Book of Ruth. I told Mindy on the way here,
I suppose this has got to be one of my absolute favorite stories
in the Old Testament, if not my favorite. But there's so many,
aren't there? If the Lord blesses them, they're
all favorite at that time. If the Lord preached from Ruth,
if he preached from this book on the road to Emmaus, he certainly
preached the Kinsmen Redeemer. The whole book should have been
named Boaz or the Kinsmen Redeemer. The translators are the ones
who gave the titles. It was not a more blessed gospel
story at all in the Old Testament, I guess. All right, look at chapter
one. It now came to pass in the days
when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land. A certain
man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to sojourn in the country of
Moab. He and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man
was Elimelech, the name of his wife, Naomi. The name of his
two sons, Mylon and Chalion. All these names mean something.
I'll not give them to you tonight. They were Ephrathites of Bethlehem,
Judah, and they came into the country of Moab. And continued
there, stayed there a long time, ten years. And Limelech, Naomi's
husband, died. She was left, her two sons, and
they took them wives of the women of Moab, heathen women, unbelievers. The name of the one was Orpah,
and the name of the other, Ruth, may dwell there about ten years.
Mallon and Chalion died also, both of them. And the woman was
left of her two sons and her husband. And then go back to
the end of this chapter. So she came back to Bethlehem,
her and Ruth, and she said in verse 19, the whole city was
moved. Is this now? She said, Call me
not Naomi, call me Mara, a bidder. The Almighty hath dealt very
bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord hath brought
me home again empty. Call me Naomi, seeing the Lord
hath testified against me, the Almighty hath afflicted me. What a picture this is of man
in his fall in the garden. He started full, he ended up
empty there. He started full of holiness and
righteousness, and he became full of sin, rebellion against
God, and the bitterness of sin. Oh, how low sin has brought mankind
from upright, walking with God, holy, just, a fallen dead creature. Is this
man, is this Adam who God created? Oh, but this story doesn't end
here. This is the beginning, but it has a wonderful end, doesn't
it? Like Ruth, like Naomi, We have
a Redeemer who restores everything unto us. The Lord Jesus Christ
is second from above. He reinstated us in His love. He restored everything. I want
to tell you the end. I'm going to declare the end
from the beginning. He restored everything to these fallen women. But there's a lesson to be learned
here. Bethlehem, Judah means house
of bread and praise. Judah means praise. Bethlehem
means house of bread. Why did they leave the house
of bread and the place where God's praise and worship was?
He said there was famine there. Hold on. Boaz didn't leave. Boaz's family didn't leave. Huh? His maidens, they didn't starve. Oh no, David said, I've been
young and I am now old and I've never seen the righteous forsaken
or his seed begging bread. Didn't it? There's a famine.
As Amos 8, 11 says, there'll be a famine of the hearing of
the Word, but not for God's people. We eat fat things and wine on
the leaves, don't we? We feast here every time we meet
together. There's a famine all over the
world right now of the hearing of bread. Not here. This is Bethlehem. This is Judah. We're Jews. Praise
God for the bread. And Isaiah 65, he says, the world
says they'll be hungry, but not my people, they'll eat. Read
that for yourself, Isaiah 65. Talks about the former things
not being remembered. Says God's people will eat and
be satisfied, but the world Won't. They'll be hungry. And he says,
and rejoicing at things I've created, a new heaven, a new
earth. He said in Isaiah 65, the former things will not be
remembered or come to mind. Naomi and Ruth are going to forget
all about all that misery. But they brought this on themselves.
Didn't they? There's only two reasons to leave
God's house. If you're not hearing a gospel,
there's no other reason. If you're not being fed, if you're
not being fed, that's the reason. Are you being fed? Okay. all right now chapter 1 is you
know Ruth's in treaty down in verse 16 and you know the world
this is all the world religious world knows is what Ruth said. Oh how blessed we are. But you
know what Ruth said to Naomi is what we say to Christ. This
is the believer. This is the sinner's plea to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 16, you remember Orpah,
her sister-in-law, went back to her people and her gods. What
happened to Orpah? She perished. You see, they all left, and Naomi's
husband died because of that. Both her sons died. God is just.
God killed them all, except he had mercy on two poor widows. God is just, but God is merciful. Orpah went back to her people
and her gods, and she perished with them. She may have been
doing fine financially, but she perished. She didn't know God.
And those men married unbelievers and say it was God's will. All the trouble they caused themselves
and everybody else, they went against God's revealed will.
But God is merciful in spite of our sin. Ruth said, And treat
me not to leave thee, or return from following after thee. Whither
thou goest, I'll go, where you lodge, I'll lodge. Thy people
shall be my people, thy God my God. Where thou diest, will I
die. There will I be buried, the Lord do so to me, and more
also, if ought, but death partly in me. And that is every child
of God whom the Lord was called to follow Him. That's what we
all pray to Him. Please, I want to just follow
You. Your people be my people. The Lord's bringing her back.
Naomi and her back. Naomi left. The Lord's bringing
her back. Remember, Jacob met the Lord at Bethel. Then he left
and got in all kinds of trouble. Brought trouble on himself and
his family. What did the Lord do? Brought
him back. Bethel, the house of God. Bethlehem,
the house of bread. They heard that God will feed
His people in Bethlehem. So they came back. At the end of chapter 1, these
two poor, miserable, down-and-out widows, it says in the end, it
was the beginning of the barley harvest. And Naomi said, testified against
me and afflicted me. Have you ever thought of misery
being God's mercy? You know, the first thing the
Lord's going to do to you if He saves you, He's going to make
you miserable. He's going to make you bitter because of sin.
He's going to make you feel the bitterness, to taste the bitterness
of your sin and your rebellion against sin. He's going to bring
you down to bring you out. Blessed are the down and the
out. You've got to. You've got to
do it then. You've got to break us. You've got to humble us. They were all far from him, weren't
they? They were all far from Boaz. What's he going to do?
He's going to bring them to their Redeemer. Bring them home. Misery is God's mercy. Bitterness is God's goodness.
The world doesn't have these things. Psalm 73, David said,
they're not in trouble like I am. And the Lord said, if you come
into the sanctuary, I'll show you their end. But for you, it's
the beginning. This was the beginning of the
barley harvest. Brethren, barley is poor man's
bread. Boaz raised barley. For who? The poor. He's a merciful man. Kind to the poor. Poor man's
barley. He could have raised any crop
he wanted to, but he raised barley. I'm telling you. So, here they come. Chapter 2,
verse 1. This poor Moabite maiden, or
not a maid, a widow. She's not a maiden. Well, it's
something I want you to understand. I used to think of Ruth as being
a beautiful young lady. He doesn't say that. No mention of her beauty. In
fact, we're going to see her begging in that field, and she's
far from beautiful when she's begging in that field. It was Boaz's love for her. It
was Boaz's choice of her. Boaz's mercy toward her. She
didn't deserve it. But Boaz shall have mercy, sovereign
mercy. All right? Here they come. Chapter
2. Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a mighty man of wealth,
the family of Limelech, and his name was Boaz. Why wasn't she
calling on Boaz before she left Bethlehem? She could have, couldn't
she? He was her kinsman then. When there was a famine, why
didn't she go to Bowie? Why didn't she take her family and say,
would you let us stay here? He would have. In the best part
of the land, he would have, wouldn't he? Why didn't she? I don't think
she knew him either. She didn't know him. She left. She's going to know him, just
like Ruth. She knows this much about him, and later on, he's
the only one that can help her. She didn't know if he would.
His name was Boaz. You know, that's one of the names
the Lord gave to the piplars of the temple. Ruth the Moabitess
said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field and glean ears of
corn, after him, wherever I may find grace. And whoever's side
I might find grace, she said, Go, my daughter, we need something
to eat. And she went, she came and gleaned in the field after
the reaper, and it just so happened that she lit on. That's not a country saying,
that's the Bible isn't it? To light on a part of the field
belonging to Boaz. Now how many fields were in Bethlehem? How many barley fields were there?
How many wheat fields? How many corn patches were in
Bethlehem at that time? It just so happened that she
landed in the field that belonged to the only one who could help
her. And so have you. Every one of you. I don't know
if there was ever a time where you were hunting for a church,
was there? People do that all the time.
We're looking for a church. I always usually tell them, if
you're looking for the truth, we have it here. If you're looking
for Christ, the gospel, we have it here. But there's a so-called
church on every corner. What you need to do is light
on the field that belongs to our Lord. You need to light on a place
where His name is there. Because God has a place, He's
chosen to put His name there, His worship. And that's where
all His people light. That's where He brings them.
How blessed we are. Oh my, Isaiah 43 says this. He says, Thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, He that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not. I have redeemed thee. I have
called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. He said, I gave
Egypt for you, Ethiopian Saba for you. You're precious at my
side. He said, I'll say to everyone that's called by my name, I'll
say, give up. Bring my sons and daughters from
the ends of the earth. I've made them. I've formed them.
Bring them. Bring them to me, they're my
people I've chosen, that they may know and believe in me and
understand I am He, I am the Lord, their Redeemer." Isaiah
43. So they don't know Him, but they're
about to learn. Alright, behold, verse 4. Boaz
came. Why didn't he come the day before?
Why didn't he come the day after? He just happened to come the
day she was there. Oh, the lot is cast in the lap,
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. She came there
because the Lord brought her there to meet her Redeemer. And
here He comes. And now, look at verse 4. Don't you love this? Boaz came
and said unto the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they all
answered him, The Lord bless thee. Oh, blessed Redeemer. Oh, mighty man of God. Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. We have blessed thee out of Zion. I've been wrong in the past.
I used to picture Boaz as sitting up on a white horse and come
riding into the field over and above, you know, stately. Now,
he was a mighty man. He was a stately man. But being
like our Lord Jesus Christ, no. He's down on the ground. He's
walking amongst them. He's one of them. He's touched
with the feeling of their infirmities. They all love him because he's
just like them. And he's walking amongst them,
you see. How are you doing, Hope? How are you doing, Nancy? Oh, fine, Lord, thank you. Blessed
be His name. He was one with His servants.
His servants loved Him. He loved them. He was their friend. He was their Lord and their Master,
but He was their friend. And then Boaz said unto his servant,
now I believe he went up to the house, the storehouse. It was the storehouse where they
threshed the barley and the wheat and all that. And he went up
to the house after this and he saw Ruth. In verse 5 he said, whose damsel
is this? And the servant that sat over
the reaper's answer said, it's that Moabite, it's that heathen
woman. She came back with Naomi out
of the country of Moab. They've lost everything. They're
poor and down and out. She's just a heathen woman. That's
all it is. But they said, she asked us,
she prayed. She prayed. She said, I pray
you, can I glean here and gather here among the sheaves? And she
came. And she'd been here all morning.
She won't go away. And she's tarrying here at the
house. It's like she won't send the house. Now, who saw who first? Maybe Ruth saw Boaz from a distance. But if she saw him, there was
no beauty in him that she should have seen. No former accomplices
down. Maybe she saw the man and she
saw him without knowing who it was. He looked like everyone else. She's going to see his
beauty. She's going to see his glory and his mercy and his love
and his grace and his kindness, his redemptive glory. That's
what she's going to see. And then it's going to be love.
I started to say this is a story of love at first sight. Well,
if you ever really see Him, it is. But our Lord's love for us,
His people, was long before we were created, whom He foreknew,
long before. I set my love on death long before
you were born, Lord. Whose name was it? He knows.
The Lord knows his own. Down in verse 11, they told him,
he said, it hath been fully showed unto me who you are. I know who
you are. Well, she has to stay there,
don't we? Isn't this our desire? Isn't it the believer's great
desire? David said, one thing of our
desire to the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Behold
the beauty of the Lord in acquiring his temple. The beauty of my
Redeemer. Ruth wanted to hang around. Is
he going to let her? Is he going to let her stay?
She's come, she's asked, she prayed, she's hungry, she's thirsty. Is he going to turn her away?
Oh, no. He's going to marry her. I believe. You know, time took
place here. This all didn't happen in a few
minutes. It took place. I believe Boaz had determined
right then who this was, and he knew it. This was Boaz, mightiest
man in all the land. He knew everybody. Everybody
knew him. He knew what was going on. He
had servants. He had eyes everywhere beholding. He knew what he was
going to do just as soon as he saw her. She didn't. She didn't. No, he did. And so
did our Lord. He purposed to save His people
long before we were born. Well, Boaz came. And it's going to be good. Now, this all started bad. But
as bad as it was, It's going to be good. I preached that to
the church there in Newcastle. Psalm 27, waiting for good to
come out of trouble. The end of this story far exceeds
the misery in the beginning. So our Lord Jesus Christ came.
Why did He come to this earth? He came made of a woman, made
under the law to do what? To redeem them that were under
the law. Bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, made of a woman,
tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin, touched
with the feet of our infirmities. This is a faithful saying, worthy
of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into this world,
the mighty man, the mighty Savior, mighty to save. He came to save
sinners, even the chief, even a Moabite heathen. So He came. And God's people, He won't turn
them away, all of us would ask. Look at verse 8 and 9. Boaz,
now Boaz speaks to Ruth. She hears his voice. He came
to Boaz and said unto Ruth, Hearest thou not my daughter? Are you
listening to me, my daughter? Daughter? See, he's quite a bit
older than her. Do you know that? He's probably
30 or 40 years older than her. Do you know that? At least 30. And he calls her
my daughter. Oh, isn't our Lord, isn't the
Lord Jesus Christ both our Father and our Husband, the Eternal
One, and our Friend? He speaks friendly to her. Here
is His command to her, and this is what we were saying in the
first chapter. Go not glean in another field,
neither go from him. Abide here fast by my maidens. Let thine eyes be on the field
that they reap. Go thou after them. I have charged
a young man. Nobody is to touch you. Touch
not mine anointed, God said. Christ said. They were hedged about. by His mercy,
by His sovereign providence. And He said unto her, When thou
art athirst, go to the vessel and drink. If you're thirsty,
drink. If you're hungry, eat. If you
have any needs at all, just ask, and it'll be given to you. She fell on her face, verse 10.
Isn't that what our Lord says? She fell on her face and bowed
herself to the ground and said unto him, Why? Why have I found grace in thy
eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me? I am just a
stranger. She was, wasn't she, a stranger
to who Boaz was, a stranger to Bethlehem, a stranger to Judah,
a stranger to the God of Naomi, to the God of Boaz, a stranger
to the truth. She was a stranger. She's not
going to be. She's going to be a fellow citizen. She's going
to be in the household. She's going to be family. Stranger. She's not strange to him. He's
strange to her, but she's not strange to him. And weren't we,
wasn't that us? Even while we were yet enemies. God committed His love toward
us while we were yet sinners, enemies. He said, I know all
about you. You're no stranger to me. And
He said, the Lord's going to recompense thee, give you a full
reward. Isn't that what our Lord, verse
12, isn't that what we get from our Lord? He is our exceeding
great reward. We come to Him, He gives us a
reward. What is it? Him. We get to stay
forever with Him. And look at this, He said to
her, The Lord give you a reward, the Lord God of Israel, under
whose wings thou art come to trust. She said, let me find favor in
thy sight, my Lord. You've comforted me. You've spoken
friendly to my heart unto me, though I be not unto thine handmaid,
though I'm not like one of thine handmaids. She's saying, I'm
a poor widow. I'm a nobody and nothing, a heathen
from nowhere. I'm a nobody with nothing to
bring in my hand, no price I bring. I have nothing. I'm a nobody.
I'm not like the rest of your beautiful maidens here. Why would
you have mercy on me? Why? Because Boaz is a merciful
man, that's why. See, the reason is not found
in her. The reason is found in him. And our Lord only marries
ugly brides, you know. He doesn't need a rich dowry. Did Boaz need a dowry from some
rich woman? No, no, he didn't. He could have
any woman he wanted. He didn't need any money. He just was going to have mercy.
He didn't need money. He just delighted to show mercy. And Boaz said, look at that.
I love this. Boaz said unto her at mealtime, verse 14, you come
up hither. You come down hither to the table. Come and dine. Eat bread, dip your morsel in
vinegar, sit beside your reapers. You sit at my table with my people,
Ruth. You've come to me. You've come
to the right person. I will not turn you away. You're not going
to be a beggar anymore. You know, we come to the Lord
as beggars. And we say that. We're all, when we come to the
Lord, we're mercy beggars. You know that? But I quit saying
that about God's people after He saved them. My children aren't
beggars. Do you hear me? Are your children
beggars? Do your children have to beg you for anything? Well,
you've already got it ready for them before they ask. Oh, no. God's people are not beggars
when they come to cry. They're no longer beggars. They're
sons. All you've got to do is ask.
Not beg. Ask. Holy Son of the King. He's not
going to marry her. She's not going to be a beggar.
She's going to be his beloved. From beggar to beloved. And look,
he reached her some parched corn. Is he serving the table? Is the
great Boaz? Did he get down? Did he come
off of his seat and walk around the table and serve the servants? Does that sound familiar? John
13, our Lord. He heard himself, took off his
and gird himself with a towel and stoop down and wash their
feet. You know the scripture says our
Lord is going to gird himself and serve us in the kingdom.
And we're all going to be, you serve me. And he reached her
some parched corn. I have to believe he got real
close to her, don't you? Did he touch her? Did she smell
him? They smell like myrrh and aloes
and cashew. Now she's falling in love, isn't
she? With this merciful man, this
man of kindness, this loving man, this gracious man, this
man who showed such kindness to her, who did not turn her
away. And that's our Lord. All together
lovely. Now, now she's in love. Now, now she is. And then she ate. Verse 14 says she ate and it
was sufficed. She's satisfied. She was poor
and down and out sitting at that table with Boaz, Sister Robyn. She was happy. Happiest she'd
been in years. She had never felt this with
her other husband. She had never felt this with
that heathen man. Now, she's happy. She thought, if I could just
stay right here forever, if I could not go anywhere. She had to leave, didn't she?
We have to leave this place tonight. She went away and Boaz commanded
the young men again, said, let, let, this is, phew, I can't even
put it into words, I'm babbling now. He said, let her glean among
the sheep. No, no, no, no. Pick up crumbs
off the ground. Not crumbs. She's not going to gather crumbs.
Let her have handfuls, verse 16, of purpose. Brothers and
sisters. Romans 8.28 only applies to God's
people. And this is what it says. We
know that all things work together for good to them who love God,
who are called according to His purpose. Oh, how many handfuls,
basketfuls of purpose have we seen in our life. More than that,
Jacob's sons, you know, came with baskets and they went home
with wagons. And then when it was all over,
Sister Margaret, they all lived in the land of Goshen. From baskets
to Goshen. to crumbs, to handfuls. She's like that widow that Elisha,
you know, that he said, the barrel will not waste and the crews
won't fail. Handful, that's why it says that,
you know, that handful, just all she could, you know, in her
hand. But she's filling up sack, but,
and we're to provide bags which wax not old, but anyway. What
we have been promised is handfuls, enough. Full, not empty, full. But as thy days, so shall thy
strength be. And grace for the day. And the
barrel of God's grace will never, never empty. You reach down every day. You
need a handful for the whole day. You'll get it. Every time. You ask, you look, you seek,
you knock, and you'll find it. Grace for the day. And that barrel
will never, ever run dry. And the cruise of oil, the Holy
Spirit that leads us, will never leave you or forsake you. Ever. You have God's word on it. So,
she went into the city, verse 18, she went into the city, came
back to her mother-in-law, and her mother-in-law saw what she
had gleaned. She said, Honey, where have you been? Whose field
did you lie on? She had, you know, huge, a heap
of barley, She not only saw what she'd gleaned, I believe she
saw a glow on Ruth's face. She saw a change come over her.
She said, Mother, to her mother-in-law, she said, the man's name with
whom I wrote today is Boaz. And Naomi. See Naomi had forgotten
Boaz when she was rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing.
And she forgot about Boaz. And now she's poor and down and
out and has nothing and now she hears this name as if for the
first time. I heard the name Christ. I had
heard Jesus Christ when I was full of myself and full of sin.
I heard his name, but it meant nothing to me. But when the Lord
brought me down and out and brought me back to the house of bread
and spoke kindly to me, then I heard that name. And it was
a name above every name. And I knew it was the only name
given among men whereby we must be saved. The only one that could
redeem me. The only one that could help
me. Oh, blessed be the name of the Lord. She said, Honey, do
you know who that is? She said, The Lord has not left
off His kindness to the living and to the dead. Naomi said,
That man is our kinsman, Redeemer. He's the only one that can redeem us and restore
everything to us. And Ruth said, well furthermore,
Mother Naomi, He said unto me, you stay fast right here. Don't
leave to the end of the harbor. You stay right here. He told
me to abide right here with him. Abide fast. Don't leave. He said, I'll feed you from now
on. Oh, brothers and sisters, listen to this blessed scripture.
Christ, the son over his own house, whose house are we if
we hold fast. the confidence and rejoicing
of the hope firm to the end. We hold fast the confidence,
that is, the promises. He promised, I'll never leave
you. Come unto me. I hold it. Come unto me. I won't cast you out. I will
no wise cast you out. But, but, but, no wise. For no reason. You come. You
come. You hold fast. To Christ, look
to Him, don't leave, and the rejoicing. Hold fast to confidence, hold
fast, look to Christ, and the rejoicing of the hope from the
end. Do you think that Ruth ever got over what Boaz did for her? If she did, what do you think
Boaz would have done? If she ever took for granted
what he had done for her and started being lifted up with
pride, what would Boaz have done? Hold fast, accomplish, and rejoice
in it. Don't ever lose sight of where
you were, what you were, and where the Lord found you, and
what He's done for you. And when you hear the name of
Jesus Christ, you need to say, Hallelujah. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. Blessed be our Redeemer. Don't
ever lose that rejoicing. My, my. We're so unworthy. Because
the Lord could have had mercy on anyone. To our Lord's command to us,
abide ye here with me. And she thought, why me? Oh,
my. You know, she said, the Lord,
she said, I found grace in your eyes. How do we know we found
grace in His eyes? Well, like her, we've been brought
low. We've seen our misery. Brought low by our sin and death. We hear of bread. We're brought
to Christ's church. Hungry. Thirsty. Seeking. Asking. Calling. We find bread.
We hear His voice. We see His face. We're content
to dwell here. We want to stay here. We must belong to the Lord. Amen. He's promised to keep us. All right, now, chapter 3 is
her resting in her Redeemer. Naomi says, and I've got to hurry.
She says, My daughter, I seek rest for thee, that it may be
well with thee. Now, is not Boaz our kindred
with whose maidens I was? Behold, he went with barley tonight
in the threshing floor. You all heard that the Gospel
is going to be preached here tonight, didn't you? It's preached here every Wednesday
night. And every Sunday morning, why'd you come here? Who told
you to come here? Huh? Oh, I was glad when they
said unto me. Who? Why are you here? The lot's
cast in the land, but the Lord brought you here. Oh, I hope
and pray you're one of His. I believe you are. This is the
threshing floor. This is where He went us. Verse
3, wash yourself, anoint thee, put on raiment, get down, get
down on the floor. Don't make yourself known unto
the man. You're a nobody unto nothing. Just come in quietly
as one undeserving and wait on him. Just wait on him. And it
shall be when he lies down, you mark the place where he is, where
his people are. You go there and you lie down
and you uncover his feet and you lay down at his feet and
he'll tell you what to do. Isn't that what our God says
unto us? Come, come to my son. Lie down at his feet. And he
maketh us to lie down. He lied at his feet. And she
did. She came, and down at verse,
she came softly, verse 7, laid at his feet, laid her down. Verse
9, he woke up. Who are you? And she said, I'm
Ruth. I'm your handmaid. I belong to you. Cover me. She said, please cover me. You're
my kinsman. You're my redeemer. You're the
only one who can do anything for me. Would you cover me? Would
you buy me? Would you redeem me? Would you
help me? Well, isn't that what all of
God's people do? Cover me with thy righteousness. Oh, redeem me by thy precious
blood. And he said, Blessed be thou
of the Lord. Verse 10, My daughter, you're
blessed of the Lord. You didn't seek young men, the
rich and the poor. She sought Boaz. Oh, people are
looking everywhere for everything, aren't they, in every place.
Oh, how blessed we are if we look into Christ and we find
Him. He said, it's true, verse 12, I am thy near kinsman. I
am. He said, I am. He said, it's true, truth. I
am thy kinsman. He said, Terry,
here. He said, there's someone else
I've got to deal with. Someone who has a claim over
you. A nearer kinsman. Someone that you're a debtor
to. Someone I have to satisfy. Someone
I have to buy, pay. to get you out of this debt that
you owe. A near akin. What's that? Somebody
tell me. Go ahead. The law. The law. So she lay at His feet until
the morning. And then verse 18, I love this. She went back home
and Naomi again said, You sit still, my daughter. Just be still
and know that He's your Redeemer. We come here, our strength is
to sit still. Our Lord says, be still and know
that I'm God. He says, stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. Because like Naomi, I'm telling
you here tonight, the man will not rest until he's finished
his work. She said to Ruth, this man, I
know him. I know him. I know him. I forgot
him. It's to my shame. But I do know
who he is now. And he will not rest. Whatever
he said he'd do, he will do it at all costs. And he will redeem
us. And he won't rest until it's
finished. Oh Christ, those mighty words
on the cross from John 19 that he uttered, our redemption, he
paid for our sins with his own precious blood. Cursed by the
law, bruised by the fall, Christ hath redeemed us once for all. One for all. Oh, he said, it's
finished. And then Paul said that in Philippians
1, he said, I'm confident. I'm confident that he that hath
begun a good work in you will finish it. He'll not rest until
you're with him in glory. And it's all finished. Covenant. So she did. She rested in him. She's looking to him. All right.
Now this is all about what Boaz did. Ruth's out of the picture. You see that? Ruth's at home
resting. She was poor and down and out.
Now she's happy and resting. Waiting. Waiting on what? Her
redemption draweth nigh. Boaz meets this nearer kinsman
in chapter 4, verse 1. He sat in the gate and here they
came. This nearer kinsman said, Ho!
Such a woman. He gave him command. Turn and
sit. This is a mighty man, you said.
He's commanding this one who Ruth and Naomi are indebted to.
That's right. Our Lord is the lawgiver in it.
Moses didn't give you that law, Christ said. I did. I'm the lawgiver. They said to him, Moses said,
she's to be stoned about that woman taking the devil. Moses
said this. He said, Moses didn't say that.
I did. He said, I tell you, this woman
is justified from all things. You can't do this. Yes, I can. I just did. And what the Lord does is forever.
He said, ho, stop, stop. Sit down right here. I'm going
to deal with you. He acts like it's finished before it started.
Yeah, it is. There's no doubt in his mind. And it took 10 men of the elders
of the city, they said, you sit here. All of you sit down right
here. I want to tell you what I'm going
to do. They sat down. Oh, our Lord came, magnified
God's law, made it honorable. Our Lord came to redeem us from
this curse of the law. And what he did was witnessed
by the law and the prophets. To him give all the prophets
witness and the law of Moses. Moses wrote of him. The law is
a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The law can't redeem
us. We're going to see that. It says
that, let me just tell you what happened. You know. Boaz said
to this nearer kinsman, he said, if you'll redeem Naomi, then
redeem. Buy everything back that she
lost. Redeem her. And he said, if you
redeem her, you've got to redeem Ruth, because I've purposed to
have her for my wife. You've got to redeem Naomi, and
you've got to redeem Ruth. Okay? At first the law said,
I'll redeem Naomi, and then the man said, I'll redeem... And
then he said, you know, you've got to redeem, you can't just
redeem some, but not others. You've got to redeem them all. All or none. He said, I can't
do that. I'll mar my inheritance. I can't
do it. He said, take off your shoe. Take off your shoe. He knew. He knew he wasn't going
to do it. Brethren, how many scriptures that say nobody's
justified by the law of God's sight? It's evident. The law
can't redeem us. The law can't save us. The law
was never given to save anybody. What's this all about the shoe?
Well, we've got to walk according to the law, don't we? And if the law, if we offend
at one point, we're guilty of it all. We can't. We can't. And I think it's symbolic. It
was a tradition back then, but to me it's symbolic of how we
can't walk perfectly according to the law. You take off one
shoe and you're lopsided. You take away one commandment
of God and the whole law, it's worthless. Oh no. And our Lord walked according
to the law, didn't perfectly. He walked under the law and He
fulfilled the law. He redeemed us from the law.
Though as verse 9 says, your witnesses, everyone, are witnesses
to this, at this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech's
and all that was Chalia's and Mylon's and the hand of Naomi,
of the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess,
the wife of Mallon, have I purchased to be my wife? But you haven't
asked her yet. She's hoping I will. This was Boaz's purpose. He's going to get what he spoke
of. He's going to do it. And she's
already, she's already hoping, praying. She doesn't know. How
could He love me? Oh, He did. And He purposed for
her to be His wife. And He purchased her redemption. And our Lord Jesus Christ bought
us and bought the world. You know that? Romans 14 says
to this end, He says He's the Lord of the dead and the living.
For this purpose Christ died and rose again that He might
be Lord of the dead and the living. He owns everything. Since Christ
died, God gave Him everything. And He's the Judge over it all.
But especially He purchased. He's the Savior. He's the Redeemer
of His people whom He purchased to be His wife. And says, and
I'm going to give her inheritance. I'm going to give her back everything
she lost. And all your witnesses and all
the people in the gate said, we're witnesses. They all said,
we're witnesses. What? Boaz did it all. Boaz, they're all running around
saying, I know who's especially saying this. Ruth and Naomi are
saying, Boaz paid it all. We sing that song, Jesus paid
it all. All the dead I owe. Sand left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as stone.
And moreover, he purchased me to be his wife. Isn't that amazing? This is not the end of the story.
This is just the beginning. Just the beginning. So he took
Ruth, she was his wife, verse 13, and he went in to her and
she conceived and bear a son. What did he look like? Boaz.
He looked like Boaz. He was the spitting image of
Boaz. Christ in you is the hope of
God. The Gospel comes, the seed of
Christ is formed in us, a new creature, a son. And the women,
bless Naomi, said, He's not left you without a kinsman. Verse
15, He's the restorer of thy life, the nourisher of thine
old age. And Naomi took that child born
of Ruth, laid it in her bosom, nursed that child, just like
you ladies take into your arms those that
are born again in this congregation, and every other. What a blessing
it is. All right, that baby of Boaz,
that son of Boaz, his name was Obed. And Obed grew up to have
a son. His name was Jesse. Oh, by the
way, Boaz's mother, you know who she was, don't you? Rahab. Okay, so Rahab had Boaz. His mother was a harlot. The
Redeemer's mother was a harlot. That's who's in our Lord's life.
He's not ashamed to call them his family. So she had a son
named Boaz, who had a son named Obed, who had a son named Jesse,
who had a son named David. And you know what David had a
son 2,000 years later? You know what his name was? Jesus
Christ, the Redeemer. Our kinsman, Redeemer. Bless
his holy name. Okay, stand with me.