Bibles to Ruth chapter 4. Ruth
chapter 4. You hear Men and women who are religious
often talk about fruit bearing, about bearing fruit, a believer
bringing forth fruit. Well, there's a lot more that
goes into a sinner being made to bear fruit than just telling
a sinner he ought to bear fruit. There's a lot of work that goes
into making someone bear fruit. We see a little bit of that here
in our text in Ruth 4, Verse 1 says, I'm sorry, Ruth 4 verse 13 says,
So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife. And when he went in
unto her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son. Now I want
to talk for a little while about the husband, the wife, and the
mother. the husband, the wife, and the
mother. Boaz took Ruth as she was his
wife. Now before the judges, before
all the judges, Boaz went to the gate and before the judges
he dealt lawfully with the nearer kinsman. That's what we saw in
the first part of the fourth chapter. And that near kinsman
now, he lawfully had first claim on Naomi and Ruth. He was the
near kinsman. The law said he had first claim
to them. Well, because we fell in Adam,
the law of God had first claim on us. It had a claim on us to
damn us, to condemn us, to eternally punish us because God's holy
justice and his holy character demanded that because we sinned
against God. But Boaz dealt with the law for
Ruth. He went up there and dealt with
that law for her. She didn't have to say a word.
She didn't have to do a thing. He dealt with the law for her.
And that's what Christ has done for His people. He settled our problem with the law. And He
settled it in righteousness. And so now it was lawful for
Boaz to take Ruth to be his wife. And because Because Christ went
before the judgment seat of God and bore the sin of His people
and paid the wages that we owe to the law and settled this law
matter for His people, now we don't owe anything to the law.
The law is satisfied. And so now Christ is lawfully
taking His bride to be His wife by regenerating and giving faith
to each chosen, elect, redeemed sinner that He's everlastingly
loved. That's what He's doing now. Taking
His bride to Himself lawfully. Now, this will be the case. Everybody Christ died for shall
be brought to be half-life and half-faith in Christ because
He will see to it. He'll send the Spirit and He
will give it to each one for whom He died. Now just look at
what the Savior said. There are some that say you don't
have to hear, you don't have to believe. It's just that if
you're an elect child of God, that's all that matters. You'll
be saved anyway. But our Savior said something
to the contrary. He said you must be born again. You must be born again. And He
said all His people must have that holiness. without which
no man shall see the Lord must be made holy made a new creation
and he said without faith it's impossible to please God there's
three scriptures that tell you everybody's got to be born of
God that he saves they got to be made holy they got to be given
faith it's a requirement but now look at our picture here
why did Boaz go up and take care of that law what was his purpose
in doing that so that he could take Ruth lawfully to be his
wife. He went to that gate to deal
with those judges because he wanted Ruth to be his wife. And
he was going to have her to be his wife, so he went up there
to settle that matter. Well, Christ went to the cross
for a purpose. He went to the cross because
he would have his elect bride. She would be his wife and she
would be his bride lawfully. So that's why he went to the
cross. So everybody he died for shall be born of him. Because
that's the whole purpose for which he went to the cross. Let
me show you that three scriptures. Go to Galatians chapter 3. Verse 13 says, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us, for
it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now that's
what we saw pictured in what Boaz did at that gate. Picture
of redemption. Why did Christ do that? Look
at verse 14. That. That means this is the
reason He did it. That the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. That we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. Go to Galatians 4. Galatians 4. You see, Boaz settled
that law matter because he wanted Ruth to be his wife and he'd
have her. And Christ went to the cross because he was going
to lawfully send forth his spirit and make all his people to be
created anew. But that law had to be settled first. So that's
why he went to the cross. Look at Galatians 4 verse 4.
When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying,
Abba, Father. There's one more verse that you're
very familiar with if you want to turn there, 2 Thessalonians
2.13. You see how these scriptures
show this is the very purpose for which Christ went to the
cross. Can you imagine Boaz going to that gate and handling this
law matter, taking care of this, redeeming her, buying her, buying
all that property and everything out of all that debt, and then
not taking his bride to be his wife? That was the whole reason
he did it. Well, can you imagine Christ
doing everything he suffered at Calvary and then not sending
forth the Spirit and giving His people life and faith in Him,
that's Him taking His bride and He's going to have her. Now look
here, 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, this was God's purpose from
eternity. We're bound to give thanks always to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. How? Through sanctification of
the Spirit, and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the attaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. So, go with me now to Romans
7. Romans chapter 7. So Boaz took
Ruth to be his wife. It was legal now. It was lawful.
It was lawful. Well, just like he took Ruth
to be his wife lawfully, right now, All who are born of His
Spirit are lawfully Christ's bride and now we bear fruit by
Him working in us. When He took Ruth to be His bride,
Boaz caused her to bear fruit. He caused a new child to be formed
in her and that was like Christ forming a new man in us and Christ
forming fruit in us, making fruit to come forth from us. We don't
produce it of ourselves. But it's lawful because he took
care of the law. Look here, Romans 7.1. That nearer
kinsman was sorted to Ruth like a first husband because he had
first claim on her. Well, that's what the law was
to us when it had first claim on God's elect. But when Christ
came and redeemed us, now we got a new husband and it's Christ.
Look here, Romans 7.1. Know ye not, brethren, for I
speak to them that know the law, Now here's what this law is primarily
given to teach us. Now don't get sidetracked by
the law. People will get hung up on this
law and about divorce and they never see what the law was given
to teach you. Now watch this. You know the
law how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he lives.
For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband
so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she's
loose from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband
liveth, she be married to another man, she should be called an
adulteress. But if her husband be dead, if her husband be dead,
she's free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. Now here's what he's teaching.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by
the body of Christ, that you should be Married to another
lawfully married to another even to him who is raised from the
dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God Now you won't
talk about fruit-bearing That's a whole lot more complicated
to bring forth fruit in a sinner than what this world's talking
about fruit-bearing Christ had to go to the cross You have to
be born of God, and He has to produce this fruit in His children.
This thing has to be done in righteousness, lawfully. You
see that? Alright, secondly now, let's
talk about the wife. Verse 13 says, Ruth 4, verse
13 says, When He went in unto her,
the Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son. Now Ruth
was a stranger in Israel. She was poor, With nothing. She was a mercy beggar. She had
nothing to commend her to Boaz whatsoever. But Boaz took notice
of her. Boaz took notice of her. Now,
by his grace, brethren, by his grace, Boaz, freely, Boaz has
made Ruth to possess everything that Boaz owns. She's his wife. And they're one. And everything
that is His is hers. Everything. She went from being
poor, destitute, having nothing, with nothing to commend her to
Boaz, to having everything that belongs to Boaz. That's the story
of every true child of God saved by grace. We were poor, strangers,
but God chose us. We were poor, with nothing to
commend us to God, but Christ took notice of us. In eternity,
when God chose us and gave us to Him, He said, I love this,
I'm going to have her. We were bound to the law, but
Christ redeemed us by His precious blood. We were spiritually dead,
but God quickened us together with Christ and made us alive
by His Holy Spirit. This is our story, brethren,
and now everything that God possesses, everything that Christ possesses
is our possession. Look at Romans 8 and verse 17. Romans 8, 17 says, if we are
children born of His Spirit, then we are heirs. We are heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ. Now get that, heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we continue in
the faith, suffering with Him, that we may be glorified with
Him. Now look over at 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3 and look at
verse 21. When we fret and get sideways
in this world, thinking that we're not going to be provided
for or whatever, you know what that is? That's glorying in men. That's what that is. That's glorying
in the flesh. That's saying that man and all man's rules and regulations
and losing your job or this or that or whatever, that all those
things are going to prevent you for possessing what God would
have you to possess. And that's glorying in man to
think, I won't be able to get this. I'm not going to be blessed
here. That's glorying in man. That's
saying man's stronger than God. But look what he says here in
1 Corinthians 3.21. Let no man glory in men, for
all things are yours. And that's true, believer. All
things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas that means
whether God's ministers. They're yours or the world This
world's yours Life is yours Death is yours things present things
to come all are yours, and you are Christ and Christ is God's
Now if need be God will send us trials in this world He'll
send us trials And there are bitter trials when He sends them.
We lose our money, we lose our jobs, we lose our loved ones.
But He does it that He might teach us not to glory in men.
Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for where
is he to be accounted of? Don't trust in you and don't
put confidence in others. Don't think that something you've
done is going to be more powerful than God so that He can't put
that sin away and forgive you. God's all-powerful. That's the
glory in ourselves to think that we've sinned so harshly that
we can't be forgiven by God. And don't think that because
the circumstances are the way they are in this world that God
can't overcome it. He's put you there for a reason.
He's put you there to teach you, not to glory in you or other
men. He's taught you, teaching you. He's all-powerful and owns
everything. And because of what He's done
for you freely, everything is yours. So don't fret about it.
Your Father knows you have need of these things. But rather,
seek you first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and
these other things will be given to you. I wonder how often the
Lord sends a trial, you know, And we see these things going
on in the world, and things going on in our lives, and we stop
going to hear the gospel preached when we'd already been stopped
going to hear the gospel preached. And that's the reason he sent
the trial, was to teach you, you need the gospel. And yet
we go for a while and think, well, I can't go hear the gospel.
Look at all this stuff I got going on. And that's the whole
reason. How many times he sends a trial
and we don't stop and look and say, now, why'd he send this
trial? It's for my good. It's to teach me to trust Him
and quit looking to myself. It's to teach me that I'm to
glorify Him and commit my all to His work, His people, His
church, His gospel, and not be living for myself. And He's going
to make us get that lesson. If we're His, He'll make us get
that lesson. So this is what we see in Ruth. We don't have
a reason to worry. We don't have a reason to fret,
be anxious. God's going to provide for His
children. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the
needy out of the dunghill that He may set Him with princes,
even with the princes of His people. So through Boaz, the
Lord produced fruit now in Ruth. And through Christ, the Lord
produces fruit in us. We couldn't do that ourselves.
We couldn't produce fruit. No spiritual life was in us.
We only had death. We had no faith, only unbelief. We had no love for God or for
brethren, only enmity. We had no good works, only sinful,
filthy, wicked rags. That's all we had. So we couldn't
bring forth any fruit. Now, back there in Romans 7,
the rest of that verse tells us this. In Romans 7, 5. Here's
why Christ had to create fruit in us. Here's why He had to marry
us and create fruit in us. For when we were in the flesh,
before we were born of Him, we were just flesh. And when we
were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law,
did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Everything
we thought was fruit, when we thought we were obeying the law
of God, and we were really bringing forth fruit to God, all that
was dead fruit. Every bit of it. Every bit of
it. That's what Paul found out. You
know, he had all those things, he said, that committed him to
God. But he found out when the law came and spoke in his heart,
and he saw he was really a sinner, he found out all that was just
dead fruit. It was withered, dead fruit,
rotten. And God wouldn't accept it. Verse
6, But now we're delivered from the law. We're delivered from
the law. Law's got nothing else to say
to one for whom Christ died. Christ gave it everything it
demands and honored it and magnified it for each person that he saved. Now we're delivered from the
law that being dead wherein we were held, that being dead wherein
we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit, not
in the oldness of the letter. Newness of spirit is to hear
Christ speaking in your heart. Newness of spirit is to be led
of the Spirit of God. Newness of spirit is to be able
to hear how God's Word glorifies Christ and so that it makes you
want to follow Christ. That's newness of spirit. Oldness
of letter is just going in this book and going through it trying
to find something that I can do to earn life or holiness or
please the preacher, please the church, whatever. That's worshiping
God in the letter. That's old dead letter false
religion. We have to have the spirit so
we can worship God in the spirit and in truth. He makes the barren
woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children.
Praise ye the Lord. Low children are a heritage of
the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. That's speaking
first and foremost spiritually. Spiritually. He alone brings
forth fruit in his people. It's very sad that we look at
this, we see everything that happened to Ruth, but we don't
hear anything else that happened to Orpah. Remember her? She could
have went with them, she could have followed them, but she decided
to go back. She decided she would try to find her a husband in
Moab, and she tried to bring forth fruit in Moab. Nothing
else is said about her. But here you got one that that
God has drawn Mater to forsake everything for Christ, and when
you do that, you'll find more than all in Christ. It'll be recompensed a hundredfold
even in this present time when you come to Christ. Sing, O barren,
he said, thou that didst not bear. Break forth into singing
and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. For more
are the children of the desolate than the children of the married
wife, saith the Lord. All right, lastly, let's talk
about the mother. Now, the mother, you recall,
is a picture of the church. Naomi is a picture of the church.
She's a mother-in-law, but she's a mother. She's the mother to
Ruth. Verse 14, And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the
Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that
his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer
of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age. For thy daughter-in-law
which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath
borne him. And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom,
and became nurse unto it. And the women, her neighbors,
gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi. And they
called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the
father of David, the father of the Lord Jesus Christ, our true
kinsman, redeemer. God's true church is blessed
to the Lord. He's not left us this day without
a kinsman and He's done it that His name might be famous in Israel.
He sent His only begotten Son to be our near kinsman. He didn't
leave us without a kinsman. He sent His Son and we're the
church of God which He purchased with His own blood. The church
of God which He purchased with His own blood. And God did it
that His name might be famous in Israel. Israel is His people. Israel is His church. And everything
God did, He did it for His name. That His name might be famous.
Solomon, the son of David, he was a picture of Christ. Remember? He was a picture. He was the
son of David. Christ is the son of David. He was a king. Christ
is a king. He was a picture of Christ. And
God said this of Solomon, but He was saying this of Christ.
He shall build a house for My name. He shall build a house
for My name. And I'll establish the throne
of His kingdom forever. If I hear one more religious
person talk about planting a church, I think I'm going to throw up.
You don't build God's church and I don't build God's church.
We don't plant God's church. He said Christ will build it
for my name. Christ will build it for my name.
He adds to the church daily such as should be saved. He does it
and he gets the glory for doing it for God's name. From the rising of the sun, he
said, even to the going down of the same, my name shall be
great. among the Gentiles. And in every place incense shall
be offered unto My name. What are we doing today? When
we pray and sing and worship, we're offering incense unto God's
name. That's what we're doing. We're
raising up a sweet smell to God to His name. To His name. And a pure offering, Christ Jesus.
My name shall be great among the heathens, saith the Lord
of hosts. And then look at this, to the church of God, Christ
our kinsman, verse 15, He is a restorer of thy life. He is
a nourisher of thine old age. Isaiah 46, God said this, Hearken
unto Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house
of Israel which are born by Me from the belly, which are carried
from the womb. And even to your old age I am He, and even to
your gray hairs will I carry you. I've made and I will bear. I've made you and I'll bear you.
Even I'll carry and I'll deliver you." Now you think about that,
sinner. Are you going to hearken to God's
Word? He said, I'll carry you till you're old and gray. meaning
I'll carry you throughout eternity. You're mine, you're not going
to be lost. So don't be like we were at first. You sitting
here now that don't believe, don't be like we were at first.
Every believer here was like this at first. We thought we
can find nourish, we can nourish our life through this world.
We can get things in this world and get a little higher and a
little higher and a little higher and all we were doing was going
lower and lower and lower. We're going further and further
and further away from God. But He sends you to the gospel
and He makes you see He's the nourisher of your life. I'm rich. I'm rich. I'm more rich than
the richest man on this planet. I own everything. And I'll always
have it. He'll give His up eventually. I'll have it forever. It's going
to all be mine. Even better than it is now because
He's going to make a new heavens and a new earth. And it won't
have the scars of sin on it. It'll be better. It'll be better. And gold will be so common to
God's people that we'll pave the streets with it. Because
we worship Him, not false riches. So He stripped her, brought her
to see that He's the nourisher of her life. I pray God will
do that for us. And then by God's grace and provision,
Christ uses the church as a mother to take care of every child that
God produces. He uses the church as a mother
to care for every child He saves. Verse 16 says, Naomi took the
child and laid it in her bosom and she became nurse unto it. Christ said, I'll contend with
him that contendeth with thee and I'll save thy children. He
said, all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great
shall be the peace of thy children. And He said that you may suck
and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations, that you
may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.
For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like
a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream.
And then shall you suck, you shall be born upon her sides,
and be dandled upon her knees as one whom his mother comforted.
So will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem
through the mother, through my church. The bonds of God's love
are much stronger than natural bonds. When you come to Christ,
you first think, you know, I'm going to lose all my friends.
I'm going to not be able to hang with those friends anymore. Well,
they'll make that known to you. You stand for Christ, they'll
make it known to you that they're not going to stand with you anymore.
But you'll have many more friends and true friends in the gospel
than you ever had in this world. You'll have Christ who is a friend
that sticks closer than a brother. And you'll have, in God's people,
you'll have sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, sons and
daughters. You'll have a family like you
never knew you had, and it'll never be broken. And everything
that I've been saying here is so because it's all to glorify
Christ. I don't have time to read it
out, but you can read the rest of that genealogy. And what he's
saying there is all of these people were saved, and all of
these people were brought to be together and have children
because it was for this purpose. Through that genealogy, Christ
was coming. You can go to Matthew 1 sometime
and read it. Read that genealogy, how Christ
came through that genealogy. So it's telling us everything
He did there. Just like everything He did for
Ruth and for Boaz was to bring them together. so that they would
have children, so they would have Obed, so that he would have
Jesse, and he would have David, and on down the line to Christ.
So everything he did was for the sake of Christ. And they
benefited from it. They were saved because he was
determined to glorify his son. And that's the case with us.
All these things are true that I'm telling you because God will
glorify his son. He's pleased that his son have
all preeminence, and he will. And so you can be certain of
this, for His name's sake, for Christ's sake, He's forgiven
all His people of our sins, and He'll keep us. He'll preserve
us. Now that's the beautiful picture. That's how we truly
bring forth fruit, brethren. The husband, the wife, and the
mother. All right, let's pray together. Father, we thank You for the
Word. How You've ruled everything in
this world, every minute detail to every great detail for your
people to bring us to Christ, make us behold that for throughout
the history of the world. It's all for this purpose that
we might sit here right now and worship Christ in spirit and
in truth, knowing that we're saved by him and preserved by
him and for his glory. Lord, give us that understanding
so fully that we won't fret when we suffer trials in this world,
that we'll know that you are ruling everything for the sake
of Christ, and it'll all turn out for the good of your people
and for each of us individually. Make us know that now, Lord.
Forgive us of our doubting and our murmuring and our complaining.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. All right, Beth. We'll take a
short break.