As I said earlier, this is a
sweet, sweet meeting on the threshing floor between Ruth and Boaz. And as we saw last week, Ruth
has gone there because Naomi said in verse 1 of chapter 3,
Shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? The rest, of course, is the rest
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our peace. And that is the
wellness, that's what is well for the people of God, to rest
in Him. And she gave instructions to
to Ruth about what to do, and as Ruth always does, in the most
humble and sweet way, in verse 5, she said unto her, all that
thou sayest unto me, I will do. Last week we looked at the beginning
of that conversation, down to verse 11, we might as well read
it. And it came to pass at midnight, verse 8, that the man was afraid
and turned himself, and behold, a woman laid his feet and his
head. Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth,
thine handmaid. Spread therefore thy skirt over
thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman. And he said,
Blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter, for thou hast showed
more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch
as thou followest not young men, whether poor or rich. And now,
my daughter, fear not. I will do to thee all that thou
requirest. For all the city of my people
doth know that thou art a virtuous woman, And now it is true that
I am thy near kinsman, howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than
I. tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he
will perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well, let him do
the kinsman part. But if he will not do the part
of a kinsman to thee, then I will do the part of a kinsman to thee,
as the Lord liveth, lie down till morning. And she laid his
feet until morning, and she rose up before one could know another.
And he said, Let it not be known that a woman came into the floor. Also he said, Bring the veil
that thou hast upon thee, and hold it. And she held it, and
he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her, and she went
into the city. And when she'd come to her mother-in-law,
she said, Who art thou, my daughter? it was dark obviously, and she
told her all that the man had done to her, and she said, These
six meshes of barley gave he me, for he said to me, Go not
empty unto thy mother-in-law. Then said she, Sit still, my
daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall, for the
man will not be in rest until he have finished the thing this
day. It's a glorious picture, isn't
it, of a conversation between the Lord and a needy sinner,
between our great Boas and those needy sinners. And there are
four things I would just like to look at briefly this evening.
The first is that redemption is always going to be redemption
in righteousness. When God redeems sinners, he
will do it in such a way that he will honour all of the characteristics
of God. He will honour God's law, he
will honour God's word, he will honour God's promises, and he
will honour and magnify all of the character of God. And in
verse 14 and 15 we see that his honour and her honour before
the people of this world is an important thing and he works
in the hearts of his people to teach them who he is and he works
in the hearts of his people to honour him with their lives. And then we have this conversation
of Ruth returning to the Church and bearing testimony to the
words of the Redeemer. And then we have the advice of
the Church to an awakened sinner. His glorious advice, isn't it?
Sit still. Sit still. For the man will not
be in rest until he has finished the thing, until he has completed.
That's the same word that the Lord Jesus Christ used on the
cross. Bring to an end. So we see, don't we, that the
Lord Jesus, our great kinsman redeemer, will not redeem people
without the law being honoured. We see that the other kinsman,
verse 12, that's nearer than I, is representative of the law,
and we'll, Lord willing, get to look at that when I come back
from my brief travels. But the law must be satisfied. God will not will not save sinners
without His law being honoured. And if He's going to redeem,
it's going to be a redemption in righteousness. It will be
a redemption that honours God's character as righteous and holy
and just. And this is what Boaz is teaching
Ruth in this conversation and this is what our Redeemer teaches
His people when He becomes the teacher of them. They are brought
to Him and they are brought down and they are brought humbled,
they are brought to declare themselves in His hands, Thine handmaid. And in Him is this full reward. The Lord recompense thy work
and a full reward be given to thee. Chapter 2 verse 12. Of the Lord God of Israel under
whose wings thou art come to trust. She lay down and she had
and asked him in verse 9 to spread your skirt over me, marry me
is what she's saying. The Lord Jesus Christ will teach
His chosen sinner that redemption is in Him and that He and He
alone will provide redemption. He and He alone, as we will see
in future, He and He alone will bring life to a dead sinner. And until the Lord Jesus is revealed
in righteousness to his needy sinners, people will be seeking
another kinsman, they will be seeking redemption, they will
be seeking some place for themselves in this world and some place
for themselves with God in anything other than Him. They must be
brought out of Moab, they must be brought to Bethlehem, the
house of bread, they must be brought to His field, they must
be brought to His church, they must be brought to a place where
He feeds them and He protects them. They must be brought to
the place that she was seeking at the beginning of it. She was
going to find to glean in a field where she shall find grace. There's
only grace, there's only grace in the gracious Lord who saves
in righteousness. Christ crucified is our kinsman
redeemer. And so He, very evidently as
we see in the passages we've looked at in the past, he very
evidently is extraordinarily fond of Ruth and he's a very
willing He's a very willing redeemer, kinsman redeemer, and he's a
very powerful kinsman redeemer. He's a very wealthy kinsman redeemer.
But also he wants her to understand that as much as he is fond of
her and as much as he has poured grace upon her, grace that she
hasn't even been aware of, he has something that's more important.
In the redemption of sinners, the honour and glory of God's
character is more important to our Redeemer and more important
to His Father than anything else in all this world. It is the
most important thing. Just turn with me to Romans 3.
There's a remarkable description of redemption in Romans 3. Romans
3, as you know, and those verses 9 down, speaks of the fact that
we are no better. There is none righteous, no not
one, there is none that understands, and so on and so forth. The way
of peace they have not known, there is no fear of God before
their eyes. And whatsoever things the law
says, it says to them who are under the law that every mouth
may be stopped." That's the purpose of the law, isn't it? To stop
every mouth. So the reality of our sin is
that it's a much bigger deal than we ever possibly think it
is. Many were, in verse 19 of chapter
5, pulled by one man's disobedience. Many were made sinners. When were you made a sinner?
We were made sinners when we sinned in our father Adam. we
were made sinners. And then we come forth from their
mother's womb, speaking lies, and sin is what we do, and sin
is what we live in, and sin is something that we have absolutely
no understanding of until we see the Lord Jesus and Him crucified. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall there no flesh be justified in this heart, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. And I love this but and what
follows. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested. So the Gospel is a declaration
of the manifestation of the righteousness of God, though as is going to
be to Ruth a righteous redeemer. Being witnessed by the Law and
the Prophets, he is going to be a righteous Redeemer manifested
as it is witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. He will honour
the Word of God. He will honour Leviticus 25 and
the other passages that we read in the past about the activities
of the kinsmen Redeemer. It's a manifestation of the righteousness
of God, even the righteousness of God which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. It's the righteousness of God
by someone else's faith and not ours, unto all and upon all them
that believe. For there is no difference, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. been justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation, in literal terms, to be the mercy seat, that place
where God met with others through the blood of His Son. Set forth
as a propitiation through faith in His blood, and this is a declaration,
it's a manifestation of the righteousness of God, it's a declaration of
His righteousness for the remission of sins that have passed, through
the forbearance of God to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness,
His righteousness, and I love these words, that He might be
just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. We are justified in such a way
that God manifests the righteousness of God, that God can declare
His righteousness, to declare that His character is to be a
just God and a saviour, a just God and a justifier. a justifier of them which believe
in Jesus. For God to be just, He must punish
sin in a way which honours His holiness. He must punish sin. Sinners must die and sinners
who sin must suffer eternal separation from God, for God to be just. That's the wonder of the Gospel,
isn't it? That the eternal God, as our representative, the Lord
Jesus Christ, God, in crushing his son has
found a way that sinners like us can die eternally, can die
eternally separated from God forever and yet have eternal
life. That sinners like us can suffer
divine justice until God's holy justice says enough. can suffer
divine justice and yet be justified. So that's the righteousness that
Christ came to declare. Redemption. It's such a word
that we need so much to ponder again and again. The story of
Boaz and Ruth is the story of Akins and Meredith. It's the
story of redemption. It's the story of redemption
in honouring the law. Redemption is to buy back with
the payment of a price. See, it's redemption from captivity
to sin. It's redemption from bondage
to Satan. It's redemption from under the
curse of the law. She was a Moabitess. It's redemption
is to be brought out brought out from all of these things
and brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. And we've done it. He has done
it for his people. We are his children. We are the
purchase of his blood. He's done it by purchase price
and He's done it by the power of His grace. And we've seen
throughout Ruth, haven't we, the power of His grace, drawing
her and drawing her ever closer to Himself until we come to this
delightful scene that we meet with now, the betrothal ceremony
as it were. But it's redemption, isn't it?
It's redemption by price. It's redemption by power. It's
redemption by a kinsman. It's redemption by a substitute. And there's nothing else. There
is no other reason for God's servants to be preaching other
than to be declaring Jesus Christ and Him crucified in all that
we do. The redemption is in Him. The redemption is in His blood. I love what Ephesians 1.7 says
about redemption. It talks about the predestination
and the choosing of us in those verses earlier, doesn't it? He's
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places.
To the praise of the glory of his grace. In verse 7 he talks
about redemption in Ephesians chapter 1. In whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. There is a description of the
purchaser. There is a description of the
objects of redemption. And there is a description of
the fact, the certain fact of redemption, in whom we have redemption
through His blood. That's the price of redemption. The result of redemption is the
forgiveness of sins. And the cause of all of this
is the riches of His grace. His blood. It's blood that is
infinite in merit, infinite in power, infinite in efficacy. There is in the union of sinners
with the Lord Jesus Christ, there is an infinite activity, an infinite
activity that allows for God to declare the sins of his people
are removed from us as far as the east and the west. They're
cast into the depths of the sea. He's blotted them out. They aren't
imputed to us. He's purged them away. He will
not remember them against us forever. And the beauty of redeeming
love in our Lord Jesus Christ is that our God will never deal
with us any less graciously because of our sins. He draws His sinners
to Himself. And our great Redeemer, our great
Kinsman Redeemer purchased His own. in whom we have redemption
through His blood. See, it's His life's blood that
was shed on Calvary's tree. It was the blood of a man. It was the blood of God. It was covenant blood. It was,
according to Revelation 13.8, it was eternal blood. But it's
more than that, isn't it? We see in this meeting of Ruth
and Boaz, we see the intimacy. This is a private conversation,
there's no one else a witness to it at all, not even Naomi. There is this intimate union,
there is this intimate communion between the Lord Jesus and His
people. You see the blood is sprinkled, isn't it? The blood
is sprinkled on the conscience. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the internal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience? I don't know about you, but I
find my conscience has every reason to trouble me enormously
all the day long. And what does Hebrews 9.14 say? How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience? See, they're dead works, aren't
they? Any works that look to you are dead works. Purge your
conscience from dead works. Your good works are dead works.
Your bad works are dead works. Purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the Living God." We serve the Living God as Ruth
did, with simple, childlike faith. We just trust Him. It's sprinkled,
it's sprinkled, and it is because it's sprinkled on the hearts
of His people. It is the blood that assures God's people. having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has consecrated
for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having
a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with
a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Redemption is going to declare
the very righteousness of God. God will honour His holy character
and He does so through the Kinsman Redeemer. And justice must be
satisfied. As we saw earlier in Romans 3,
He will be a just God and a Saviour. He will be just and the justifier
of those who believe in the Lord Jesus. Justice and mercy have
met and kissed each other. By mercy and truth iniquity is
purged, says Romans. That was Proverbs 16. And it
only can ever have any Biblical understanding and warrant if
it's declared to be a particular redemption and a powerful redemption
and a redemption that honors the fact that our God cannot
operate unjustly. He cannot play let's pretend. He doesn't play let's pretend
with his son and he doesn't play let's pretend with sinners in
this world. He was made sin and it was the
justice of God that slew our Redeemer. He was made sin and
we are made the righteousness of God in Him. And only, only
in the declaration of the Gospel that sees the Lord Jesus and
His people as one, united, united as we'll see in Ruth and Boaz,
united in marriage, united before the manifestation of that marriage,
but united as one, that we suffered We suffered the eternal punishment
of hell in the Lord Jesus Christ, and before God, the very righteousness
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ is our righteousness and it is
nowhere else. It is nowhere else. It's a wonderful
thing, isn't it, that he was made sin, to think about it,
that sin in the eyes of a just God cannot be in two places at
once. Sin cannot be on the Redeemer
and on me at the same time. It was on Him. He laid on Him
the iniquity on us all. And he suffered. He suffered
under the justice of God and he suffered according to the
law of God and the word of God. Which is what Baraz is saying
here, isn't it? And near a kinsman, there is
a kinsman called the law. Until the law is satisfied, we'll
look at more of this later on, until the law is perfectly satisfied,
a just God can't be just and the justifier of those who believe
in the Lord Jesus. He is a just God. And the first
thing, the first thing that Boaz will reveal to Ruth, in the intimacy
of this time together, he'll reveal the character of God.
That's what he does to his people. He reveals his righteous, holy
character to them. And then he says to her in verse 14, he
says, she's to lie at his feet. She is to come to a place where
she's at rest at his feet, but she's to do it in such a way
that as Boaz has a desire for her honour before people, she
will have a desire for his honour. She used to lie there till the
morning, and in verse 14, she rose up before one could know
another. She rose up before dark, and
he said, let it not be known that a woman came into the floor. If she had been seen there, she
would have been considered a harlot, and he would have been considered
an immoral man, taking advantage of her. He will cause His people
to know of His holiness and to honor His holiness. And their
desire is for His honor. And their desire is to be obedient
to His word. And He constrains them. She is
constrained by love. and she runs as it were, she
gathers herself together and he lays upon her this measure
of grace. He measures grace to her in verse
15, six measures of barley and he laid it on her. In the previous
chapter we've seen that she had been a recipient of grace, but
she had to there pick up the heads of wheat that their reapers
had left behind, even the ones they'd left behind on purpose
for her. And she had been the recipient of some grace of his
food in the tent beside the field. But all of that was something
that she was doing in working. Here she has measured upon her
grace upon grace. She didn't pick up any of this
grain. She didn't have to glean for any of this grain. Someone
else had earned it for her. It was his to give and his to
measure to her. And he laid it on her, verse
15, and she went into the city. She went into the city and you'll
see in that last verse when the mother-in-law says, who are there,
it was still dark when she returned to Naomi. And you can imagine
how her heart would have been aflutter. What a story she had
to tell Naomi. Naomi had given her instructions.
And she'd been obedient to those instructions. And she had even
gone beyond it. She'd been bold enough to say,
marry me, lay your skirt over me, hide me under your wings. But here she comes home to the
church. She comes home to Naomi before
dark. His honour, his honour maintained. her honour and reputation maintained."
This is the heart of God's people, isn't it? That He will in public
be honoured by the lives of His people. He will work and compel
and constrain His people by love. And here we see grace measured
out. And what amazing words she has,
our Naomi has, for a needy sinner who's come under the hand of
the grace of God. Those who come to meet the Lord
Jesus in the church, in the place where he has promised to reveal
himself, they never go away empty. He wouldn't have her going home
empty. He teaches His own that He is
a righteous Redeemer. He teaches His own that He will
honour the Word of God and the holiness of God in the redemption
of His people. He teaches His own that He will
measure out grace. He teaches His own that if you
seek Him you will find Him with all your heart. And here is the word in verse
18, this glorious word of the Church to needy sinners who have
come seeking by the grace of God their kinsman-redeemer. She's come seeking Him through
trials as we've seen. She's come seeking Him through
brokenness of heart in many, many situations. She's come seeking
Him having turned from her family and from her country and from
the gods and all of the companions that she had in Moab, here she
is. What do you do now? So many churches
are saying, do, do, do, get busy, get busy, get busy. Look at all
the things that we're doing. What does the church say to this?
Verse 18 is glorious, isn't it? Sit still. Sit still, my daughter. until they know how the matter
will fall. Wait and see. Wait and see what
God will do. It's the strength, isn't it?
Isaiah 30 says, the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no
purpose. Therefore have I cried concerning this. Their strength
is to sit still. I often quote that verse out
of Exodus 14, verse 13, where Moses is at the Red Sea. And
there is just the situation that we encounter all the time, isn't
it? Enemies all around and no way ahead at all. And what does
Moses say to the people? You just stand still. You stand
still and wait and see the redemption of the Lord. The Lord will do
it. He has promised us, not by might and not by power but by
spirit, says the Lord. And this is assurance, isn't
it? This is the heart of assurance,
isn't it? For the man will not rest. The
man will not rest. The man will not be in rest until
he has finished the thing this day. He won't rest. Our great Redeemer won't rest
until He's finished the thing. What He's begun, He must finish. It was finished from the foundation
of the world. It was manifestly finished when
He said those words on the cross. It is finished. He's come to
do His Father's will and it's been done and it's finished.
He saved His people from their sins and it's finished. And there
is in this Gospel age, there is this winnowing time where
he's at his threshing floor winnowing people by his Gospel, drawing
needy sinners to himself, revealing his character to them. And the
church says, we can rest in a sovereign God who's promised. We can rest
in a sovereign God who's spoken his words. We can rest in a sovereign
God who redeemed us to himself by his blood, we can rest in
a sovereign God who is married to his own, betrothed to his
own in eternity. That's where the rest of God's
people is, isn't it? It's a rest in Him. It's a rest
in what He's to do. It's a rest in His Word and His
promises. It's a rest in the Word of God
made flesh. The Lord is a willing Redeemer. May He cause us to keep coming
to Him as Ruth did, in simple, simple obedience. Let's pray.