Why don't we turn our scriptures
to Ruth chapter 2, and here in chapter 2 we have the glorious,
glorious meeting of Ruth and her kinsmen redeemer. I just
wanted to look at some aspects of that meeting this evening.
Just to put it into context I might read the first 13 verses, but I was just going
to look at the first few. It's nice to have a context for
it. This is the Word of the Lord.
And Naomi, Ruth chapter 2 verse 1, had a kinsman of her husband's,
a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his
name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said unto
Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after
him, in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her,
Go, my daughter. And she went, and came, and gleaned
in the field after the reapers. and her happening that happened,
that she was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz,
who was the kindred of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem
and said unto the reapers, 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, It
is the Moabitish damsel that came 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 till now that
she tarried little in the house. Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest
thou not, my daughter, go not to glean in another field, neither
go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens. 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 shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?"
And Baaz answered and said unto her, It hath been fully showed
me all that thou hast done unto thy mother, in law since the
death of thy husband, and how thou hast left thy father and
thy mother and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a
people which thou knewest not hereto before. The Lord recompensed
thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of
Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust. Then she said,
Let me find favour, let me find grace in thy sight, my Lord,
for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken
friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one
of thine handmaidens." This is the word of God. Let's pray.
Our Father, we do pray that you would open your word to us and
that we might, like Ruth, come to know and to meet and to glean
in the field of our kinsman Redeemer. What a remarkable picture of
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ drawing His bride to himself
and we pray heavenly father that you would cause us to come to
seek him and to find shelter under the shadow of his wings.
We pray you bless this word to us tonight, our father, and bless
our fellowship and bless those that can't be with us tonight,
heavenly father. We thank you again for the great promises
you make to speak to your people through your word and the preaching
of your dear and precious son. May he, may he be the focus of
all that happens here this evening, our father, for we pray in his
precious name. Amen. Well, it's a glorious picture,
isn't it? There's Ruth, a stranger. a young lady from a cursed country
and now she comes as a beggar into the field of boars. That's what it is to go gleaning.
The gleaning was going around and picking up the heads of grain
that were left over after the reapers had taken it. It's a
sign of being a serious beggar. But she's a beggar in a delightful
place, as we saw in these last few weeks. She's been made to
be a beggar by the providence of God. And here we see the beginning
of this remarkable relationship. Naomi had a kinsman of her husband,
a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his
name was Boaz. See, the book of Ruth, we hear
about Ruth and we think about Ruth and there are delightful
pictures of Ruth and Naomi and all of their struggles, but this
is a book about him. It's a book about the kinsman
redeemer. The central figure of this book
is now introduced to us. A young minister, I'll just quote,
I don't know who wrote this, but a young minister was told
by an elder of a Welsh chapel that he had preached a very poor
sermon because Christ was not in his sermon. The young man
replied, Christ was not in the text. The wise old man said,
Christ is in every text. In every text of scripture there
is a road which leads to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Your
business is to find that road and get on it." And I would add
another few words, and stay on it. And stay on it. As Henry
Mahan advised preachers, he said, get to Christ as quickly as possible.
in all of your messages. Get to Him as quickly as possible
and then never leave." It's lovely, isn't it, to have the opportunity
to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and what a glorious, glorious
picture we have before us in Boaz. Boaz's name means strength
and that's what Naomi declared of him, isn't it? He's a mighty
man of wealth. of the family of Elimelech. But
the thing that's remarkable is that the same word that's used
for him as a kinsman, he's a kinsman it says in verse 1 of chapter
2, in other places in scripture it's the word that's rendered
redeemer. So we don't have a lot of redeeming
going on in business in our world, but the closest picture is of
course from the pawnbroker's shop. If you go down to the pawnbroker's
shop here and you give them something of yours which is of some value,
they will give you money. And so you can go to the shop,
you or someone who represents you can go to the shop and you
can hand over the legally required amount of money, and that is
redeemed and it becomes yours. It was yours, it was lost, and
it becomes yours again through the payment of a redemption price. I love what Job said of his redeemer. He says, I know that my Redeemer,
the same word as kinsman. So when we say kinsman, Redeemer,
we're really in a sense saying Redeemer, Redeemer. I know that
my Redeemer liveth. So Job's hope, wasn't it, in
Job 19.25, Job's hope, despite all of what had happened in his
life, Job's great hope was that his Redeemer lives and no matter
what happens to his body, I might read it to you, it's such a glorious
scripture, a great description. In Job 19.25 he says, I know, for I know that my Redeemer
liveth and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God." whom
I shall see for myself, and mine eyes, these eyes that have been
eaten by the worms and disappeared as it would be from the sight
of man, mine eyes shall behold and not another, though my reins
be consumed within me." So Boaz is a kinsman and we'll see later
on he's the kinsman redeemer. And to be a kinsman redeemer
required three things under the laws of God. It required that
the person be a near relative. They had to have a kinship. Boaz was a mighty man of wealth,
but he was a kinsman of her husband. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
a near relative, isn't he? He is near to his people. Hebrews 2 makes it clear. is
so clear. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, flesh and blood, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not
on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham." It's interesting, it's not the seed of Adam, but the
seed of Abraham, all of Abraham's faith children. wherefore in
all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, and to make reconciliation for the sins of
the people." He was made, made like his brothers, made like
the people. So they had to be a Redeemer,
they had to be a near relative. They had to be able. Balazs'
name means, in him is strength. And our kinsman Redeemer, the
Lord Jesus Christ, He is God. in everything he does is eternal. And he is man, as we've just
read in Hebrews chapter 2. So that all that was required
of man in righteousness and in justice satisfying atonement,
he was able, he is able, he's a mighty man of wealth. the Holy Spirit of Boaz. And
so is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is mighty in power, He is
mighty in virtue, He is mighty in grace, He is mighty in justice,
mighty in knowledge, He is mighty in faith. and he's rich towards
God. No wonder Solomon, when he named
the pillars of the temple, that held up the temple, that outside
portico of the temple, one of them was called Boaz. It's a type of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The kinsman redeemer had to be
a near relative, he had to be able, he had to be willing. I love Naomi's description of
Boaz at the end of chapter 3, where she says, for the man will
not rest until he's finished the thing this day. He was remarkably
willing. Just like our Lord Jesus Christ,
He came down willingly. He came down, He wasn't under
any compulsion other than the love for His Father's glory and
the love for His bride. He came down willingly and He
willingly took on flesh and He was willingly made a man under
the law and He willingly went to the cross and for the joy
set before Him, the joy, the joy of saving and redeeming His
own, the joy The joy of being able before all of the world,
Satan and all the demons and all the fallen men. There will
be a day that I will all stand because of him. and the way he's
declared God the just and the justifier, that he in righteousness
has brought back, and he in righteousness has taken his possession to himself. He's redeemed his possession
through a lawful payment. I'll just quickly read the verses
in the scriptures. In Leviticus 25, there are a
couple of references to the Redeemer. In Leviticus 25, 25, If thy brother
be waxen poor and has sold away some of his possessions, and
if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that
which his brother sold. And in verse 48, so there is
a redemption of possessions and there is a redemption of people. And if a sojourner, verse 47,
and if a sojourner or a stranger wax rich by thee and thy brother
that dwelleth by him waxes poor and he 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. One of his brethren may redeem
him, either his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or
any that is nigh near of kin unto him of his family may redeem
him, or if he be able, he may redeem himself. That's a big
if, isn't it? It's a big if. What does it cost? What does it cost to pay the
price of redemption? What does it cost? to have a
soul redeemed. As Micah 6 says, what can we
give to God? Rivers of oil, thousands of cattle,
the fruit of my body for the sins of my soul. See our sins
are soul sins as well as physical sins. The redemption of a soul
is costly. I'll just read some verses out
of Psalm 49 which talks about, they that trust in their wealth,
Psalm 49 verse 6, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches,
none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give
to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of their soul
is precious. and it ceases forever, that he
should live, still live forever and not suspend corruption. Redemption, there is just one
redeemer, there is just one justice satisfying sacrifice that God
will accept for redemption of souls. I love how Romans 3.23
describes it, it's the redemption That's in Christ Jesus. If you're not in Christ Jesus,
you're not redeemed. To have any redemption, you must
be in Him. The redemption that's in Him. the righteousness of God, which
is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe. For there is no difference. For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. And so, we have in Boaz in Ruth
chapter 2, we have a great picture of our saviour, isn't he? He's
a near kinsman, he is able, he's a mighty man of wealth, and he
is willing. But in the book of Ruth we have
seen, in this last little while I trust, we've seen a glorious
picture of the way the Lord draws His own to Himself. Naomi and Ruth were in Moab,
a picture of this world and fallen man in this world, and yet they
were drawn by the hand of God. that they must go to Bethlehem. They must find themselves in
the house of bread. It's a great picture, isn't it,
throughout the scriptures of how the Lord in Providence draws
His own to Himself. The Lord sends good news to Moab. The Lord sends good news that
He's visited His people. And they set their faces like
a flint to go to Bethlehem. And it was distressing circumstances
that drove them. And such were the circumstances
before them that such was their desire that even the shame and
humiliation of meeting their kindred didn't deter them. And
they went to a place where they had an extraordinarily uncertain
future. They didn't know they were going
back poor. Obviously we aren't told what
happened to Naomi, but for Ruth to be sent out to beg in the
barley field is to be the lowest of the low, the poorest of the
poor. But faith in action finds the
needy sinner in the hands of another. They are made, by the
grace of God, to be dependent and to be humble, to be dependent
on grace. Those who receive grace are those
who are in need of grace. What did the Lord Jesus say?
I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to the repentance.
The healthy don't need a doctor, they don't need the good physician.
One of the lovely things that has struck me over this last
little while reading this again and again is that when they got
back there, Boaz had always been there, hadn't he? Boaz the kinsman-redeemer
had been there in Bethlehem through the famine. See when chosen sinners
return, they are returned by God, they find the kinsman-redeemer,
they find him in the same place as he always was. Isn't that
the story with us, brothers and sisters, when we wander, when
we wander and stray into the land of Moab and we're brought
back by Him, we find Him in the same place and we find Him with
the same character. And any who come to meet the
Saviour will find Him a mighty man of wealth. See to meet the
Lord Jesus Christ is to meet the Sovereign enthroned. I just love the pictures throughout
the scriptures of people meeting the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
told in John 12 that there's absolutely no doubt about who
Isaiah met. In the year the King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord." See, where do you see the Lord? Isaiah saw
Him in the one place that He'll be seen by all of His own, and
that's where we love to see Him. "'I saw the Lord sitting upon
a throne high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.'
Above it stood the seraphims, each had six wings, with two
he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and
with two did he fly. And one cried unto the other
and said, this is the cry, isn't it, of those close to him who
seem high and lifted up, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. And the posts of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried. Even dead wood had the good sense
to tremble in the presence of God. And the house was filled
with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I
am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts." And then we have that glorious
picture, isn't it? where despite all of what Isaiah
was made to see of himself and see how wicked and sinful and
how he is rightfully pronouncing woe upon himself, a live coal
was taken from the altar. and touched his lips, and thine
iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Wash as white as snow in his
presence." That's remarkable isn't it, the Apostle John An
old man who had walked with the Lord and leant upon his breast
and preached his gospel for maybe 60 or 70 or more years, seeing
his hand in so many things, he was taken to the courts of heaven
and a voice spoke to him. The Lord Jesus spoke to him and he saw him. He saw him, and
what John says is remarkable, isn't it? This is a redeemed
apostle, saw him. And when I saw him, I fell at
his feet as dead. And then what did the Lord Jesus
do? And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, fear
not, I am the first and the last. So to see Him is to see Him as
Boaz has described here, a mighty man of wealth. A mighty man of
wealth. For you were as sheep going astray,
but are now returned. You are returned by God under
the shepherd and bishop of your souls. You are turned to God
from idols to serve the living and true God. There is a point where God and
men must meet, whether in grace or judgment, and that point is
where both are revealed as they are. There will be no doubt about
the character of our God when He is revealed as He is. And Ruth the Marbiter said unto
Naomi, let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn after
him in whose sight I shall find grace. The gleaning of the fields
was a law in the land of Israel. What a glorious law it was. So many of these laws relating
to property were there to show that it is God who owns it all,
it is God who provides. So even when you harvested your
field, or harvested your grapes, or harvested your olives, you
weren't to go back a second time. You went through and you picked
your grapes, and he left them. And all that was left there was
left for the strangers and the poor. And the same when it came
to gleaning in the fields. When you cut us down, though,
and harvest in the field, and hast forgotten a sheaf in the
field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it. It shall be for
the stranger, even if you have actually cut it and stooped it
up. It is to be there for the stranger,
and for the fatherless, and for the widow, that the Lord thy
God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands. In Leviticus
23 it speaks of it again earlier. Verse 22. And when you reap the
harvest of your land, you shall not make a clean riddance of
the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shall thou
gather any gleaning of thy harvest. If you dropped a grain, a stalk
of wheat, you were to just leave it there. You picked it, I don't
know if you've seen how they do it, where they wrap their
hand around a sheep and you cut it off with a sharp sickle and
if one drops out you were just to leave it. You were to leave
it. Thou shalt leave them unto the
poor and to the stranger. I am the Lord thy God. When the Lord brings his people
by his grace to himself, Only God can cause a Moabitess like
Ruth to be brought to the house of bread and then brought to
the field and brought to meet her kinsman redeemer in that
field. Only God can make a sinner Seek
to find grace in his sight. It's lovely how she describes
it, isn't it? She'll go to the field, she says, now let me go
and glean the ears of corn after him, in whose sight I shall find
grace. See, no natural man will ever
seek grace. Man will always seek to earn
it. Grace humbles the pride of man
in his natural state. And only God can make you to
see where this grace resides, with whom this grace resides. And only God can bring a sinner
to see the place where grace will be found. Ruth was drawn
by sovereign grace to go with Naomi. She left her family, she
left her nation. The story of Orpha shows us how
easy it was for Ruth to return as her sister-in-law had done.
Who maketh thee to differ from another? Who makes us to differ? What's the difference between
Ruth and Orpah? Between Ruth and that nation? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? It's 1 Corinthians 4.7. What
do you have that you haven't received? Now if thou didst receive
it, why dost thou boast as if thou hast not received it? Grace, grace alone makes the
difference. And when Ruth and Naomi arrive
in the house of bread, they have learned two things that God alone
can teach and God's grace alone can teach it. They were poor
sinners and our sins have separated us from God. We are beggars. We are just beggars. And grace will not only teach
a sinner how poor they are, but grace alone will teach people
that they have a near kinsman, the one who is mighty, the one
who is wealthy, the only one in whom we can find grace. So we never grow beyond being
needy sinners. Colossians 2 says, As you therefore
have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so you walk in Him. You
received Him as a beggar. You received Him as a needy beggar. You received Him as having a
need that God alone has created. And when Peter was about to be
crucified as the historians tell us. His last words, his last
words to us and to all those that he loved at that time, he
says, but grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and
forever. Amen. You see, to grow in the
grace and knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is to
grow in your understanding of how much you are in need of grace
and how amazing it is that you're the recipient of grace. See,
grace is God's activity and it's only exercise towards the elect. Common grace is useless grace
and worthless grace and the scriptures know nothing of it at all. Grace,
from grace flows all of the goodwill of God, all of His love, all
of His salvation and it flows powerfully. It can draw a Ruth
out of Moab. It can draw sinners to the Saviour,
and it must. It is As Abraham Booth said,
it is the eternal and absolute free favour of God manifested
in the vouchsafement, the guarantee of spiritual and eternal blessings
to the guilty and the unworthy. Divine grace is the sovereign
saving favour of God exercised in blessings upon those who have
no merit in them, and for which no compensation is demanded of
them." It's so good to consider the Biblical definition of grace.
It's the favour of God shown to those who not only have no
positive desserts of their own, but who are thoroughly ill-deserving
and hell-deserving. It is completely unmerited and
unsought, and it's altogether unattracted by anything in or
from or by the objects upon which it is bestowed. Grace can neither
be bought earned or won by the creature. The recipient has no
claim upon it, and it's in no way due to him or anything about
him. It's unasked for. And the grace
of God, as our friend Arthur Pink says, the grace of God is
eternal. It was planned before it was
exercised. It's purposed of God. It's free. We are justified freely by His
grace. It's sovereign grace. It operates in the hand as of
our kinsman redeemer, the mighty man of wealth. And that's why
the Lord says, I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. And the grace of God is opposed
to by the natural man because it empties him. It empties him
of his self-righteousness. and haughty rebels. Haughty rebels
find it offensive that God would have grace on some and not on
others, that grace is discriminating grace, it chooses some, it makes
a difference. Ruth went that those are remarkable
words of faith, didn't she? She says, I'll go to this field. In fact, she does more than that,
doesn't she? She asked Naomi. She is there still humbled and
respectful. I'll go, let me go to the field
and glean ears of corn after him, in his sight I shall find
grace. So when grace operates, there
will be a heart to go to his house. a heart that must find
him in his field, his word and his gospel. His grace leads his
bride to seek and to find grace in his sight. What a glorious
picture. In his sight, in the very sight
of God under his eyes. Thou, God, seest me. It's from Genesis 16, it's Hagar's
description of God when He saved she and Ishmael after they had
set themselves to die in the desert. and it was above the
pulpit in an old particular Baptist church in Geelong and it's a
coffee shop now and you can go in and you can actually walk
on a piece of glass above the Baptistry but up there is thou
God seest me. It's a good thing to ponder,
isn't it? Thou God seest me. She wanted to go and glean in
a place where not only will she find grace, but she'll find grace
with this sight. Verse 3, and she went and came
and gleaned in the field after the reaper as her hat was to
light upon the part of the field belonging to Boaz. There she
is, a stranger, a stranger in Bethlehem. They've just arrived
at the beginning of harvest. They have no means to provide
for themselves other than she to go out effectively begging
in the field. And she goes out and in the glorious
providence of God, There is no such thing as chance, is there? There is no such thing. It so
happened, it just so happened, that as she left Bethlehem that
morning, she just went out and she went to the nearest and most
convenient field, and it just so happened that it was the field
belonging to Boaz, who was the kindred of Limelech. There's
no such thing as luck. The hinges of God's history are
microscopic. It's good to think about that,
isn't it? It's just little tiny things are as significant as
the big things. Because in little tiny things,
just the turning of Ruth to this field and not to that field,
All of a sudden we have God's hand so clearly revealed. If you go and read the genealogy
in Matthew 5, you see that she must, she must marry Boaz. She must marry Boaz. Those marriages
must produce that lineage that leads to David and leads directly
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And she must, by the grace of
God, be led to a place where in that field, on that morning,
when she arrives, who should come there as well but her kinsmen
redeemer. It's wonderful, isn't it, how
the Lord says, to seek Him, ask and it shall be given to you,
seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened. The promise
of God, isn't it, that when needy sinners seek Him, they always
find Him. You shall seek me and find me
when you shall search for me with all your heart. And I will
be found, says our God in Jeremiah 29, 13. So she must meet Boaz. She must be taken to his field. And she takes it upon herself
to go there, led by the grace of God. And I just want to finish
with verse 4 of chapter 2. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. Boaz came, the mighty man of
wealth, the man in whom is strength. He came from the house of bread. He came to his field. May God cause us again and again
Right, returning penitence, to seek Him, to keep seeking Him,
to seek Him till we find Him. To find Him and to win Him, says
Paul. Oh that I might win Christ and
be found in Him. Oh that I might know Him. and the power of his resurrection,
if by any means, no matter what means God ordains, let them be,
that I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. In our kinsman redeemer is life
everlasting. In our kinsman redeemer is plenteous
redemption. Let's pray.