Take your Bibles and let's turn
to Ruth chapter 4. Ruth chapter 4 and we'll be focused
on verses 1 through 11. We had left off last week with Boaz
having promised Ruth that she would be redeemed. Ruth would
be redeemed. And he says in chapter 3, verse
13, after assuring her that she would be redeemed, he said, Tarry
this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will
perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well, that's great. Let him do the kinsman's part.
But if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, Then will
I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the Lord liveth, lie
down until the morning." So this was the comforting word of Boaz
to Ruth. And then Naomi reaffirms and
confirms that comforting word to Ruth. All right, let's look
at verse 18. Then Naomi, then said Naomi,
sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will
fall. For the man will not be in rest until he have finished
the thing this day. And we see how that Naomi is
a picture of the church who takes the words of Christ, those comforting,
reassuring promises, and recounts those promises in the ears of
the Lord's people, assuring them of what the Lord has promised
to do for His people in grace and in mercy. And we see Ruth
is a picture of the Holy Ghost, who takes the words of Christ,
the promises of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and confirms and
affirms these blessed promises, these comforting words to his
people. And you say, well, it sounds like the church and the
spirit are one. Well, we are one in Christ. That
is, our voice is lifted up with the voice, and we say the same
thing. We preach and declare the Lord
Jesus Christ to his people, to the needy sinner, assuring the
people of God of the promises of God to them in Christ. And she said, sit still, my daughter. And that's the hardest thing
for the carnal man to do, isn't it? Sit still. I need to be working. I want to put my hand to the
work and fix this and start this and do this and do that. That's
what the carnal man wants to do. But the Lord comforts his
people and says, be still, wait upon the Lord. He's able and
willing. And he does marvelously before
the eyes of his people so that we glory in Him and give Him
all the praise and thanks when the work is done. Because we
know it wasn't by me, it wasn't by my works, it wasn't because
of what I did, it's because of the faithfulness, the blessedness
of the Lord our God who richly blesses us in His Son Jesus Christ. So, we left off waiting on the
outcome of Ruth's redemption and today we're going to see
Boaz's redemption of Ruth. and see that Ruth's redemption
is my redemption. It's a picture of you, the people
of God. It's a picture of your redemption
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I've titled this message,
Ruth's Redemption, My Redemption. Because it's a picture of our
redemption, of what our Savior, our Lord, Jesus Christ did for
his people. So the first thing we notice
here is the public nature of Boaz's redemption of Ruth. It's a publicly done thing for
Ruth. Look at verse 1, Ruth 4 verse
1. Then went Boaz up to the gate,
and sat him down there. And behold, the kinsmen of whom
Boaz spake came by, unto whom Boaz said, ho, such and one,
turn aside, sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down."
And so this was done at the gate. This was done in the gate. This
was the main part of the city. This is where business was done.
This is where legal matters were taken care of. It was done publicly
before all. It was like we would go to the
town hall or city hall and conduct certain legal matters to make
sure that they were done properly with witnesses and that it could
be testified to that everything was done. properly and in order,
legally and justly, so that if anything came against it, you
could provide all the information publicly, you could show what
was done and that it was all done proper. And so the gate
is where such matters were done in the city at that time. And
we read in verse 2, Boaz took 10 men of the elders of the city
and said, sit ye down here. And they sat down. And so Boaz took 10 men and brought
them near so that they could see what was done. They could
hear what was said and what was done and make sure that, yes,
this is all done properly. And, you know, when we look at
this, when we look at Boaz and say, this man is an Israelite,
he's a faithful and a just man, he's a good man. And you might
wonder, why would Boaz want to marry Ruth? Why would he want
to marry Ruth the Moabitess? It could be said of Boaz that
he was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel. He is of the tribe of Judah,
Bethlehem Judah, and Hebrew of the Hebrews. And you might think,
why would he want to marry Ruth the Moabitess, a stranger, a
Gentile dog, someone who was not part of the body of Israel,
someone who was an outsider. She wasn't born of Jewish parents. She wasn't born into the family
of God by natural birth. She's just Ruth the Moabitess
and why would he want to join himself to her? Well Boaz loved
Ruth. He loved her and he wasn't ashamed
of her. He wasn't ashamed to take her
as his wife and so he would redeem her publicly before the whole
city so that they all knew Ruth is my beloved bride. I love her. I've given her all. I provided for her. She's mine. Let no one touch her. I love
her." And that's what Boaz is showing here very publicly. And
so it is that our faithful Lord and Savior, the Son of God, took
upon Him flesh, the likeness of our flesh, yet without sin,
not being born of Adam's seed, but conceived of the Holy Ghost
and Mary's And He took upon Him flesh, brethren, that He might
come and be the faithful Redeemer of His people, the faithful,
the fit and perfect sacrifice for His people, that He would
be our substitute. And He went so far as to bear
our sin, to bear our shame before the Father, to bear it publicly
on the cross, to put it away. Christ did that for you whom
He loves. You that now believe on Him,
have heard His word, have heard His voice, and believe by the
faith which God has wrought in your hearts, giving you life
by the Holy Spirit. And so He bore our shame in order
to justify His people, in order to obtain for us life eternal. we might know Him and have fellowship
with Him. 2 Corinthians 5.21 For God hath
made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him, so that the righteousness
of our Lord and Savior is now imputed to us. He's made known
to us by His grace and mercy. And so for this cause, we rejoice
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We worship Him. We glory in what
Christ has done for us. And we're glad and thankful and
full of joy as the Lord brings it to our heart and makes us
to know what Christ did for me What He's done for me, for my
salvation, that I might know Him, we glory in what He's done. He wasn't ashamed of us. He didn't
do this in a corner. This wasn't done in a dark place
so that nobody knows. It's public. It's well known
around the world what Christ has done for His needy, sinful
people to make us righteous, to make us the people of God. He came as our shorty saying
put their debt on me put all that they owe on me I'll pay
it I'll paid in full and he did he went to the cross and paid
it in full willingly gladly with his face set as a flint to go
to Jerusalem for you his people to put away your sin to make
you clean and righteous and the people of the true and living
God. And so our Lord saved us with
great pleasure, with great pleasure, the way Boaz went and redeemed
Ruth with great pleasure, full of joy, happy, happy to do it,
happy. Hebrews 12 verse two says, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. He
did that gladly, with pleasure, with pleasure. When we think
of ourselves and we think of our folly, our sin, our rebellion
against him, yet he did it with great joy. It was his pleasure. to redeem us, to save us, to
make us His own people. What a gracious and merciful
and glorious Savior. And so He put that shame of our
sin aside in order that He might make satisfaction for us, and
it was all done willingly. Nothing was taken from Him. Nothing
was forced upon Him. He did this knowing what we are. that we are sin our very nature
is sin and we're full of sin and all we do is sin and and
all we do is sin and rebel against him in ways that we don't, in
ways we know, in ways we don't know, but the Lord is merciful
to us. So this was a public matter and
there were many witnesses. Verse 2, he took ten men of the
elders of the city and said sit ye down here and they sat down
so that everyone in Bethlehem knew what Boaz was doing for
Ruth. I'm sure that word traveled fast
through that city. Boaz is is talking about Ruth. He's going to marry her. He's
going to redeem her. All her debts would be paid.
All of her needs met perfectly. She would be married and a seed
would be raised up for the dead for an inheritance and it was
all done very publicly. And that's what our Savior did
for us. All our debts were paid. All
our needs are met. we are the bride of Christ to
be married to Him in that great day and He's put the down payment
for us with His own blood so that we're His and He's coming
for us He's returning for us and all our needs are met in
the Lord Jesus Christ and we have an inheritance with Him
that heavenly land with our God and our Savior and so everything's
settled by Him. Turn over to Colossians 2 and
we'll look at verses 14 and 15. There Paul says of what our Savior
did for us that when he was there on the cross, he blotted out
the handwriting of ordinances, those laws that are against us,
all that's contrary to us, all that condemns us and declares
that we are guilty. Christ blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us.
because we don't have the ability, the strength, the righteousness
to do that which is righteous before God and He took it out
of the way, nailing it to His cross. Our sins, our guilt was
nailed to the cross and put away so that we're not sinful to our
God. We're not guilty of crimes and
rebellion against our God. It's put away. We are righteous
before God. We are righteous in the Lord
Jesus Christ and His righteousness is my righteousness. And verse
15 says that He spoiled principalities and powers. He took from them
what they intended and purposed to do to God's people, to destroy
us. He spoiled them. He ruined their
plans. He demolished them. blew it up,
just destroyed what they intended to do for us, and He made a show
of them openly. In other words, He made them
a public spectacle. He put them to an open shame
because they cannot touch us, they cannot take from us that
inheritance which Christ has wrought for us in the death of
Himself. There's nothing they can do against
us. It's all put away. He delivered
our souls from the pit, brethren. We're delivered out of hell and
destruction. The grave won't hold us. Death
can't hold us. Christ has conquered the grave,
and he's conquered death. He's conquered sin. He's conquered
all our enemies, and we are now his people, his redeemed people. This was a legal matter as well. It was a legal matter. Boaz loved
Ruth. He could have run off with her.
He could have taken her and said, this is great. Let's make this
happen. Let's go do this quickly. But
no, this was a legal matter. Boaz was a just man. The law
had to be honored and upheld. It's not that he wasn't willing
to make Ruth his wife, he certainly was. He wanted Ruth to be his
wife, but it had to be done just and properly before many witnesses. It had to be done justly so that
God was honored, his holy law was honored. Let's look at this
in verses 3 and 4. Ruth 4, verse 3 and 4. And he
said unto the kinsman, Naomi that is come again out of the
country of Moab selleth a parcel of land which was our brother
Elimelech's. And I thought to advertise thee,
saying, buy it before the inhabitants and before the elders of my people.
If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it. But if thou wilt not redeem
it, then tell me that I may know. For there is none to redeem it
beside thee, and I am after thee. And this kinsman redeemer, the
near one, said, I will redeem it. I'll redeem it. And so the
redemption of a poor relative, it's laid out in the scriptures.
It's spoken of. And it's not that any one of
that family can just say, I'll do it and just jump ahead. It
had a proper order. It had a proper succession that
the person who had the right first the right, the foremost
right to do it, it was theirs to decide whether they would
redeem their relative or not. It had to go through that proper
order. And Boaz is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ who loves his bride, the church. And Boaz will
redeem Ruth. He wills to redeem Ruth. He's
pleased to do that work of redemption for her. But there is a kinsman
nearer. There is a kinsman that is in
that proper order, if you will. And so the picture here is of
the law of God. That near kinsman redeemer being
the law of God. If the law can redeem the child
of God, well, great. then they're redeemed. If the
law can do that, fine, it'll all be settled. And that is,
if a man can take that law and by the law justify himself, live
righteously and perfectly before the law, somehow putting away
his sinful, vile, wicked nature and doing that which is right
before God under the law, well then he'll be declared justified.
be declared righteous by the law and therefore justified by
God that he is righteous. If you can do it. If we can do
it. But we know according to the
scriptures that we cannot keep the law. I'm sin. I'm not just a doer of sin. I
am sin. That's my very nature. and defiled,
ruined in the ball. And that's how the people of
God and the law cannot make us righteous. It can't do anything
to turn us from what we are. It only declares what we are. We're either just and righteous
before the law, or we're guilty, vile sinners before the law. All the law can do is tell you
and me, what we are, what we are. We're either righteous or
we're not, and are condemned by the law. Turn over to Galatians
chapter three. Galatians chapter three, and
we'll pick up in verse 10. And if you go away from there, just
leave a little mark, as we'll come back, picking up in verse
13 later. Verses 10-12 says, For as many
as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is
written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. And I
am not able to continue in the law and to do them all. I've
already condemned myself. I've already proven and shown
that I cannot continue and keep the law of God perfectly. So
if I try to live by that law, I'm under the curse of the law
because I haven't done it. I haven't kept it perfectly.
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God,
it's evident. What do you mean? Well, God's
already declared that the just shall live by faith. That's why
God said it, the just shall live by faith, because none keeps
the law of God righteously, perfectly, and is justified by it. So God's
already provided and declared the way through his son, Jesus
Christ, so that those who are justified in him before God live
by faith, walk by faith before him. And the law is not a faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. And so we see that
in trying to keep the law, and what we say is just, we don't
keep it, whether we're under the law or not. And in religion,
we don't even keep that perfectly. We fail and stumble and wander
about, groping about in darkness. trying to find God and justify
ourselves before God so that we're brought to see that I'm
sin, I'm guilty before God, all I do is sin, I can't do that
which is right and pleasing to my God. Lord have mercy on me. Lord have mercy. And so that's
what he does. No man is justified by the law
and the sight of God. He makes us to know what we are
in order that his people would cry out, Lord, save me. can't do this I can't justify
myself because I'm sin he brings his people to see them and so
this is what's made evident to us in the next verses look at
back in Ruth 4 verse 5 and 6 we'll come back to Galatians 3 in a
moment but verse 5 and 6 then said Boaz what day right
the the the New York Innsman said I'll redeem the land I'll
redeem the lamb And Boaz said, well, what day thou buyest the
field of the hand of Naomi? Thou must buy it also of Ruth,
the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of
the dead upon his inheritance. And the kinsman said, I can't
redeem it for myself. I can't do that, lest I mar my
own inheritance. Redeem thou my right to thyself,
for I cannot redeem it. We're not told specifically.
what the issue was but when it came to Ruth he said I can't
I can't do that I can't do that I can't redeem Ruth and mar my
own inheritance so therefore the law could do nothing right
it couldn't do some of it and then Christ do the other part
of it Christ had to do the whole thing like Boaz he couldn't say
well I'll pick up the land part and you pick up the marriage
part no no I'm out I can do nothing, the law says. I have no part
in this work at all. You redeem it. You do it. You do it. Because otherwise,
I'd mar my own inheritance. So the law doesn't save us. The law has no part. We have
no part in the law, and the law has nothing to say to us. We're
dead to the law. We've been crucified. This old
man's been crucified with Christ. We're dead to the law. We have
no part in the law. All our part is in Christ. All
our inheritance is in Christ. All our blessings and fellowship
and peace with God is in Christ. Not by the law. We're not justified
by the law, we're justified by Christ. We're not sanctified
by the law, we're sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
all of Him. We glory in Him and in Him alone. The law, it's holy, it's just,
it's good, but it cannot forgive sin and it cannot show mercy. All it can do is tell us what
we are. We're either just or unjust. If it did anything else,
it would mar its own inheritance. It would mar its own justice.
And so the law makes us to know I'm undesirable. Ruth knew right
then and there she's undesirable to that near kinsman, but she's
very desirable to Boaz. He was happy to do it, and that's
what we see. We're undesirable. We're undesirable
to the world. We're undesirable to the law.
We're undesirable, but we're precious to Christ. He loves
us. He showed us that by coming and
redeeming his people. We're precious to to Him. So,
like Ruth, we are poor, destitute sinners who get no help from
the Law. We get no help from the Law.
It cannot secure our inheritance in Heavenly Kingdom. It doesn't
secure a place with us before the throne of God. By the Law
we cannot raise up a seed to inherit the land. We can't bring
forth fruit unto God by the law. All we can do is bring forth
corrupt, vile, stinking fruit. That's it. But Christ brings
forth righteous fruit, holy fruit unto God. And so if the law would
be our Redeemer, then we must surely die in our sins, as the
Lord said to those Jews in John chapter 8. If you do not believe
on me, Christ said, you will die in your sins. you will die. Christ is the salvation of his
people and so our God's given us a great hope and a door of
salvation in the righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ who
is the righteousness of his people and we are delivered out of the
kingdom of darkness out of the pit out from under the curse
of the law and are delivered into the kingdom of light the
kingdom of God's dear son the Lord Jesus Christ. We are made
righteous in Him. He's our all. And so Boaz was
willing to marry Ruth the Moabitess, the Gentile dog, to buy the land,
to marry her, and to raise up a seed in the name of her dead
husband to restore the inheritance. He came in the flesh and he purchased
us to raise up a seed unto God to marry his wife, to redeem his
bride. Look again at Galatians 3. Galatians
3, verse 13 and 14, and then we'll come back to Ruth. 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. that the blessing of Abraham
might come to the Gentiles, that faith, the word of faith, that
good news of the gospel would come to the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith, not because we've kept the law perfectly, Christ did,
and we've kept it perfectly in the Lord Jesus Christ, and walk
by faith in Him. All right, go back to Ruth 4,
verses 9 and 10 now. And Boaz said unto the elders
and to all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have
bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilean's, and
Melon's, of the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess,
the wife of Malam, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the
name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be
not cut off from among his brethren. And from the gate of his place,
ye are witnesses this day. And so Ruth was redeemed that
day by Boaz. She became his wife. And so it
is that we, brethren, are justified by Christ and are his bride. We are his people, purchased
of him. And the law looking upon it can
find nothing wrong, can find no unjust thing, can find no
sin, Nothing to condemn us. The law looks upon it and says
it's just. It's all just. I've got nothing
to say. I've got nothing to pick it apart with. It was all done
perfectly righteous and well. And Boaz said your witnesses
this day. Now remember back in verse two
it says that Boaz took ten men of the elders of the city and
said sit ye down here and they sat down. And that is a picture
of the Ten Commandments, right? The Ten Commandments that look
upon what's being done and bear witness that this man, Boaz,
has done everything just, everything faithful. Just as our Lord and
Savior came and he loved the Lord his God with all his heart,
and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and with all his
strength, and he loved his neighbor as himself. Christ did everything
well. Christ did all things well and
perfect and righteous. And that's what we see of our
Savior in Jeremiah chapter 23, verse 5 and 6. Look at Jeremiah
23, verse 5 and 6. We see here where the prophet
brings us out to glorify our Savior in our eyes, to glorify
him in our heart, to show what he's done for us, his love for
us and how that he redeemed us and perfected us. in his own
blood. It says, verse 5, Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous
branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. And so we see
that with Christ our Savior. He is the Lord our righteousness. He's our righteousness and we're
his. And then we see that this was a particular redemption. This was a particular redemption. Boaz knew exactly whom he was
redeeming. He knew exactly who he was marrying. This was Ruth the Moabitess that
he was marrying. Verse 10, moreover, Ruth the
Moabitess, the wife of Milan, have I purchased to be my wife. It wasn't a general redemption
of all widows in Israel. It wasn't a general redemption
of every widow in Bethlehem even. It was a redemption of Ruth. He knew exactly whom He was purchasing. He knew exactly. And that's true
of our Lord. It wasn't a general redemption
of all people. He knew exactly whom He was redeeming. He knew exactly who His blood
was shed for. I'm gonna read a number of verses,
you can either jot them down and look them down, you can look
them up later, I would recommend that, but I'll tell you where
I'm going. Isaiah 53 verse 8, listen to
the particular words, the defining words of whom Christ is saving.
Our Lord says it's for the transgression of my people that he was stricken. It's for the redemption of my
people. He has a people for whom Christ was stricken, for whom
Christ died. Acts 20, 28, we're told, take
heed unto yourselves and unto all the flock over the which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church
of God, the church of God. Not the whole world. Feed the
church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. He purchased the church with
his own blood. Galatians 3.13 says Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us. He could have said every individual
in the world. No, but he said he redeemed us. He purchased
us. Listen to Ephesians 5, 25 through
27. And you husbands, ask your wives
if they would love, if they would be fine with you loving all other
wives and women out there the way they love you. And they would
say no, no. The word is husbands love your
wives, love your wives. Love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church, his wife, his wife, the church, and gave
himself for it. He gave himself for his church,
that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water,
of water by the word, that he might present it. his bride,
his church, to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish."
Titus 2.14 Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us. the people that he's manifested
his spirit in, that he's manifested his faith in, what he's done
for them, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify
unto himself a peculiar people, a people separated out by him,
sanctified by him unto himself, zealous of good works, so that
brethren, we come to learn that all these words, all these scriptures
which were written here in the word of God, they were for me.
When He works that faith in us and brings us to see that I can't
save myself and that Christ is all, that's where the Lord reveals
to us, it's all for you. You're my beloved bride. I loved
you, I chose you, I redeemed you. He makes it known to us
that He's our Savior and that He's done all for us. So that
we read in Revelation 5 verse 9, and they sung a new song saying,
thou art worthy to take the book and opened the seals thereof
for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation." He gathered
up all his people that were scattered through the nations and called
them out and brought them to his own, into his fold, into
his sheepfold. And so having done that perfect
work, we find the one who is praised the one in whom we glory. And all the people that were
in the gate and the elders said, We are witnesses. The Lord make
the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah,
which too did build the house of Israel. And do thou worthily
in Ephrata, and be famous in Bethlehem. Now, Ruth wasn't the
one that was praised. Boaz was the one that was praised.
Boaz didn't have to redeem Ruth. He could have left her poor and
destitute. He didn't have to do that at all, and he'd still
be justified. He was fine to do what he was
doing. But Boaz was praised because he did redeem Ruth. He did redeem
Ruth. He loved Ruth and He gave His
life for her. And He provided everything for
her. And that's what our Lord and Savior did. He did everything
for us so that we praise and glory the Lord Jesus Christ. We glory in Him and we give Him
all the thanks, the praise, the honor, the glory because He alone
is worthy for this work of redemption. Praise be to God. Amen. Let's
close in prayer, brethren. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for the redemption that we have through your Son, Jesus
Christ, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Lord, our husband, our friend,
our brother. Lord, we thank you for your grace,
richly, freely, abundantly provided in him. Lord, lift up our hearts
that we may glory in you. that we may give thanks to our
Lord and Savior and praise his name. Lord, bless the worship
service in the next hour. Lord, help us to just rejoice
and see clearly what you've done for us, that we may rejoice all
the days of our life in Christ our Savior. We pray for those
who are sick, who are not well. We pray that you would remember
them, that you would strengthen them, comfort your people, Lord,
gather your people together as one. In the name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray and give thanks. Amen. Okay,
brethren. Let's come back at five after
the hour. Five after. On that clock. Which is pretty accurate.