Good morning. If you would, let's open this
morning's services. We'll stand together and sing
hymn number 352 in the hardback hymnal. 352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till
the dorm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. of the refuge have i none hangs
my helpless soul on thee leave i leave me not alone still support
and comfort me all my trust on thee All my help from thee I bring,
Cover my defenseless head With the shadow of thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy, ? All unrighteousness ? ? False
and full of sin I am ? ? Thou art full of truth and grace ?
? Plenty's grace with thee is found ? ? Grace to cover all
my sin ? Let the healing streams abound, make and keep me pure
within. Thou of life the fountain art,
freely let me take of thee. spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Be seated. Good morning. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me, we're going to be in the third chapter of Ruth. in
the first hour this morning, Ruth chapter three. I love the line in that hymn
we just sang, false and full of sin I am. But how's the rest
of it go? But in thee is found grace and
truth or truth and grace. And that's a summary of what
we are a summary of what He is. We are false and full of sin,
and He is full of grace and truth. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we dare not approach Your Holy
Presence without looking to Thy dear Son, our Savior, our substitute
to all our righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our
acceptance before thee. But oh, what great hope we have.
Though we be filled with sin and falsehood, we know that in
Him is truth and grace. Lord, we ask that you'd be pleased
this morning to open what no man can shut. We pray that you
would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that you
would, by your Holy Spirit, speak truth to our heart and reveal
to us the glory of thy dear son, that we might find grace in thy
sight. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. You have your Bibles open to
Ruth chapter 3. I've titled this message, Required
for Salvation. Required for Salvation. Notice with me in verse 11, Boaz
is speaking to Ruth. She has met with him at the threshing
floor. She has, as we saw last Sunday,
uncovered his feet, and he has covered her with his skirt. And now he speaks to her, and
he says to her, and now, and now, my daughter, fear not, for
I will do to thee all that thou requirest. I will do to thee
He didn't say, I will do for you all that you've asked. I will do to thee all that thou
requirest. What is it that is required for
us to be saved? We know that Boaz is a type of
the Lord Jesus Christ, our kinsman redeemer. And so I hope this
morning that that as Boaz spoke to Ruth's heart, that the Lord
himself will speak to our hearts and say to us, and now my daughter,
fear not, for I will do to thee all that thou requirest, all
that you need to be saved. For all the city of my people
doth know that thou art a virtuous woman, We know that Proverbs
31 in the description of that virtuous woman is a picture of
the bride of Christ, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so God is speaking, the Lord Jesus Christ as our kinsman redeemer
is speaking to his church. And he's saying to her, and now
fear not, my daughter, for I will do to thee all that thou requirest. For the whole city knows that
thou art a virtuous woman." Now in thinking about what is required
for salvation, we could make a whole list of things,
but I want to limit the message this morning to the things particularly
that Boaz did for Ruth as her redeemer and as her reconciler
and as her husband. And so those will be the three
things that we will consider. When I first looked at this passage,
I thought, well, what is required for salvation? And there's so
much. It is required that the Lord give us faith. It is required
that we have a redeemer. It is required that we'd be born
again. And the list goes on and on and
on. And here's the good news. All
that God requires, God provides. And so what is required in the
context of Boaz speaking this word of comfort and hope to Ruth. And the first point of this message
is, when does the Lord save? It is required that He save us
now. Notice in our text that Boaz
begins by saying, and now. Now. Salvation is always in the
present. It's always in the present tense. It's always now. Today, if you
will hear my voice and harden not your heart. To look back
to a past experience for the hope of our salvation gives no
assurance. Our past experiences are at best
subjective and we cannot find any comfort in whatever past
experiences we may have had however life-changing and however emotional
and however true they were. Yesterday's manna spoils today. How oftentimes we've enjoyed
a good meal and we've remembered that meal and we've perhaps even
talked about that meal but We're not able to taste that meal the
next day. We're not able to eat that meal. We're not able to be nourished
by that food only as we eat it in the present. Can that meet our need to be saved? And
so the Lord's saying to me and you now, Today is the day of
salvation. Don't look back to any past experiences. Listen to what Peter said in
1 Peter 2, as newborn babes, a baby can eat and be satisfied
and just within a little while, that baby's gonna be crying for
more food. And the mother doesn't say to that baby, oh no, I fed
you a couple hours ago. No, she feeds the child again
because the baby's hungry again. As newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word that you may grow thereby. And he goes on
to say, if so that you have tasted that the Lord is good. If you've
been satisfied with Christ in the past, then come to him again
like a newborn babe. And the next verse says, to whom
coming? To whom coming? So, here's the
Lord saying to me, when are we saved? We're saved right now.
I'm talking about right now. Right this very moment. We can't look back as newborn
babes desire the sincere milk of the word. If you've tasted,
if you've tasted that the Lord is gracious, then you're going
to want more of Him. And we're not looking for something
different. We're looking for more of Him, aren't we? So, to
whom coming as of a living stone. We don't rest the hope of our
salvation on any past experiences. I was talking to someone recently
and they were telling me about a religious experience they had.
the past and how life-changing it was and I could tell from
their description of that experience that it was a bogus experience
it was nothing more than a than an emotional high for them and
I thought how many people there are they're living off of those
sort of experiences But child of God, even if your experience
in the past wasn't bogus, even if it was real, even if it was
truly of God, it's not sufficient for your salvation today. The
children of Israel who tried to keep the manna over to the
next day, it was full of worms and it stunk. And so it is with
yesterday's manna. Why is it that we, that we must
be saved now? Well, it's because our sin is
ever before us. Our sin is now. Our unbelief
is now. Our flesh is now. Do you suppose
that when Peter said to the disciples, after having sinned so grievously
on the night of our Lord's crucifixion, denying him with cursing three
times Peter later said to his disciples I go fishing I'm going
back to my old profession there's no way that God can possibly
use me now is there any you suppose that Peter in that moment of
despair, thought back on when the Lord said to him, blessed
art thou, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed
this unto you, but my father, which is in heaven has made it
known unto you that I am the Christ, the son of the living.
No, Peter could not live off of that past word from God as
glorious as it was. As assuring as it was, he could
not live off of it. Why? Because he needed help for
his current situation. He needed to be delivered from
his sin now. And that's why salvation must
always be in the present tense. Because our sin is ever before
us and we can't draw off of yesterday's promises hope for our current
need. Now, my daughter, now, not only
can we not look past to the past, but we can't look to the future.
How many times people hear the gospel and they think, well,
you know, I'll, I'll consider that. I'll, uh, I'll think about
that. And maybe sometime down the road,
I'll make application of that to my life. No one has ever been
saved in the future. Ever. Nothing, matter of fact,
nothing has ever happened in the future. It can't. It must happen now if it's going
to happen. In Acts chapter 24, there was
a Roman governor by the name of Felix, and Paul preached the
gospel to him. And Felix, after listening to
Paul, said, when I have a convenient season, I will call you again
unto me. No evidence whatsoever. that Felix ever called Paul back
or that he was ever saved. And in two chapters later, another
Roman governor by the name of Agrippa said to the Apostle Paul,
almost thou persuadest me to become a Christian. You know,
I'll think about that. I'm almost there. No? Felix, Agrippa, In Acts chapter 17, you remember
when Paul was in Athens and he preached to those philosophers
on Mars Hill and they listened to him and then they said, they
said this, we will hear you again on this matter. You go away from
now, we'll call you back and we'll listen to you again. No,
no one was ever saved in the future. Now, my daughter, now,
right now, we don't say, you know, go home and think about
it. No, the spirit and the bride say, come. The urgency of our
salvation is so, is so needful. It is so great that it must be
now. And so God says to me and you,
Now, now my daughter, don't live off of yesterday's manna. Don't
look, don't think that you're gonna somehow take care of this in the future.
Right now, right this very minute, it's the only time you can be
saved. Notice also in our text, my next
question is not only When do we need to be saved? Or when
does the Lord save? But why does the Lord save? Why does he save? And the answer
to that is love. Love. He said, I have loved you
with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have drawn thee
with cords of kindness. Look at the affection that the
Lord uses when he, or that Boaz uses when he speaks to Ruth. And now my daughter, my daughter. Oh, what a special bond a father
has with daughters. You know, boys, there can be
some competition between fathers and sons. And, you know, fathers
know that boys are going to grow up and, you know, they're going
to be able to take care of themselves fine. But there's a There's a
bond with a daughter that never, never, you know, what a special
love the father has and the Lord Jesus Christ has. For God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Hearing
his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave
his only begotten son as a propitiation for our sins. It's the love of
God. The first cause of our salvation
is God placing his love on his daughter, his bride. We think about our love for our
own children, and the Lord said, if you, being evil, know how
to give good gifts unto your children, How much more? Oh, we can't compare our love
to his love. How much more shall your heavenly father give good
gifts and the Holy Ghost unto them that ask him? It is his love. And now my daughter. What assurance do we have that
the Lord will save. If the time of salvation is now,
and the cause of our salvation is his love for us, then what
assurance do we have that he will save? We have his word. We have his word. Fear not. Fear not, my daughter. I will
do all that thou requirest. You see, that's where we hang
all our hopes, don't we? The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the Word of God. He is the living Word. He is the logos, the Word that
became flesh and dwelt among us. But the Lord Jesus in His
incarnation is only the fulfillment of who He is in His Word. in his written word. And so we
don't separate the written word from the living word. All that
the Lord, all the promises of God, all the promises of God
are yea, yes, and amen, sure in Christ. And so here's the
assurance that we have. Boaz spoke to Ruth and she said,
and he said, and now my daughter, fear not. Oh, how fearful we
can be. You know, we often say ignorance
is bliss. And there's a lot of things I
want to be ignorant of so that I don't have to worry about them.
But if the Lord's give us any sense about sin and about our
need to be reconciled with God, There's reason to be afraid.
And here's our Lord speaking a word of comfort to the hearts
of his children. Fear not. Fear not, my daughter. I will do all that you require. I will do it. Peter put it like this in 2 Peter
chapter 1, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature. I spoke a moment ago about how
we are prone to hang the hopes of our salvation on feelings
and experiences. And whether it be past or future,
which is a denial of the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here,
we find ourselves looking to something other than
the promises of God. Feelings come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. My only
hope is in the word of God. None else is worth believing. Someone said, well, how do we
know the Bible is the word of God? I'm not here to prove that to
you. The Bible authenticates itself
and there is no contradictions in God's word. And so as the
spirit of God, we declare the scriptures as the word of God.
And we trust that the spirit of God will give to the hearts
of God's people the faith to believe all that God has said.
And here's our hope. Here's our hope. Now, my daughter,
fear not. Fear not, for I will do. I will
do. Scripture says of Abraham that
he, who is the father of the faithful, he was fully persuaded
that God was able to do all, that he was able to perform all
that he had promised. There's our hope. The Lord Jesus
Christ fully performed everything that God had promised. And so
God speaks it by his word. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing
comes by the word of God. And we hang all the hopes of
our immortal soul on the precious promises of God. We've got no
place else to go. We don't look to outside evidences
to prove that the Bible is the word of God. We look to the scriptures to
authenticate the scriptures and they will and they do for those
for whom God has given faith. We believe that all scripture
is given by inspiration of God and that all scripture is profitable
for doctrine and for reproof and for correction and for instruction
in righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished
unto all good works. We believe that God chose out
holy men and gave them his spirit. And so they wrote not according
to their own private interpretation, but they were moved by the spirit
of God to write the very word of God. So, child of God, when are we saved?
Right now. Right now. Why are we saved? Love. Love. The Lord loves his
wife. He loves his bride. He loves
his daughter. He loves his children. What assurance do we have that
he will save? promises of God. Those promises are, well, the
scripture says that our God who cannot lie, who cannot lie, he
has promised to save to the uttermost, to the uttermost, completely,
fully. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he
bowed his mighty head on Calvary's cross, He made a promise to us
when he declared, it is finished. It is finished. Everything that
God requires, I have now provided. What is it that particularly
that Ruth required in order to be saved? Here she was a Moabitess. She was a stranger. She was outside
of the Commonwealth of Israel. She had no hope of salvation
unless A kinsman stepped up and became her redeemer. She needed
to be redeemed. She needed that which was lost
by her father-in-law, Elimelech. The story begins with Elimelech
selling his property in Bethlehem, Judah and moving his family to
Moab. And now Elimelech and his two
sons die in Moab, and Naomi, his wife, his widow, and Ruth,
his widowed daughter-in-law, come back to Bethlehem, Judah. And without without any connection
to property and without any hope of children, they had no... You see, these are the symbols. These are the types that God
gave to Old Testament Israel. If you had no property and you
had no heir, then you had no hope of salvation. This was the picture of salvation
in the Old Testament. And Ruth needed a kinsman of
Elimelech to purchase back for her that which her father-in-law
had lost by his unbelief. He lost that property by unbelief.
He should never have left Bethlehem, Judah and went to Moab, but he
did. And he lost everything that he had.
The Lord had provided in his law a place for a kinsman to
be able to step up and buy that property back. Now here's the
gospel picture of that. You and I lost our possession. We lost our heritage, we lost
our union with God when our father Adam, in unbelief, disobeyed
God. When he sinned, we sinned in
him. In Adam all died. You and I were in the loins of
our father Adam. When he sinned, we sinned. When
he died, we died. Separated from God, lost our
heritage, lost paradise. Paradise been lost, put out of
the garden. And the Lord Jesus Christ as
our kinsman redeemer steps up and purchases back for us that
which our father lost. Boaz is called a mighty man of
wealth. He is willing and able to fulfill
the requirements of the law and to buy back the property that
had been lost by Elimelech. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
a mighty man of wealth. Here's the thing about it. Men
try to redeem themselves by their works. They think, well, if I
could do something to make up for my sin, I could be made right
with God. There's only one price that God
will take for the redemption of our souls. No man can redeem
himself. The Lord Jesus Christ and his
precious blood is the only price that God's satisfied with. And
so our Lord is saying now, My daughter, fear not. I will do
all that thou requirest. What you require is you require
a kinsman who's able to purchase back, one who's able to pay for
your sins, one who's able to be a successful redeemer. Notice in verse 12 of Ruth chapter 3, and now it
is true that I am thy near kinsman. How be it? There is another kinsman
nearer than I. You see, the law required the
nearest of kinsmen to step up first. So if Boaz was perhaps
Elimelech's brother. We don't know what exactly the
connection was. Scripture doesn't tell us. But
that would be the nearest kinsman. If Elimelech had a brother, Boaz
could be his brother. But what Boaz is saying now is
there's another brother that's closer to Elimelech than I am.
And he's got to be reconciled with. he gets the first opportunity
to redeem, if he's able to redeem. And Boaz goes to that other kinsman
who's nearer to Elimelech and says to him, the rest of this
chapter, we'll get into it later, but he says to him, you know
Naomi, Our brother's wife has returned from Moab and her property
needs to be purchased back and you're the nearest kinsman. And
the brother says, I'll do it. And then Boaz said to him, oh,
by the way, in the day in which you redeem Naomi, your sister-in-law,
you must also redeem Ruth, the Moabitess. And this near kinsman
says, oh no, no, I can't do that. I can't take a Moabitess into
my family. It will mar my inheritance. It'll
destroy the heritage of my family if I take in a Moabitess. And
that kinsman had to be dealt with. There had to be some reconciling
with that nearer kinsman. And it's exactly what Boaz did,
and it's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did. There is a
kinsman near unto us. It is the law of God. It requires
absolute perfect obedience. And that law must be reckoned
with. And the Lord Jesus Christ did exactly that. He made the
law of God honorable, the scripture says. He is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Here's the picture. The law cannot redeem you and
I. For the law to redeem us, it would have to lower its standard.
It would mar its inheritance. It would have to set aside its
holiness in order for the law to be able to redeem a Moabitess
like you and me. And the law says, oh no, I can't
do that. And Boaz says, if he won't, I will. I will. So you and I need two things.
We need a redeemer, one who is able and willing to buy back
what we lost in our father, Adam, and we need a reconciler. We
need one who's able to reconcile us to the law. One who's able
to present us before the law of God, perfect and sinless. And only the Lord Jesus' obedience
to the law can do that. You and I are required to love
the Lord with all of our heart and all of our mind and all of
our soul all the time. And truth is, we've never been
able to do that one single time. The Lord Jesus Christ, that's
exactly what he did. Exactly what he did he reconciled
with the law of God He satisfied its demands Scripture says in
Romans chapter 10 of the natural man Says they have a zeal for
God, but not according to knowledge For they being ignorant of God's
law go about trying to establish their own righteousness and Not
knowing that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. So the natural man will go about
trying to reconcile himself to God in his presumed attempts
to keep the law. Ignorant of God's righteousness.
Ignorant that God requires absolute perfect obedience to the law
of God. You're going to be saved by the
law. You got to keep the whole law. Got to keep it all the time. not just in your outward appearances,
but in your heart, in your heart. And you and I have never done
that. But we have a kinsman who did, and here's how he saves. He stepped up to be our redeemer.
He reconciled us to the law. And thirdly, we had to have a
husband. I had to have a husband. Ruth had no opportunity in the Old Testament
economy of Israel. Nothing sexist about this. This is God's picture of salvation. We are his bride. We are that virtuous woman. who cannot have life in our womb
apart from a husband. And we cannot be part of Israel
apart from the union with a man. And so we've got to have a husband. And Boaz says to Ruth, fear not
my daughter. Right now I'm going to do all
that you require. You require a redeemer. You require
one to reconcile you to the law, and you require a husband. But
you might have life. You might have hope in Israel. He says to her, and I close with
this, look at the last part of verse 11, and I would encourage
you to go back and read Proverbs chapter 31, and consider it in light of the
bride of Christ. I remember one time I was up
in West Virginia and I saw a woman driving a minivan and on her
license plate it said PR31WM. She was boasting to the whole world that she was
a Proverbs 31 woman, that she was a virtuous woman. Now, what
daughter of Christ would not want to be described by the things
that are in Proverbs 31? But this is the church. We don't
go about, no child of God would go about saying, well, I'm a
Proverbs 31 woman. But that's exactly what the church
is. She's a virtuous woman. And here's how Proverbs 31 starts.
Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is above rubies? Oh, who can find an assembly
of God's people that worship Christ and rely upon him as their
redeemer and as their reconciler and as their husband? Who can
find it? And then it concludes with, It
speaks of how prosperous and how faithful she is and how her
husband and her children praise her. And then it concludes with
this, favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who
fears the Lord, she shall be praised. You know, there's a lot of so-called
churches in the world that have a lot more favor in this world
than we do. They have a lot more beauty in
this world than we do, but they don't qualify as a virtuous woman.
And so favor is deceitful and beauty is vain. But a woman, a virtuous woman,
who feareth the Lord, a church, who's believing that now is the
day of salvation. And as a daughter of Christ,
she rests in his love and believes on his promises and trust him
as her redeemer and as her reconciler and as her husband. She shall
be praised. Our heavenly Father, Thank you
for this picture of our salvation. And Lord, we pray that you would
speak truth and hope and comfort and salvation to our hearts.
For it's in Christ's name we ask it.