Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. Remember, Lord, the blood and
sweat of him who more than paid my debt. Remember Christ upon
the tree, and now be merciful to me. Remember how that Jesus bled
in this poor guilty sinner's stead. He bore your wrath and
curse for me in his own body on the tree. ? A perfect righteousness he brought
? ? And by his blood my pardon bought ? ? So that his righteousness
might be ? ? By grace imputed now to me ? ? I plead the merits
of the blood ? ? Of Jesus Christ, the Son of God ? ? The sinner's
substitute is he ? ? The mighty substitute for me ? Please be
seated. If you open your Bibles with me
to Ruth chapter 4. Ruth chapter 4. When the Lord repeats, a word in his word, it is for emphasis. And I'm sure
that you can think with me very quickly how often the word gate,
G-A-T-E, is used in the Bible. We're going to consider some
of them. And what is the message for us, God's speaking of Christ
on this subject of gate. I've titled this message, The
Gate. The Gate. Boaz has made a promise to Ruth,
and Naomi has confirmed that promise. Naomi has said to Ruth,
sit still here my daughter, the man will not rest until he finishes
the work. And now Boaz has something he
must do in order for him to be able to buy back the mortgage
property of Naomi's husband, Elimelech. It is a picture of
our kinsman redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ who is buying back
by his shed blood that which we lost in the fall. We lost our fellowship with God. We lost our innocence. We died as a result of our father
Adam's sin and this property had to be bought back. It had
to be bought back by one who was able, a mighty man of wealth,
one who was sufficient in himself to pay the price necessary. And that's what the Book of Ruth
is about. We've been in here now for a few months, and what
a blessing it's been to consider this type, this picture of our
Lord's work of redemption in the life of Boaz and Ruth and
Naomi. Boaz, now after leaving the threshing
floor, goes to the city gate. And the significance of this
city gate is that he is conducting an open court. He calls the elders of the city
together. The significance of this meeting
was that it was not done in a back room. It was not done secretly. It was done openly for all to
witness and for all to see. When the Lord Jesus Christ went
to Calvary's cross, the Bible said that he did not do this
thing in a corner. It was done openly at the city
gate for all to see. And the first point of my message
is that our unwillingness to believe the gospel is a blatant,
clear testimony of our fallen nature, our sinful nature, our
blindness. Secondly, And the flip side to
that coin is that our ability to believe the gospel is a testimony
to God's grace. And I use those words carefully.
I said our unwillingness to believe. If we don't believe the gospel,
we have chosen not to believe the gospel. and our ability to believe. If we believe the gospel, it
is because we have had all choices taken from us. We have no choice. So you choose not to believe. You believe because you have
no choice. Men are willingly ignorant and
reject and refuse to believe the gospel. They exercise, you
remember the passage over there in the book of Acts, where the
scripture says, some believed, and that's in the passive tense,
which means that it was something done to them, and some believed
not, and that was in the active tense. That means that it was
something that they purposefully decided not to do. Does man have a will? Yeah, and
he wills against God. And here's the good news, brethren.
You believe the gospel. You believe Christ. Oh, that's
a miracle of grace that God did in your heart. And it's a testimony
of how, by nature, we're not in our right mind. We're not
in our right mind. We can very consciously justify
ourselves in not believing something that is so blatantly clear. Look at verse 1. Then went Boaz
up to the gate, and sat him down there. And behold, the kinsman
of whom Boaz spake came by, unto whom he said, O such a one! Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
speaking to that kinsman, that one who is nearer to us than
him. It is the law. The law of God
stands in judgment of us because of our sin. And that law has
to be reckoned with. And men, because they are ignorant
of the righteousness of God, go about trying to establish
their own righteousness. thinking that somehow their law
keeping is going to win them favor with God, is going to earn
them salvation, is going to get them into heaven. The Lord was
clear on that when he said at the day of judgment, when he
separates the sheep from the goats, the goats will say, but
Lord, we've done many wonderful works in your name. The natural man looks to what
he does for his salvation. And the Lord says, depart from
me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. That which
you thought was going to give you a right to heaven is actually
the sin that will separate you from God for all eternity. So
this law has to be reckoned with. And only Christ can do it. And
Christ himself being the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth, he said to the law, sit down here. Look, look 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 city. You see the significance
of that. How can you miss that? This is
the law of God. Ten elders. The summary of God's
law is the Ten Commandments. And all of Scripture is the law
of God. The summary of which we find
in the Ten Commandments. And now Boaz is saying to the
law, sit down. And they sat down. And he said
unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country
of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech's. And I thought to advertise thee,
saying, buy it before the inhabitants and before the elders of the
people. If thou will 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 beside thee, and I am after thee. And he said,
I will redeem it. Then said Boaz, what day thou
buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must also buy
it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise
up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. So Ruth's husband
was Naomi's son, and now The kinsman-redeemer has the responsibility
of continuing the line of Elimelech by taking Ruth to be his wife.
And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself. Now remember,
as long as it was just Naomi, a Jewish woman, he said, I'll
take her in. She's too old to have children. I'll buy back
the property and we'll just add it to the estate. But that Moabitess, that Gentile,
no, I can't, I can't redeem her. Lest I mar my own inheritance,
redeem thou my right to thyself, for I cannot redeem it. The law of God cannot redeem
us. So in an open court with the
10 elders of the city for all to see, Boaz does business with
this other kinsman and settles the matter once and for all. Undeniable evidence of what is
taking place Legal matters in those days were held not in the
back rooms of secrecy, but for full disclosure were done at
the city gate, at the gate of the city for all to see. How we must be willingly ignorant. to refuse that which has been
done and accomplished so perfectly. No historical event has been
verified by more witnesses or corroborated by more testimony
than the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
yet, Men will not believe. They will willingly reject the
truth of the gospel. This much evidence given in any
court of law would result in a certain verdict. Unless, unless
you were a juror compromised by your own self-interest. Only a juror who had been paid
off, only a juror who was looking out for themselves could deny
such clear evidences of the gospel. This thing was done in an open
court. Men who refuse to believe the
gospel do it willingly. They do it purposefully. You will not come unto me that
you might have life. Light has come into the world,
but men love darkness rather than light. Now you compare the
gospel to Islam. One man. One man by the name
of Muhammad in the 6th century AD sat down and wrote the entire
book of the Quran. And 2 billion people in the world
today subscribe to that religion. You think of Mormonism. Joseph Smith at 15
years old, got a vision from God. And then subsequent to that,
went out in the woods and found some golden tablets and wrote
those into a book, the Book of Mormons. And 20 million people in the world today
following after the testimony of one man. Or Ellen G. White, Ellen G. White, who pretended
to have 2,000 visions and wrote all of the preface for the Seventh-day
Adventist. And they are still following
after the testimony of one woman. We have 66 books, 40 penmen,
written over 1,500 years. corroborated by the testimony
of eyewitnesses over and over and over again. No historical
event is more done in an open court at the gate of the city
than what the Lord Jesus Christ did. And yet men will not believe. Why will they not believe? Because
they've got a self-interest. They're a compromised juror.
They will follow after a man like Muhammad. They will follow
after Ellen G. White. They will follow after
Joseph Smith. They won't come to Christ. What's
the difference between the gospel and all the other religions of
the world? They let men hold on to their righteousness. The
gospel message strips men of their righteousness. It strips
them of all of their contribution in their salvation. You see,
the three religions I just mentioned are works religions. You can
come and follow the testimony of this one demented individual
and hang on to your righteousness and keep your works and take
pride in your participation. And the gospel says, no, you're
gonna come to Christ. You have no reason not to believe
the gospel. It's been done openly, undeniably
at the gate. with ten elders and testimonies
over and over and over again, the word of which has been preserved
by God for over 2,000 years, and yet you will not come unto
me. Why? Because you will not be
stripped of your righteousness. You will not be made to bow and
depend upon another. That's why men won't come, isn't
it? Child of God, that's what kept you from coming. You chose
not to believe until God got you to the place where you didn't
have a choice. You see, this happening at the
city gate gives testimony to the fact that the Lord said,
all men are liars. We will lie and refuse to bow
and refuse to believe something so clear, something so undeniable,
until God does to us what he said in the book of Isaiah. My
children will not lie. They will not lie about who they
are. They will not lie about who I am. They will not lie about
what I've said. They will speak the truth. They
will believe. And God made you to do that.
So the fact that this thing was done in the city gate is a clear
testimony of two things. Our unwillingness in our fallen
state to believe the most clear, obvious revelation of truth that
the world has ever known because of our spiritual dead condition
and our ability to believe the gospel. Because only by God's
grace, only by God's grace can we be made able. Second thing we see about The
City Gate is the story of Jacob fleeing Esau after having stole
his birthright and deceived his father. Now, Jacob has to flee
for his life. And you remember on his way to
Laban's house, he lies down and takes a rock and makes a pillow
out of it. I always wondered, you know,
surely you could rake up some leaves or something, find something
more comfortable than a rock, but it's symbolic. It's symbolic. These are pictures. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the rock. He's the rock of ages. He's the
cornerstone and he's the one on which we rest our heads. And
Jacob now is a believer as a, as a, as an elect child of God,
the Lord's going to speak to him. and give him grace and reveal
himself to him. And he goes to sleep on that
rock and he has a vision that night of a ladder going up into
heaven. And angels ascending and descending
on that ladder. And he wakes up the next morning
and he said, and he called the place Bethel. Bethel, Beth, house,
El, God, the house of God. And he went on to say this, He
said, now, this place is now called Bethel. Nowhere else,
he said, and this is nothing other than the very gate to heaven. The gate to heaven. When the
Lord Jesus Christ reveals himself to Nathanael, and Nathanael says,
surely thou art the son of God. You remember when the Lord said
to him, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no God, how do
you know me? I saw you when you were under the fig tree. And
Nathanael was amazed. He said, surely you are the Christ. And the Lord said, you haven't
seen anything yet. You're gonna see the angels of God ascending
and descending on the Son of Man. You see, the Lord Jesus
Christ in that latter vision that Jacob had back in Bethel,
the house of God, was the Lord Jesus Christ. And He is the gate
into heaven. And that's why Jacob said, this
place is called Bethel and this is none other than the very gate
into heaven. What is that a reference to? This is the house of God. It's
God's Word. You're God's people. God's called me to preach. I'm
God's preacher. This is where He promises to
reveal His grace and His glory. This is the very gate to heaven. Let me ask you a question. Where else in the world are you
going to hear the gospel? Where else? Nowhere. Nowhere. Religion doesn't know anything
about Christ. They don't know anything about
His accomplished work. They don't know anything about what He did
on Calvary's cross, the public display of His humiliation, the successful work of His redemption. They don't know anything about
Him as the sovereign God who was the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world, who bore the sins of His people and
put them away once and for all. The world knows nothing about
that. The religious world knows nothing about it. Education knows
nothing about it. Politics knows nothing about
it. All the voices of the world. Nowhere else, nowhere else is
the gospel of God's free grace in Christ lifted up and believed
and blessed to the hearts of God's people other than in the
house of God, Bethel. This is the very gate to heaven. because this is where Christ
is lifted up. He said, if I be lifted up, I will draw men to
me. You see, we're like that. Remember in Acts chapter two,
I think it is, when Peter and John are, it's after Pentecost,
and they were going into the temple, and there was a lame
man sitting at the gate of the temple called Beautiful. There's the gate, there's the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the beautiful gate into
heaven. And the lame man couldn't go
in because he was not qualified. He was disqualified from worshiping
God and he was a beggar and he was poor and he was looking for
alms and Peter looked at him and he said, silver and gold
have we none. Silver and gold have we none. You read that Mark.
We're not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold.
We're not offering men something to do in order to redeem themselves
or some way to buy themselves into heaven. Silver and gold have we none.
We got plenty of silver and gold when it comes to material silver
and gold, but we're talking about spiritual things here. We're
talking about redemption. We're talking about what God
requires for our redemption. And we are redeemed not by corruptible
things, such as silver and gold, but by incorruptible, even by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Such as we have, we give unto
thee. Stand up and walk in the name
of Jesus. And he stood and he leaped for
joy. Oh, that happened at the gate
called Beautiful. And every time we gather together
here, we pray that God will cause it to happen with us. That this
will be Bethel. This will be the gate to heaven.
This will be where men will come to see that they're not redeemed
with silver and gold. That their works cannot satisfy
the demands of God's righteousness and God's justice. completely dependent upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what we say at the gates,
verse Psalm 24. Lift up your heads, O ye gates. Lift them up, ye everlasting
doors, for the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King
of glory? The Lord of hosts. The Lord of
hosts, he is the King of glory. When we come to God's house,
when we come to Bethel, And the door, the gate to heaven is being
opened by God the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the
gospel. What are we saying? Open ye gates. The King of Glory
is coming in. Who is the King of Glory? He
is the Lord of Hosts. That's His name. The Lord of
Hosts. What does that mean? That means He reigns sovereign
over the living and the dead. That means that He does what
He wants, when He wants, however He wants, with whomever He wants. And no man can stay His hand
or say unto Him, what doest thou? He reigns over the armies of
heaven and over all the inhabitants of the earth. He's the Lord of
hosts. And He's the one who comes in
through this open gate. He's the one that performed the
work of redemption in an open gate. with 10 elders at the city
gate, undeniable. No historical event has more
testimony, more witnesses, and more written, confirmed word. And this word, that's what it
does. Every verse of the Bible confirms another verse of the
Bible. None of it contradicts itself. And you have to be out
of your mind. You have to either be, well,
we're all, that's how we come into this world. We're like that
demoniac who live among the tombs and cut ourselves with stones
and shed our blood. What are we doing? We're trying
to redeem ourselves and we're out of our mind. And the Lord
saves him and he puts him in his right mind and he clothes
him. See, we need to be put in our
right mind, don't we? To deny the gospel is to either be a
lunatic or is to be sold out to a self-interest. Either way, it is a willing,
it is a willing act on our part as unbelievers to say, I will
not have that man reign over me. And to come to Christ. It's when God makes you to where
you have no choice. He puts you in your right mind.
You got no place else to go. And then the Lord at the city
gate at Bethel, the very gate to heaven, provides for his people
the place for the gate to be opened and for the Lord of glory
to come in. Another reference to the gate
in the Bible is the gates of hell. When the Lord asked the
disciples, whom do men say that I am? Well, some say that thou
art John the Baptist, or one of the prophets, or Elijah, who
was caught up into heaven, Elijah. And you've come back in bodily
form. And the Lord said, yeah, that's
all their speculation. Who do you say that I am? Peter
said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You alone
have the words of eternal life. We know and are sure of it. We're
sure of it. You've convinced us of it. Blessed
art thou, Simon Barjona, flesh and blood has not revealed this
unto you. You didn't come to this on your
own. You'd still be purposefully, willingly denying me, denying
the clear evidence of the gospel if it wasn't for my father. drawing
you. No man can come to the Son unless
the Father, which has sent him, draw him. You came because you
were drawn, Peter. And upon this rock, the declaration
you just made, that I am the Christ, the Christ, the Son of
the living God, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it." Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ goes into the very belly of hell.
That's where He got you from. That's where He got me from.
Hell-bent, self-interest, Christ-denying sinners. And He made captivity,
that's where we were, we were in captivity, captive. You see, the Scriptures are clear.
You're either captive to the devil or you're captive to Christ.
There's no in-between. There's no in-between whatsoever. None. Isn't that glorious? Lord, that's where I was. You
came in the gates of hell. You're my strong man. You're
my Samson. You took those gates and you
carried them away with their very posts and you came in and
you got me. You brought me out. Put me in
my right mind. You made me to believe. These
are the things that happen to the gate. This is the very gate
to heaven. And there is no other gate. There's
no other gate. When the scripture speaks of
that new Jerusalem coming down from heaven in the book of Revelation, and
it has 12 gates, three on the north, three on the south, three
on the east, three on the west, that's symbolic, 12 gates representing
the 12 tribes of Israel. All of the 144,000, and that's
symbolic. That's not a literal number.
That's 12 times 12,000. That's all the elect of God from
all the tribes of Israel. And from wherever they come,
wherever I brought them, and each of us are brought from a
different direction, there is a gate on that side of the city. And those 12 gates are all and
each made, the scripture says, of one pearl, one pearl. And that pearl is the pearl of
great price. That pearl is Christ, isn't he? He's the only way. He's the gate. That's our message. Straight
is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life. And few are they that find it.
Few are they that find it. The majority of the world will
take the most testified event that ever took place among men
and deny it and reject it rather than go through that straight
gate. And you would too. And I would
too, but for the grace of God. Oh, here's the gate. The Lord
Jesus Christ has done business with the law at the gate. When the Lord is blessing Abraham
in Genesis chapter 22, he says this, thy seed shall possess the gates of his enemy. Now the promise was to Abraham
and his seed, singular, and in the book of Galatians, it's very
clear that he's not talking about the seeds of Abraham, he's talking
about one, Christ. Christ. So the promise was to
Abraham and to his seed. the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
promises and blessings that God's people have are in that one seed. And here's what God said to Abraham,
thy seed shall possess the gates of his enemies. That means he
possessed the gates of hell, which is his enemy. And that
means that he possesses our gate. Your front door to your house
is your gate. You only open that to certain
people, don't you? And you have the right and authority to open
it to whoever you will. And the scripture says that we
come into this world at enmity with God. We won't open to Him.
We will not open. And the father said to the son,
he said, sit down here at my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool. I'm going to cause those who
are by nature at enmity with Thee. And I'm going to open their
gate. Because the gates of your enemies,
the seed shall possess the gates of His enemies. He possesses
every man's gate. And He'll open that gate. You've
seen the picture of the long-haired hippie standing in front of a
door with the vines around it. I guess it's supposed to be the
Lord. there's no there's no doorknob
on the outside of the door have you seen that it's a famous painting
and you know you've got to open it from the inside in order for
him to be able to come in he's standing at the door knocking
he wants to come in he sees he's desperate to you know to come
into your life but you've got all the power you've got to be
you got the one you have to be the one to open the door no No. Thy seed, Christ, shall possess
the gates of His enemies. He'll open that door when He's
ready. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? You see, if it was up to us to
open the door, we'd never open it. We'd never open it. We'd
deny everything about Him, and we would never, ever open the
gate. The gate represents the finished
work. You remember when Nehemiah came
back from the Babylonian captivity, and the scripture says that he
rebuilt the temple and built the walls, and the last thing
he did, the scripture says, was he set the gates. He set the
gates. When the Lord Jesus Christ bowed
his head on Calvary's cross. When he cried, it is finished. The gate was set. The gate was
set. And the church says, come. Come. The gates are open. That new Jerusalem, by the way,
over there in the book of Revelation with the 12 gates, the scripture
says the gates are open and they're never shut. The open gates. The man left to himself will
not come through. He won't come. He will deny the most clear,
obvious public court that ever took place at the gate. And the scripture says the Lord
Jesus Christ went outside the gate and that we are to come
and follow after him. Now in there, the gate represents
that old works religion of Jerusalem and they took him outside the
camp and were to follow him outside the camp. What a glorious picture. I want
to close with one passage. If you'll turn with me in your
Bibles back to the book of Joshua chapter 20, Joshua chapter 20. Men choose not to believe. You believe when you don't have
a choice. Then shut up to Christ. You're
like Peter. Lord, where should we go? Where
should we go? You've put me in my right mind.
I can't deny the obvious truth anymore. I am a sinner. and you're
a great savior. Now in Joshua chapter 20, Joshua
has brought the children of Israel across the Jordan and they've
divided up the land and now they're building cities in the promised
land. And the Lord tells Joshua that
he is to build particular cities of refuge and they are scattered
evenly throughout all of Palestine, all of Israel. Here's the text,
and the Lord also spake, verse 1, chapter 20, verse 1, the Lord
also spake unto Joshua, saying, Speak to the children of Israel,
saying, Appoint out for your cities of refuge, whereof I spake
unto you by the hand of Moses, that the slayer that killeth
any person unaware and unwittingly may flee thereto, tither, and They shall be your refuge from
the avenger of blood. Now, the law required an eye
for an eye and tooth for tooth. So the law said if you murdered
somebody, then the only way to atone for that or to get justice,
if you want to get atoning, to get justice for that was for
you to be put to death. No, no, no quite. But now, in
the case of an accidental manslaughter, in the case where you were responsible
for the death of someone else unwittingly. You didn't know
you did it, but it was your responsibility. Then God gave to the children
of Israel cities of refuge. And from what I understand, those
cities of refuge had signs all over Israel. The next city of
refuge here, because you had to get to that city of refuge.
and hide in that city of refuge, lest the ne'er of kin of the
person that you killed, the avenger of blood, avenged you for the
death of their family member. They have the legal right to
do that. God's providing a place for you to escape to, but there's
still an avenger of blood. There's still the law. You see,
this is the same picture. The law is pursuing us. And the
law is going to arrest us, and the law is going to condemn us
guilty unless we follow the signs. And that's what we're doing right
now. We're just pointing to the city of refuge. We're just a
signpost. And there He is. There He is. Flee. Yes. We killed the Son of God. We didn't. We didn't have a conscious
thought of it. We didn't. I don't know how far
back we can remember in our childhood, but to go back to your earliest
memory and say, I hate God and I'm going to do everything I
can to kill him. And I'm going to, no, no. We just acted what
we were by nature unwittingly. And yet it was our sin that killed
the son of God. Verse four, and when he that
doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of
the gate of the city and shall declare his cause in the ears
of the elders of that city. See here again, we have an open
court where the elders at the gate of the city, just like we
saw in Ruth chapter four, This is an open issue. This is not
something private. They shall take him into the
city unto them and give him a place that he may dwell among them.
And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not
deliver the slayer up into his hand, because he smote his neighbor
unwittingly and hated him not before time. And he shall dwell
in that city until he stand before the congregation for judgment.
And until the death of the high priest that shall be in those
days, then shall the slayer return and come into his own house,
his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from which
he fled." Oh, you see the picture of the
gospel there, don't you? The death of the high priest
is what enables those who are fleeing to the city of refuge
to go home to glory. Christ is that city of refuge.
It is to Him that sinners flee. It is to Him that we stand at
the city gate before the congregation and say, Yes, I did it. It was my sin that put Christ
on the cross. I bear the responsibility. I need a place of escape. I need
one to protect me from the avenger of blood. You let me in. Our Heavenly Father, Thank You
for Your Word. Bless it to our hearts and cause
us to come unto Thee. We ask it
in Christ's name. Amen. 36 in the Sproul hymnal. Let's stand
together. Number 36. ? Behold my soul the love of God
? ? Behold the grace most free ? ? Before all worlds his purpose
stood ? ? His heart was fixed on me ? Elected by eternal love,
the covenant firm and sure, the triune God agreed in love, salvation
to secure. ? My soul was given to the Son
? He promised to redeem ? By blood and righteousness His own
? He would my soul reclaim ? In the due time Emmanuel came ?
To live and die for me ? He lives today and bears my name ? ? Christ
is my surety ? ? In love he sent his spirit down ? ? Who gave
me life and grace ? ? He drew me and I followed on ? ? My savior
to embrace ? ? Now I rejoice in covenant love ? ? Amazing
grace I sing ? ? I now am conquered by his love ? ? My Savior is
my King ? you