than stay there, He went down
to the Moabites where it was prosperous. He wanted to hang
on to what he had. What happened was he lost everything
he had. And now his widow comes back
to Israel with the daughter-in-law and her bank brothers. And so
she bids her daughter-in-law to go glean in the fields. And
it says her hat was to fall on the field of Boaz. And she went
out there and began to glean in that field. That's what we're
doing here this morning, whether you know it or not. God has told
you that this land out here, anywhere other than God's church,
that's all a land of active curse, just like it was When God gave
them the promised land, the whole rest of the world, they were
forbidden to marry them. They were to have no dealings
with them. It was an active curse. They
were all under the curse. And that's the way it is today.
It's the same way. God's elect. He's gathered them
up into a place and they come and they meet together. And some
are scattered here, there, and yonder. I don't know. But God
in His providence, if He's going to deal with you graciously,
He's going to bring you back to the land of blessing, back
to the place of blessing. And that's what He did with Ruth.
And Boaz looked at her. And she was special in his eyes. And he wanted to know who she
was. And the men told her. And he said, well, here's how
it's going to be. You better not touch her. You better not
fool with her. You leave her alone. And you
let her glean where nobody else gleans. And while you're at it,
you drop handfuls of purpose. And that's what I want us to
see this morning. That God has granted to us handfuls
of purpose. Why? Because He loves you. You
don't know it yet, some of you. And perhaps there are some here
who don't know it yet in their own heart, but God loves you.
If you're His, He does. He's loved you from all eternity.
And it was His providence that brought you here. And it's His
hands that will drop these handfuls of purpose. What does He order?
What did Boaz order? He owned it all. He owned it
all. And He bid those men to do certain
things to leave certain gifts and to do this and to do that.
And he did it all because he loved this woman. He loved Ruth. She didn't know it yet. She was
a Gentile. She didn't know anything about
this. She'd heard a few things, I'm sure, from her mother-in-law,
but she didn't really know what was going on yet. She was just
out there. And then Boaz confronted her.
And then he said, she said, Why have I found grace in your eyes
that you should have knowledge of me? And that's what you ask
if you ever find out that God loves you. That's the first thing
you say. Why me? Why me? Why have I found grace in thine
eyes that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am
a stranger? Paul said we were strangers and
pilgrims. The first five words of the book
says this, if you look at it in your Bibles. The first five
words of this book says, now it came to pass. Now these words are understood
of most to mean, this is what happened. And you can certainly
apply it to that. But to those who have eyes of
faith, it means something far deeper than that. To the believer,
these words speak of eternal things, things purposed of God
that are pinned to God's grand design. God has a design in creation. He has a purpose in creation.
He's going to save a people for the glory of His name. He's going
to save them through the person and work of His Son. And everything
that He does for them, does in His Son, accomplishes for them,
and yet shall accomplish, it's all going to glorify Him. Nothing's
going to glorify you. You're just going to be partaker
of it. But when everything's said and done, Even that crown
He gives you on your head, you're going to take it off and throw
it down at His feet. Everything's for His glory. Now the Book of Ruth begins with
the word now. It has to do with a certain point
in a series of events. He's singling things out. Solomon
said to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under
heaven. I just told you what God's purpose
is. He's going to save a people.
He's going to do that. And there's a time to every purpose
under heaven, and concerning these things, He said, God hath
made everything beautiful, now listen to this, in His own time. Election wasn't beautiful to
me the first time I heard it. It made me mad. That can't be. It just can't be. I was angry.
until I learned what election was all about. And God's own
time, it was beautiful. Beautiful. He made everything
beautiful in his time. And listen to this, whatsoever
God doeth, it shall be forever. And nothing can be put to it
or anything taken from it. And God doeth it that men should
fear before him. Once you realize that God is
in charge of everything, there's nothing out here that's evolving.
There's nothing out here that chance has anything to do with.
God, everything, He works, listen to this, He works all things. What's that mean? It means all
things. He works everything. Anything. Everything. He works all things. Now listen. after the counsel
of His own will. So what's going on in the book
of Ruth? God's working things after the counsel of His own
will. And here is a certain point in
a series of events. And everything that God does
is on time. And it's a certain point in a
series of events. And here's an example of what
I'm saying over here in 1 Peter chapter 2. If you want to turn
over there and look at this, 1 Peter 2 and verse 9. Now keep in mind what I just said.
I'm talking about there's a time, there's a point, and God does
things in time. But what He does in time, He's
purposed from all eternity. And everything He does is pinned
to that. He said in 1 Peter 2 verse 9, but ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should
show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light. Now, watch this. Which in time
past were not a people. You didn't know anything at all
about God's people, God's elect, God's purpose. You were not a
people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained
mercy, but now have obtained mercy. So God has a grand design. He's going to manifest His glory
and the salvation of a people through the person and work of
His Son. And there's a place in the grand design of God for
the redemption of this heathen girl named Ruth. And this book
wonderfully sets forth that redemption. The book of Ruth, the Holy Ghost,
sets forth a woman named Ruth as a figure of God's elect. When
you read this book and you're reading about Ruth, you're reading
about God's elect. Yeah, I like how God records
these things. There was a certain man named
Lemuel, and he had certain sons whose name was, and they married
certain brides whose name was, and so on. So he sets forth a
woman named Ruth as a figure of God's elect, his bride, his
church, and Boaz as a type of Christ, our kinsman redeemer. Now listen to me. In pictorial
language, that's what I have to use to teach you the Book
of Ruth. In pictorial language, and it's a language that transcends
all language barriers, you might have difficulty understanding
a word that somebody says if you're from Mexico or you're
from France and you were sitting here and you hear me talking
and you're saying, I don't understand that word. I don't understand
what he's saying. But you can understand the picture. That
picture transcends everything. And that's why our Lord is said,
without a parable spake He nothing. He illustrated everything He
did with things commonly known by all men. And He establishes the salvation
of His people through Christ our Lord. When Paul brought that
great message to the ears of the Gentiles at the church of
Antioch over in Acts chapter 13, he gives a brief accounting of all the various
times of Israel from their beginning. He tells you that he delivered
them out of Egypt and all of these things. And then he says
this, he includes this as he's recounting all these things.
He said, the giving of the judges over a period of 450 years until
Samuel the prophet. He includes this period of time
in with that important history of Israel. And when he had finished
with all the various times of Israel, he drew his conclusion.
Acts 13, 38, he said, be it known unto you, therefore, men and
brethren, that through this man, This man Jesus Christ, he's the
Boaz. He's that prophet like unto Moses
that's going to come and tell you all that. He's the Joshua. He's the seed of David. The seed
of Jesse. Be it known unto you, therefore,
many brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the
forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified
from all things from which you could not be justified by the
law of Moses. And then he gives a warning.
Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken
of in the prophets, behold, ye despisers, and wander and perish,
for I work a work in your day. Right now, right here, right
now. A work which you shall in no
wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. He's going to say,
turn over here and look at this passage. Then he's going to tell
you some more, and then he's going to turn over here and look
at this passage. And you're going to say, he don't
know what he's talking about. That's exactly what Paul's saying
here, and he's quoting his Old Testament prophets. And I'll
tell you why he's saying it. Because he himself had done it. He studied this book inside out.
He never saw these things until God revealed them to him. So
beware as we look into this divine inspired words that we don't
wind up on the wrong side of God's work in our day. Beware. Be careful. But there's nothing
forcing you to draw a quick conclusion. Just think about what I'm saying.
Think about what I'm saying. If we miss the message of this
book of Ruth, these studies will but heap hot coals upon your
heads. That's all it's going to do.
They will be given additional testimony of our rebellion and
sin. But there's more in the Book
of Ruth. As an added bonus, Ruth also sets forth the evidence
of the mystery of the Gentiles. Can you imagine how the Jews
hated to hear a message out of the Book of Ruth? Oh, my soul. He's teaching us
way back here, 1,322 years before Christ came into this world.
He's teaching us about the inclusion of the Gentiles into His church. They're included into the elect
of God, and they make up His bride. And even further, this
book, along with the book of Hosea, declare without apology
the depths of God's free association with sinners. I don't want to shock you, but
so much so is he associated with sinners, that Jesus Christ is
typified by a man who's the son of a whore. Boaz was the son
of Rahab the harlot. He's typified by a man who's
the son of a whore who marries a forbidden bride, a heathen
bride. No wonder Paul said, this is
a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus
came into this world to save sinners. You remember those self-righteous
Jews sitting there in the house, and he was ministering to these
sinners, and that fallen woman came in there and began to wash
his feet? And they said, boy, if he knew
who she was. Well, he knew who she was. He
saved her. Of course he knew who she was.
He knew who she was before she was. Is that right? Sure he did. And he saved her. And then he
turned to those self-righteous Jews and he said, the whole need
not to position the sick. See, I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. So much so that Paul, when he's
writing to the church at Rome, In chapter 11, verse 33, now
he's talking about the fall of the Jews, the revelation of the
Gentiles, and the recovering of God's elect out of the Jews
by what they're seeing going on with the Gentiles. And he's
going back and forth trying to show us something of the wisdom
of God, and when he begins to contemplate it, he just, he loses
it. And right in the middle of all
this teaching, he said, oh, the death. The depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
His judgments and His ways past finding out. For of Him and through
Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. Now with these things in
mind, let's look at the situation. In verse 1, He tells us there
was a famine in the land. What land? The land of promise. The land
of promise. The land given to them according
to God's promise to Abraham. It was a fruitful land, a blessed
land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So why is there a
famine? What's up with that? Why is there
a famine? Well, if you look back a few
pages in the book of Judges, I think I can answer this question.
Look back at Judges chapter 17. In Judges 17, he starts talking
about a man by the name of Micah. And this man, verse 5, had a
house of God. He built him a house of God. And he made an ephod and a terracle,
and he consecrated one of his own sons to become his priest. This house was a house of worship. That's what he was building.
He said, I'm going to build me a house to worship in and put my gods
in there. So he went down to the guy who
makes them, and he said, here's what my god looks like. Now,
you make me an image of him. No problem. He molded him up
an image. Whatever it was, who knows what
it was. He took it down there and put it up there in the house.
This is my God. He had two of them. It was the house of God. He had
two molten images made and placed inside and put them in a prominent
place so when you walked in the door, there they was. You could
see it. And then he made an eight page. That's part of the priestly
dress after the fashion of the high priest in Israel. Everything
religion has is a copycat of what God did. They just don't
know what it was for. They don't know why it was removed.
And so they copycat it. Why does a priest come out and
wear a big fancy robe? Because God's priest had one.
That's why. Why does the Pope wear a mitre?
Because God's high priest wore a mitre. Religion, a copycat
of these things, I call it a carryover. They carry over all these things.
And then he said, well, I've got to have a priest. I can read
that much in the Word of God. I have to have a priest. So where
am I going to get a priest? Can't trust these guys out here.
I'll get my son. He'll be my priest. And so he
gets his son. He consecrates his son to be
his priest. The priest was to handle the
offerings. and those offerings that he thought was necessary
to worship his gods. Now watch this, Judges 17, 6.
In those days, there was no king in Israel, but every man did
that which was right in his own eyes. Is there a better picture
or description of religion anywhere in the Bible than that? There was no king in Israel. Who's Israel? That's God's elect. I ain't talking about the nation
now, I'm talking about true Israel. That's God's elect. And God said,
I'm going to set my king upon my holy hill in Zion. Where's
that? Right here. The Kingdom of God
is within you. It's God establishing His King
and you willingly bowing to Him. That's what it is. There's a group of people that
split off of one of the bigger churches down in Spring Hill,
Louisiana several years ago and they purchased one of the funeral
homes on the way out to Plain Dealing. It's out there on the
right. I hope they hear this message. They converted it into
what they called a church, and then they made a point of publicly
inviting anybody and everybody to come to their service and
worship God as they saw fit. Every man did what was right
in his own eyes, and they said, come on. Come on. Troubled times. come upon men
because there's no godly king reigning in the heart. And men
do what's right in their own eyes. And it brings hard times,
it brings suffering. In Romans 1 concerning every
child of Adam, no matter how heathen he had become, he says
this, they become wise in their own
conceits. They wanted no part of a true
knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a reprobate mind. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2
he says the same thing. He talks about Antichrist and
his deceit. All deceivableness and unrighteousness
of them that perish. because they would not receive
the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this
cause, God gave them over to strong delusion. You want religion? Here it is. Hard times come when
men begin to do things that seem right in their own eyes. We don't
want to know what seems right. What we want to know is what
God said. I know for sure that's right. Well, how do I know what's right?
Only God can reveal it. I can't do that part. I can't
convince you of anything. But he can. And if he does, he'll
do it through the preaching of the gospel and the word of God. The famine and the lamb was brought
upon them as a result of their rejecting the rule of God over
them. The carnal mind, that fallen
mind of man, it's enmity against God. It's not subject to the
law of God, to the authority of God. It's not subject. He
ain't going along with God on anything. He hates God. The kingdom of God is God sitting
His King, the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, in your heart. His church, His elect, they obey
the rule of Christ. In Romans 6.16, Paul writes,
Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey,
his servants are to whom ye obey? Whether of sin unto death, or
of obedience unto righteousness. I'll get it out in a minute.
Our Lord said this, The kingdom of God is within you. They said,
will you establish now the kingdom of God? He said, the kingdom
of God cometh without observation. It's in you. It's in you. And God's authority over His
people is a delegated authority, and it's both civil and spiritual.
No power but that of God. And of this spiritual oversight,
He says in Hebrews 13, 7, Remember them which have the rule over
you, spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering
the end of their conversation. And what is the end of that?
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. So here's
the situation. No king in Israel. Israelite,
God's elect. Here's a people with the name
Israel, but no heart. No heart for God. They were blood-born
Jews, but not born of God. And most were doing what seemed
right in their own eyes. And this is what brought about
the famine and brought about their reasoning to leave the
place of promised blessing and go to the place of a sure curse. Now while this is an isolated
event in time, it's a picture of the general condition and
situation of us all. Where does God find you? He finds
you in trouble. Huh? Finds you in trouble. In that trouble, He creates a
need, a hunger, and you can't fill it anywhere. And in His
providence, He brings you to where the trouble can be dealt
with. Now that's how He deals with His people. This whole world
is filled with anti-Christ religion and though they have the name
of God's people, they have not God's King sitting upon their
heart. And true Israel both then and
now have in the midst a mixed congregation. Some of them believe
and some of them don't. But our gracious God has made
provision for His people and He'll gather them from the uttermost
parts of the earth. And though they're suffering
with the heathen, He'll draw them to the redemption. that
He purposed for them to have. And that's what's going on in
the book of Ruth. And in light of our own experience,
Paul said, this is a faithful savior. He came into this world
to save sinners. Now listen, of whom I'm chief. Every man God saved believes
himself to be the chief of sinners, don't he? Huh? Sure he does. I'm the chief of sinners. I don't know of a single believer
who thinks, well, I've lost, but I wasn't that lost. No, I've
talked to many. They all think they're the chief.
And if you do think you're somewhere up the line, you don't know him.
You don't know him. He's going to bring you to the
end of yourself. And you're going to sell yourself
out. You're going to say, I can't believe that. I just can't believe
what I am. And when you do, He's going to
reveal to you your kinsman redeemer. Can you imagine what went through
the mind of Ruth when this man took an interest in her? Huh? You think she felt uppity up?
No. She couldn't believe her ears.
She couldn't believe her eyes. She couldn't believe what was
going on. Oh, may the Lord bless our study in this book. I wanted
to do an overview this morning of these things and kind of set
the, so we have at least some general understanding of this
book and what's going on in this book. May the Lord bless the
reading of his work. Thank you.