Good morning. All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn to Ruth chapter 3. In Ruth chapter 3, we've been
looking at the book of Ruth, which is the historical account
of King David's great-grandparents, Boaz and Ruth. And the Lord has
blessed us with giving us an allegory seen and witnessed in
their lives. It shows us, it's a picture,
a type of our Lord's salvation for his people. We see that pictured
in Ruth and Boaz and even Naomi. And it's an encouragement to
the believer in seeing just how sweet and tender, how loving
and kind our Lord is to his people, in drawing his people to himself
and in redeeming them by his precious blood. We began looking
at chapter three, where we saw the faithful witness of Ruth,
and we saw the childlike obedience, or the faithful witness of Naomi
to Ruth, and we saw the childlike obedience of Ruth to that word,
that faithful witness. And today I wanna look at Ruth's
request that she makes of Boaz, and then Boaz's promise to Ruth,
and then Ruth's confidence, her trust in Boaz to keep his word
of promise made to her. I've titled this message, Redemption
for the Seeking Sinner. Redemption for the Seeking Sinner.
So last week we saw that faithful witness of Naomi and she counseled
Ruth to go to Boaz And that witness was a declaration of who Ruth
was to go to, to Boaz, where Ruth would find him. She would
find him at the threshing floor. And what Boaz was able to do
for Ruth, he could perform the duty of the kinsman redeemer. And that's a picture of the witness
of the Spirit and the Church of God to the needy sinner of
who we are to go to, to the Lord Jesus Christ. And where will
you find them? In the preaching of the Gospel,
the preaching of the Word of God testifying to who we are
and who God is and what He has done for His people. And we declare
what He's done for His people, what He's able to do for all
the needy sinners who come to Him. He redeems them with His
precious blood. He washes the sinner in His blood,
delivering us from the guilt and condemnation that our sin
deserves and leads us out of darkness into light. And to that
wise counsel, Ruth responded saying, all that thou sayest,
I will do. I will do it. She was given faith
and confidence in that word. And so in Ruth, we see the obedience
of faith that the Lord works in his children. This is wrought
by the Spirit of God who gives life and bears fruits of righteousness
in his children. And when Boaz had finished his
labors there at the threshing floor, he laid himself down to
rest. And then Ruth laid herself down
with her Lord at the feet of her Lord. Ruth 3 verse 7 says,
When Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went
to lie down at the end of the heap of corn. He finished the
labor. He saw the travail of his soul
and was satisfied. And he went and laid down and
she came softly and uncovered his feet and laid her down. And that's a picture of our Lord
who from the cross, when he made eternal redemption, when he made
satisfaction unto God for his people, he cried out, it is finished. It is finished. He saw what he
had wrought. He saw the travail of his soul
and he was satisfied. And so he gave up the ghost and
they took his dead body down from the cross and laid him in
a tomb until he should be raised from the dead by God. And so it is that all his people,
by faith in Christ, we've been crucified with Christ. We died unto the law in our Savior. And by faith, believing Him,
we are baptized into Christ. We are baptized with our Savior.
And that immersion in the water by the believer, they show that
they are dead to this world, dead to the flesh, dead to the
works of man to try and save himself. All of that has been
put away by the grace of God worked in us so that We're separated
from that. We have no part in that inheritance
in Adam. We have no part in the flesh.
We're dead with our Savior and we are buried with him. And then
us coming up out of the water is a picture of our being raised
again unto newness of life in our Lord. And now this brings
us to the next verse of our text here, verse eight. And it came
to pass at midnight that the man was afraid. He became startled. He became aware that something
wasn't right. Something was wrong. Something
was different. And he turned himself. And what that means
is he began to twist and grab and reach. What is that? He was
feeling around down there. What is that at my feet? And
behold, a woman lay at his feet. Now, we're told that the time
when this happened, it was midnight. It came to pass at midnight. And then he said in verse nine,
who art thou? Who art thou? Who are you? Now, Boaz didn't know who it
was. And these were short, quick words.
They sound like he was displeased, right? Who are you? What are
you doing there? Who are you? And often times
when a sinner comes to Christ, a needy sinner, we come to Christ
and we know what we've done, we know what we are, we know
who we are and our insufficiency and we come to Christ and we
think surely he'll be short with me, surely he'll see right through
me and he'll deal with me as my sins deserve. Will He receive
me? Will He receive me? And so we
come to our Savior at the time of midnight in our soul when
we're desperate. When the hour's up, we don't
know how it's going to play out for us, how it's going to go
for us, but we go to Him. who is declared to us that He's
the Savior. This is where you'll find Him.
He's able and willing to save, but we're troubled, and it would
seem that Christ is displeased with us. Who are you? Who are
you to venture upon the Lord Jesus Christ, to come to Him,
Lord, to ask Him, Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, forgive me
for my sin. Have mercy on me, Lord, save
me. And that's how we come. And Ruth
had come to the end of her time there where the harvest was over. They were threshing the wheat.
They were threshing the corn. They were finishing things up.
And soon she wasn't going to be able to thresh in the fields
anymore because it was over. It was midnight. The time was
up. And she didn't know what she was going to do. And sinners
with midnight in their soul You know, today is the harvest day
of grace. Today is the day of grace. You
that are needy sinners, you that have no works of righteousness,
you that have nothing that you can look to to recommend you
to God through which He would be merciful and kind to you.
What are you going to do? What can you give to God to deliver
your soul, to ransom your soul? What do we produce in this flesh,
this barren, fruitless, dead, lifeless flesh? What can we bring
to God? It's midnight in the soul. And
the Lord makes His people to know that soon that sickle of
our Lord is going to be thrust into the earth and reap that
ripe fruit of the earth, the people of God, and they'll be
gathered in. When they're all gathered in,
the next sickle to be thrust into the earth according to its
description in Revelation 14 is that which reaps the vine
of the earth, the grapes of the vine which are ripe, and those
grapes of the vine are then cast into the great winepress of the
wrath of God. The Lord makes his people to
know. when it's midnight, when they
need the Lord and that they're desperate, they're needy sinners,
and they flee to Christ, that they may be gathered in by the
grace of our God and brought into the family of God by His
work. And so they come. The needy sinner comes begging
the Lord, cover me, Lord, with your blood. Lord, forgive me. Deliver me of my guilt. Treat
me not as my sins deserve, but Lord, have mercy on me. Lord,
I can't pay. Don't put me into the prison,
cast out into outer darkness. I have nothing to pay. I'll be
there for an eternity, because I have nothing that I can give
to deliver my soul. But the Lord is merciful to take
away the reproach. And by the blood of Christ, he's
reconciled his people. And he's the one drawing them,
gathering to himself, in the preaching of the word by the
power and glory of the Holy Spirit to give life where there was
only death, to give light where there was only darkness. And
so it is with Ruth, the time is midnight. In verse nine, he
said, who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth,
thine handmaid. It's Ruth, your servant, your
servant, Lord. Spread therefore thy skirt over
thine handmaid. for thou art a near kinsman."
She's saying, cover me, cover me. You have the right to redeem
me. You're able to redeem me and
to deliver me from my reproach, to provide for me, to raise up
a seed for my former husband, which he could give me no fruit,
but you're able, you're able to raise up a seed and for my
former husband who could give me no seed. We couldn't produce
any righteous fruit. Turn over to Romans 7. Romans
7 and verse 4 and 5 is a picture of this. Romans 7, 4, Paul writes, wherefore
my brethren, Ye also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is
raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto
God. For when we were in the flesh,
the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. All we could do in our place
in Adam was bring forth fruit that died on the vine. It wasn't
fruitful. We couldn't produce anything
worthy of God's notice. But in Christ, by his seed, he
brings forth righteous fruit unto God, whereby we are received
of the Father in the righteousness and the blood of our Savior,
Jesus Christ. Oh, that we would have that boldness
that Ruth has to come to Boaz, that we would have that same
boldness wrought in us to come to Christ our Savior, to come
to the one whom the Lord has given to redeem his people. And
that's how we come, right? Asking, Lord, redeem me. Help
me. I'm the needy sinner. I need
your grace. Lord, help me. And that's how
we come. As Ruth came to Boaz, asking
him, cover me, help me. I need your help. I can't save
myself. I can't redeem myself. I can't
bring forth any fruit. Cover me, Lord. Cover me. And
the Lord is a willing savior. He's gracious to all that come
to him. He's willing and able to save
all that come to him, asking him for mercy and grace. He said,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and they that
come to me I will in no wise cast out. John 6, 37. And so
Ruth comes here and she offers herself to Boaz. She makes a
request of him plainly. She asks him, do this for me,
please. She made her need known, that
this was her desire, that this was her dependence, this was
her life. Redeem me, cover me, make me your wife, cover me with
your blood, take me under your wing to provide for me, to care
for me, to keep me, to protect me, to free me from my reproach. Deliver me. I'm Ruth, thine handmaid. I'm your servant. And she asks,
spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art
a near kinsman. Cover me with that covering that
only you can provide for me. And you see there, it's a personal,
intimate request between Ruth and Boaz. That's what the Lord
does. He makes his people to go to
the Lord and request, ask him, Lord, Save me. Remember me. Wash me, Lord. Wash me clean
in your blood." And it's an intimate relationship between the believer
and her Lord. And we see that sweet love that
the Lord works in His people and drawing them to Himself.
And so that's how we come as sinners to Christ, humbly as
servants in need of His blood covering, in need of Him to do
for us because we cannot save ourselves. We have nothing to
save ourselves with. It's personal. We need Christ. We need a Savior. We need Him to be more than the
Savior. We need him to be more than the
Savior. And what I mean is, we know that
he's the Savior. Lord, would you be my Savior?
Would you save me? I need you to be my Savior, Lord. I'm the filthy, needy sinner
who can't produce righteousness myself. Lord, save me. You know,
look at the leper that was cleansed in Matthew 8. Matthew 8 verse
2, And behold, there came a leper, and worshipped him. The leper
knew he's the great physician. He heals those that are sick. He heals those that need him
to heal them. He knew that. And he came and
he worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. If you will, Lord, you can make
me clean. You see that? He knew that Christ
is the great physician, but he went to him and let it be known,
would you heal me? Would you cleanse me of my filth,
of my shame, my leprosy? Nobody wants to be by me. I'm
a pollution. I'm a pollution to all that come
near. Lord, would you cleanse me? And that's how we go. Have you gone to Christ and asked
him for mercy? We know that he's the merciful
Savior. We know that he is the Savior
whom God provided for man to be saved, for men to be saved.
He has a people. Have you gone to him and asked
him, Lord, would you save me? Be merciful to me. I need your
sin-cleansing blood, washing me clean of my sin. All who ask
him for grace and mercy find him a willing, gracious Savior. All who ask, all who ask. That's
what he works in his people. And like that leopard, found
him to be, so the sinner, the guilty sinner going to Christ
asking him will find him to be merciful and gracious to them.
Verse three there in Matthew 8, three says, and Jesus put
forth his hand and touched him saying, I will, be thou clean. and immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. That's what the Lord, that's
all the grace of the Lord worked in his children. Now I want to
look at Boaz's promise to Ruth. Ruth asked Boaz to do this for
her and Boaz promises to Ruth, makes a promise to Ruth that
he's willing to perform that work that she's asked him to
do. He's willing to be the kinsman redeemer for her. But there's
a lot of things that Boaz could have said. You can imagine that
Boaz could have charged her with impropriety, that he could have
sent her away, he could have been angry and spoke harshly
to her, but as soon as he knew, it was Ruth. and she asked him
to cover me. He blessed her. He blessed her. He prayed for her and blessed
her, that the Lord would bless her and do for her richly. Look at verse 10, Ruth 3, verse
10, and we'll read down to verse 13 together. And Boaz said, blessed
be thou, the Lord, my daughter, for thou has showed more kindness
in the latter end than at the beginning. Inasmuch as thou followest
not young men, whether poor or rich. And that kindness that
she showed at the beginning, what he's saying there is, you've
done well. You've shown your mother-in-law
great kindness. And you've separated yourself
from your people, leaving your father's house, and you've joined
yourself to Naomi, and declared that her people are your people.
Her God is their God. Now, this kindness that he's
speaking of here is her desire, according to the law, to raise
up a seed to her husband via the kinsman-redeemer. She's honoring
the word of God. She's heard that word, and she's
asking him to do that for her, to redeem her. Verse 11, and
now, my daughter, fear not. I will do to thee all that thou
requirest, for all the city of my people doth know that thou
art a virtuous woman. And now it is true that I am
thy near kinsman, howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than I. Carry
this night, stay this night, and it shall be in the morning
that if he will perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, that
nearer one, well, it'll be good. 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." And so Boaz is willing. It says that Boaz's father was
Salman, and it's believed that Salman was the brother of Elimelech,
and that would make Boaz a cousin. But he's speaking of another,
which means probably he was another brother of a limelight, so an
uncle. And the uncle would be counted
as closer than the cousin. And he's saying, well, let me
go and clarify this. Let's just make sure. If he's
willing to do it, then, well, you'll be redeemed. Everything
you desire, you'll be redeemed. But if not, don't worry. I will
perform the work of the kinsmen redeemer for you. And if you
can produce a righteousness by the law, well, Well, you'll be
received in that. But if you can't, if the law
can't save you, Christ, Christ is able and willing. He's done
that for his people. And so, and we know we cannot
produce a righteousness by the law. We cannot save ourselves.
We need the blood of Christ. We need his work because there
is no other way. There is no other way for us.
And so, Boaz here, he loved Ruth and he was willing, but this
redemption must be done. just. It must be just. This is why it had to be this
way. It had to be perfect. It had to be just before God.
And you see that as much as Boaz loved Ruth, and you can tell
by reading it that Boaz loved Ruth, but it had to be according
to the just holy law of God. God must be honored perfectly
in it. And so he wouldn't redeem Ruth
unless the law would be satisfied, had to be perfectly satisfied,
the law of God. And that's what Christ has accomplished
for his people. He performed that work of redemption
perfectly according to the law. God didn't just wink at the sin
of His people. He didn't just close His eyes
and pretend that didn't happen and say, well, I love them, so
I'm just going to let that slide for them and then punish the
others. No, He poured out His punishment upon us in Christ
our ark, in Christ our deliverer, in Christ our Savior. He bore
the punishment of God's people. so that in Christ mercy and truth
are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Our Lord made full satisfaction
to the Father by bearing the sin of his people and God poured
out his wrath and judgment on Christ that we in Christ would
go free be delivered from that wrath and judgment in the Lord
Jesus Christ because he made full satisfaction he paid the
debt as our shorty he paid the debt that we owe every last farthing
every last drop Everything that needed to be paid was paid in
full by the Lord Jesus Christ so that He died our death that
we should go free and live unto God in eternal life with the
Father and with the Son and the Holy Ghost and His people because
Christ has obtained that righteousness for us. Turn to Romans 3 and
we'll see that. Romans 3. This is what Paul is saying in
verses 24 through 26. He says in verse 24 that we're
justified, being justified. That's God pronouncing you righteous. God saying, you're just. You
are justified in my sight. You are righteous in my sight. I'm well pleased. Being justified
freely by his grace, through the redemption, the blood purchase
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation,
to be the very reason why God forgives us, to be the means
of our forgiveness, a propitiation through faith in his blood to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just in the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. If God just forgave
us, because he loved us, but our sins weren't paid for, God
wouldn't be just. And God is holy, holy, holy. He is just. There is no unrighteousness,
no darkness in our God. He's perfect and holy. And so
our sin was put away perfectly, justly. It was all paid for by
the blood of the Lamb of God. so God's just to forgive us and
he's the justifier, the one who does forgive us. Now let's go
back to our text in Ruth 3 and let's read verses 14 through
18. And Ruth lay at his feet until
the morning, and she rose up before one could know another.
And he said, let it not be known that a woman came into the floor.
Also he said, bring the veil that thou hast upon thee, a shawl
or an apron, something that she had on her, and hold it. And
when she held it, he measured six measures of barley and laid
it on her, and she went into the city. And when she came to
her mother-in-law, she said, who art thou, my daughter? In
other words, are things different with you? Are things different
with you? And she told her all that the
man had done to her. And she said, these six measures
of barley gave he me, for he said to me, go not empty unto
thy mother-in-law. And some see that measure of
six as being perhaps six blessings. And to me, it sounds as though
the Lord's saying, or that Boaz is saying to her, that number
six, which is less than seven, which is perfection, right? There's
something yet to be done. Boaz still had something to go
and do. It wasn't quite finished just yet. He had to go and secure
her redemption, whether by another or by himself. He had to secure
that for her. Then Naomi said, 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 it's such a picture of the
faithfulness, the diligence of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
You that believe him, you see what a faithful man he is. What a faithful Savior he is
to come and work our righteousness. He didn't rest. He had no place
to lay his head. And he didn't look for it until
he had finished the labor, until he finished that work fully,
completely for you, his darling people whom he loves, that he
would cover and make you his bride, his beloved bride. And so Ruth, Well, Ruth trusted
that word. She trusted the word. In the
beginning of chapter three, we see Naomi bears witness to this
faithful one. And she said, all that you've
testified to me, all that you've said for me to do, I will do
it, Ruth said. I'll do it. And then she went
and she did it. And she asked Boaz to redeem her. And Boaz
said to Ruth, I will do this redeeming work for you. I'll
do all that thou requirest. And so it is that our Savior
in grace does all that is required. And those that He does it for,
they seek Him. There's a work wrought in us
by the grace of God, by His Spirit, so that we do come seeking Him. for grace and mercy. We do. As needy sinners we will seek
him and ask him to forgive us and to save us. The Lord is pleased
to work that effectual work in our hearts and to draw us to
himself as trophies of his grace. the wonders of his grace and
mercy for us, so that that fruit of faith is born in his people,
and then he blesses his people for the faith that he works in
them. He blesses us by the work of Christ being worked in us,
covering us, washing us in his blood. And so Ruth found that
rest that she sought in coming to Boaz. And so do needy sinners
who come to Christ, they find that rest that they seek. They
find that rest that they seek. And once Boaz had finished the
work that he promised to do, then he rested from his labors. It was done. And like Naomi said,
he's not gonna rest this day until he's finished that work
that he's purposed to do. And that's what our Savior does
for his people. Then he calls his people into
that rest. He says in Isaiah 11.10, And in that day there
shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign, a
marker of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek,
and his rest shall be glorious. And so Ruth stayed there at Boaz's
feet till the night had passed. And then Boaz gave Ruth everything
she needed. Everything you need. He gave
her his word. He loved her. And he confirmed to her that
she would be redeemed, and that he would redeem her. That's what
it came to, and it did. And that she was fully provided
for, she was covered, and received everything she needed. And so,
I would say, you that are needy sinners, go to Christ. Go to
Christ. Seek Him for mercy. Ask Him for
forgiveness. Ask Him to cover you with His
blood, because all who ask Him, all who seek Him, shall find
Him a gracious, willing Savior, able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God through the blood of Jesus Christ. So
trust Him. That's what He gives His people. He promises to forgive all that
come to Him. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your great mercy and grace to us and your son. Lord, that you redeem us by the
blood of Christ, that precious blood, providing everything we
need. Lord, we thank you for your grace,
for your word, for your promise, Lord, that you give us your spirit,
that you give us life from the dead and make us to be burdened
for you, that you make us thirsty and needy sinners, and that you
reveal to us the one to whom we are to go, where we can find
him. And Lord, you let yourself be found by your people. And
in your time, according to your mercy and grace, you wash us
and cleanse us and bless your people. Thank you, Lord. If there
is some sinner troubled and worried and afraid, Lord, that you will
not receive them. Father, if they be yours, comfort
them, turn their heart, give them peace, give them a need,
Lord, burden them to go to you and to cry out to you for mercy
and let them find that blessed Savior that your people find
in Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen.