I do like to see those pictures
in Scripture of Christ calling His people. And I like to see
those examples of Him when He walked this earth calling His
people. Our text tonight is one such example. It's a picture
of Christ calling a child to Him and causing that child to
find Him. I've titled this Finding the
Kinsman Redeemer. That's the person we're introduced
to in the first verse of this second chapter. We read there
in Ruth chapter 2, Naomi had a kinsman. She had a kinsman
of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech,
and his name was Boaz. He's the central figure of the
book of Ruth. And he's the central figure because
he's the kinsman redeemer. And the one he pictures is the
central figure of this whole book. He's the central figure
for which this whole world was made. And who made this world? He's the whole purpose time exists
as Christ the kinsman redeemer. The word redeem means to buy
back again. To buy back again. It means to
take possession of. Now we don't have laws in our
society that I can think of that's anything like the law of the
kinsman redeemer that you find in the law of Moses that God
gave. The closest thing we have to
it is that I could think of is whenever you say you go to a
pawn shop and you they give you some money for something an item
a piece of a possession of yours well you can go back after a
while and you can redeem that item back to you you can redeem
it back you pay a price that has been lawfully set And you
pay that price in full and you redeem back that object. And now the only ones who can
redeem it is you, if you're able. But if you're not able, the one
who can redeem it is whoever is your lawful representative.
That person can redeem it. Whoever is lawfully your representative. Now, turn over Leviticus 25 with
me. Leviticus chapter 25. God declares
in His law that there is one who has a right
to redeem, and he's one who's near of kin. Look here in Leviticus
25.25. He says, If thy brother be waxen
poor, he becomes poor, and he hath sold away some of his possession. And if any of his kin come to
redeem it, you know what kin is, don't you? His kinfolk, his
near kin, those that are related to him. If any of his kin come
to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. And if the man have none to redeem
it, and himself be able to redeem it, that is, the man who sold
the possession, if he can redeem it, then let him count the years
of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to
whom he sold it, that he may return unto his possession. That's
to redeem a possession. Then look down to verse 47. But sometimes a man became so
poor he sold himself. And if he sold himself, here
was the law regarding that. He said in verse 47, If a sojourner
or a stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth
by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the sojourner by thee, or
to the stock of the stranger's family, after that he is sold,
he may be redeemed again. After this man has sold himself,
he can be redeemed back. He can be bought back again.
Who can do that? One of his brethren may redeem
him. A near kinsman. Either his uncle
or his uncle's son may redeem him. Or any that is nigh or near
of kin unto him of his family may redeem him. Or if he be able,
he may redeem himself. Now, who's the brother who has
become so poor that he sold away himself and is unable to redeem
himself? Who is that? Who is that brother? That's everybody born of Adam.
Everybody born of Adam. We've sold ourselves into the
bondage of sin under the curse of the law and we don't have
anything with which to pay to redeem ourselves. We can't redeem
ourselves. It's an impossibility. Divine
justice demands far more than you and I can pay to redeem ourselves. The reason God gave that law
was to teach this, that you and I can't redeem ourselves. Listen
to Psalm 49.6. They that trust in their wealth
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." A man can't redeem another man and he can't redeem himself.
Not one sinner. Not a sinner. He can't redeem
another and he can't redeem himself. Doesn't matter how much earthly
riches a man may have. They're worthless to God. He
can't redeem Himself. Christ is the Redeemer. Look
over at Romans 3. Christ is the only Redeemer.
Romans 3. Look at verse 23. Romans 3, 23.
All have sinned. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. That means we can't redeem ourselves. But we're justified freely, without
a payment from us, justified freely by God's grace. That means God choosing by His
grace, by His unmerited favor, to justify whom He will. were
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. See, Christ is the only one who
can redeem. We just saw there in that law,
there's three things required to be a redeemer. Number one,
has to be kinship, has to be of kin to the person. Number
two, he has to be able to redeem. And number three, has to be willing
to redeem. Those three things, kinship,
ability, and willingness. Well, Boaz was near of kin to
Ruth. He was near of kin to Ruth. So
there he met that qualification. Well, Christ, the Son of God,
is near of kin to all God's elect. He became our near kinsman when
He took the human nature of all God's elect seed. You know in Hebrews 2, it doesn't
say He took the nature of the seed of Adam. It doesn't say
that. It says He took the nature of
the seed of Abraham. They're not all the seed of Abraham.
Not all children are the seed of Abraham. Only the sons of
promise are the seed of Abraham. That is God's elect. He took
the nature of His elect. That's what Christ did when He
came. He became a man, taking the nature
of the chosen seed, holy and without sin, so that He might
be the one who could lawfully pay and redeem His people. The second thing that was needed
is ability. We're going to see later, or
what we see here, Boaz was able to redeem because he was a man
of great wealth. His name means strength. He was
a man of power. He was a man of ability. He had
the ability. Well, Christ is able to redeem.
He has the ability to redeem because he's of great wealth
and power, being both God and man. As God, everything He does
is eternal. And as man, holy man, He's able
to take the place of His people and to do everything required
by the justice of God to redeem His people. He's able. He's able. He has perfect righteousness.
He has complete, perfect atonement made by His blood. He has fully
made His people complete in Him so that God is satisfied with
Him. He's able to redeem. And then later we're going to
see Boaz was willing to redeem. He was willing. That was the
third qualification. You've got to be willing. Christ
is a willing Redeemer. He willingly came down. Nobody
made Him come down. He willingly came down. He willingly
took flesh. He willingly made Himself to
be under the law. He willingly laid down His life. He said, no man takes my life
from me. Hebrews 12, 2 says He did it for the joy that was set
before Him. That joy of declaring God just
and the justifier, declaring the righteousness of God, and
the joy of buying back and taking into His possession by a lawful
payment all his elect brothers and sisters. He did that. So
first of all, Christ is the kinsman redeemer. Now he's the one the
whole book of Ruth's about. Boaz is a picture of Christ and
that's what was taught throughout the book of Ruth. Now secondly,
we see a picture here. This is what I think is so beautiful
about Ruth. We've been seeing this gradual
picture take place of how God, the things God does to draw His
sinner, His chosen sinner to Christ. We've been seeing little
by little things He does. And here today we see again.
It says there in verse 2, these are things God sovereignly performs
by grace to draw His child to Christ. Now look at verse 2.
Ruth 2 and verse 2. Ruth the Moabitess said unto
Naomi, Let me now go to the field, Let me now go to the field and
glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace."
Notice how she said that? Let me go to his field and glean
ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. She said under her go my daughter
and she went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers
Now watch this and her help Her help was to light on a part of
the field belonging unto Boaz Who was of the kindred of a limeleck
who was the near kinsman? I? Now, only God's grace, His
sovereign, irresistible grace, only His grace can do what we
see done here. He makes a sinner desire God's
grace. We don't desire God's grace by
nature. Men speak of God's grace, but
their definition of God's grace is totally foreign to what grace
really is. Men think that God's grace is
God seeing some value in you and some virtue in you and some
work that you would do and therefore He showed you grace. That's not
finding grace in God's sight. That's God choosing you based
on something in you. God looks upon His people and
they find grace in His sight purely purely by unmerited favor,
not based on anything in them, good or evil in them. That's
the purpose of God according to election. There's nothing
in them good or evil. He chose them freely by His grace. She's wanting now to find grace
in the sight. of this one. Now no sinner wants
that by nature. Sinners want to work for salvation. She wants to find grace in His
sight. Only God can make a sinner want to find grace in His sight.
Only God can do that. And only God can make you know
in whom God's grace will be found. Only God can make a sinner know
in whom this grace is to be found and to be had. Now Ruth was drawn
to God's house of bread. She came to Bethlehem. She came
from Moab, brought out of Moab to Bethlehem. We saw how that
took place and everything that was involved in that. That's
a picture of God bringing His child to His house. Well, when
she came into His house, she learned two things. Two things
she learned in His house. Number one, she learned that
she was poor and had no ability to redeem herself. When they
got there, she learned she was poor. She came there with Naomi
who once was wealthy and rich but now had nothing. And she
got there and found out she was poor. And the second thing she
found out when she got there was she found out about this
one who was a near kinsman who was powerful and wealthy and
able to redeem her. Now that's the two things a sinner
finds when they're brought to God's house by God and blessed
by His grace. That's the two things they found
out about themselves. And so when they found that out,
they do what Ruth did. She said to Naomi, let me now
go to the field and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight
I shall find grace. God's got to draw us to His house
and God's got to teach us we're poor and we're unable to do anything. First you've got to know you
have a need to be redeemed. If we don't see that we've sold
ourselves into sin and God hates sin and God will by no means
clear the guilty. If we don't see that and see
that the only reason men perish, the only reason men perish is
because of our sin. God's grace doesn't make us sin,
and God's grace doesn't make us rebel against God, and God's
grace doesn't make us reject God, and God's grace don't leave
us reprobate before God. Our sin does that. We can't blame
God and His sovereignty for us. We have to be taught we're the
sinner. We're the sinner. We need grace
is what we need to save us from us, or else we're going to perish
with the damned. That's what we need to be taught,
and only God can teach you that. We've got to be taught this over
and over and over and over and over. Never, never left to forget this. And the second thing we have
to be taught is the only one in whose sight we can find grace
is the kinsman-redeemer. Christ Jesus the Kinsman Redeemer.
God's turned the whole work of redeeming His people and saving
His people into the hand of His precious Son. He's going to have
His Son exalted as the Savior and the King and the High Priest
and the Lamb and all things to His people. It pleased the Father
that in Him should all fullness dwell. And He's going to have
Him exalted as all. So He's turned the whole work
over to Him to do this for His people. So we have to be taught
We have a need to be redeemed. We cannot redeem ourselves. We
are sold. You know, sadly, this is the
truth, sadly, if we were bankrupt and mortgaged our house and had
to get to the point where we couldn't pay and we're going
to lose our house and all that, we'd be more devastated and treat
one another like that was so terrible and awful. And we sit
here among sinners who don't even have a clue that it's so
far worse for them than that could ever be, and we just sort
of glaze over on this, you know. We hear it, we hear it, and we
just get, it just doesn't have the impact to us that it ought
to. This is worse than anything that could happen to somebody.
We've got to be taught this by God. God has to make us know
this and feel this and understand this so that it's a dire issue
with us. This has got to be settled. I'm
bankrupt. And He makes you see Christ is
the one you've got to go to. When He does that, that's when
you'll have a heart to go into His field. Go to His house, to
His field, to His Word, sit under His gospel, and start gleaning
in His field because you need to find grace in His sight. That's when you'll have an interest
in what's going on right here, right now, in this field right
here. That's when. That's when she
had an interest. That's when we'll have... But
that's good news though. Now, the result of it is, when
He works His grace, He makes you want to go find grace in
His sight. Isn't that good news? Think about that. When the Lord's
brought you to the point where you say, let me go. I need to
glean in His field before I'll find grace in His sight. I need
to go find grace in His sight. When He's brought you to desire
that, you've already found grace in His sight. Because that's
how you had that desire. He brought you to have it. Now
this is the kinsman redeemer who works it. Christ the kinsman
redeemer works this in His people. So, He works this to bring you
to His field. Now, all of this is according
to God's eternal purpose and predestination. We don't just... Well, let's read it. Verse 3.
She went and she came and she gleamed in the field after the
reapers. And her hap, that's so important,
her hap, was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz
who was of the kindred of Elimelech. Her hap means it just so happened. It just so happened that she
came into the field, the exact field that belonged to the kinsman
redeemer. She don't know what Boaz looks
like. She ain't never met this man. She don't know what he looks
like. She don't know what part of the
fields he is. You got just a, you got a, it looked like the
Mississippi Delta where she was right there. And she don't know
which farm out there is Boaz's farm. She just goes and picks
one and starts gleaning in it. She don't have a clue. But she's
in the field of that one, that only one who can show her grace
and redeem her. That's where she's at. But her
help was not by accident. Her help was not by chance. Her
help was not by luck. There's no such thing as any
of that. It wasn't by chance or luck or
any such thing. It was according to God's eternal
purpose. God's eternal purpose. God determined
her hap from eternity. He determined from eternity that
on that day, at that hour, she was going to go to that field
because that was Boaz's field. That's right. God determined
she'd be redeemed by Boaz and be married to Boaz. He determined
that before the world began. He'd done the same thing for
all his people. He determined who He's going
to save, when He's going to save them, where He's going to save
them, and they will come to that field, at that hour, at that
time, and He will make Himself known to them. God's purposed
it from eternity, and He'll work everything in their lives, and
in their history, and in everything around them, and in the lives
and histories of everybody around them, to bring them to that place. That's how powerful this kinsman
redeemer is. This is God who is the kinsman
redeemer. That's how powerful He is to
work that. Go over to Matthew chapter 1
just a minute. I'll show you how I can prove
to you that this was from eternity, ordained by God, who works all
things after the counsel of His own will. I can show you. Look
here. God determined before that all of these people right here
would be married. Right here. Look here, let me
show you. Let's begin in verse 5. Solomon begat Boaz. Boaz is the kinsman redeemer
we're talking about here. He begat Boaz of Rahab. Remember Rahab the harlot? That
was Boaz's mama. Rahab the harlot. That was in
Jericho. That was Boaz's mother. God saved
her on purpose. Because she's going to marry
that man right there and have Boaz. And then Boaz begat a man
named Obed of this girl named Ruth. They've got to get married. They're going to get married.
No doubt about it. Because Obed is going to begat
a man named Jesse. And Jesse is going to begat a
man named David the King. Ruthen and Boaz are the great-grandmother
and great-grandfather of King David. And you keep on going
down that line right there, and look here who they are also the
great-grandmother and great-father of, compared according to the
flesh. Verse 16, Jacob begat Joseph,
the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called
Christ. Do you imagine there was any
possibility that God's Son is not going to become incarnate
and come into this world and be the Christ of His people?
There's no possibility. Therefore, God worked everything.
Alemalek sinned against God, didn't trust God, walked away
from the house of God, went down there to Moab. His sons rebelled
against God's law and took them women of Moab like they weren't
supposed to. But all that rebellion, God overruled
it because it was all their sin. But He's going to bring Ruth
back to Bethlehem because Ruth's got to marry Boaz. And Boaz and
Herb got to have Obed, who's going to have Jesse, who's going
to have David, all the way down the line, who's going to have
Christ. So there's no possibility they're not. Turn over here to
Romans 8. Here's what I'm trying to show you. Romans 8. Verse 28. We know that all things
are worked together. And that's how you can read it,
because that's how it truly is. They all are worked together
for good to them that love God, to them who are thee called according
to God's purpose. When you do something on purpose,
you're meant to do it. And that's what he's talking
about. Everything works together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called, because God meant to do it. He meant
to work them together for good. For whom He did foreknow, foreordain,
ordain to eternal life, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. That's what we've got pictured
in our text. Ruth is a picture of a child of God who's been
predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ. And we
see her here being drawn and about to be conformed to His
image through faith in Him by the Spirit of Grace regenerating
her and giving her faith and what have you. That's the picture
we're seeing. He's going to draw them and conform them to Christ,
that Christ might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, them He also called, whom He called,
them He also justified, whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Who can be
against us? And that's so, brethren. That's
so. Now, let me show you one more
thing. We saw the kinsman-redeemer, and we saw that God, by His grace,
makes a sinner to know. Makes them desire to have grace
in God's sight. And shows them that Christ is
the one who is going to give you that grace in His sight.
Going to get it from the redeemer. So He draws you to Him. Now lastly,
all who truly seek Christ. Everybody who... Now listen to
me carefully. If you don't believe on Christ,
never profess Christ, hear me. All who truly seek Christ shall
find Him, and they'll be instructed by Him. All who seek Christ shall
find Him and be instructed by Him. Let me say this while it
just popped in my mind. Don't try to logically reason
and understand the Gospel and then think, then I'll believe
on Christ. It don't work that way. The Scripture don't say,
it never says, logically try to come to an understanding of
Christ, it says believe on Christ. That's what the Scripture says.
Believe on Christ. You believe on Christ and trust
Christ, He will teach you what you need to know. That's how
it works. That's the order. Believe on
Christ, He'll teach you. And everybody that seeks Christ
shall find Him. But preacher of the Scripture
says there's none that seeks Him. We just saw how she's brought
to seek Him. He brought her to seek Him. But
everybody that's been brought to seek Him and that truly seeks
Him, they will find Him. They will find Him. And He'll
teach them. Now watch this. First of all, verse 4 says, Behold,
Boaz came from Bethlehem. I love this. Boaz came from Bethlehem
to his field where Ruth was gleaning. That's a beautiful picture right
there. Christ comes through the Spirit. He's drawn His child
into His church, into His house, into His field where the Gospel
is preached. And Christ comes from Bethlehem. He comes from the house of bread,
from His heavenly throne. He comes through the Spirit,
through the Word, into that field where He's brought that child
to glean. He comes to that place through the Word. And then it
says, verse 4, And Boaz said unto the reapers, The Lord be
with you. And they answered him, The Lord
bless thee. Boaz is a type of Christ, and the reapers are his
laborers, his disciples, his saints, along with his preacher. You who believe. You who believe. before sending forth His disciples.
Remember what Christ said? He said, Pray ye therefore the
Lord of the harvest. That's what this is. The harvest. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest
that He will send forth laborers into His vineyard. I mean, into
His harvest. And that's what these reapers
are. They are sent by Boaz into His field to His harvest. And
that's what you who believe are. That's what we as His witnesses
are. That's what I am as His preacher. We're sent to this
harvest to be His reapers, His laborers. That's what we are. And we have communion with Him.
That's what we're doing right now. You who believe, we're having
communion with Him. Just like Boaz came there and
he said to them, he said, Lord be with you. And they answered
him, the Lord bless thee. We're communion with Him right
now through the Gospel. We have communion with Him in
our hearts. And then look, Christ causes His preacher in particular
to have a heart for those that Christ has drawn to glean in
His field. Look how Boaz, verse 5, "...then
sent Boaz unto his servant that was sent over the reapers." Whose
damsel is this? He's saying this for the benefit
of that servant, and the benefit of those reapers, and the benefit
of Ruth. He don't need this information.
He's saying it for our benefit. Who is this? Who is this? And the servant that was sent
over the reapers answered and said, it's 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. And so she came and she's continued
even from the morning until now, save that she tarried just a
little bit in the house. She'd been here all morning,
they said. You see, some new person comes and they desire
to hear the gospel preached in truth. And they're like Ruth
who came to that field and she said, just let me glean. You
know what it was to glean? It was just to follow the reapers
as they're sitting there reaping the harvest. It's to follow and
just to pick up whatever is left over, that is left behind, that
she can gather up to carry home. It's like being a beggar. Just
getting whatever corn is left or weed or this was the barley
harvest. Barley was like what the poorest
people made bread with. the poorest people. You had to
mix other kinds of wheat with it to make it worth anything.
She's out there in the barley harvest saying, I'll be content
with this. Just give me some of this for
a little bread. Let me glean. That's a sinner
that's come to God's house, just shows up out of nowhere, and
all of a sudden has an interest, wants to hear. Just let me glean. Let me glean. And the Lord begins
to speak to His preacher and His people. saying, now who is
this? Who is this damsel? And He brings it to your heart
to realize this is somebody you've drawn out of that world. This
is somebody you've drawn here. They're not here by accident.
It was their help to light on this field by your purpose. He
makes you to know that. You who believe in Me, He makes
you to know that. Makes you to think about that.
This is not something to take lightly that you've got a visitor.
That visitor ought to be treated like royalty. Because they're
not here by accident. God brought them to you. Who
is that? And you begin to commune with
God about it and talk to God about it, pray to God about it.
I can remember when Kristen first started coming here. I can remember
praying for her, thinking, The Lord drawed it out of me. Who
is this damsel? This is that little Moabitish
girl that's come out of Moab. She come with Robert, come back
from Moab. And you pray. You have a heart
for them. You pray for them. And some, the Lord does something
and some, He might be teaching you something else through them,
but they go off and go somewhere else. But He gives you a heart
to pray for them. Draws that out of His laborers. Who is this? And then Christ
gives His command to His preacher, to His witnesses. Look down at
verse 15. He said this to them prior to
what comes next. You know, because He tells her,
she heard Him say all this. He was saying it for her benefit
too. But he tells them this, this is his command to them,
verse 15, when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his
young men saying, let her glean even among the sheaves. In other
words, they got the sheaves stacked up there, and most of the beggars,
they're out there, they can't come near the sheaves, that's
where the harvest is, the good bread is at. They're out here
just picking up what they can off the ground. He said, you
let her come up here and get glean out of the sheaves. out
of that that's already gathered up. That's like the bread being
already gathered up for her and the sheaves being there ready
for her just to come up and take her pick of what she wants. Let
her glean among the sheaves. And he says, and reproach her
not, don't you reproach her, and let fall also some of the
handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may
glean them and rebuke her not. Buke her not. In other words,
you leave some, you leave some. They would leave some for the
beggars. They would leave some on purpose for the beggars. He
said, you leave her some handfuls on purpose. And don't you go
back and pick it up. You leave it for her. You let
her have it. You let her have it. Christ tells His preacher,
He says this, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably." That's like feeding her. Feed her. Leave her these handfuls of purpose.
Feed her. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquities pardoned, for she has received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. He says, you give
her handfuls of My purpose on purpose. You tell her about how
I've chosen My people, and I've sent My Son, and I've redeemed
My people, I'm sending my spirit and I'm calling my people and
giving my people life and everything they need to lay hold of me,
I'm equipping them with it. And I'm giving them the power
to do it. And I'm going to see to it that they do it. You tell
her that. You tell her that everything I require, I provide. You tell
her that everybody in my house is well fed, well cared for,
well provided for, and not one's going to perish because I've
redeemed them. I've accomplished their warfare.
I've paid their debt. I've done everything necessary
to save them by myself. Tell her that. Don't reproach
her. Don't rebuke her. She's going to get all up in
the way. She's going to get up there around the reapers and
get her in the way and try to interject this or that and ask
these questions. Don't rebuke her. Just tell her,
we're leaving you these handfuls of purpose. Here's yours right
here. It's all free. You don't have to pay anything.
Take it. Take it. Don't reproach her. Don't do any of that. Then in
his time, as this is going on, Christ speaks to her. He speaks
to her then. Look here in verse 8. Then said
Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? He'd been saying
all this to his servants, and just like we hear this gospel
preached and preached to us, and we hear what Christ is saying,
what Christ is doing, and then all of a sudden he speaks to
her. Do you hear this, 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 to the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have
drawn." Now look at what we've seen. Christ draws this child
to His field, and Christ comes to His field. And He commands
His preacher, and He gives him the message, and He tells him,
drop handfuls of purpose, and you be in prayer for her, and
you ask Me to do what I'm going to do for her. Don't reproach
her, you give her these handfuls of purpose. And then Christ speaks
to His child, and He gives that effectual command, and He says,
do you hear Me, My daughter? When He says that, you're going
to hear Him. When He speaks, it says here, you're going to
hear. That's Him giving you ears to hear. And He says to her,
go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence. You feed
on My gospel alone. You're in Christ's field now,
He says. Don't go to another field. Abide here fast by My
maidens. Let thine eyes be on the field
that they do reap, and go thou after them. Christ commands her
to follow my people as they follow me. Remember Paul? Follow me
as I follow Christ. And Christ says, yep, you do
that. You glean in the field they glean in, and you follow
them as they follow me. That's what he's telling her.
Nobody is going to do you any harm because I have commanded
it. Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch
thee? And when thou art athirst, go into the vessels and drink
of that which the young men have drawn. I have commanded my preachers
to feed you, protect you, to do you no harm. And you come
now, he said, you drink of my well of life, which my young
men provide by my grace through my gospel. You drink. He said,
if any man come to me, He'll never hunger and he'll never
thirst. And that's what he tells her. He tells you this when he
calls you. He says, don't go to another field, stay in this
one. Follow this word, follow my people, and drink of this
water. Drink of it. And here's the result. When he does that, what's going
to happen? What's she going to do now that he's told her this?
You think Ruth's going to argue with him? You think Ruth's going
to have to be persuaded? This woman's got nothing. And
this man has just told her she's got free reign in his field.
And of his servants. He's saying to her, my servants
are yours now. They're serving you now. Follow
them. Adhere to them. Abide by them.
What do you think she's going to do? Look here. Then, verse
10, 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
shouldst take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? She's
amazed. She's singing Amazing Grace.
That's what she's doing. I'm a stranger. I'm a poor bankrupt
stranger with nothing to pay you. And you've done all this
for me by grace. By grace. And here's why he says
he did it. He says it's because of the faith
that she has in him, and it's faith he worked in her by his
grace. Look here. And Boaz answered
and said unto her, It hath fully been showed me all that thou
hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband,
and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother. You've left everything.
And the land of your nativity, and are come unto a people which
thou knewest not heretofore. The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee
of the Lord God of Israel." What kind of reward is this? All this
work that was accomplished, that she did, that He's commended
her for, was all of His grace. It's all of God's grace. The
leaving her folks, the leaving her land, the clinging to people
she don't know, the following after him, everything is by His
grace. This is a reward, all of grace
is what it is. Not a reward of debt, a reward
of grace. Now look what he says. The full
reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel under whose wings
thou art come to trust. What's the reward? What's the
full reward she's being given? Boaz and his field and all everything
he had, all his full provision. What's the reward a believer
has when they come to Christ? Christ and everything He has
to give in all this works of grace. Go to Ephesians 2 and
I'm going to close with this. Ephesians 2.8. All this work is the work God
creates. It's the work God ordained that
all His saints shall perform. Everything we've seen Ruth do
is a picture of repentance and faith and seeking Christ and
following Christ and abiding by Christ and bowing to Christ.
And all this work is the work God ordained from eternity that
she would do. And it's all done because he
worked it. Now watch this. This is what
is meant by this verse right here. Ephesians 2.8, By grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. It is not of your works, lest
any man should boast, for it is his workmanship. Created in
Christ Jesus on two good works. That's the works we're seeing
in Ruth right there. The good works we're talking
about, the works we see in Ruth. Coming to Christ, leaving everything
else, forsaking all else, coming to Christ, bowing to Christ,
resting in Christ, trusting under the shadow of His wings. Because
God hath before ordained that we shall walk in those works.
And that's why every one of His children will. They'll all come
to it. Now here's what you saw. We're
drawn to seek the kinsman redeemer. He's the only one that can redeem,
the only one that can show you grace, the only one that can
save you from the bankruptcy and the selling yourselves to
sin. We're drawn to seek Him by the
grace of God alone. He's going to get all the glory
for every bit of this work. And all who seek Him find Him. They find Him. Now here's the
question. He says, ask, and you shall find. Ask and it will be given to you.
Seek and you shall find. Knock and it will be opened to
you. Now here's the question. Can you ask Him? Can you seek
Him? Can you knock? That's the question. That's the question. That's a
pressing question. I hope He presses you with that. He'll save you. He's going to
bring you to ask Him to save you. She came there as a mercy
beggar. That's what He's going to make
His people. Amen.