I like it when you read Scripture,
you read a short little phrase like that, that just makes you
focus on exactly what that said. When we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. That answers everything. That's
our gospel. Well, let's go to Ruth chapter
2. Boaz, we saw Thursday night,
Boaz came to his field and he showed Ruth all this free
grace. He told her to glean on me in
his field, to follow his maidens, He told her to drink from His
well. He told her that His servants would be her servants to protect
her and serve her. And then right after she received
all this free grace from Boaz, He gives her all this free grace.
She hid her face before Him and began to thank Him. And as soon
as she received all this free grace from Boaz, while she's
still on her face at His feet, we come to our text. And we find
Ruth asking Him for more grace. Look at verse 13. Then she said,
Let me find favor, grace in thy sight, my Lord. You see, when
you've received grace, it humbles you down to Christ's feet and
it makes you beg Him for more grace. Why? Look at the next
phrase, "...for that thou hast comforted me." Lord, she said,
show me more grace because you have comforted me. You see, His
grace is the comfort for His people, that grace of free justification
in Christ, that grace of knowing that God has nothing against
His child anymore, and that He's redeemed us, and that we're His,
and accepted, and He's going to save us, keep us, and bring
us home. All that's such comfort to us.
It makes you want to hear Him speaking over and over and over
and over, and comfort you even more with it. So you ask Him,
Lord, show me some more of that grace. Comfort me some more with
those words. And then look, here's another
reason. And for that, thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid,
though I be not alike unto one of thine handmaidens. There's
no voice so friendly as God's voice of grace. When He regenerates
you and begins to teach you in your heart, teach you what He's
done for you, what He's going to do for you. That's all in
Christ. That's a friendly voice. It's like being a... This girl's
a stranger there. She's from Moab. She don't know
a soul there. She's nothing like any of His
other maidens. And yet He comes to her. There's
probably nobody in that field speaking to her. He came to her
and spoke friendly to her. showed her all this grace. She
said, Lord, show me more of that grace. Speak that friendly voice
to me again. Where does God give this grace
and where does He continue to give this grace as we ask for
more of grace? Now watch these words carefully.
Verse 14. And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime
come thou hither. Wherever they're standing right
now, right there, where He first showed her this grace, when she
asked for more grace, He said, here's where I'm going to give
it, at mealtime. This is how I'm going to give it. At mealtime,
come thou right here, right to this same place. And eat of the
bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside
the reapers, And he reached her, that means he reached his hand
to her mouth and he fed her. What did he feed her? Parched
corn. And she didn't eat and was sufficed
and left. Around the age of 13 years old,
I started hauling hay in the summers. Nowadays you see these
big round bales of hay out in the field. They didn't have those
when I was growing up. This was back in the early 80s.
All they had was square bales. A few people had round bales,
but very few people used those. It was mainly square bales. And
so I started hauling hay to earn money. You go out early in the
morning when it's just breaking day, middle of the summer, And
all morning we would walk along this long field, this long row
that the hay had already been baled. Sometimes the farmer would
be out there baling it as he was picking it up. He'd be out
there running the rows, you know, raking it. Somebody would be
raking it up in a row and somebody would be running the baler, baling
it. You'd be coming along behind this long flatbed trailer and
two or three of us would pick up those heavy bales of hay and
we'd struggle and wrestle them up on the trailer and then one
person would be up on the trailer and he'd stack them. You had
to stack them right so they wouldn't fall off when you was driving
them to the barn because you stacked it real high. So we'd
be stacking that hay, you know, but lunchtime would come. We'd
be out there in that sun, it's hot, picking that hay up, but
when lunchtime came, We'd go up to the edge of the field and
we'd get out of these big shade trees and we'd rest and we'd
eat lunch together. Get our strength back. And we'd
go back out there and finish the day, finish the hay, take
it to the barn, whatever. Well, something like that edge
of that field under those shade trees, something like that's
the setting we have right here. Boaz came out to his field. And
when he came to his field, he didn't go out where the reapers
were out in the field. He came to this little house,
this little pavilion on the edge of the field. That's where he
came to. He came there and he spoke to
his reapers. And there was one there who was
over the reapers. And he spoke to him and he said,
and there in that house was Ruth. It was Ruth. And he asked, who
is she? And you remember back up there in verse 7, Ruth, she
had been out there in that field and she had come to that house
to tarry, to rest just a minute. And he is standing there at that
house and he meets her and he says, now who is this? He knew
who she was. He noticed her before she noticed
him. And he spoke of her before she ever spoke of him. And he
gave her all this grace. Back up there in verse 7 it says,
The servant that was over the reapers, he answered Boaz, telling
him who she was. And he said, she said, she came
out here this morning early and she said, I pray you let me glean
and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So she came
and she's continued even from the morning until now that she's
sitting here tearing a little in the house. You see, she's
come over to the edge of the field. Shade to where the house
is now. She's carried there a little
while. That's where Boaz came to her That's where Boaz spoke
this grace to her Now first off. Let's get this beautiful picture.
We have here. Let's get this picture The field
is the world where we live that's what's been picture the field
is a picture of this world we live in In one of Christ's parables,
He said, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed
good seed in his field. And then He gave the meaning
of it, and He said, The field is the world. The good seed are
the children of the kingdom. They're His people. That's who
we're trying to reap in this world, is His people. The harvest,
His people. But it's His field, you see.
But the tares, He said, are the children of the wicked one. You
can't tell them apart. There's tares and there's good
seed. But the good seeds He is and the tares are the seed of
the wicked one. This whole world is Christ's field. He owns it. He bought it. He bought the whole
world. He bought the field. Now, I'm
not saying He redeemed every single person in the world. I'm
not saying that at all. I'm saying to you, He bought
the world. It's His. He owns it. He bought
it. Christ told another parable,
and He said, The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a
field. The witch, when a man hath found
it, he hideth the treasure, and for the joy he has for that treasure,
he goes and he sells all that he has, and he buys that field.
Christ's elect, God's elect is the treasure hidden in the field,
hidden throughout this world. for the joy Christ had for that
treasure, for the joy that was set before Him. He went to the
cross and endured that shameful death of that cross, selling
everything He had. And He bought this whole world. He didn't buy it just because
He wanted the world. He bought it because He redeemed
that treasure. That treasure was His. When He
bought the world, He bought that treasure. He bought His people.
And he bought the world because he's going to have that treasure
that's hidden in the field. The field is the world. The reapers
here now. There were some reapers out there
working. The reapers are you and I who Christ has redeemed,
who He's regenerated, who He sent forth to bear witness of
Christ. He sent us to the harvest to
harvest His redeemed who are yet lost. We don't have any strength
to do it. It's all of Him. And he said
there, there was one sent over the reapers. That's a picture
of his preacher. But we're all one together. We're all going
forth bearing witness of him. He gave another parable. Christ
did. He said when he saw the... No,
it wasn't a parable. He was speaking. He said when
he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them
because they fainted and they were scattered abroad as sheep
having no shepherd. And then saith he to his disciples,
to those he was about to send forth to preach the gospel, he
said, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray
ye therefore that the Lord of the harvest, the one who owns
the field and owns the world and whose treasure they are,
pray that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. So you get the picture, the field's
the world, The reapers are His witnesses. Ruth, here's a picture
of one of His lost sheep that's just been newly called by His
grace. And then the house at the edge
of the field, that's Christ's local church that He's provided. Christ's laborers in Christ's
field is what we are. And we worship in Christ's house
at Christ's table at the edge of the field. Now secondly, that's the picture
we have here. Now secondly, I want you to see
this. Where does Christ show us His grace and where does He
give us more grace? Where does He show us His grace
and where does He give us more grace? It's the way Boaz gave
Ruth grace and the way He gave her more grace. Verse 14 says,
Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither. Come right
here. Come right back to this place
and eat of the bread and dip thy morsel in the vinegar." It's
in His house, through His gospel, that Christ bestows His grace
on His child. He said, it pleased God to say
by the foolishness of preaching, He's able to send the preacher,
He's able to hedge up your way and bring you to this house.
Was He able to bring you here? Was He? I didn't know where you
were. The ones that were here didn't
know where you were. What did we do? We just preached the message
and sent it forth. And he was able to get your ear
with it and bring you to the house. and speak grace to you. That's what He does. He brings
His child to His house and He speaks grace to them. And when
He's spoken grace to them, He makes them bow down at His feet
and beg Him, Lord, give me more of this grace. You've comforted
me and I want You to comfort me some more. You've spoken kindly
to me. I'm a stranger and a sinner and
a poor, needy beggar. I want You to speak friendly
to me some more. Where are You going to do that,
Lord? Where can I find this grace in Your sight? He says, You come
right back to this same house. Come back where I gave you this
grace. Come back where I spoke this grace. And eat the bread.
Eat the bread. And dip your morsel in the vinegar.
There's two things always involved in this thing of coming to this
house and receiving grace from Him. Feasting on the bread. Feasting on the vinegar of chastisement. Knowing what He endured and knowing
and finding out what you are. seeing what you are. That's where
it is in this two-fold message. All flesh is grass and thy God
reigneth. But you find it in His house.
Look at Isaiah 25, verse 6. I know this is speaking of that
great feast in the marriage supper of the Lamb, but it's speaking
of His house too in this world. This is just a foretaste of that
feast. in His house, in His kingdom.
This is the foretaste of it right here. This is the mountain. This
is the house. This is the house on the edge
of the field. Verse 6. In this mountain shall the Lord
of hosts make unto all people, all His elect, redeemed, regenerated
people from among Jew and Gentile. All kinds of His people are among
His elect. Not just one kind, not just one
race, all people, all kinds of people. He'll make this a feast
of fat things a feast of wine on the leaves That's the that's
the banquet wine. That's the one that that all
the Leaven because it's because it's fermented all the leaven
the leaves is all settled to the bottom And it's been it's
old and that wines drawn off the leaves, and this is the purest
Wine no leaven whatsoever in this grace is all Grace no leaven
no works. No sin nothing. This is all of
Christ right here wine on the leaves the banquet wine and a
fat things full of marrow and of wines on the leaves well refined. And He'll destroy in this mountain
the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil
that's spread over all nations." You want to see Christ? You want
to have the veil removed so you can have a new heart and be able
to see Him? He said, I'm going to do it in
His house. He'll swallow up death in victory.
Where are you going to find it? In His house. And the Lord God
will wipe away tears from off all faces. in this house, in
this mountain, and he'll rebuke, and the rebuke of his people
shall he take away from off all the earth, for the Lord hath
spoken it." See, this, you know, if I said to you this is where
he's going to do it, you might say, well, I don't agree with
that. Well, I didn't speak it, God did. Don't disagree with
God now. The Lord spoke in it. And it
shall be said in that day, when He makes you come to this feast,
this is what's going to be said. Lo, this is our God. We've waited
for Him and He will save us. This is the Lord. We've waited
for Him. We'll be glad and rejoice in
His salvation. For in this mountain shall the
hand of the Lord rest. In this mountain, in His house.
And Moab, all his enemies, shall be trodden down under him, as
straw is trodden down for the dunghill. You know, when Moab
has invaded your flesh, and Moab has brought you down, and you're
having trouble seeing Christ, because you've got so much Moabite
trouble from your sinful flesh, and in the world, and in trials,
and all these things, you know. We get so weak when we're that
way, and we start thinking, well, I just can't go to God's house.
I can't go to the worship service now. I'm just not fit to go there,
no place for me to be. That's so foolish. He said this
is the house where he's going to put down Moab. This is a place
where he's going to trod down Moab, and take the veil off of
you, and comfort you, and strengthen you, and feed you, and keep you.
This is where he's going to do it. Don't ever not come to the
house. How do we have this hunger to
come to this house? How do we have it? Only one way
we have it. Only one way we have any ability
to come to the house. The way we have it is this, Christ
said unto us, at mealtime come thou hither and eat of the bread.
That's how you have it. That's how you have a hunger
and a willingness and ability to come. Not one sinner that
I mean really comes to thou. Now there may be others that
come here and sit down. But those who really do come.
I mean come hungry. I mean come hungering. and who
are truly fed. The only ones who come. We didn't
invite ourselves. We didn't give ourselves the
ability. We didn't give ourselves the willingness. We didn't make
ourselves do that. We can't pat ourselves on the
back for anything. The only way we come is Christ
our kinsman redeemer said unto me personally and to you personally,
come thou hither at mealtime. Come thou hither and eat the
bread. That's the only way. That's the
only way we continue to come. That's the only way. Now notice there's a set time. He says, at mealtime come thou
hither. At mealtime come thou hither.
God is a God of order. God's not this haphazard, you
know, well, caesarasara. God's a God of order. He predestinated
everything by which He'll save His people, and this mealtime,
He set. He set it. He set it. How do I know when the mealtime
is? When does the church meet? When is the gospel preached?
That's how you know when He set the mealtime. What did I just
say? We can't come to this house.
I can't preach. The meal can't be set. There
won't be a meal unless Christ has done it. How am I going to
know when it's the mealtime? Well, when is the time to have
the service? When is the time the gospel is
being preached? That's how you know that's the mealtime. Where
it is faithfully being proclaimed, that's when you know it's the
mealtime. Our Lord arose on the first day of the week. And we
find throughout the scripture where this was His set time because
we find it. We find throughout the New Testament.
We find where His saints met on the first day of the week.
To worship Him and to sing songs and to pray and to hear His gospel. That's what they did when they
met and broke bread. The meal. They observed the Lord's
table when they met. But that meal that was broken
to them was that gospel. Primarily that gospel. And those
ordinances. Therefore we find it repeated.
God's providence has made it so we can come here the first
day of the week like we've done today. This is the meal time.
God's providence has made it so that we can meet during the
midweek aren't you thankful for that? I'm thankful that we can
come out of the hot field and come over to the edge of the
field and sit down in the shade And eat in the middle of the
week aren't you don't you eat at your table throughout the
week? We need to come to his table
and eat throughout the week And then look a few times a year,
too. We have special meetings. We
got one coming up this week Brother Don and Brother Frank will be
here and we're going to hear the feast. We're going to have
the feast spread before us. We didn't set that. We were used
to set it, but we didn't set it. Those men have been working
hard to prepare the meal, but they don't prepare the meal.
If the meal is not given to them, they won't have a thing to say.
He set the meal time. He'll bring everybody to the
meal. And I say, you know, this is the mealtime. So he says,
whenever the gospel is preached, he says, it's the mealtime. He
says, come at mealtime. At mealtime come thou hither. Now, you think about this. Do
you have to have legal constraints to go to your table and sit down
and eat? Do you need a law? that says to you, you better
sit down at your table and eat. Do you need a law doing that?
No. Do you need somebody to offer
you a reward and bribe you to get you to sit down and eat?
No. No. You know why you come to that
table and eat? You're hungry. And you know you need the food.
You know if you don't eat, you're going to die. You have to have
it. God's people don't have to have their arm twisted. They
don't have to be bribed and yoked and bound and have a law dangling
over their head. That's the number one reason
that churches in total error still maintain that this is a
Sabbath day switched over from Saturday, which it was, and that
now this is a Sabbath day, and to keep the law, you have to
come here. The reason men do that is because they're guilting
folks into coming to the meal. Christ's people don't have to
have that. We know that Christ is our Sabbath rest, but He's
also our bread. And we know He's the one that's
going to feed, and we know where He's going to give it. He said,
at mealtime, come thou hither. And so we come. He's given us
a hunger. He's given us a willingness.
Job said, I need this bread more than I need my bread for my body. Do you realize that? That's true,
brethren. Do you realize that? If you don't
eat your normal bread, yes, you're going to starve and die physically,
but you're not going to die spiritually. But if you don't eat this bread,
you'll die spiritually. Which one's worse? If they string
you up and kill you and crucify you, they haven't done a thing
to you. Because the real you is that new man born of God.
And they can't touch Him. They can't do a thing to Him.
He won't ever be forsaken from the love of God that's in Christ.
So what I'm saying to you is we need this bread more. He said,
neither have I gone back from the commandments of His lips.
I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary
food. I steam the words from Christ's
lips more than my own necessary food. I always say this to you,
you know how folks will get out of huff about something and they'll
leave the house of God. And I guarantee you the whole
time they're gone, not eating the spiritual bread, they're
eating that physical bread. Why? They're hungry for it. They
come to their table and eat it. Why don't they come to his table
and eat it? They ain't hungry. That's just so. They're not hungry. It's because Christ's mealtime
is for our profit. He provides His pastors to preach
His gospel. It's said in Ephesians chapter
4 for the edifying of the body of Christ. The edifying of the
body of Christ. It says there that we henceforth
be no more children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine,
but that we might grow up into Christ who's the head. That's
the reason he does it. We're eating here and being profited
here and growing here through this gospel, partaking of this
meal. And so he teaches his child to
lay aside anything and everything that would keep us from mealtime. Lay aside everything, anything
that would keep you from mealtime. How do I know if a thing is right
or wrong? If what I'm going to stand for
is right or wrong, how do I know it? Is it going to take you away
from the mealtime? Is it going to separate you from
coming into God's house with His people and sitting at the
table and eating? If it is, I don't care how right
you think it is, it's wrong. I guarantee you, it's wrong.
And He shows His people that, and so they come to this house
at mealtime. Look here, it says, She sat beside
the reapers. Boaz reapers came in from the
field, that one who was over the reaper, they all came in
from the field and they all sat down at the table. And she comes
in, here's Ruth, this poor Gentile, poor little girl from Moab, nothing
like any of the rest of them, they're all of Israel. She's
a stranger. She's nothing, she's nobody.
And she knows it. And so she walks in there and
she's so humbled by this, by His grace, so appreciative of
God's grace, she comes in there and takes the lowest seat in
the house. She sat over to the side. She
sat beside them. That's what it means. She didn't
come and sit there and claim her spot at the head of the table
right beside the head of the table. She came in there and
they all sat down and she waited until they sat down and then
she came and over beside them she sat down. She's there with
them. But what it shows you is her humility. It shows you her
broken heartedness. It shows you her appreciation
just to be there at that table. Just to be called to that table.
This is Boaz. This is the richest man in the
whole county. And she's been privileged to
come to his table. The grace of God shows us what we are.
The grace of God shows us from what God has saved us from. The
grace of God shows you that in you dwells nothing good, brethren. He shows you when He saves you
that we're just worms. That's all we are. Maggots before
God. You know how you detest a maggot.
That's all we are before Him. A worm. He saved us off the dung
hill. That place where they took the
refuse from the outhouse and piled it up, the sewer dump,
the dumps where we were, that's where he saved us from. That's
what this place is we live in. And he saved us from that. off
the tongue heap and everything about any goodness in our very
best righteousness that we thought was righteousness that others
might have commended you for. Before God, they're just filthy
rags. That's all. And He makes you
know that. You know that. He makes you know this about
yourself. This is not just a doctrine we preach. I think about how sinful I am
every day. I lay down at night sometimes
and lay there and think, Lord, it's amazing grace that you didn't
just snatch me out of this world today and throw me in hell. I
am a miserable sinner. And yet, he says, come to my
table and feast. Doesn't that make you, oh, that
just breaks your heart. We all see through a glass darkly.
What, what, just what you see, what understanding you have and
how little it is of Him makes you know you can't exalt yourselves
over one of your brethren by your knowledge over what you
know. Exalting yourself is knowing
something they don't know or be angry and upset with them
because they don't understand this or that. We can't do that.
We can't do that. We just know very little bit. Our ignorance is high as the
mountains. I can't exalt myself over somebody
else's ignorance. And the other thing is we slip
and we fall and we sin so much. How in the world could a believer
do anything for his brethren who fall into error and slip
and fall and do all these rebellious things? How could we do anything
but try to cover their sin, thank the best of them, pray for them,
and minister this bread to them? How could you do anything else
but that when you know what you are? I always find this so amazing. I can remember one time being
so tangled up in sin. Thinking I was doing it for the
glory of God. Thinking I was making a stance for the glory
of God. And all I had done was separate
myself. And all I'd done was thinking
this was going to be an opportunity for me to be a preacher and for
folks to follow me and all this. I'd have never told you that's
what I was doing. I didn't think that's what I
was doing. I really didn't. And so when you see somebody
fall into that kind of sin that you've been through, the person that knows something
about it Doesn't say, well, they write them off as an unbeliever.
Because I know God snatched me out of that. And he snatched
them out of that. So you just pray for them. But
then while the person's in the middle of that, they think they're
right. And that person over there, they don't believe anything.
They're lost. There must be a heretic. Well, that's what you'll do while
you're in that spot, you know, tangled up in that sin. And yet,
those that you said that about, they're praying for you and saying,
Lord, save him. You're the only one that can
save him because they've been there. How could we do otherwise? You
think about this now. Just think of this. After Ruth
has seen what great grace Boaz showed to her, what he's done
for her and how amazing it is that he did all this freely for
her, can you imagine Ruth out there in that field, and she's
there by these reapers, and it's her start thinking malicious
thoughts about one of those reapers out there in that field. Those
people that he said, you go to my servants that are drawing
the water and filling the vessels, and they're going to give you
the water. Can you imagine her start thinking some sort of ill
thought against those water drawers? Can you imagine her thinking,
they're not drawing that water right. They should use a different
pail than the one they're using. And she starts going around to
the other reapers in the field and goes, do you think that's
right, the way they're doing that? I don't think that's right,
how they're doing that. Next thing you know, she's got
all the reapers gathered up with her and they decide we're not
going to go to mealtime. Can you imagine her doing that? She
could never do that. Why? She's amazed that she's
even invited to the meal. Her heart's broken to be able
to even go to the mill. Can you imagine her doing anything
like that, brethren, when He told her to come to that house?
You know what she did? Because she had tasted His grace,
she came to that house and was happy to take the lowest seat
in that house just to be at that table. You know what God says
to us? He says, seeing that you've been
saved by the preacher of this gospel, made a new creation,
born of the incorruptible seed. He says, wherefore, laying aside
all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and
all evil speakings. You know what evil speakings
are? evil speakings are talking to another brother about another
brother about defending God's glory and God's honor and God's
true doctrine and just slightly saying I don't think that I don't
think he's preaching it. That's evil speaking. In fact,
any criticism that you speak to another brother about about
another brother. That's evil speaking. Who shall
lay anything to the church of God select? It's God that justified
them. It's Christ that died for them,
yea, rather that's risen again. Who am I now to charge them? So let aside all evil speakings,
and as newborn babies, oh I'm not a newborn baby, I've been
in the faith for 30 years, but as a newborn baby, just born
today, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow
thereby, if so be that you've tasted that the Lord is gracious. And I guarantee you this, if
you've tasted that the Lord is gracious, He's made you hungry
And he's made it so that you said, I don't care what it is.
I don't care what the problem is. I don't care what I got in
my craw. It ain't worth skipping mealtime. It just ain't worth
it. And so you're going to lay it
aside, because you've tasted that grace, and now you're at
your feet before our great Boaz, and you're saying, Oh, give me
more grace in your sight, speak more comfort to me, speak more,
more friendly, with that friendly voice to me. He says, then come
hither. At mealtime, come thou hither.
At mealtime, come thou. At mealtime, come thou. Right
here, at mealtime, come. At mealtime, come hither. When
He speaks that, you'll come. You'll come. And when you come,
you'll come there like with the spirit that Mephibosheth had.
Do you remember when David said, go get him and bring him here
that I might show mercy for Jonathan's sake and they went and they fetched
Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth was crippled in
both his feet, lame. He couldn't walk, couldn't do
a thing. They went and picked that boy up and his David's servant
brought him to his table and set him at his table. That's
who we are. Lame, can't do a thing and Christ
sends the Spirit of God and He picks us up and He brings us
to His table and sets us at His table. And because we see what
we are and what He's done for us, we come there with the spirit
He had. Mephibosheth said, he bowed himself
and he said, What is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon
such a dead dog as I am? How amazing that I can be at
this table. You see, if you're not at the
table, your old lame legs are showing. But when you're sitting
at that table, They're under the table, and that can't be
seen. When we start skipping to mealtime,
all our lameness is showing. When we're sitting at the meal,
all that is obscured by the glory of Christ and His righteousness,
what He's done for us. And I'll tell you this, and those
that come, they'll be filled. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed
are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee. Now lastly, notice who fed her
and what he fed her. Verse 14 says, And he, Boaz,
reached her parched corn, and she did eat. Now you think about
this. When Boaz came to that table
and sat down at that table, I picture this big long table out there,
it was probably just a pavilion, you know, a roof. We open sides
probably and they come in there and they sit down at this big
long table and there's this big feast there for all these reapers
that are out in the field and for all these, for Ruth and all
these others there and for him. He's the owner of the house. You know he didn't prepare that
meal and set that table and serve those people. There were some
cooks there and there were some servants there. No doubt that
just like he had people to draw the water and he had somebody
over the reapers and he had reaper. He had somebody out there and
had them in a place doing what they're supposed to do. He had
somebody to cook and he had somebody to serve. But they're not mentioned. They're not mentioned. You see,
God's going to use his preacher. He's going to use his means.
But the preacher And the means are not mentioned. They're not
to be seen. When you sit down at a big banquet, at a big meal
or something, the focus is not the server. The focus is the
host of the banquet and the meal that he's provided. That's the
focus, not the servers. And so his preachers are obscure.
They're just like a servant. They're bringing the food, that's
all. That's all. Out of the way, out of sight.
Christ is the sovereign head over His house. Christ comes
to His field like Boaz did. And Christ calls His redeemed
to His house at mealtime. And He gives them grace. And
He shows them what He's done. And He calls them back to that
house. And when His gospel is being preached, Christ reaches
forth His hand. And He feeds His child. He makes
it effectual. He feeds you in the heart. He's
the only one who can do so. Boaz reached her, parched corn. What does he feed us? Parched
corn. The meal that we're here to eat,
you think about that parched corn. Where did it come from? There was a seed. It came into
the earth and was put into the earth and was broken. And from that seed came life.
That seed is Christ. Christ came into this earth and
He went to that cross and He was broken, He was wounded and
He is the life of His people to justify us and redeem us and
make us righteous and holy before God. And then that grain was
bruised and it was crushed. It was cut down and it was harvested,
winnowed out and it was bruised and it was crushed to make meal.
He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. That word bruised means like
bread corn is bruised, like you grind wheat, grind corn to make
meal. He was wounded, He was bruised,
not for His own sin, for the sin of His people, for the iniquity
of His people. The chastisement, the correction,
the whipping, the slashing of our Peace was upon Him. And then that corn was roasted
with fire so that it was parched. Roasted with fire so that it
was parched. When Christ went to the cross with our iniquities
on Him, He went there for a purpose. He went there to manifest God's
righteousness. And so God made it so that Christ
would be in a place where it would be righteous for God to
pour out justice on Him. That's what He did. He laid all
the iniquities of His people on Him. And Christ went to that
cross, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, knowing what
it is, knowing what it feels like, knowing what it's like.
He went to that cross and He hung on that cross and God separated
His presence somehow from the Son of God, the God-man hanging
on that cross. He separated him from his presence
from that is when he that's that's everything and that's that's
that's to be made sin when when did Adam when did Adam When was
how was he made sin What was when he when he transgressed
I know but what was really the essence of it when God took his
commuting spirit from Adam and And on that cross, God removed
His communing spirit from our Savior. God separated from God. I don't know. I can't explain
that. And that's the essence of justice,
to be separated from the presence of His glory. Everything's in
that separation. That's the eternal death. That's
the worm that never dies. To know Him and know how good
He is and know everything about Him and love and want to be in
His presence and yet be separated from Him. That's where Christ's
on. And He said this, Day and night
thy hand was heavy upon Me. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer. My life is parched. My spirit's
parched. The moisture in me is parched.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue cleaveth
through my jaws. Thou, Lord, Thou, my God, hast
brought me into the dust of death, the dryness of death, the parchedness
of death. For my days are consumed like
smoke and my bones are burned as a hearth." I can't imagine what Christ suffered
on the cross. You know when you love somebody,
you love your father, mother, can you remember when you were,
before you became so hardened to sin that it didn't bother
you? You remember when the least little thing that you did that
was sinful bothered you? Especially if you knew that it
was, it hurt your mother and your father, it hurt you. endured something of that on
that cross. It hurt him. It was a painful thing there
involved in this to hate sin so much and love God so much
and yet to be sitting there bearing the iniquity of his people and
bearing God's displeasure and bearing that. I can't imagine
it because he's perfect. He knows. Perfect hatred for
sin and perfect love for the Father. And yet, there He is
bearing that. And yet, as we saw this morning, He made Himself
so weak, He's trusting the Father to do everything the Father promised.
That's righteousness and holiness, brethren. That's the fulfillment
of the law right there. And when He died, He justified
us from all our sin. All His people. And now with
His stripes, we're healed. It pleased the Lord. It satisfied
divine justice to bruise Him in place of His people. That'll
never be done again. That's a once for all time sacrifice. It'll never be done again. Christ's
people will never bear that. They'll never bear that. He's
going to call them to His house, to Mealtime, and He's going to
show them this, and they're going to say, we want to hear that
more. We want that comfort more. And He's going to say, come back
to Mealtime. We're going to keep them that way until He brings
them home, until the harvest is done. So, by His grace, we
do what Ruth did. Verse 14 says, She did eat and
was sufficed, and then she left. She went home. And you know what? She ate and was filled, and there
was so much in abundance that she carried home a plate for
Naomi. Look down there at verse 18.
At the very end it says, Ruth gave to Naomi that she had reserved
after she was sufficed. She took a to-go plate home.
There was so much. Isn't that how it is with us?
You hear this gospel and there's so much and it's so good, you
take some home to eat. And you eat it through the week
and you share it with others in your family. The ones that
were sick, couldn't come or something, you take it home and share it
with them so they can eat some of it. Now you get this picture. As Christ's witnesses, we spend
our days in the field, in this world. We're out in the hot sun,
in much tribulation. We're trying to reap the harvest,
trying to bear witness of Christ, trying to gather in the sheaves.
And then at mealtime, Christ commands us, now come out of
the field, come to the house. And so we come. We come into
this shade, to His shade, out of that hot sun of tribulation,
in this oasis. We come into His rest from all
our worldly labors and we come to this feast of Christ's gospel
at Christ's table and He feeds us and satisfies our hunger and
strengthens us and sends us home with such abundance that we carry
plenty home with us. Brethren, if you've tasted the
Lord's grace, lay aside everything, come to His house at mealtime
and be sufficed by the bread of life. When a sinner's hungry,
no one's got to beg him to come eat. Hungry souls are glad they
come to the house and they'll eat. They don't care who the
cook is, and they don't care who the server is, and they don't
care what the plate looks like that it's served on. They just
care about the one at the head of the table. They just care
about the bread, that's all. They want to hear Him. They want
to hear Him. They have to have the bread.
And now remember this, brethren, we come into this house for mealtime
right now, but this is just like that, this is sort of like that
pavilion, that little temporary house on the edge of the field
there. That wasn't Boaz's house. That wasn't his permanent house.
That was just the house he provided for his reapers. This is the
house he's provided for his reapers. You and me, you and us here together.
But one of these days, We're going to Christ's permanent mansion. We're going into His banqueting
hall. And we're going to sit down with
Him at the marriage feast of the Lamb. And He said that you
may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom. And He said, blessed
are those servants whom the Lord, when He comes, shall find watching.
Verily I say unto you, He'll gird Himself, and He'll make
them sit down to meet. And get this, brethren, He will
come forth and serve them. He'll reach up and reach you
that part's bread. Say, here, eat. In person. In person. You think it's good
now? You think it's good now? You
think it suffices you now when He does it spiritually? Just
imagine when He does it in person. At mealtime, come thou hither. Amen. Alright, brother.