Alright, look with me in Ruth
chapter 3. Ruth chapter 3. Ruth chapter 3. The title of
my message and the thought all the way through it's in the very
first verse. The very first verse. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law,
said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that
it may be well with thee? Seek rest for that it may be
well with her. How could it possibly be well
with her and rest for her? Well, because Boaz is a type
of our Lord Jesus Christ as a Redeemer. But let me read a few verses
here. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said unto her, My daughter, shall
I not seek Rest for thee that it may be well with thee, and
now is not Boaz of our kindred with whose maidens thou wast.
Behold, he winneth barley tonight in the threshing floor. Worst
thyself, therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon
thee, and get thee down to the floor. But make not thyself known
unto the man, for he shall have done eating and drinking. And
it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place.
where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his
feet, and lay thee down, and he will tell thee what thou shalt
do.' And she said unto her, All that thou sayest unto me, I will
do. And she went down unto the floor,
and did according to all that her mother-in-law bade her. And
when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went
to lie down at the end of the heap of corn, and she came softly,
and uncovered his feet, and laid her down. And it came to pass
at midnight that the man was afraid and turned himself, and
behold, a woman bled his feet. And he said, Who art thou? And
she answered, I am Ruth, thine handmaid. Spread therefore thy
skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman. And
he said, Blessed be thou the Lord, my daughter, for thou showed
more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, Inasmuch
as thou followest not young men, whether poor or rich, and now
my daughter, fear not, I will do all that thou requirest. For all the city of my people
doeth know that thou art a virtuous woman. And now it is true that
I am thy near kinsman. However, there is a kinsman nearer
than I." Very much. Yeah, left that on. Ruth. She finds rest in the Lord. Rest
in the Lord. Now Ruth had found favor. She
had found grace in Boaz's eyes. You know, we're just one day
there in chapter two and second day seems like begins here because
she just gleaned that one day. Boaz came out and talked to her
and she found grace in his eyes. And he provided special and did
gracious acts for her and toward her. He said there in verse 13,
that in chapter two, she said, oh, you spoke unto my heart.
You spoke to my heart. You spoke friendly unto me, which
means to the heart. You spoke to my heart. And then
Boaz, it says down there in verse 14 of chapter two, that he reached
her parts corn and she did eat and was satisfied. He reached
it to her, reached to that parts corn. So she got special favor
from him. He had his eye on her. He was
interested in her. And she asked for grace. She
asked if she could do the things that she did. And then he told
all of his young men, he says, now you let fall some handfuls
on purpose just for her. All these other people are gleaning,
but I want you to throw a handful of purpose down there just for
her, just for her. And so he gave her special treatment,
wonderful treatment, took great account of her. And Boaz was
a near kinsman. Ain't that what she said here
in verse two of chapter three? Boaz is, now Boaz is not, now
is not Boaz one of our kinsmen. He was a kinsman, a near kinsman.
And a near kinsman has the right to redeem. And what that means
is, since Elimelech, he was akin to Elimelech, Naomi's husband.
and she's in poverty, and he was kin also to her, Elimelech's
two sons, Naomi, Ruth's, and Orpah's husband. So he was a
kinsman. And as a kinsman, he has the
right to raise up from the dead and marry a woman so that his
name won't go extinct. His genealogy will just cease
to be. So there was a limeleck and both
his sons are dead. And this is the closest kin that
they had was Boaz. And Boaz has the right to raise
up a family from the dead. So his name would not cease to
exist on the earth. And then if they had mortgage
profit, if they had to go out and mortgage their property because
they needed some money, he's got the power and the wealth
to redeem their mortgage property and give it back to him or take
it to himself. And if they're poor, if they're
poor and they have to sell themselves as a slave because they can't
got enough money to live on, they have to impoverish themselves
and serve as a servant just to have a place to live and something
to eat. He's able to buy them out from their poverty and their
thirst. See, everyone has an inheritance. Well, Naomi didn't
have an inheritance. Her two sons didn't have an inheritance.
Ruth don't have an inheritance. So where are they gonna get an
inheritance? Where are they gonna get anything? Well, the only
place they can get it is from Boaz. Now, what in the world? Well, where are we gonna get
us an inheritance from? It's got to be from our Lord
Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. And so, see, we was brought into
this state of poverty, dead, lost our inheritance, and brought
into, we was brought into this state by sin, by sin. But what Ruth does, she puts
herself into his hands in a particular way, as Naoma told her to, and
then she said in verse 18, now look here in verse 18 of chapter
three, and look what she said here now, and we'll go through
this. Then she said, set still, my daughter, until thou know
how the matter will fall. For the man, Boaz, will not be
in rest until I have finished the thing today, until he has
done what he needs to do to have you. That's what he's saying.
He's not going to rest. He's not going to find no rest.
That's the way our Lord Jesus Christ was. He had no rest on
this earth until he finished the work. And we had to be still
until he finished that work. And when he finished it, that's
when we all had rest. And because Boaz finished the
thing, Ruth has rest and things are gonna be well with her. And
oh my, now let's start over here again in verse one. Then Naomi
her mother-in-law said unto her, my daughter, shall I not seek
rest for thee that it may be well with thee? Now how in the
world is she going to seek rest for her? How is she going to
seek rest? What she's talking about is rest
in marriage. I want you and I want Boaz to
be the Redeemer. I want Boaz to take you as his
bride. That's what I want. And I tell
you what, if you do what I tell you, and what she's saying is
rest in marriage, in a union, and somebody else taking responsibility
for you. And that's what happens that
somebody else gotta take responsibility for. And look what he said here
in verse nine of chapter one. And this is what Naomi told him
before they ever come into the country with him. The Lord grant
that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband,
that you may go back and find rest. and you find somebody that'll
take care of you. That's what she means here. Rest,
you won't have to be responsible for yourself. You won't be in
poverty any longer. And that's why she said in verse
two that Boaz is our kindred and he'll take responsibility
for you. And I tell you, beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ is our
near kinsman. He is our kinsman, not our near
kinsman, he's our kinsman. He himself took upon him the
nature of Abraham, not the nature of angels. He took upon himself
the seed of Abraham. And when Paul was talking about
marriage and the union of marriage between a man and a woman, he
used the relationship of the believer in Christ to show that
great relationship between a man and a woman. He says, you know,
and he said, I show you a mystery. And he says, you know, we're
bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. And I'll tell you,
that's what a kinsman we have and how close the kinsman is
to us. Our Lord Jesus Christ is. And
then not only rest in marriage, but rest in relationship. You
know, when you get in a marriage and especially a man that's a
man of wealth, and she rests in this relationship, that means,
beloved, that she's gonna rest in this relationship with Boaz
as we rest in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it all depends on Boaz, not on Ruth, on Boaz. And beloved, as
she rests in the relationship with Boaz, and that's what Naomi's
telling her, we rest in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. This rest that we have in Christ,
There's no way to describe it unless you experience it. You
can't describe what it's like for your soul to rest in the
Lord Jesus Christ, not to be worried, not to be frightened.
not to fear death, not to fear sin, not to fear anything that
can harm you, anything that can hurt you. And why do we rest
in Christ? It's because He did all the work. He doesn't require anything from
us. He said, I've done it, so rest. You're joined to me and I'm joined
to you. Quit worrying about things. Don't worry about the, I'm gonna
take care of you. Did I not take care of the awfulest
things that was against you? God was against you, I satisfied
him. Justice was against you, I satisfied
that. Sin was against you, I put that
away. Death was against you, I conquered
it. So go to rest, go to rest. And I tell you, not only that,
but Menomah says, oh listen, And I said, he's our kinsman.
He was a man, mighty man of wealth. So if he takes care of her and
redeems her, her poverty's taken care of. Her poverty's taken
care of. And I tell you, beloved, and
then look what she goes on to say here in verse two again in
chapter three. She knows how this relationship works. Now,
Ruth doesn't. Ruth doesn't. She's just doing
what her mother-in-law says. Said, behold, he winneth barley
tonight in the threshing floor. He's over there threshing his
barley. He's getting the chaff out of
his barley. He's getting it down to where it's nothing but the
barley left. He's getting all the trash out of his barley.
That's what the threshing floor was. And she knew where he was
and what he was gonna be doing. And so he comes with his fan
in his hands and he comes to separate the wheat from the chaff
or the barley from the chaff. And this is exactly what our
Lord Jesus Christ does. I'm gonna show you that. Look
over here with me in Matthew 3. You keep Ruth now and look
in Matthew 3. It's what our master does. And
you know, this is not, I've heard, I don't know, and I've said it
myself years ago, I'm sure I did, is that we took it upon ourselves
to try to separate sheep from goats and wheat from tares. and the chaff from the wheat.
It's not our responsibility to do that. Our responsibility is
just to preach. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one who can make the difference. Look what he said
here in verse 12 of chapter three, Matthew three. I'm in 13, what
am I doing over there? Well, shoot, where am I at? 312, Matthew 312. Did I say that? Yeah, here we go. He said, whose
fan is in the hand, this is John talking, whose fan is in his
hand, and he will thoroughly, throughly purge his floor. Now
that's the threshing floor, he said, and gather his wheat into
the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with fire unquenchable. And he said in another place,
he says there was the field of wheat, and an enemy came and
sowed tares in that field of wheat. And his disciple says,
Lord, you want us to go and get the tariffs out of that? He said,
no, no, no, no, no. Said, leave them alone. The tares
look so much like the wheat. Said, I'll tell you what, I'll
do the separating. I'll call in the wheat. Somebody
else will take care. I'll take care of the tares and
the wheat. I know the difference. And that's not what we're doing.
We're not separating wheat from tares. That's the Lord Jesus
business. Just like Boaz was over here
winnowing his barley tonight. And then look what it says back
over here in chapter three again. Look what he says here. He said in verse three, so she
said, wash thyself therefore and anoint thee and put thy raiment
upon thee and get thee down to the floor. Get down there where
he's at. Now I wanna tell you something,
I've told you this before. All types, all types have a flaw
in them. There's no type that's perfect.
Joseph is probably the most perfect type of Christ there is. But
in all types, there's a flaw in them. And this one has got
a flaw, right here's the flaw in it. when she says, now wash
thyself and anoint thee and put on thy raiment. Now here's the
men go down to the floor. Now here's one that this shows
us that the type's not true here. We don't or can't prepare ourselves
to come into our Lord's presence. We don't wash ourselves, we can't
anoint ourselves, and we can't put the raiment on ourselves.
When we're gonna come into our Lord's presence, he's got to
wash us, he's got to anoint us, and he's got to put the raiment
on us so we don't get into his presence. Now that's where the
type fails. And that's the whole, I preached
on that last Sunday about people preparing themselves. That's
one of the awfulest things that people try to get folks to do,
is get them to prepare themselves to come into Christ's presence.
Christ has to prepare us to come into his presence. He's the one
that's got to put in the heart, take out the heart of stone.
He's the one that's got to wash us in his blood. He's the one
that's got to call us by the Holy Spirit. He's the one that's
got to put his righteousness on us in the raiment. We can't
do it ourselves. And so that's where the type
breaks down. But look what he goes on to say now in verse four. And when he lieth down, that
thou shalt mark the place. You watch where he lays down
and you mark that place. Now nobody knows Ruth is there.
And she says, you mark that place where he and she shall lie. And
when he's asleep, you go down there and you mark that place
and lift up the clothes that's on his feet and you lay down
at his feet. You lay down there at his feet.
And then you do that, he'll tell you what you need to do from
there on. That's where we gotta start. We gotta start at the
feet. Start at the feet. And, oh, take your place. And
we said it the other day, said, oh, if I can just touch the hem
of his garment. And you know where the hem of
his garment's at? It's at his feet. It's at his feet. And that's
where we start at. As she come to at his feet, we
come to our Lord Jesus Christ's feet. We bow down. All the people
that came and they cast him down at his feet, at his feet. And
he'll tell you what to do. He'll tell you what you shall
do. Now, three things Ruth did to come to his feet. Three things
she did before she came to his feet. She washed and she watched. She watched where he lay down.
And then she had to wait, wait until he speaks to her, until
he speaks to her, until he tells her what to do. And he's the
only one that can tell her what to do. So you see, she's put
herself in a situation where he's going to have to make the
decision about her and what she's going to do. But she's doing
just exactly like her mother. Washed herself, washed it, and
waiting till he went to sleep. And I tell you, so she's waiting
there, and she's going to come down and lay at his feet. And
look what happens now. And now she said, oh, my. In
verse five, she said, under all you say to me, I'll do. She is
obedient to Naomi. And she went down to the floor,
down to the threshing floor, and she did according to all
that her mother-in-law bade her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk,
and his heart was merry. Now, I don't think this means
that he got drunk. That means that he had what he
ate and he drank, just like you and I have in supper. And his
heart was merry because he's feeling good. He accomplished
some work, got some work done, things were getting done, and
the Lord was blessing him. And he went to lie down at the
heap of corn, big pile of barley laying there. And he lied down
by that barley, And look what it says, and she came softly. She came softly. You remember
where it said over in Ecclesiastes, God's in the heavens and you're
on the earth? And be not hasty with thy feet
to come into his presence. And don't offer the sacrifice
of fools. She came softly, quietly, reverently
to Moaz. Come in there softly. And she
uncovered his feet, uncovered them, and laid down at his feet. Oh my, he's laying this way,
I'd assume, and I'd say she's laying this way, right at his
feet. She may have his head at his feet, I don't know. And it
came to pass at midnight, oh my. Oh, she heard, at midnight,
he began to speak. She heard his voice. It's dark,
midnight, nobody there but him and her. And here's another place
where the type breaks down. The man was afraid. And he turned
to himself and it says there, took hold on, took hold of her. And behold, a woman led his feet
and he wretched touched her. And he said, who are you? Who
are you? She said, I'm Ruth, your handmaid,
your handmaid. Spread therefore your skirt over
me. And what that means, what that
means, I'm gonna show you in a minute. She claimed by doing
this as her kinsman, she's telling him that I want you to redeem
me. I want you to save me. I want you to take all my responsibilities. I've put myself at your feet.
I've laid here. I've put myself right where I'm
supposed to be. And what I want to do is I want
to claim you as my kinsman redeemer. I want you to claim. I want to
claim you. And I want you to claim me. You
don't have to claim me, but I want to claim you. And look what happened. And she said, spread thy skirt
over me. Now that doesn't mean that he just gonna get up and
do something like that. Look what it said in Ezekiel
16. Ezekiel 16, this is what God said about it. Ezekiel 16. Verse eight. And that spread
thy skirt over me means to claim me. Claim me as someone you love,
because I want to claim you as my redeemer. And look what he
said in verse eight. Now when I passed by thee and
looked upon thee, this infant cast out, behold, thy time was
the time of love. And I spread my skirt over you
and covered thy nakedness. And I swear unto thee and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, thou became as
mine. And that's what he's saying to Boaz. Claim me as you, if
this is the time of love, claim me. I want you, do you want me? And oh my, she's asking him to
take her as his wife. This poor stranger places herself
at the feet of Boaz, would you take me as your wife? And then
look what he says to her in verse 10. Blessed be thou of the Lord,
my daughter. And boy, every time he speaks
to her, he says something good about her. Oh, he just says something
wonderful about her. For thou hast showed more kindness
in the latter end than at the beginning. You was kind at the
beginning to ask to come into my field, to ask to glean in
my field. And you show more kindness in
the latter end than at the beginning in as much as you didn't follow
young men, whether they was poor or whether they was rich. I said,
oh my, what a kindness, what a kindness. You show more kindness
in the end than you did at the beginning. Now, how was she showing
kindness? Well, the way she treated her
mother-in-law, Naomi, that was a kindness. When she said, I'll
leave my kindred, and your kindred will be my kindred. I'll leave
my country, your country will be my country. I'll leave my
people, and your people will be my people. I'll leave my God,
and your God will be my God. And then when she was out there
with all those young men, she never paid attention to not one
of them. None of them showed her any kindness.
None of them was gracious, but Boaz was gracious to her. Groaz
was gracious to her. And oh, remembering, now you're
remembering your dead husband when you do this. You've been
kind to your mother-in-law. You've been kind to your husband's
family, which is Naomi. And she had shown love to her
husband, living and dying. And what he's saying was that
you took Naomi and you labored to support her, and all these
were great kindness. But the kindness was greater
now because she desired, according to the law, to reestablish her
husband's family, her father-in-law's family, Naomi's family, and marry
this near kinsman, even though he's an older man, to raise up
children. and the name and memory of Elimelech
and her husband. And he says, you didn't follow
young men. You didn't follow after young men, regardless of
their position, regardless of their person, regardless of their
wealth, you wasn't interested in them. And then look what he
said about her. In verse 11, and now my daughter, don't be
afraid. I'm gonna do all that you require. You laid at my feet. You said,
she said, I want you to be the kinsman and I want you to take
me as your wife. That's what was going on here.
And no, don't be afraid. I'm going to do everything that
you require. For all the city of my people
doeth know that they are the virtuous woman. Oh my. And he's not reluctant to perform
the part of a kinsman redeemer. And that's the way our master
is. He is faithful who promised. And now look what he says down
there in verse 12. Now it's true that I am thy near
kinsman, howbeit there's a kinsman nearer than I. You know what
our nearest kinman is, nearer than the Lord Jesus Christ? Adam,
Adam. That's our closest kin. That's
our closest kin. You reckon he can redeem us?
You reckon he's gonna take care of this situation? No, Adam can't. Huh? See if he can redeem us. He's a kinsman, he's near. Oh my, so we need somebody to
buy, somebody to redeem us, to buy us from our poverty, to buy
us from our death, to raise up life from the dead. And that's
what Boaz is gonna do here. And then look what she said there
in verse 14. I'm gonna do the part of a kinsman
to thee. And she lay at his feet until
the morning, and she rose up before one could know another.
before anybody was awake and anybody was in there. And he
said, let it not be known that a woman came into the floor.
And he said, bring me the veil that you had got upon you and
hold it. And when she held it, she measured six measures of
barley and laid it on her and she went into the town. Oh, he
gives her great abundant blessings. Six measures, gave her abundance
of blessings. Send her home. Send her home
with great blessings. And oh my! And then she told
Naomi there, in verse 16, Naomi told her all that the man had
done to her. All that the man had done. What
he said and what she's going to do. And she said, These six
measures of barley gave he me, for he said to me, Go not empty
unto thy mother-in-law. Oh my, take something to your
mother-in-law. Then this is what Naomi said. I love this right
here. Then she said, sit still, my
daughter. Be still, just be still. Don't do nothing else. Just be
still. God said, be still and know that
I am God. And she says, until thou know
how the matter will fall, We don't know, listen, something
may happen and upset this whole thing. So you just sit still. We'll see how this thing's gonna
fall out. And I tell you what, beloved, we know exactly how
it fell out for us. Our Lord Jesus Christ did everything
for us. You see, the work of redemption
was not hers. Hers was just to sit still till
Boaz done what he was gonna do. And there was a kinsman near
her, and I tell you, our kinsman, Adam, has nothing he can do.
But look what happens now. And he says, he said, for the
man will not rest until he hath finished the thing this day.
And our Lord Jesus said, Father, I finished the work that you
gave me to do. Now that's why she started out
saying, shall I not seek thee rest? Sit still, just sit still. that it may be well with thee."
And oh my, how well she's going to be with her, with Boaz and
what Boaz is going to do. It's going to be wonderful, absolutely
wonderful. But oh, this kinsman, this kinsman
and what he's going to do for her.