You know, last week we talked
about Ruth being the gleaner. The gleaner. And the beginning
of this chapter, this is all one day, her first day going
out to glean. She asked her mother-in-law,
you know, I want to go glean. She says, well, go glean. And
her hap was to lie on Boaz's field. which was the kinsman
of Naomi. And she didn't know that. She
had left in the morning empty, but she returned full. She returned
full. It says there in verse 17, so
she gleaned in the field unto evening, and beat out that she
had gleaned that it was about an ephah of barley. And oh my,
she left empty that morning and come back full. perhaps happened
to be in Boaz's field. Boaz the master. Boaz the master. Newer. Newer circumstances. Remember what he says to her,
it's been shown unto me. All that you've done for your
mother-in-law since your husband's died. How that you left your
father and your mother, your land of captivity where you was
born and raised, and you come amongst a bunch of people that's
strangers to you. That's strangers to you. And
he spoke words of comfort and words of assurance to her and
even says, the Lord recompense thee, the Lord bless thee, the
Lord give you a full reward under whose wings you've come
to trust. And how was she so blessed to
have gleaned so much? Anepha is an awful, awful lot. And I'll tell you how much it
is after a while. But how was she so blessed and how was she
to have to glean so much? My title of my message is, she
has shown grace and she receives grace. And here's how she was
so blessed. She had been with a mighty man
of wealth. Ain't that what he's called back
up there in verse 1? And Naomi had a kinsman of her
husband's. A mighty man of wealth. of the
family of Elimelech and his name was Boaz. Ruth didn't know this. She didn't have a clue who Boaz
was because she happened to know his field. But how she was so
blessed and given so grace was because she had been with a mighty
man of wealth. And that's like our Savior. Boaz
had great wealth of possessions. He was a wealthy man. He owned
lots of land, lots of field, had lots of people that labored
for him. It was his field, it was his
barley, it was his wheat, and lots of servants who loved him.
And that's like our Savior. I got to thinking about this.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the heir of everything. He's the
heir of everything. Now how wealthy do you think
our Savior is? How wealthy is our Lord Jesus
Christ? I heard yesterday that this fellow
that runs Facebook, his net worth went up 3 billion dollars in
one day. 3 billion dollars. Now they can count his wealth.
They say he went from 15 billion to 18 billion. which I don't
think there'd be a whole lot of difference between one and
the other. But his net worth went up $3 billion. They can count man's money. They
can count their houses. They can count their cars. They
can count their servants. They can count the beds that
they've got to sleep in. But who can count the wealth
of our Lord Jesus Christ? How wealthy is He in grace? How
much grace has He given out since He first gave grace? He gave
grace before the world ever began. Is that not right? And how much
grace does He give out every moment of every day? And He still
got as much grace as He had when He first gave His grace. And what about mercy? How much
mercy has he doled out of his wealth to his people over all
the days of their lives, over every one that's ever lived?
Who can dare doubt his wealth? Who can tell the worth of the
blessed Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into this
world and assumed human nature and identified with us? How can
you tell the wealth and power and glory of that? How can you tell about the righteousness
of God? How can you measure God's righteousness? This is eternal and as infinite
as He is. And He gave us His righteousness. And it's as infinite and as eternal
as He is. What He gave to us is eternal.
And this fellow here is a man of wealth. And that's who Ruth
went to her field. And beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ
said this. He says, the Kingdom of Heaven
is like an undoable field. It's got a treasure in it. And
that man went and bought that whole field just to get the treasure. You know what the field is? It's
the world. You know what the treasure is?
Us. That's what he did. He bought
the whole thing just to get us. Bought it all. And oh my, he
had wealthy possessions. And he had wealth of influence.
Look what it says in verse 8 and 9. He had wealth of influence
and power. Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest
thou not my daughter? Go not to glean in another field.
Don't go from his, but abide here fast by my maidens. Let
thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go after them. Have I not charged the young
men that they shall not taste thee? And when thou art athirst,
go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have
drunk." When he said something, it was done. He is a man of wealth. He is a man of influence. He
is a man of power. And you know when he said something,
it was done. And he did it with love. He did it with kindness. And
he did it for the good of this strange woman, this stranger,
this Moabite, this woman named Ruth. And it says there in verse
10, when she fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground
and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou
shouldest what? Even take knowledge of me. Why
do you notice me? Why in the world are you paying
any attention to me, seeing I'm a stranger? Now you're talking
about a man of influence and power. Does our Lord Jesus Christ
have any influence? Does He have influence in heaven?
Does He have influence on earth? Does He have influence over us?
Does He have power? Has He got power in this world?
You know, you can't even go to the Father unless He brings you.
That's the kind of influence He's got. And He's the only one
that the Father will listen to. And so when we come, He only
hears us for Christ's sake. And you talk about power. Oh
my, when He says, come, we come. When He says bow, we bow. And He says, seek ye my face.
You know what we did? We sought His face. He said,
come unto me. And we come. When He speaks to
us, we do what He says. He says, listen to what I've
got to say. We perk up our ears. What do
you got to say, Lord? And oh, listen. And we often say, Lord, why did
you take notice of me? Why did you even look in my direction? Why would you even consider me? Out of all the people on this
earth, and there was you, you, you, you, and you. And you fell on your face. And
the Lord let you know that He knows you. He really knows you. And you know what? You get up
and your heart rejoices. He knows me. He really knows
me. And oh, he has a wealth of grace.
Look down at verse 13. Look right down here at verse
13. And then she said, let me find favor. Let me find grace
in thy sight. For my Lord My Lord, for thou
hast comforted me, and for thou hast spoken friendly unto thine
handmaid, though I be not like one of thine own. And look what
she says, for thou hast comforted me. You've comforted me. Here she said, I'm a stranger.
Nobody paid any attention to me. I'm just out here. Time to
get a little something to eat. Time to get another grain, maybe
to sell a little bit to get some money. And here you come to me
with all these people around here and you comforted me. You spoke to my heart and you
put comfort in my heart. You comforted me. You gave me
some assurance. And I'll tell you what, and look
what it says there in the margin. Now I have spoken friendly unto
thine handmaid. You know what it says in the
margin? Spoken to thy heart. It says
spoken friendly. It says there, spoken to my heart. That's what he did. He spoke
to her heart. That's why she was comforted. And when the Master,
our Lord Jesus Christ speak, he speaks to the heart. He speaks
to the heart. I don't know how many times I've
heard Henry and Scott and different preachers say over the years,
please don't just preach to my head. Don't preach to my head. Don't just get a bunch of things
and preach to my head. If it's real to your heart, preach
to my heart. Preach to me. Preach to where
I'm at and what I'm going through. Preach to me the way I am now.
And I tell you what, that's the thing about it. When our Lord
Jesus Christ speaks, He speaks to our heart. And when He speaks
to our heart, there's nothing like our Savior speaking to our
heart. He can cause us to rejoice. He can bring tears to the eyes.
He can make the heart leap. He can make the heart melt. He can make the heart desire. He can make the heart submissive. All the things He can do when
He speaks to the heart. You know, I can just get the
ears, but it's the Lord that speaks to the heart. And that's
why He says, you know, and He knows when the trouble's there.
He said He came to bind up the broken heart. And look what else
she said there in verse 13. Oh, you spoke to the heart, and
you've comforted me. Oh, she found grace with this
man. And she said, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaids. I'm not like one of your Like
one of the other handmaids, the people in this country. And that's
what they said about our Savior. Why eatest thy master with publicans
and sinners? And I'm sure that somewhere around
there said, what in the world is Boaz doing? Don't he know
she's a Moabite? Don't she know that she's poverty
stricken? Don't he know that she come back
and she don't have anything? He knew. Yeah, he knew that.
That's why he did it. That's why he did it. Because
he knew exactly what she was, where she was from. And she said,
I'm not like the rest of these people around you. And oh, listen. And that's the way our Savior
was. I'm going to preach a message one of these days on the gospel
according to the Lord's enemies. Now you think about all the things
our Lord's enemies said to Him and everything they accused Him
of. That's our gospel. He's with publicans and sinners. Ooh, aren't you glad? Oh my, didn't he know this woman
here is a sinner that is washing his feet? If he was a prophet,
he'd know what kind of woman she was. On this, that's why
she cut him. Oh, it was grace, it was grace
that made him ask of her. It was grace that provided for
her. It was grace that predicted her.
And all listen, now go down here to verse 20 with me and look
what it says here. And oh my, she had been gleaning
all day. She says, the man where I work
today was named Boaz. And Naomi, Naomi said, under
her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not
left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi
said unto her, the man is near of kin unto us, one of our near
kinsmen. Oh, she had been, not only had
she been with a man of wealth, and been with a man who gave
her grace and showed her grace, but she had been with a near
kinsman, a person with the right to redeem, and she didn't know
who he was. He was just being gracious and
being kind and being loving and showed grace to her. And she
knew nothing of the near relationship. But you know who did? Boaz did. Boaz knew that relationship.
Boaz knew he was the kinsman. Boaz knew he was the Redeemer.
Had the right to redeem. And you see the kinsman had the
right to avenge the death of and their husbands? Or he had
the right to redeem? And if I'm not Lord Jesus Christ,
did he not have the right to redeem whom he would? And does
not he have the right to avenge those who do not want his redemption? Has he not got the right to redeem?
Got the right to avenge. And that's the way the Redeemer
and the kinsmen had. And when Naomi first came back
into Bethlehem of Judah, first came back into Bethlehem. This
is where our Savior was born. This is where Jesse was born.
This is where David was born. I mean, Bethlehem, a little old
bitty place, but oh, listen, despise is not the day of small
things, but look what, and you know, Naomi, when she come in,
she called herself Mara. I'm full of bitterness now. I'm just bitter. I left here sweet and come back
bitter. Just everything's wrong. And
now she sees what she says now. Look what she says, and then
in verse 21, And Ruth the Moabite said, He said also unto me, Thou
shalt keep fast by my young men until they have ended all my
harvest. And oh my, when she heard this about she had gleaned
in Boaz Fields, the near kinsman, now she sees that the chastisement
is over. the end of is through and now
she says full of joy she sees God's purpose and she says blessed
be the Lord who left not off his kindness now she's not talking
about Boaz, she's talking about God blessed be the Lord who left
not off his kindness even in the midst of these trials he
left not off his kindness to the living men Ruth and to the
dead, Ruth's husband, and Elimelech, her husband. Oh my. Boaz was related to her husband,
her husband. And not many wealthy people,
you know this as well as I do, not many wealthy people pay any
attention to their poor relatives. You know, they're always afraid
to go call and ask them for something. Oh, listen. This one woman won this lottery.
She won 500-something million dollars. And she begged to stay
anonymous. She didn't want nobody to know
it. Because people come out of the woodwork when that happens.
And she did. She was able to stay anonymous.
But beloved, you know what? If they'd have found out that
kind of money, there'd have been people knocking on her doors,
pitching camp in her yard. Oh, you listen. You can do this for me and do
that for me and tell all the things. And oh, listen. Most wealthy people, when they
got poor relatives, how many times have you heard somebody
say, when my rich uncle gets out of the poor house. I don't have a rich uncle. I
don't have nobody rich in my family, but I'm rich in Christ.
Oh, the wealth we have in Christ, like I started out. Oh, the wealth
we have in Him. But Naomi knew the law of redemption. And Boaz knew the law of redemption. And had already shown grace to
the neighbor. See, she saw redemption, not
just a relative by marriage. And then there's the last thing
I want us to see about. How she'd been with a man of
wealth. She'd been with a man who was a near kinsman. And had
grace shown to her. And now she'd been with one who
understood her need. And he spoke to her heart. She
said, you've spoken, Kemp, kindly to me, friendly to me, spoke
to my heart. Now look what happens. And our
Lord always speaks to that. He knows our needs before we
do. He knew her poverty and met her need. Now, I tell you, he
wasn't ashamed to own her publicly. Look what it says in verse 14.
He wasn't ashamed to own her publicly. She's a poor woman. She's a stranger. But look what
happens. And Boaz said unto her, at mealtime,
when it's time to eat, you come over here, and you eat of the
bread, and you dip your morsel in the vinegar. And she said,
besides the reapers, now watch this. Now watch this right here.
And he, Boaz, reached her parts corn. And he didn't eat. And
she was satisfied. She was satisfied. That's what
surprised me. She was satisfied. Oh, that he
wasn't shamed on her publicly. She's a stranger sitting there.
Sit over here. Sit right here. Listen, let me
give you something. Let me feed you. And ain't the
way our Lord does, don't He feed us? Here, let me feed you. Oh
my. And she sat beside the reaper.
She sat at his table and ate from his blessed hand. He saw
to it that she had something to drink. She had something to
eat. And he reached to come from his
own presence. She got her food right straight
from the master's hand. She had a hand-to-mouth existence.
From His hand to her mouth. And that's the way we live. We
live from His hand to our mouth. We live from God's hand to our
mouth. And oh, listen. Does He provide
for us really, really, really, really, really, really good?
Oh, how He provides for us. And I'll tell you, she did eat
and was satisfied. She was satisfied. And then,
Here's the last thing. I said that was the last thing.
Here's the last thing. I thought I was done, but I'm
not. Boaz prepared for her good. Look what it says in verse 15.
And she left off and went back to work. She went back out in
the field and started to glean again. And when she was risen
up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, leave her glean among
the sheaves. Now do you know what they'd do
is they'd pick up the sheaves and put them in wagons. And he
says, you let her go among the sheaves themselves where all
that grain's at, where all that barley's at, and let her get
right around there and all listen. And then look what he says there
also in verse 16. And let fall also some of the
handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them that she may glean
them, and rebuke them not. He said every once in a while,
when she gets real close, you get in that basket, get you a
big handful, just lay it right down, but she'd find it. Oh, let fall some handfuls of
purpose, leave them there. And that handful is a great quantity,
a lot of sheaves. And oh, how many handfuls of
purpose has God given. Simon Peter denied the Lord Jesus
three times. And when our Lord rose from the
dead, he said, he says, go and tell my brethren and Peter, that's
a handful on purpose. that I'm going to meet Him in
Galilee, huh? When Thomas said, I ain't going
to believe except I put my finger, our Lord Jesus said, reach your
hand. That was a handful on purpose. And you know when God gave us
a handful on purpose? He gave us grace in Christ before
the world began. And oh, how many handfuls has
He given us. And she gleaned in verse 17,
so she gleaned in the field until the evening. Started out that
morning. Started out that morning in verse 2. And she's got to
the end of the day and she's through. She gleaned in the field
until evening and beat out that she had gleaned. And it was an
ephah of barley. You know when they picked up
the manna, They got an omer. And she had 10 times more in
one day than the manna they received in a day. Aetha is 23 quarts. And look what she did with all
these blessings that she got. And she took all this barley
up and she took it up and went into
the city and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned and
listen to what she said now and she brought forth and gave to
her now I tell you what when she left out of Boaz where they
ate dinner she took some of the dinner with her she took some
of that extra food with her And she brought forth and gave to
her that she had reserved after she was satisfied. She said,
boy this was so good I'm going to take some to Naomi. Boy this food was so good and
so gracious to me. I'm going to go and share this
with my mother-in-law. And he said she kept some of
her dinner and took it home to her mother-in-law. And gave it
to her. And oh my, she gave of her blessings
And she told what it said and what great things Boaz had did
to her. And she said in verse 21, I'll
end with these three verses. And Ruth the Moabitess, you know
it always says that. He said unto me also thou shalt
keep fast by my young men. until they have ended all my
harvest. And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter-in-law, It
is good, my daughter, that thou hast went out with his maidens,
that they may meet thee not in any other field, or fall upon
you in another field. And look what happened now. And
she kept fast. She got just as close to them
and kept right with them. The maids of Boaz to glean unto
the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest that stayed
right there with her mother-in-law. Oh my, how gracious is our Lord,
a man of wealth, a man of grace, a man of power
and influence, and a man who provides very well, feeds us
right out of his own hand. Oh my. Our Savior, oh, our Savior, blessed
be your name. Oh, how wondrously gracious and
kind. Lord, we're like Naomi. You've
left not off your kindness to us, Lord. You've left not off
your kindness. And Lord, no matter where we're
at and what we're going through, Lord, you know us and you provide for us. And we
thank you. All the spiritual blessings that
we have in Christ our Lord. All the food, the drink, the
wealth, the prosperity that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We bless you and praise you and thank you. Bless our time together
here in just a few moments that we can enjoy one another and
fellowship with one another. And Lord, bring glory to yourself
through us. in Christ our Lord's name. Amen. Amen. Well, they're going to
have a little get together back here for Zach, for Zocky. We always called him Zocky.