you. Complete in thee, no work of mine Could take, dear Lord, the place of thine. Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, And I shall stand complete in thee. Complete in Thee, no more shall sin be all I do and am within. Thy grace hath set this prisoner free, And I shall stand complete in Thee. Yea, justified, O blessed thought, And sanctified, salvation wrought, Thy blood hath pardoned, bought for me, And glorified my God shall be. Complete in Thee, each need supplied, and no good thing to me denied. Since Thou my portion, Lord, will be, I need none else, complete in Thee. Yea, justified, O blessed thought, and sanctified, salvation wrought. Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, And glorified my God shall be. Dear Savior, when before the bar All tribes and tongues assembled are, Among Thy chosen will I be, at Thy right hand, complete in Thee. Yea, justified, O blessed thought, and sanctified, salvation wrought, Thy blood hath pardoned, bought for me, And glorified my God shall be. Thy blood hath pardoned, bought for me, And glorified I too shall be. Thank you, Drew. What a blessing it was. Such wonderful words. So we miss our pastor. He's gone once again, and of course, Lynn. But what a blessing we've had over these past several services with men that the Lord's given us in our own congregation has been pleased to bring up and bless and bless us with the gospel. And tonight is no exception. We have Kevin Decker. Let her preach for us tonight, and we're looking forward to seeing what the Lord is giving you to say tonight. Evening, brother. If you will, you can begin turning to Leviticus 25. But I want to say what seems like prefabricated responses or words. Thank you all so much for your warm welcome to me and my family. And I have thought of another way to word that all day today. I mean it. And I pray the Lord will give us 20 or 30 years and maybe the grace to me to show you that I mean it. I thank you. My family thanks you. Leviticus 25, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and years ago, Kim was teaching the children books of the Bible, and it was during political season, and one of them said, Leviticus, Numbers, and Mitt Romney. We won't go that far. Leviticus 25. The Lord's law is precious. When we realize, not just that we broke the law, When the Lord shows us who we sinned against, it's terrifying. Every word that we read is a guilty charge. It's a verdict, personally to us, like nobody else exists. And then as we decrease, and he increases, and we see his fulfillment of it, it just embodies his person, who he is. It's majestic to us. Go read the Ten Commandments, not just on some schoolhouse or courthouse wall. Those are promises to the children of God. As he said, it shall rain tomorrow. It's going to rain. I don't want another God. I don't want to disobey anybody. I don't want to murder with my thoughts and call my brother a fool. He said, you shall, because of Christ, who that embodies. That's a promise of God. Then I lost sweet because of him. I broke it. I needed a redeemer. He has a law about redeeming, too. Did you know that? Redeem means to buy back again. I always thought of pawn shops. You needed money and something was bad, or you take something to a pawn shop and they give you a little ticket. If you have the ability later on, you can go buy that back. If you can, and if you can't, somebody else has a right to it. Look here in Leviticus 25, verse 25. Leviticus 25, 25. It says, if thy brother be waxen poor and hath sold away some of his possessions, if any of his kin come to redeem him, his family. That's still a word that's understood in this part of the country, the kin. I'm thankful, it is. And if his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. And if any man have none to redeem it, if none will have any family, and you're able to yourself, and he himself be able to redeem it, then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus to the man, yet pay little interest, whom sold it. that he may return unto his possession. The Lord gave a provision, if you have to go sell things because you're so poor, that your family can buy it back for you. Or if you have the ability, whoever's wanting to do this and has the ability to it and has a claim to it, can. Sometimes a person became so poor, they had nothing else left to sell. And they had to sell themselves into slavery, into bondage. Look at verse 47. Leviticus 25, 47. And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and shall sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family, after that he is sold, he may be redeemed again. Who can do it? One of his brethren may redeem him. Either his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him. Or if he is able, he can redeem himself. We know that's not possible. If you've sold yourself into slavery, you need a redeemer. If you willingly sold yourself into slavery. It's so easy to blame Adam, isn't it? Why am I out this way? Well, it's Adam's fault. That's Adam's nature. He blames the Lord who gave him the why. Well, it's the law's fault. The law's too hard to keep. Well, the Lord's sovereign. Who can resist his will? Somebody tricked me. That religion people, they just tricked me. That's always somebody else's fault, isn't it? Whenever we get slow, it's my fault. I'm the problem. I'm my worst enemy. We need to be redeemed. We don't need to talk about an idea of redeemed. We need a redeemer. That brother's become so poor and sold himself away. He's not able to buy himself back. That's every sinner. That's every child born of Adam. And God help us understand that. He has to teach that. That's me. And no sinner can redeem themselves, and no sinner can redeem another. Just because the Lord saved me doesn't mean, well, the children are in. They're good. We got a family. No. This is between the offended party, the one who was owed a debt, and the one that created the debt. I'm so thankful. The men that stand up here and in that study pray for our children. I'm thankful for that. That's us. We are the one that's sold into it. We're the one that need to be redeemed. It says in Psalm 49, they that trust in their wealth and boast in themselves and the multitude of their riches, none can by any means redeem his brother. Find Jeff Bezos, whoever the richest man on earth is. Round all of them up, the top 10. And it says, nor give unto God a ransom for them. Lord, we're going to buy his freedom. You have nothing to buy with. Everything's the Lord's. For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it seetheth forever, that he should still live forever and see not corruption. Who can do that? Who can save a soul? Who can redeem a soul? I don't need bailed out from a mortgage. I don't need it from a bad investment or something like that. My soul is what's at stake. Lord said in Romans 3, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace. Through the redemption, there's a redemption that takes place that is in Christ Jesus. Christ is our kinsman redeemer, our kinsman. Now we see from this law of God, what's required to be a kinsman redeemer? You have to be kin. You have to be the same family. You have to be able. And this isn't talking about, like the psalm says, this ain't talking about money. Blood is required. And my blood ain't worth nothing. That's the legalities of it. Have to be willing. You have to want to. What if we could find somebody that could? What if we could find somebody that was related? But what if they didn't want to? They have to be willing, willing. If you will, turn to Ruth chapter 2. I just want to look at a few verses here in Ruth 2. You got Judges and Ruth. And if you go to 1 Samuel, you went too far. I know you all remember this story well of Ruth. It'd be nice if this is the book of Boaz. Throughout this, Boaz is a picture of Christ. Ruth's a picture of us. And Naomi's a picture of the grace that brings us to Christ. Here in Ruth 2 verse 1, we'll read the first 12 verses. And Naomi, remember Naomi, she had a husband named Elimelech and they went to, times were booming. Business was doing wonderful down in Moab. And they went down there and they left the house of bread. They left the Lord's house. And so the Lord was going to redeem Naomi. and this girl Ruth, this Moabitess woman, this heathen child. And so he killed her husband. And then he killed her sons. And so this daughter-in-law of Naomi's, she tried running her off. She said, go back to your family. Leave me. You're young enough. Go find another husband. And she said, your God's my God. Where you go, I go. Where you're buried, I'm going to be buried. We're knit. And so they come back to the house of bread. They heard there was bread there. They were hungry. And Naomi, Ruth 2, verse 1, had a kinsman of her husband, a mighty man of wealth, of a family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, let me now go to the field and glean the ears of corn after him, in whose sight I shall find grace. She says unto her, go, my daughter. And Ruth went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and her hat, was to light on the part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. He came down from Bethlehem and said unto the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless thee. Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, Whose damsel is this? And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, His the Moabitess. damsel that come back with Naomi out of the country of Moab. And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So she came and hath continued even from the morning until now that she tarried a little in the house. Then said Boaz unto Ruth. He went straight to her and talked to her. Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens. You stay right here. Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them. Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? And when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn.' Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldst take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? I'm an alien. And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shown me, I've seen it all, I know everything. All that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of her thine husband, and thou hast left thy father and thy mother in the land of thy nativity, and art coming to a people which thou knewest not hitherto, the Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust. This is a picture of Christ, our Redeemer. He is the one that's able to redeem. He's the man of great wealth. Not just possessions. Who he is. Who he is. His mind, his ways, his thoughts. They like our thoughts. He's wealthy. We're the poor ones. And his righteousness and complete power over everything. He said, my father's given me power to give life. I can do that. I can change tires. You know, the Lord gives me the strength to go out there and do it. This is the one that forgives sins. He gives life. And he's able to redeem. And he's related to us. He's a kinsman. Scientifically, there's some things in the DNA that they say, oh, well, everybody has the same kind of thing that can identify you, but it comes from one woman. And they say, why is that? Christ was born of a woman. They think they're proving some kind of scientific thing. You're proving Christ is the God-man. That's what you're doing. He was made like unto us, made under the law that he gave. And I don't understand it. And always tempted like we were, yet without sin. Later we'll see Boaz is going to be willing to redeem this Moabitess. This is alien to their nation. Christ is a willing redeemer. How'd he go to that cross? For the joy that was set before him. Joyously. This is wonderful. This is going to be great. I'm going to save my people. He was willing to do it. When you know yourself, doesn't that just, that gets me the most. He willingly became a man. He willingly came under that law. He willingly honored God the Father in all things. Just look to his Father. He willingly died in our room instead. He said, no man takes my life from me. I lay it down myself. I wanted that cross. I want to. I'm willingly doing this. He's our kinsman. He is fully able to redeem. And he's fully willing. What does the bride say to her boy, come? You don't know how bad I am. Come. You don't know how great a savior we have. Here's our kinsmen dreamers, sovereign grace towards his people. We see a picture of that grace draw on us, don't we? Look here in verse two, Ruth 2.2. And Ruth the Moabite said unto Naomi, her name means grace. Let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn after him whose side I shall find grace. She told this girl who's a foreigner how this works. You know, in the Lord's law, we'd harvest corn one year, and there's a lot of homeless people in the area we was, and not out in the country, but downtown. And I thought, you know, it's not that bad. The Lord has laws that on the corners of the field, you have to leave those unharvested so the poor can come in. We don't have that many poor people around here. We've got it good. It's a precious law. But Naomi had told Ruth of these things and how this works. And she said, can I go do that? And Grace says, go, my daughter. Yeah, go. Go taste. See how precious he is. Only God's irresistible love can draw a sinner to know in whom grace can be found. I don't see an idea or systematic theology or studying or it's in a person. It's in a person. And she's about to find how wealthy this kinsman is. She said, let me go down. I want to find grace in their sight. That's what I have to have to be redeemed, to be fed, to make it through today. I have to have the grace of someone's sight. That's what God does in his child. He draws us close to his house, bred to his field. He teaches us we're poor, we're hungry, we're a thirst. And then in our hearts, through the preaching of the gospel, it's revealed to us that we're unable, that we're thirsty, that we're poor, and that he is able. And take of his body. He said, my body's meat indeed. My blood's drink indeed. It's him. And he teaches us that we found grace in his sight. For one that needs it, a poor sinner like Ruth here saying, let me now go after him whose sight I shall find grace. If you come to that point where I need redemption, I need grace unmerited, there's nothing in me, but I'm in need. You've already found grace. Grace has found you first, I should say. The Lord's already revealed something to you. And that sinner flees to Christ because the Lord's already there with him, drawn. Look here at verse three. And she went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and it was her hat, It means her happenstance, that's where we get that word. To lie on the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech. It just so happens that she, don't you love how the Lord writes a story? And so it's contradictory. I think it's lovely. That's how I would have worded it if I was Ruth. I just happened to go down there, and Boaz is back there winking, and I happened to come down from Bethlehem right to you, didn't I? That's how the Lord speaks to children. He's speaking to his children. I think it's precious. She didn't know Boaz. She didn't know that was his field. She didn't know about his ability, his knowledge of her. He reveals himself to her. He comes to her. Her hap was not by accident or chance or luck, and our hap is not either. But God determined that before time was. And he determined that this physically took place between a girl named Ruth and a man named Boaz. And they had a son named Obed. And that son, Obed, through all of his trials in life and close calls, we say, had a son named Jesse. And that man named Jesse, he lived and had a wife and children. Well, he had a son named David. And it just so happens, all the way down in Bethlehem, a child was born. That's the same way every sinner that God saved, isn't it? Nothing's by accident. As we look back and reflect on things, nothing's insignificant, is it? It's the Lord preserving and hedging about. I figure most of you all probably thought I was going to preach on sheep tonight, or shepherds. We got some sheep. We've been putting fence up. And that's hard work. And I thought, man, I'd like to just plant some hedges. They're pretty. And that keeps sheep in. That's what they do over in England and stuff, over hedges. And I thought, the Lord hedges us about. Puts us in what paddock he wants us to eat in. And I don't want him over there. It's wet there. They need to be over here. And I want him over here because it's dry. I didn't even go to the creek. Hedges us about. That's what we see. It's not happenstance. It's not. It's beautiful language. Like our sister Ruth, we seek Christ, the only one who can be gracious. And I tell you what, we find him. If we're not seeking him, everybody wants to go to heaven. Nobody wants to go to hell. I would rather live in a nice place and have all my bills paid, and of course we want nice things, don't we? But if you're seeking him who can be gracious, you'll find him. See, which David said, Lord, you say seek my face and your face I'll seek. Tell me. We ask, we seek him to tell us and make us seek him. All who truly seek Christ find him. And all who find him is going to be instructed by him. It says in verse 4, Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. He came from a city off down to that field where she was living. This is a picture of Christ coming from His throne down to His church to speak to Him, to commune to Him, to draw a center to Him. He's the type of Christ here. He speaks to those reapers and those laborers, and that's a picture of His servants. It says, Boaz said unto the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered him, the Lord bless thee. Those servants are appreciated. We're to count them double honor, aren't we? And we do. Lord, to pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Into his harvest. It's his harvest. We're thankful for those that labor in that. And Christ causes his servants and people to pray for those that the Lord's drawn. Like I said before, we pray for our children. If you ever have family members start coming, they never would hear you. You couldn't have a conversation with them. That had nothing to do with gospel. I know. Or they didn't want to hear it. And then, eh, you know what? I will go to services with you. And you say, Lord, be with them. We pray for them, don't we? That's what they were discussing here in verse 5. Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, whose damsel is this? And he knew her. And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, it's that moat. Modabash damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab, and he said, I pray you, she said, I pray you let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. She asked us and we said, yeah, come on. You hungry? Eat. She came and hath continued even from morn until now. She's tarried a little bit in the house. She had to take a break for a little bit. She's been here the whole time. And Christ gives a command to his servants. Look down at verse 15. And when she had risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not. Let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them that she may glean them and rebuke her not. Ruth's going to get in the way. And she's going to ask a bunch of questions she probably shouldn't ask. And don't you reproach her. Don't get on to her. You just have sweet things to eat, the best of it. and just put that down for her, and just leave her alone, and she'll eat. She'll eat. He knows hungry people. Hungry people eat, don't they? Beggars beg, and she'll act on it. He commanded his preacher, he said, you go out and preach, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Speak to their hearts. I can't. Well, the Lord can. And cry unto her. Cry that her warfare is accomplished. You were at war. A man told me one time, he said, I don't think I was ever at war with God. I said, well, then you still are. The warfare is over. He's the only one that can declare peace. It's accomplished. Put your guns down. Cry unto her warfare is over. It's accomplished. And her iniquity is pardoned. All those good things you thought you did, That's forgiven, all the bad things. And you've received of the Lord's hand, double, Machpelah, for all her sins. You made perfect, but it didn't just hit the reset button, and now you got two more lives on your video game, and you can try again. No, made holy. God's holy. We don't have to just be a clean slate that probably won't break later, but there's a chance. No, that's a new nature. There's a seed of Christ. That's life put in somebody. Lay those handfuls of purpose down. I've asked Todd before. I said, why in the world would somebody get mad at that? He said, they don't believe it. That's wonderful. The Lord came. This is a picture of what he does here right now. And I said, he's life more abundant. He goes, I go to prepare a place for you. What's that place? Is it a big mansion? It's a place of atonement against the God we sinned against. That's a precious Redeemer. He's able to do this. He is. He's related to us. This is legal. And He's willing. A willing Redeemer. Then in His time, He speaks to that child that He drew. It just so happened to land on His field. Verse 8. Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not my daughter? He said, do you hear me? Are you listening? Do I have your attention? Hear. Hear. That's that first general call the Lord gave from heaven when Christ was baptized. He said from above, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. That's a gospel message, if there ever was one. How's God pleased? His son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then on that Mount of Transfiguration, he spoke again. He said, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. And this is the effectual. He said, hear ye him. Hear him. Boaz comes down to Ruth and says, Hear me, my daughter. Hearest thou not, my daughter? This is what I'm going to tell you. You listen to me. Go not to glean in another field. Neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens. Don't you go anywhere else. You're right where you need to be. You're right where I put you. You stay right here. You eat here. You can't eat nothing else. You go somewhere else, well, you know, I'll pick out the good parts. No, you won't. You'll get sick of it. I know from experience. Trust me. Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them. Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? There won't be a dog wag its tongue at you. And that's so. That's the Lord's doing. Somebody asked me, I started the post office. And they said, how was your first day? And I said, well, I walked 13 miles. I only got bit twice. And I did. They thought I was joking. But it didn't break the skin. Wasn't that precious? I thought, well, he put his teeth on it, but the Lord didn't let him clamp down. He's commanded the dogs not to bite us. And they shall not touch them when thou art athirst. Go into the vessels and drink of that which the young men have drawn. You need something to drink? It's already there. It's already done. Drink. Drink. Christ draws his child to his field, and he comes down to his field, and he commands his servants to give him the message to drop handfuls of purpose for him and his child to eat it. And he speaks to that child and effectually commands them, hear me. Don't hear nobody else. You hear him. Don't go in another field. You feed on this gospel alone. You're on Christ's fields now. And you're going to stay right where those maidens are. Wherever they are, they'll congregate together. I do have sheep. And somebody asked, I said, I think I got all of them. Because they're out in this big field, and they just push together. And they walk together and eat. I said, well, I think the legs of that one goes to that one. I can't really tell. But they're fitly framed together as they just move out there and eat grass on there. You stay with those maize. The Lord commands his children to follow him. And if we're all following him, we're all walking in the same path. We're all eye to eye. We're in agreement. And he promises, no one will harm you. I've commanded it. And if you're thirsty, drink. It's already been drawn. If the Lord works that in somebody, if he draws them affectionately and speaks to their heart and speaks comfort to them and tells them and you acknowledge, I was at war, and it's over. And in spite of myself, Lord's blessed me. And he gets the glory for it. That's wonderful. I'm thankful he does. What's going to be the result of that? Verse 10. She fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground and said to him, why have I found grace in thine eyes that thou shouldst take knowledge of me, seeing I'm a stranger? Why me? Why would he do this? Why would he willingly do this? Why me? That's a song back in the day. Why not me? That's what most of them. That's what I used to ask. Why? I'm doing great. I'm wonderful. And then the Lord showed me I wasn't. And I went from crying, why me, to why? Why have I found grace in thy sight? It's too good to be true. the father seeing only his son. We're going to look like him. We'll have his name, the Lord our righteousness. That's the name she shall be called with. We're going to look like him. We're going to smell like him. And when the father sees us, all he sees is Christ. That's what I want. Don't look to me. Don't look to my thoughts. My desires, nothing. Lord, interpret my prayers. Thank you for intercession. Interpret my prayers. Hear him. And here's what Boaz says. Imagine going to the Lord and saying, well done, my good and faithful servant. I can't imagine that. But so, I believe it. Verse 11, and Boaz answered and said unto her, it is faithfully been shown me all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband. and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother and the land of thy nativity, and art coming to a people which thou knewest not hitherto for. I was in prison, and ye came to me, and I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink. And I said, Lord, when did we ever see you thirsty? When did we see you in prison? He said, done the least of these, my brethren, ye have. And the Lord recompensed thy work. And a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whom's wings thou art come to trust. Have you come to trust him? He's worthy to be trusted. He's worthy to be worshipped. Someone got on to me, I guess he was trying to insult me. They said, you act like you ought to just bow to everything and just submit fully to the Lord. I said, yeah, that's wonderful. You should do it. I encourage it. It's a wonderful thing. And we see this kinsman redeemer, Lord Jesus Christ, who's our kin. He's able and he's willing. You know what that does to his people? What do you want to be called? Who do you want to be related to? An earthly family? Or do you want to be related to the Lord our righteousness? I agree completely. That's what I want. I want him to be related to me. Do you rejoice in his ability and that you have none and you know you're not able? I think that's wonderful. It just blesses my heart to know He's able. And is it sweet to you? Is it precious to you? It's not a doctrine. It's not just a point that's agreeable. Through deductive reasoning, we can look in these scriptures and agree that this is what the... It's life. He's willing. He's willing. So I say to those that need redeemed, that's who that's for. That's who a redeemer is for. Those that need redeemed, come to Him. Come to his field, glean, stay with his maidens. Don't eat nowhere else. Just stay right there. And find him precious. I know you do. Thank you all. Lord be with you this week.