Turning your Bibles with me to
the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter 1, we're going to be
looking at verse 17, 18, 19, and 20. particularly, we'll begin with
verse 17. I've entitled today's message,
The Story of Redemption, which really should be probably called
The Story of Our Redeemer and The Love for His Redeemed, but
that's too long, so it's just The Story of Redemption. You'll
see why as we read through 1 Peter 1, verse 17 and following. And if you call on the Father
who, without respect of persons, judges according to every man's
work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." I want you to
underscore especially that word sojourning. These people Peter
wrote to were strangers. And then he says, in consideration
of that as strangers, for as much as you know, that you were
not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation or lifestyle, behavior, received by tradition
from your fathers. So especially the Jews received
a tradition of vain religion from their fathers because they
were taken up with a personal obedience to God's law as their
hope of salvation. And there is no hope in that.
And the Gentiles were heathens in every way, idolaters in religion,
and given over to immorality and perversity in the world. So both could be considered as
what we received by tradition from our fathers, but particularly
the Jews, but us with them. Verse 19, you were not redeemed,
in verse 18, with these corruptible things, not with the things of
this world that we are sojourners in. but with, he says, verse
19, but with the precious blood of Christ. As of a lamb, without
blemish and without spot, our Redeemer had to be without blemish
and without spot. Who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you. Christ was engaged in our redemption,
and God the Father, in His will, joined with His Son to put in
place our redemption even from before the world's foundations
were laid, before time began. In that consideration then, therefore,
there were a people to be redeemed. There was a Redeemer who would
redeem them, and His precious blood which would be shed, and
an inheritance given to them because of their redemption.
In other words, everything in redemption was already in place
in the will of God before He created the world, before we
were created. And it was set up with the Lord
Jesus Christ as our Redeemer. And when you think about that,
you realize it underscores what is said so many places in scripture
that known unto God are all his works from the foundation of
the world. There's nothing that happens
in time that God didn't determine before time. And if it's determined,
then it will come to pass. If God determined it, it will
come to pass. And God determines not only what
we think of as the good things, like the rain and the sunshine
and family, but he determines even the bad things to his glory
and for our good. The Lord Jesus Christ was foreordained
by God the Father to be crucified, taken and crucified by the hands
of wicked men. And that was a bad thing, but
it was for our good. It was for our eternal salvation.
So everything in life is ordained by God before time began. There's
no such thing as chance. There's no such thing as man's
uninfluenced, arbitrary ability to make a choice between one
thing and another. He may feel like that, but is
constrained by the will of God. Men may think they're robots.
They're not. They act out whatever they want to. But God constrains
it for his purpose, for his good. And he did so before time began.
The lot is cast into the lap, the scriptures say. But the whole
outcome is of the Lord. Even the casting of dice, the
outcome of that is in the Lord's hand. Jesus said that not a sparrow
falls without your father. Therefore, the smallest events
in time are the work of God's determined will before time.
And what this means is that since God determined before time all
things that would be, he especially determined the salvation of his
people. That's what this is talking about,
our redemption. If it weren't for God's predetermined
will to redeem a people by Jesus Christ by shedding his blood
and giving them freedom from their captives and liberty and
an inheritance, then as soon as we sin, we would be doomed
to an eternal death and there would be no hope. Therefore,
our redemption is not only the eternal will of God, but it shows
that it's by the grace of God and his grace alone and his almighty
and uninfluenced and inviolable will that we are saved. It can't
be changed, it's certain. This flies in the face of man's
pride, so be it. Let all of us therefore be humbled.
Because we sin with both hands greedily, but God in His grace
has determined to save a people in spite of their sin. Despite
their own corrupt condition they brought themselves into, God
in His grace has redeemed them. by this purpose, by this work
of Christ. What a salvation, what a Savior,
what a God. We owe our all to Him. Our breath,
everyone here, every breath, every heartbeat is a direct result
of the will of God in His active thought and mind. Things don't
just get set up and started and left to themselves. We think
of that, the waves of the sea keep crashing against the shoreline.
It's not because it just happens that the moon is putting a stress
on the earth or whatever scientists use to explain it. There is no
mother nature. There's only God, our Father,
who is the creator of all things, and Christ who upholds things
by his active will. Everything, even the motion of
an electromagnetic signal, whether it be electrical or magnetic,
the movements of the smallest particles, whatever they're called,
whether it's electrons or quarks or some other scientific name
they want to assign it, everything is in God's hands. The code that
made up your body, the DNA, this biological code that God used
to make up your body, that was His code. He put it there. It
made up everything in this living thing in this world. Everything
is in His hand. In Him we have our life and breath
and all things. This is the God who made us.
But we have sinned against this God. And there's only one hope,
that he would redeem us from our sins. So I want to look at
this purpose of God set forth from eternity in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the story of our redemption. Who is it that redeems us? Who is our redeemer? Well, in
Psalm 78, 35, and I'm gonna read you several scriptures. I'll
let you know when we should take time to turn to each one. But
this one in Psalm 78, 35 says, and they remembered that God
was their rock, and the high God their redeemer. So who is
our Redeemer? God is our Redeemer, the Lord
God Himself. He takes that title to Himself
because it's a title that is only possible that he could do
it, and he takes credit for what no one else can do. It's a title
of glory and grace, a title of their Redeemer in Psalm 78, 35. They remembered that God was
their rock and the high God their Redeemer. And then also we see
this in Ephesians chapter one, if you wanna turn there. In Ephesians
chapter one, we see that it is God who is our Redeemer. In Ephesians
chapter one, and we see also the eternal nature of it, in
verse one, Paul, an apostle, a sent one of Jesus Christ by
the will of God, Ephesians 1.1. And so it was by the will of
God that Paul was sent through Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
He writes to the saints, the sanctified ones, those were made
holy, which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus,
those who are in Christ, he writes, he says, grace to you and peace
from God, our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's
God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. God our Father. blessed us with
everything in heaven in Christ. Everything belongs to Him and
God has blessed us in Him. There's no blessing outside of
Him. All who are in Him have all the blessings God gave to
Christ for His people. Verse four, according as He hath
chosen us in Him, God the Father chose us in Him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. God's purpose was that we should
be holy before him without any blame, and it would be in a condition
where God would make his love known to us. He would love us
with an everlasting love, a love that never ceased or ever changed
or ever ended. And that would be a love in Christ.
God's love is in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's love is on purpose.
He chose us to this. God's love is towards those that
He determined and would make holy and without blame in Christ. Verse five, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. So
what God did was not only did he choose us in Christ, but he
set down every event throughout time to all eternity to guarantee
that we would receive the inheritance that he purposed to give us,
all that he determined to bless us with in Christ, including
this, being holy and without blame before him in love. He
set it all down to make us his children, according to the good
pleasure of his will. So it arose from him, not from
us. Not our will, God's will. Salvation is not of the will
of man, it's of God. John chapter one, verse 13. Ephesians 1 verse 6, all this
was done to the praise of the glory of His grace. When we think of our Redeemer,
and how He redeemed us, and why He redeemed us, and what He did
to redeem us, and what He redeemed us to, all these things, we see
that all of it redounds, it results in praise to the glory of His
grace. God makes known His grace in
our redemption. And here he says, wherein, to
the praise of the glory of His grace, this grace according to
the good pleasure of his will, wherein he has made us accepted
in the beloved, in Christ. With all of the beloved, all
those loved, loved in Christ, we were made, each one of us
who are the saints of God, faithful in Christ Jesus, were made accepted
in Christ before we were born. Because Christ is accepted, and
we were chosen in him, verse seven. in whom, in Jesus Christ,
notice, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of his grace. What do we have? In all that God the Father determined
and chose and predestinated us to and made us accepted for,
it was by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, even that
redemption that came at the price of his blood, and that redemption
results in the utter and total forgiveness of our sins by the
grace of God. We could stop right there, couldn't
we? the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Look at Romans
chapter three and verse 24. And we'll read actually from
verse 19, Romans 3, 19. Now, we know that what things
however the law saith, whatever God's law says, it says to them
who are under the law, and who are they? That every mouth may
be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.
Everyone is under God's law, all are guilty, the law says
so, verse 20. Therefore, because the law of
God declares everyone guilty, therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. The law serves to make our sin
known. The law serves to show us our guilt. The law never serves
to justify us. We can't be justified by our
condemner, the one who condemns us, the law of God. Verse 21,
but now, The righteousness of God without the law is manifested
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. So it doesn't come
by our personal obedience. It comes according to what God
prophesied in the law and the prophets. even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Our faith is the
faith given to us by Jesus Christ. Our faith holds Christ to be
the only object of our confidence and assurance before God. Our
faith looks to Christ to do all that God requires for us and
looks to God to look to Christ who does do all for us. Our faith
is the faith of Jesus Christ because in his life, he served
God, trusting him and acting as a man in perfect faith in
God. And his acts of faith and the
faith of Jesus Christ and his obedience in that faith is imputed
to us as our righteousness, that righteousness being the very
righteousness of God. And this is unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there is no difference, no difference
in male or female, Jew or Gentile, bond or free, heathen or barbarian
or Scythian or anybody. There's no difference because
the difference doesn't come in man, it comes from God. For all
have sinned, whether Moabite or Jew, whether Gentile or Noah
or Job or Peter or Paul, Daniel, Samuel, all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Notice the next verse, being
justified. made to be before God in the
presence of His glory without sin, holy, blameless, and clothed
in perfect righteousness, even the righteousness of God." Notice,
that justification being justified freely not for cause found in
you, not for something produced by you, not something done by
you in cooperation with God, but freely out of God's grace,
by His grace, through or on the basis of this ground, this legal
ground, this loving ground, this obedience, this righteousness,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That's it. So our redemption is of God.
is by God the Father, is by the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see
it? Our Redeemer, our great Redeemer. Who is he? He's our God and Savior. The man Christ Jesus, God gave
him up for his people to be our Redeemer. Look at Matthew chapter
28. Matthew and chapter 28. I'm sorry, 20, chapter 20 and
verse 28. He says in Matthew, Jesus Christ
is talking, and he says in verse Verse 25, the disciples, Peter
and John, not Peter and John, James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
had come to Jesus and their mother asked Jesus if he would allow
them, these two boys, James and John, to sit, one at his right
hand and the other at his left. And Jesus said, you don't know
what you ask. Are you able to be baptized with
the baptism I'm going to be baptized with? In other words, are you
going to be able to undergo the outpouring of God's wrath upon
me? They said, we are. He said, well,
you shall. But to sit on my right hand or
on my left, that's not mine to give but my father's. But it
showed you what we didn't realize is it was an arrogance on their
part. So he corrects that. He said in verse 25, Jesus called
them to him, and said, you know that the princes
of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are
great exercise authority upon them, but it shall not be so
among you. In other words, there's no hierarchy in the church of
God. There's not one greater than
another. Don't put yourself to be greater
than your brother. In fact, in Philippians 2.5,
it says, let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus,
who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
made equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. He
said, esteem other better than yourselves. So it's not a matter
of you being above. You're actually below. Take your
lawful place, your right place. It shall not be so among you,
but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister,
and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant."
If you want to be great in God's kingdom, become a servant. And
don't do it in order to be great. That's what we do. I'm going
to be humble so I can get more. No, listen to what Jesus did.
Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, not to
be served, but to serve or to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many. Who is our Redeemer? The Lord
Jesus Christ, our God and Savior. How did he redeem us? Through
a ransom. What was the ransom price? His
life. to give his life a ransom for
many. We saw in Ephesians 1.7, it was
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our God has redeemed us. He who
is God stooped. He gave himself as a servant.
And he wanted to do it. He wanted to do it. when I was
marrying my daughter Hannah in our backyard and preparing for
that and thinking on these things, you realize what the Lord Jesus
Christ wanted to do from all eternity? He wanted to marry
his wife. He wanted to give himself for
her. He wanted to give himself to her. He wanted her. He loved
her. You see, he wanted to. He didn't
just do it willingly, but he did it with joy. For the joy
that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down on the right hand of God. He's the one throughout
scripture, you see, who took the lowest place. He's the one
in Isaiah 57, 15, as I mentioned in the Bible study this last
Thursday, who sits in the high and holy place with Him who is
holy because God dwells with Him that is of a broken and a
contrite spirit and heart. He's that one. He dwells with
God. He is exalted to the highest
place because he is the least. He became least in the kingdom
of heaven in order to have a people to himself. That's our Redeemer,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Galatians chapter 3.
In Galatians chapter 3, he says
this. In chapter 4 of Galatians, chapter
4, verse 1, now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child,
differed nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all. When
in the olden days there was a man who had a son, and the man was
rich, his son would be treated just like a servant. in order
that when the time came when he became mature and able to
deal with the responsibilities of all that was his father's,
he would have already learned that obedience and submission.
So he says, an heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing
from a servant, though he be lord of all, but is under tutors
and governors till the time appointed of the father. Even so, now the
historical pattern in history was set down here in order to
draw the illustration, the correspondence to what it is spiritually. He
says, even so we. We, what does it mean, we? It means those who were heirs,
those who were the adopted sons of God, those who were chosen
and predestinated in Christ to the adoption of sons by him,
and then who were in time redeemed. That's what he's about to say
here. Even so, we, when we were children, We were children, we
weren't servants as disconnected in that relationship between
the Father, God the Father, and us. We were already in the purpose
of God, His sons, in adoption. The act of God's adopting us
from eternity was our adoption. But we didn't know it. It hadn't
been brought to fruition. We were like children as servants,
treated as servants, just like the rest. We were under tutors
and governors, and especially under the law as our tutor and
our governor. We were under this principle
of obedience where we were rewarded for obedience and punished for
disobedience, just like the servant child. But when the fullness,
verse four, we were in bondage under the elements of the world.
We were in bondage. We were like the woman bent over.
We were in bondage. to the obedience of the law,
to come to God by our own performance. Something that we could experience,
something we could produce. God required it, I've got to
go about doing it. That's bondage. That never produces
love. That never produces praise. But
when the fullness of the time was come, in history, God sent
forth his son made of a woman, made under the law. Why? Why was he made of a woman under
the law? Because we were made of a woman. We were born, we
were actually born to Adam through a woman. Christ was not born
to Adam, but made of a woman. and yet we were under the law
so he had to take on our nature and come under the law and bear
the obligations of it. Why did he do all this? He was
made of a woman, God sent him forth for this cause, to be made
of a woman, to be made under the law for this purpose, to
redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the
adoption of sons, that we might receive it. We were adopted,
now we need to receive it. How do we receive it? Because
you are sons, you're already sons. God has sent forth the
spirit of his son into your hearts crying, Abba Father, my Father,
my Father, praise God. We were sons in adoption from
eternity. We were chosen in Christ to be
holy and without blame from eternity. We were made accepted in the
Beloved in Christ before the world began. And the unfolding
of that plan in time required the Lord Jesus Christ to shed
his blood to redeem us out of our servitude, our bondage, out
of our sin, our corruption, out of the bondage to Satan. The
bondage to the obedience of the law, the bondage to the curse
of the law. He says in verse 7, wherefore
thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an
heir of God through Christ. You see that? We're heirs of
God through Christ. He redeemed us by his precious
blood. He gave us his spirit. The spirit
of his son God has given to us that we might know our adoption.
In chapter 3 of Galatians, he says this. In verse 7, know ye therefore
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. For the scriptures foreseen that
God would notice, do what? Justify the heathen through faith. Preach the gospel to Abraham,
preach before the gospel to Abraham, saying this, in thee shall all
nations be blessed. What is the gospel? It's the
promise and the accomplishment of our justification in Christ
to all, even the heathen. All of God's children were heathen
in themselves, but we were especially heathen because we were of the
Gentiles, and God made this promise to Abraham that Christ would
redeem us, and his shed blood would justify us, and Abraham
believed God, just as all of his spiritual children are given
grace to do. So then, verse nine, they which
be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. He says in
verse 10, for as many that are of the works of the law are under
the curse. If we seek to come to God by
our own performance, it doesn't matter what it is, something
in us, something we know, something that we do, something we can
become someday. I'm going to be able to stop
sinning, then I'll be made acceptable to God. Or I'll be able to do
this as I ought to do, then I'll be acceptable. No, no. If you're under that, you're
under the curse. God's law, if you're going to
come to God on that basis, then you're going to be put on the
balance, the scales of justice on this side, God's law will
be laid on this side, and you will be found wanting. You will
be cursed by God's law. 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, not to want to do, but
to actually do them from the heart, with your whole heart,
mind, soul, and strength. The first and greatest commandment,
the most primary foundational one, is to love the Lord your
God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we haven't
even done that. We've broken every commandment,
and if you've broken one, you've broken them all. So we're under
the curse. Verse 11. But that no man is
justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident, for the
just shall live by faith. That's a testimony of scripture
from Habakkuk 2.4. And the law is not of faith.
The law is not of faith. But the man that doeth them shall
live in them. If you live by the law, you're
obligated to do the whole law. If you're circumcised, guess
what? You gotta keep the whole law. Because you decided to come
to God, you're determined to come, refusing the righteousness
of Christ, refusing to submit yourself to his righteousness,
and you trust in your own righteousness. So the law is not of faith, because
faith is ascribing to Christ all my obedience, all my righteousness. But the man that doeth them shall
live in them. This is the way you're going
to live if you come to God on the basis of law, by doing them. Notice, Christ has redeemed us
from the curse of the law. How? Himself being made a curse
for us. Substitution. He substituted
himself. He stood before God for us in
our place under the law. He obligated himself to fulfill
the law and obligated himself to suffer the consequence of
disobedience to the law. And the evidence of this is that
the law says, everyone who hangs on a tree is cursed. Christ hung
on the cross, therefore he was cursed of God. But not cursed
for his own sin, but for our sins made his by God's imputation. An imputation is nothing less
than God making our sins His. When God sees it that way, that's
the way that it is. So we see here in these two chapters
of Galatians, just these two, that we're redeemed by Christ.
He bore the curse in our place as our substitute. He bore it
when we were the adopted children only in God's predestinating
will, but that will was fulfilled when Christ redeemed us, when
he became under the law and redeemed us from the law by his own blood,
and then sent his spirit into our hearts to know our redemption.
In verse 21 of chapter four, it says, in verse 33, 21 through
31, it tells us we are the children of promise. We were those children,
promised. Look at verse 28. Now we, brethren,
as Isaac, was our children of promise. It was by promise that
God saved us, not by waiting to see what we would do. That's
idolatry. That's man's religion. That's false religion. That religion
won't save anyone. The only thing that saves is
the truth and the truth is God did this from eternity in time
by Christ shedding his precious blood and in our lifetime in
our own personal history when he gives his spirit to us as
a consequence because he shed his blood for us according to
the eternal will of God. God our Redeemer The Spirit of
God comes as God Himself and gives us to cry to God as our
Father because Christ shed His blood, and that's the Spirit
of His Son. Who redeemed us? The Lord Jesus Christ, our God
and Savior. How did He do it? He did it by
His own shed blood, being our substitute. What did He redeem
us from? Well, it says in Psalm 130, verse
8, He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. all his inequities. He redeemed us from our sins.
Ephesians 1.7 said, through his redemption by his blood, we have
the forgiveness of sins. So it was through his blood that
we're redeemed and we were redeemed from our sins. And then in Psalm
69.18, he says, draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it, deliver
me from my enemies. We're redeemed from our enemies.
God does that. We're redeemed from death. Hosea
chapter 13 and verse 9. He says that he would redeem
us from the power of the grave and from death he would be death's
curse. And he redeemed us from the grave,
from death. He also says in Galatians 3.13,
as we just read, that he would redeem us from the curse of the
law. He redeemed us as we saw in Luke 13, like the woman bound
together who was bound by Satan. He redeemed us from Satan and
his kingdom. From the bondage of our obedience
to the law, from the curse of the law, from our bondage to
being held by Satan and his kingdom, he redeemed us from those things.
Reading again from Galatians chapter 1 verse 4, it says, He
says in Galatians 1.4, who gave himself, Jesus Christ, who gave
himself for our sins, that he might deliver us, and that's
the word for being delivered by redemption, he might deliver
us from this present evil world according to the will of God
and our Father. So from the world. He redeemed us out of the world,
from the world, from the kingdom of darkness, to the kingdom of
light. Look at Colossians chapter 1.
Colossians in chapter 1. And there, we want to start with
verse 12. He says, giving thanks to the
Father, which has made us meet, or fitting to, he has made us
acceptable to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in life. Because redemption always has
a view to our liberty, but not just our liberty, but to an inheritance. and that inheritance is with
all the saints in light, not in darkness. Verse 13, who has
delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us
into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. So we were redeemed
from all these things including the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom
of darkness, into the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of
light by the redemption of Christ. What an extensive scope our redemption
is. What an extensive period. It had its commencement from
before time, its duration beyond time to everlasting ages, And
it had its extent so that it would cover everything required
to bring us to God and make us the sons of God. To take care
of our sins, all of our enemies, this world, the curse and the
bondage of God's law, everything God required of us. He did not
look to us for, but He laid that obligation on our Redeemer, and
He provided that redemption through His precious blood. The obedience
of Christ unto death, His submission to God in love for His God and
Father and for His people, and laying down His life, the church
He gave Himself to save. He loved. That's the facts. These are the revelation. And
what's the price? Well, we saw it in 1 Peter. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ and his life given. He gave himself a
ransom for many. You see, redemption is the setting
at liberty or setting free captives who were bound because of a debt
they incurred or because a captor who was stronger than them, like
Satan, that they were put under because of the consequence of
their sin. So either their debt or their sin brought them in
prison or in obligation to pay back a debt or in bondage to
a captor. And redemption is to rescue them,
to deliver them, set them free by a ransom. And so who was this
ransom paid to? In old times, in history, and
probably even some people now think that that ransom was paid
to the devil. Was it? No. No, it was not paid
to the devil. Before the world began, who ordained
the Lord Jesus Christ by his precious blood to redeem his
people? The Lord himself. The law of God required a death
be paid, required a curse to be put upon the sinner. And the Lord himself gave the
law, he's the law giver. So the Lord himself is the one
that that redemption price is paid to. He offered himself to
God for us. He didn't offer himself to man.
The Lord Jesus Christ certainly didn't offer himself to the devil.
These things all arise out of the idolatry of this world. What
an amazing truth this is. Now, I want to refer to two accounts
and I'll maybe go over these more extensively next time, although
I'm reluctant to do that because Art Junior, not going to be here
and Art has always said that this is his favorite book of
the Bible. But in any case, The book of Ruth, go to the book
of Ruth with me. I'm gonna just show you a couple
things there, probably in preview, but not extensively today. The book of Ruth is the book
of our Redeemer. It's the book of his love for
his redeemed. And it's the book of how he redeemed
us. how he redeemed us in love. Amazing. This is an amazing book. I'm
not going to be able to go through all of this today, but I want
you to see here that, let's look at just a couple of verses here. In Chapter 2, Naomi was Ruth's
mother-in-law. Naomi was married to a man named
Elimelech. Elimelech had two sons, Mahlon
and Chilion. He took his two sons and his
wife Naomi from the land of Bethlehem Judah to go to the land of the
Moabites because there was a famine. He left the house of bread to
go to the land of the Moabites. The land of the Moabites was
a land of idolaters. The Moabite people were cursed
of God. In Deuteronomy 23.3, God says,
a Moabite shall not come into the house of the Lord to the
10th generation. They're not coming in. So the
Moabites were strangers and sojourners if they came into the land of
Israel. And that's what Ruth was. She was a Moabite. A Moabite
test, they call it. And anyway, she had this mother-in-law,
Naomi, who was related by marriage. And so Naomi's two sons were
married to two wives. One of them was Naomi, I mean
Ruth, and the other son was married to Orpah. And when Naomi decided
to go back to Bethlehem, because she heard that there was bread
there, She told her two daughters, both Orpah, daughters-in-law,
both Orpah and Ruth, you stay here. You go back to your people
here in the land of Moab. Orpah said, yeah, I really don't
want to leave you, but OK, in so many words. And Ruth said,
no, no. Don't ask me to do that. Don't ask me to do that. In verse
16 of chapter 1, Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee. Don't ask
me to leave you or to return from following after thee. For
whither thou goest, I will go. And where thou lodgest, wherever
you live, that's where I will lodge. Thy people shall be my
people. Thy God, my God. Where thou diest,
will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me,
and more also, if ought of anything but death, part thee and me.
What gave Ruth this resolve to go with Naomi? Grace. Grace. It was such a strong resolve
that when Naomi told her to go back to her people, she said,
no, don't ask me to do that. So we see in the book of Ruth,
the story of our redemption involves the almighty power of God and
grace operating in Ruth to bring her to her redeemer, to Boaz.
And so then in verse 20, Naomi said to the people who called
her Naomi, when she came back to Bethlehem, Judah, she said,
don't call me Naomi, which means pleasant. Call me Mara, which
means bitter. For the Almighty hath dealt very
bitterly with me. Now, Naomi in this book represents,
I believe, the Old Testament messengers, the Old Testament
believers, who through the Spirit of God direct sinners to Christ. And you can see that here. In
the Old Testament, the Old Testament saints, under the inspiration
of the Spirit of God, they endured all sorts of grief, all kinds
of grief. They were sent away from the
house of bread, as it were, into the land of the Moabites, as
it were, into idolatry. They suffered enormously because
of their sin. But it also shows that we ourselves,
in the same way, fell into sin deep. and terrible idolatry and
sin. So all of mankind is sort of
seen, all of God's elect are seen falling into sin in their
retreat into the land of Moab. But being brought back out, we
see here the declaration of the gospel not by Naomi through the
Old Testament prophets under the inspiration of the Spirit
of God when she said, don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, bitter. Why? Because the gospel starts
here. The gospel starts with the sinner
under the guilt and bondage and corruption of sin and nowhere
to turn, but God in his mercy and his grace directs us to what?
The substitute, who would then come under the guilt and the
curse because of our sin, and he would suffer in bitterness.
And so we read on. In chapter 2, as the story goes,
Ruth goes out into the field. When she comes back into Bethlehem,
Judah, she goes out to glean, to pick up the leftovers from
the harvest. And when she's there, she meets
this man, Boaz, who came to her. She didn't know that he was there.
But it just so happened, if you will, And that's what the world
would say. But we know from scripture, it
was God's predestination that she would land or light on this
field, which belonged to Boaz. And when she was there, Boaz
saw her and took notice of her. And he told his servants, his
servants being like the gospel preachers, now you let fall handfuls
of purpose for her. Don't just pick it all up and
sometimes when things fall, leave that. No, you take some off and
then you drop it on the ground in piles for her. handfuls of
purpose. Because when God commands his
preachers to go to sinners, those chosen sinners elected before
the foundation of the world and in the providence of God in his
predestinating will brought into the hearing of the gospel, what
does he tell his servants to do? You preach Christ and his
grace to them and don't let anything be held back, you just pour it
out. And so in verse 13, it says,
Boaz is talking to Ruth in verse 11. He answered, said to her,
it has been fully shown to me all that you have done to your
mother-in-law since the death of thine husband and how that
you have left your father and your mother and the land of your
nativity and are come to the people which thou knewest not
heretofore. You were a stranger. And the
Lord recompensed thy work and a full reward be given thee of
the Lord God of Israel under whose wings thou art come to
trust. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
God of Israel, and you come to trust in Him. And what is the
result of that? God sees you in Him. God sees
His righteousness given to you because God gave it to you. Therefore,
you are a virtuous woman. You are one who has given up
all to seek redemption in Christ. And that pleases God for sinners
to come to Christ. It pleases Him. It's His work.
Why wouldn't He be pleased with His work? And it puts a requirement
on Christ to fulfill the desire of His heart to save them, which
is what He wants to do. So it's an answer to God's will
in prayer. So she says in verse 13, let
me find favor in thy sight, my Lord. For that thou has comforted
me, and for that thou has spoken friendly unto thine handmaid,
though I be not like unto one of thine handmaids. To speak
friendly, according to Gabe Stoniker, means to speak to the heart.
To speak to the heart. Jesus said, I don't call you
servants, I call you friends. Because the friend knows what
is, the servant doesn't know what his master is doing, but
the friend knows. So the Lord Jesus Christ, pictured
by Boaz, speaks to the heart of every God-given, God-chosen,
God-sent sinner to Christ. He speaks to their heart as their
Redeemer. And we could go on here. Look
at first chapter three. He says in verse eight of chapter
three, it came to pass at midnight that the man, Boaz, was afraid
and turned himself, and behold, a woman laid his feet, and he
said, who art thou? He woke up in the middle of the night, and
there was this woman laying there. He had gone to sleep drunk. Now
he wakes up where he is full of wine. I don't know if he was
drunk, but he was full of wine. So his heart was merry. His stomach
was full. It was a harvest. They were celebrating.
He goes to sleep, and he wakes up, and there's this woman under
his garment. She says, who are you? And she
answered, I'm Ruth, thine handmaid. And she asked him something so
bold. She says, spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid,
for thou art a near kinsman. Christ made himself so close
to his people that the relation between them is as a husband
and a wife. He took our nature. He took our
place. He did everything for us. He
took our obligation. He fulfilled it all. He took
our curse, and he gave us his own riches. He gave us all that
was his, and she asks him to do what was in his heart. Spread
your righteousness over me. Spread the covering of the relationship
you have to your people over me. Identify me as yours. Receive
me. Will you have me? Will you have
me? That's what she was coming to
him. Isn't that the way God does when he works in our hearts?
We come in our lives, we're frustrated by our own sinfulness and our
own total lack of performance. And what do we do? We go to Christ
in our hearts and we say, Lord, you alone are the Redeemer. I
am a stranger with you. Will you have me? Will you save
me? So you can see this all the way
through. Look at verse 18 of chapter three. Naomi tells her,
now, he's off doing these things. Boaz goes off. She says, sit
still. Chapter 3, verse 18, Naomi said to her, 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. That's our
redemption. You see this book? You see how
God sets forth the story of redemption? Now look at the book of Hosea,
just one verse there, Hosea chapter 3. If you can find it, it's after
Daniel. I think it's after Daniel. Yes,
Hosea chapter 3. The story of Hosea is about a
prophet named Hosea. God commanded to go love an adulterous
woman. He did. He had children by her.
And now in chapter 3, notice what God says. Then said the
Lord, in chapter 3, verse 1, then said the Lord God, the Lord
unto me says, go yet love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an
adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children
of Israel, who look to other gods and love flagons of wine.
What were the children of Israel? They were idolaters. And what
did they do? They filled themselves with the
perversity of this world, the flagons of wine. And yet they
were loved of the Lord. Not all the people born to Abraham
physically, but those who were chosen in Christ and considered
by God to be the spiritual children of Abraham. He says, the Lord
said to Hosea, you go love a woman who is an adulteress because
she's just like the Israelites, those God has set his love on. God doesn't set his love on everybody.
Because God doesn't redeem everybody. Notice in verse 2, Hosea 3, 2. So what did the prophet do? What
was the message God was sending to us now through this prophet's
actions and his words? So I bought her to me for 15
pieces of silver. He bought his wife again. And she had nothing. In Hosea,
she was an adulteress, an unfaithful wife. In Ruth, she was a stranger
of the Moabites who were commanded never to come into God's house,
into temple. In the New Testament, we're strangers
and sojourners with God. We've been redeemed, not with
corruptible things. but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without spot and without blemish, according
to the will of God, by the love of our Savior, who loved us and
gave himself for us. Redemption is a personal thing.
Redemption is from our sins and every enemy of our souls. All
those who were brought against us because of our sins, Satan,
the curse of God's law, death, the grave. God took pity on us
when we had nothing. We had a debt we couldn't pay.
Right? And we had nothing to pay and
Christ paid it all. He paid it all. He took our debt
and paid the debt with himself. He answered God with himself
for his people and he set us free. There's no redemption unless
all of the elements of redemption are in place. Just like there
can be no human being unless all of the corpuscles and cells
and atoms that make up that human being are in place. We can't,
there can't be a Redeemer unless there are a redeemed people.
There can't be a redeemed people unless there's a price paid for
their redemption. And there can't be a redemption
unless the redeemed receive the inheritance given to them. And God is the one who is our
Redeemer, therefore he gets all the glory. So our redemption
is to teach us these things and to bring us to our knees and
say, Lord, would you have me? Because all of the story of redemption
means nothing unless I can say in my soul, Christ is my Redeemer. What qualifies us? What enables
us to say that? Not our righteousness. Not by
saying, well, I just believe that I'm one of God's elect.
No. What qualifies us is our total
depravity. to know that we have nothing
and know nothing and deserve nothing but God's wrath and yet
we need everything and find it all in our Redeemer and we go
to Him for it. Spread your skirt over me. You've
spoken very friendly to your handmaid. And so we ask the Lord,
cause me as a sinner to cling to Christ only like Ruth did. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your great mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you would
redeem our souls by the blood of your Son, that precious blood
of our Savior, who is unspotted, without blemish, in your eyes.
He had no debt. He had no sin. Therefore, he
could take our debt and own our sin and pay it too, because he
was a mighty man. a mighty man who was wealthy
in himself and the riches of his righteousness and in the
riches of his grace and gave himself for our sins that we
might be brought to God by him. He substituted himself under
the bitterness that we were owed from God and came under because
of our willful disobedience and corruptions. Lord, we have no
hope unless he redeems us. We stand absolutely, utterly
helpless in ourselves like a woman bowed together under the bondage
of Satan. You have to speak to us and touch us and raise us
up and show us the freedom that we have in your work, the Sabbath.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.