Go with me, if you would, back
to Ruth chapter 2. As a little bit of a recap from
last week, we saw that Ruth is a picture of God's people. If
the Lord is willing, we're going to go through all four of these
chapters, Ruth is a beautiful picture of God's people. She
was from the city of Moab. And Moab, the people, they were
the shameful enemies of God. And the enemies of God's people,
they were the enemy. That's what the word enmity means. And that's what The apostle Paul
wrote to the Ephesians and to all the churches. He said, you
were enmity against God. You were, you started out as
the enemy of God. People naturally think that you
start out in the world as God's friend and you know, don't ruin
it. That's the whole goal of life
on earth. Don't ruin it. That's not how it is. You start
out at enmity. You start out as an enemy. That's
who the people of Moab were, the enemies of God, the enemies
of His people. But Ruth was brought to the house
of bread. She was from Moab, but she was
brought to the house of bread, the place where the Lord is praised. That's what Bethlehem Judah means. And she was brought there by
her mother-in-law, Naomi. who is a picture of God's Holy
Spirit. I thank God for His Holy Spirit. I do. You know, I love how the
Lord said in John 16, when He comes to you, I must go that
He'll come to you. And when He comes to you, He
won't speak of Himself. He'll only speak of me. And if
we are gonna speak of Christ tonight, and if we're gonna enter
into Christ tonight, if we're gonna worship Christ tonight,
it's gonna be by the Holy Spirit of God, who is gonna lead us
to Him. And that's who Naomi represents,
God's Spirit who led Ruth to Bethlehem, Judah. Last week,
we saw Naomi to be the preacher of the message, and we saw her
to be the message itself. But we said that she was going
to soon represent God's Spirit. And both of those things, if
they're of God, they're both brought by the Spirit. They're
both of the Spirit of God. The Spirit is the one who quickens.
The Spirit is the one who calls. The spirit is the one who draws
God's people back to him. So at the end of chapter one,
Naomi is bringing Ruth in to Bethlehem, Judah, and it says
in verse 21 that they were coming in empty. Naomi said she went out full,
but she said, the Lord hath brought me home again empty. And that's
how a sinner comes to God. That's how a sinner comes to
Christ. That's how a sinner is brought
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Empty. Empty. Here is the message. The Word
of God goes out and here's the message. Come to Christ. That's the command. Come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Well, if a sinner is going to
come to Christ, he's gonna have to come empty. because that's
the only way He can come. That's all that He is, empty. That's all that we are in the
flesh, empty. Isaiah 55 says, ho, everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money,
come ye buy and eat. Even though you're coming empty,
even though, as the song says, in my hand no price I bring,
even though you have nothing to offer, Nothing of any value,
the message is come. That's how all of God's people
come. Every soul that comes to Christ comes empty. But here's
the good news. Every soul that comes to Christ
empty gets filled. If we're going to come, we're
going to have to come empty. But every soul that comes empty
gets filled. It was their emptiness that brought
them to Bethlehem, Judah. That's what gave them a desire. Naomi had heard that the Lord
had visited His people in giving them bread and they had a need
in them. And they were willingly drawn
by a desire to fill that need. And they're about to find out
that only One man is able to fill that need and that's what
all of God's people find out. Only one man is able to fill
that need, that great need. So chapter 2 verse 1 says, And
Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the
family of Elimelech, And His name was Boaz. He represents the only man who
can fulfill the need of an empty, lost sinner before God. Jesus
Christ our Lord. He is the Son of God. He is the
Son of Man. 1 Timothy 2 verse 5 says, There
is one God, And one mediator between God and man, the man,
Christ Jesus, the man, Naomi brought Ruth. And what we're
going to do is we're just going to focus on Ruth. Naomi representing
God's spirit brought Ruth and to focus on her specifically
for just a minute here, Ruth came to Bethlehem, Judah with
nothing. She owned nothing. Nothing in Bethlehem, Judah.
She was from Moab. She had a right to nothing. She was a beggar. She came in
as a beggar. But it just so happens that the
good providence and the grace of God brought her to the only
man who could give her everything. And could make her a joint heir
inheritor of everything. She came in with nothing. And God brought her to the only
man that could give her everything. Ruth didn't come in on her own
right, that's the point. She came in on the right of another.
She came in on the right of another. Verse one says, and Naomi had
a kinsman named Boaz. Naomi had a kinsman named Boaz. And the Spirit of God has a kinsman
named Jesus Christ. It says, and Naomi had a kinsman
of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech,
and his name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess, that
means Ruth the shameful sinner, said unto Naomi, let me now go
to the field and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight
I shall find grace. She realized that she needed
grace. She was brought to a place where she realized that she needed
mercy and grace. She said to Naomi, they've come
into this place and they're beggars. They've come empty. They have
nothing. And she said, I need grace. I need some mercy and
I need some grace. The end of verse two says, and
Naomi said unto her, go my daughter. And that's what the spirit of
God says to every sinful child of God. Every soul that's brought
to that place. This is what the spirit says
to them. You go to grace. You go to grace. And I'm so thankful the Spirit
of God does that. I'm so grateful that He, in the
midst of our bondage, in the midst of our law, in the midst
of our works, in spite of everything we think, everything that we
believe, everything that we are in the flesh, the Spirit of God
comes to us and He says to our heart, you go to grace. While the flesh constantly wants
to go the law, the Spirit of God says, you go to grace. The
flesh constantly wants to go to my works. The Spirit of God
says, you go to grace. You get to grace. God's Spirit
points God's desperately needy people to Christ in His grace,
the favor of God, the free kindness and gift of God. That's what
the Spirit does. And where is all of that found?
Where is God's grace found in His kindness and His Favor, it's
all in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse two says,
and Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, let me now go to the field
and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find
grace. And she said unto her, go my
daughter. And she went and came and gleaned
in the field after the reapers And her hap was to light on a
part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred
of Elimelech." Wasn't she lucky? Man, that girl was so lucky. There is no such thing as luck.
There's no such thing as luck, and there's no such thing as accidents, and that's what people
think. They think, well, you know, I
was going this direction, but, you know, it just so happened
that I was crossed with this, and there's no such thing as
chance with God. There is only His perfect There's
only His perfect predestination. Everything concerning God and
His people is ordered from the foundation of the world. Everything
is predestined to take place. Everything is perfectly bringing
God's people to Christ. Every single thing. And Ruth
is finding that out. She was about to find that out
for sure. Verse three says, she went and came and gleaned in
the field after the Reapers. And her hat was to light on a
part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who is of the kindred of
Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came. And I love that. That sounds
so just glorious to me. That sounds, you know, majestic. And behold, Boaz came. Boaz came to her where she was. This is such good news. You know,
sinners cannot come to Christ. The message has come to Christ,
but the law proves to us we can't. Our Lord said, no man can come
to me except the Father which has sent me. Draw that man. But the good news is Christ comes
to his people. Boaz came to her where she was. She was a beggar. And that's what Christ does for
every single one of his people. Them coming to Christ is really
Christ coming to them. Christ comes to His people where
they are, and when He does that, it is clearly revealed to them.
When Christ comes, it's clearly revealed who He is and who they
are. That's what happened. Verse 4
says, And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said unto the reapers,
who represent God's preachers, reaping and gleaning in order
to feed the sheep, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said unto
the reapers, the Lord be with you. They answered him, the Lord
bless thee. They said, you're the blessed
one of the Lord. All blessing be unto you. Verse five, then
said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, whose
damsel is this? And the servant that was set
over the reapers answered and said, it is the Moabitish damsel
that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab. He said,
it's the sinner. Who is this? It's the sinner
who was brought back. That's who this is. brought out
of the bondage of sin, brought to a place where she sees what
she is and she sees her need of grace, her need of mercy and
grace. And he said, she's begging for
it. She's begging for it. Verse seven,
she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers
among the sheaves. So she came and hath continued
even from the morning until now that she tarried a little in
the house. She came and she was begging
and that's a precious place to be. I'll be honest with you.
That's where I want to be. That's where I want to be. I want to
be a beggar. Doesn't that sound strange? But
I'm being serious. I want to be a beggar of mercy
and grace. You know, like John Newton said,
do I love the Lord or no? You decide. If I have not loved
you before, would you help me to start right now? Well, if
I have never truly been a beggar of mercy and grace, because some
people are not, If I've never truly in my heart
gotten alone with God in my closet and begged him for mercy because
of the sinner that I am, and grace in the free gift of his
kindness through his blood, help me to begin today. Would you
make me a beggar today? a beggar of mercy and grace.
Turn with me over to Matthew 15. There's another precious
woman. Ruth is a precious woman, but there's another one here
in Matthew 15. Matthew 15, verse 21, it says, Then Jesus went thence, and departed
into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast, and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me. O Lord, thou Son of David, my
daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. But he answered
her not a word. And his disciples came and besought
him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered
and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. Then came she and worshiped him
saying, Lord, help me. I'm telling you, if I have never
said that before, Lord, let me start saying that today. Lord,
help me. Verse 26, but he answered and
said, it is not me to take the children's bread and to cast
it to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord, yet
the dogs eat the crumbs, which fall from. And here's two key
words. She's saying, I'm, I'm saying
what I am and I'm saying who I belong to. She said, the dogs
eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Yes, I'm
a dog, and I'm your dog. Verse 28, then Jesus answered
and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee
even as thou wilt. He said, you're gonna get exactly
what you're begging for. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Our Lord said, ask and you'll
receive. He said, everyone that asketh,
receiveth. Ruth is about to find that out
and all of God's people will find that out. And this is my
prayer. In the world of religion, when
so many men and women are asking God for so many things, but the
one thing needful. Lord, teach me to ask for the
one thing needful. I need mercy. in your blood. And I need grace. I need for
you to not give me the punishment I deserve mercy. And I need you
to give me the man who I don't deserve. Christ. Grace. Go with me back to Ruth chapter
two. Ruth 2 verse 7, she said, I pray
you let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.
So she came and hath continued even from the morning until now
that she tarried a little in the house. She took a break.
Verse 8, then said Boaz unto Ruth, hearest thou not my daughter? He said, do you hear my voice? And that's what Christ says to
every single one of His own. Do you hear my voice? I'm speaking to you. Does our
Lord speak out loud? He speaks through His Word to
the heart. In John 10, he said, my sheep
hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. After hearing
the voice of the master, God's people know the difference in
his voice and another voice, they do. And they won't hear
another voice and they won't follow another voice, they just
won't. They know his voice. Verse 8, Then said Boaz unto
Ruth, Hearest thou not my daughter? Do you hear me? Hear my voice,
hear my command. He said, Go not to glean in another
field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens. What he's saying is, grace is
here. Everywhere else is going to be
a work for you. Don't mix the two. Don't mix the two. Do not mix
your works with my grace. This is so important to know.
Ruth was not a worker. She was a beggar. She was a gleaner. She was just gleaning. And he
said to her, you stay right here. You stay in my good green pasture. You stay with my people and it
will go well for you. And he said, this is my good
news to you. Verse nine, he said, 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 a thirst,
go into the vessels and drink of that which the young men have
drawn. What he's saying is all mine is thine. Everything that you have need
of, I'll freely give it to you. And that's the message that the
child of God hears once Christ is revealed to that child. We realize that we hear His voice
because He quickened us and He made us alive to hear His voice.
And He quickened us and He made us alive because we were one
of the ones that were chosen to be given to Christ, chosen
to be redeemed from all this sin in His blood. We were chosen
to belong to Him. predestinated to belong to Him.
And if God the Father gave Christ, gave His life and His death,
His body and His blood, if God the Father gave Christ to us
and gave Christ for us, if He was willing to give that, He
that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Verse
nine, he said, 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 a thirst,
go into the vessels and drink of that which the young men have
drawn. Everything you need, I freely give it to you. I freely give
it to you." 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 shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am
a stranger? That's the question of every
believer who gets a hold of the gospel. Every believer says,
why me? Before that, everybody's saying,
why not me? But once a believer sees Christ as he is, for who
he is, and once a believer sees himself or herself as they are,
for who they are, and they realize the grace and the mercy and the
glory of what Christ has done, the condescension that He came
down and how high He's raised us up with Him. Every sinner
who gets a hold of that cries, why me? Why would God do this
and be so merciful and so gracious to a sinner like me? Verse 11, 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 and the land of
thy nativity, and art 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 under
whose wings thou art come to trust. He said, why? It's because
I've seen the work that you've done and you're going to be rewarded
for it. A believer hears that and says,
what work? What work are you talking about?
All I've done is sin against you. That's all I've done. Our Lord answers the question
of what work at the end of verse 12 by saying, it's a work of
faith in the Lord God of Israel under whose wings thou art come
to trust. Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. Good works. Faith in Christ is
the work of the child of God. Now who gets the glory and the
credit for the faith? He does. Faith is not of ourselves,
it's the gift of God. All of it. This is what Ruth
is finding out and all of God's people find out. All of it is
the gift of God. It's all a gift from Him. Verse
13, then she said, let me find favor in thy sight, my Lord,
for thou has comforted me and for that thou has spoken friendly
unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaid.
And she said, I don't want to be presumptuous. And Boaz said
unto her, at mealtime come thou hither and eat the bread and
dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers
and he reached her parched corn and she did eat and was sufficed
and left. She sat by the reapers. The Lord
has been pleased to use the means of preaching to feed his people.
All of his people are drawn to come sit by the reapers. He has
been pleased to use this means of reaping to feed His people. But let's not make any mistake
about it. If any child of God is fed, He's
the one doing the feeding. It says, He reached her parched
corn and she did eat. Verse 15, And when she was risen
up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean
even among the sheaves, and reproach her not. And let fall also some
of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she
may glean them, and rebuke her not. So she gleaned in the field
until even, and beat out that she had gleaned, and it was about
an ephah of barley. He told them, you drop on purpose
handfuls of corn for her. Don't just skip over a little
bit and don't just let one fall out every now and then. You reach
in and grab handfuls of corn on purpose and pile it up. And then you let her come in
after you and just rake it all in and say, oh my goodness, look
at all this food. Oh, it's so much. Look how much
is provided. My cup is running. I can't hold
all this. How am I going to get all this
home? It's just spilling out and spilling over. There's so
much goodness here. There's so much grace here. This one man is all sufficient
for me. All sufficient, all I need, this
was Ruth's song. All I need, all I need, Boaz
is all I need. He's all I need. And that's how
it is for God's people, honestly. Everything concerning us is handfuls
of purpose, handfuls of purpose. The first time that Henry Mahan
ever heard Ralph Barnard preach, He was a very young man and they
were sitting on the front row and Ralph Barnard asked him,
he said, young man, can you quote Romans 8 verse 28? And Henry
said, yeah, I think so. And he said, well, stand up and
quote it. How'd you like for somebody to do that to you in
the middle of a message? Well, stand up and quote it.
So Henry stood up and he said, and we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. And he sat down and
Ralph said, that's good. Do you know the rest of it? Henry
said, I think so. He said, well, stand up and quote
the rest of it. He said, and we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. And at the moment that he got
the word purpose out, Rolfe started just screeching at the top of
his shrilling lungs. Purpose, purpose, purpose, purpose. I wish men and women could get
ahold of this. Rolfe Barnard had it right. He said, everything
God does is on purpose. And he said, young man, if you
ever learn something about God's purpose, you will learn something
about the gospel. And you'll learn something about
God. Nothing that God does is according to chance. Everything
is according to purpose. Everything with God is according
to purpose. Creation went according to God's
purpose. Election went according to God's
purpose. The Father chose who He wanted
to save on purpose. Period. Redemption went according
to God's purpose. Christ died for every single
soul the Father on purpose handed to Him and said, save that sinner
right there. Period. For each one of those
particular souls, God's Holy Spirit is going to come on purpose
to particular souls. And He's going to call every
one of them back to God. He's going to bring them out
of Moab. all the way back to Bethlehem, Judah, the house of
bread. And our God is so generous with
His purpose. He's just so generous. It's not
just enough purpose to get us by, it's handfuls of purpose,
handfuls of purpose. Verse 17, we'll finish this. Verse 17, so she gleaned in the
field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned, and it
was about an ephah of barley. And she took it up and went into
the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned, and
she brought forth and gave to her that she had reserved after
she was sufficed. And her mother-in-law said unto
her, Where hast thou gleaned today, and where wroughtest thou?
Blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. And she showed her mother-in-law
with whom she had wrought and said, the man's name with whom
I wrought today is Boaz. And I can just vision Naomi putting
her hand on her head and falling back in her chair. Naomi said
unto her daughter-in-law, blessed be he of the Lord who hath not
left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi
said unto her, the man is near of kin to us, one of our next
kinsmen. If you have a margin in your
Bible, you'll see that that means the one that has the right to
redeem. She said, Ruth, honey, praise
God from whom all blessings flow. He's led you to the only man
who has the right to redeem you. I cannot believe you ended up
in his field. He doesn't just have the ability,
he has the right. Verse 21, and Ruth the Moabitess
said, He said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men
until they have ended all my harvest. And Naomi said unto
Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that thou
go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other
field. She said, you make sure it's
Boaz alone. And that's what the Spirit of
God says to the heart of every believer. It's Christ alone. It's not Christ plus anything
else. It's Christ alone. Verse 23,
so she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end
of barley harvest and of wheat harvest and dwelt with her mother-in-law. And really that's what we're
doing right now. We're just waiting for the end of the harvest. dwelling
with God's Holy Spirit. We're asking, Lord, would you
send your Spirit into this place and meet with us? We're dwelling
with the Spirit, looking to and hoping for the Lord Jesus Christ. and a covenant union with Him,
a covenant of a true union with Him. And if the Lord is willing,
we're gonna hear about that covenant union next time in chapter three.
Boaz is gonna make a promise to her. It's a promise of love. It's a promise of redemption.
It's a promise of Him belonging to her and her belonging to Him.
And that's all God's people want, union with Christ. All right,
let's all stand together.