The concept or the idea, or I'll say it this way, the truth of a God who truly works all things after the counsel of His own will and His own purpose is something that is impossible for the natural man to conceive. And especially for the sinful, the sin nature as we call it, the unborn again, the unbeliever. To conceive of a God like that is almost impossible because We're so volatile, we're so ignorant by nature, and then when the Lord brings us in the new birth to a saving knowledge of the true and living God in Christ, We know that it's true.

We know what Ephesians 1.11 says, he works all things after the counsel of his own. We know that's true, but it is something that we can't really wrap our minds around. It's just awesome, isn't it? We gotta stand back and see the glory of God. But with our God, there's no such thing as accident. There's no such thing as luck. or anything like that. He's not a reactionary God. He does. He works. All things work together because He works them. All things work together for good to them that love God who are the called according to His purpose. And that's part of the truth that is brought forth here in this lesson from the book of Ruth on handfuls of purpose. Look at verse 15. It says, and when she was risen up to glean, now this is talking about Ruth.

Boaz had given her permission to glean in his field and told her don't glean anywhere else. That's what God does when he calls his sheep into the gospel. You come where the gospel is preached. and don't go anywhere else because all that other is no good for you. And he says, when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men saying, let her glean even among the sheaves and reproach her not and let false also some of the handfuls of purpose for her and leave them that she may glean them and rebuke her not.

Now Boas, here he's allowing Ruth to glean in the best of his fields and he even tells his workers, let fall some handfuls on purpose so that she can get it and she'll be fed, she'll be taken care of. Let it fall handfuls of the grain on purpose that she could get all that she needed. And so, I put this in your lesson because it's interesting. You know, under the law of Moses, under the old covenant law, God made provision for the poor. in this and gleaning in the fields owned by rich farmers was one of the ways he made provision for them and it says the farmer in under the old covenant he was forbidden of God to reap the corners of his fields, he had to leave them alone so that the poor could get it and leave that part for the poor and also if they mistakenly left a bundle of weed or barley the field like they dropped it or left it there they were not allowed to go back and get it let the poor get it and that's the way that the Lord took care of widows and orphans and people who were hungry who couldn't work or whatever so God made provision for them and I thought about that because that's the way it is with the gospel with us God on purpose gives us what we need for salvation, for spiritual life, for growth, to feed our hunger.

In the Word of God, He gives us everything we need. In Christ, we have all we need. We have all the blessings we need. We're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We have all wisdom, all righteousness, all sanctification, all redemption in Christ. God provides for us. In this household of faith, nobody goes hungry because God feeds us. In the Beatitudes, you remember, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, they'll be fed.

So understand that. And here in this part of Ruth, we see how this law of gleaning is being practiced. by Boaz. And the things recorded in this chapter, they're written for our learning, our admonition. So let's go back and think about all of this. This historical event of Ruth and Boaz, Naomi, all of this that we've seen so far is a picture.

It's a spiritual lesson. It's not just spiritualizing something. Because if you don't make a spiritual application to the scriptures, what good's it gonna do you? And so I put in your lesson here these four things. Ruth represents all who are saved by the grace of God in and by the Lord Jesus Christ based on his blood and righteousness alone. Why have I found grace in your sight, she asked Boaz. Well, what happened to us? We found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It's all grace. Nothing earned, nothing deserved. All grace.

And grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Boaz, secondly, represents the Lord Jesus Christ, the kinsman redeemer. That's what Christ is to us. Boaz owned the field. Well Christ, he's the owner of all things. And all the fields of this world belong to him. He's the master of all things. Boaz was the master of his house, so Christ is the master of his house, the church. Always think about the church this way.

Christ is the foundation of the church. Everything that we are and everything that we have stands founded upon him, the rock. Christ Jesus. Christ is the cornerstone of the church. Everything that we are is measured by Him. That's what the cornerstone was for, to measure everything by. And so Christ is the Lord our righteousness. We stand before God washed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness, justified, sanctified, certain to be glorified. And then Christ is the heart of his church. He's the life of his church. The life of the church is Christ himself, the resurrected life of Christ, spiritual life, running through, all through his church. And then he's the head of the church.

He's the one who teaches us, guides us. He's our wisdom. He's our knowledge. This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. He's the master of all things, as Boaz was the master of his house. So everything is subject to him. And so Boaz represents Christ, the kinsman redeemer.

And then the field, the field in which Ruth gleaned represents the word of God in the gospel, which is sown by the Lord through his servants, through the reapers. The word being spread. You know the word often in scripture is called seed. Sowing the seed. We see that in the parable of the seed and the sower. And the word of God going out. The parable of the word. that goes out and that seed is sown and it's sown on the good ground of God's people whom the Spirit has given a new heart, new eyes, new ears, new mind, all of it, new life.

So the preaching of the gospel is the scattering of these handfuls of purpose. And that's what I want you to see because God sends the gospel out for a purpose. It's not just, well, let's see who's going to accept and who's not. He knows who's going to accept and who's not. The gospel goes out as a judging word. To some, it's the savor of death unto death. To others, it's the savor of life unto life.

And so God sends it out for his people, the sheep. to bring them in. And then his young men, those reapers here, they represent those who preach and witness the gospel. Not just pastors, but those who witness the gospel, sent out to seek the sheep, both Jew and Gentile. And so Boaz commanded his young men to let fall some handfuls of purpose. No accidents here. He knew, you know, and just like I said in another lesson, Elimelech, Naomi's husband, and Naomi and their two sons, they disobeyed God when they left Bethlehem, Judah and went down to Moab, to the country of idolatry and sin.

But it was all well within God's purpose for them to do that because they went down there to get Ruth. And you say, well, how do you know that Ruth was so important? Well, she's in the human line of the Savior. Read Matthew chapter 1. Ruth married Boaz.

They had a son, they had a son, and then I think his son, his grandfather, I'm getting my lineage mixed up here, but David came out of that, King David. Out of this union of this Moabitess woman who was converted to the Lord God came the humanity of Christ. So understand that.

So when a sinner is brought by providence, you know, think about this in your life, in my life. How did I come to hear this gospel? And I look back on it and it's amazing to me. I fought the gospel when I first heard it. I didn't want it, didn't like it. In fact, I got so frustrated with my mother quoting the Bible to me, I told her, I said, I wish the Bible had never been written. I told her that. And now I've been preaching it for about 40 years.

That's how God works in his sovereign purpose. to save his people, to save rebels like Saul of Tarsus, to save rebels like Matthew, and we could go on and on. But think about in your own life how God brought it about to bring you under the gospel, and that's what he does. Look over at, I've got this in your lesson, not at this point, but I wanna go ahead and look at, look at Romans chapter six. And this is what Paul's talking about here. in verse 17 of Romans chapter six. And this is real interesting.

And he's talking to the Roman believers, the believers in the church at Rome, and he says, but God be thanked that you were the servants of sin. Now what he means by that is you were unbelievers, you were unregenerate. We're all sinners. We're either sinners lost in our sins or sinners saved by grace, but to be a slave to sin in this way is to be an unbeliever, to be trapped in our own vile, sinful nature. So you were, as you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine. Now, how are you gonna obey from the heart When the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, you can't.

You have to be given what? A new heart. A new heart. Now what is the heart? It's the mind, it's the affection, it's the will, it's the conscience, it's the inner person. And you have to be given a new heart and only God the Spirit can give us a new heart. Give us new life, a new spirit, new desire. So you've obeyed from the heart, that's the regenerate heart.

That form of doctrine, that form of teaching, and of course he's talking about the gospel, and he says, which was delivered you, literally in the original, that would read this way, which you were delivered to. Now it's true the gospel was delivered to you, that's true. You were brought under and God delivered it to you through a preacher, by the power of the spirit, But he's saying you were delivered to it. God delivered you under the gospel. He put you under the gospel.

And the gospel in the hands of the Spirit, the power of the Spirit is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. It's not just the preaching. It's the Spirit who regenerates. But he does it under the preaching of the gospel. And he says in verse 18 of Romans 6, he says, being then made free from sin, liberated. That's what he's talking about.

And how are we liberated from sin? We don't stop being sinners because we're gonna be sinners as long as we're on this earth. Until we go to meet Christ or he comes back again and we're changed. but we're liberated from sin in the sense that sin can no longer deceive us and keep us in unbelief. We've been set free. The truth will set you free.

That's in the power of the Spirit. So being made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness, servants of Christ. That's what that is. Servants of Christ. It doesn't mean you went from being immoral to moral. It may have taken place in your life, but it means you now become a unbeliever, a hater of Christ, to be a lover of Christ, a believer, a disciple of Christ.

And you know, somebody said, well, that being made free, it says that we're freed from sin over in verse seven, of Romans 6. That word freed there means justified. That's a legal freedom, which means that sin cannot condemn me. I'm dead to sin. Christ died my death. My sins were imputed to him and he died. He took my condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ. He took my death. He drank damnation dry. He satisfied the law. The law cannot condemn me because I have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and justice.

It's the imputed righteousness of Christ. So when we look at all of this, that is so glorious. And all of this, God did it on purpose. It is Christ working all things according to his purpose and will in the salvation of his people and making the gospel the power of God and the salvation. And his purpose is to glorify himself in our salvation. His purpose is not to glorify us in ourselves or glorify our works or glorify our wills, our choices.

Yeah, we do choose Christ, but it's only because He chose us and He gave us the desire. Somebody asked me one time and said, do you all believe that God drags you against your will to Christ? I said, no, God doesn't drag you against your will. God changes your will. That's what He does. He changes your desire and only God can do that. The preacher can't do that. Not towards the true and living God. We'll go back to Ruth chapter two now. Look at verse 17.

So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that also she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. It was plenty, that's the main thing. And she took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Naomi saw what she had gleaned. And she brought forth and gave to her that she had reserved after she was sufficed. And her mother-in-law, she was filled. And her mother-in-law said unto her, where hast thou gleaned today? And where wroughtest thou? Where did you work? Blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. I love that.

That's the way it is in salvation. Blessed be the God who took knowledge of His people. He knows His people. The Lord knoweth them that are His. And that knowledge is a special knowledge. It's not just knowing the fact. It's not just knowing your name. And it's not just knowing all about you. He knows you in a way that a husband knows his wife with an intimate love knowledge. that secures your salvation and provides everything you need in order to be saved, in order to be accepted with God.

Think about that. This is why one of the simplest ways, I think, to expose false gospels from the true gospel is that term condition. In other words, if I preach a salvation that is conditioned on you, think about that. And different denominations, I'm sure, have different conditions. Different people have different conditions.

Well, you've got to do this. Most, it's, well, you've got to believe. Well, you do have to believe. The Bible says that. He that believeth not shall be damned. But is that, am I to portray that to you as this is a condition that you of your own free will must meet in order to be saved? Because if I present it that way, that's false. That's not what the Bible teaches.

But now if I present to you a salvation that is conditioned on one person alone, who is appointed by God the Father, who is able to meet those conditions, and who is willing to do so, that's a different story. Who is that person? That's the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity incarnate. Salvation's conditioned on Christ. and on him alone, and by his obedience unto death as my surety, my substitute, my redeemer, he came to this world and fulfilled those conditions to secure the salvation and final glory of every one of his sheep. Everyone whose name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. And that's what a kinsman redeemer does. Boaz, the kinsman redeemer. He's a kinsman, but can he be a redeemer? Well, is he able to do so? First of all, is he appointed to do so? Is he a near kinsman? He gotta be a near kinsman, according to the law. Secondly, is he able?

Now, of course, this is about money as far as buying back Naomi and Elimelech's property and all of that. Is he able to do it? Remember, we say he was a man of great wealth. Remember when I preached on that, Christ is a man of great wealth. He's the God-man of great wealth, his treasure. And is he willing? And what we're about to find out here as we go through these, especially in chapter three, he's very willing to do so.

So we must feed on these handfuls of purpose. When we hear truth that edifies us, builds us up, establishes our hearts with grace, encourages us in obedience, That's what it does. It encourages us, motivates us in the warfare of the spirit against the flesh. Fight sin, not in order to be saved, but because we already are secure by him. And so we go out these handfuls of purpose, gospel messages, truth of God that exalts him and glorifies him and gives us the peace that passes understanding.

Debbie and I were talking about this yesterday about assurance. There's only one right way to have real assurance of salvation. And I always go to passages like Hebrews 12 too, because that says it. You can go to a lot of other passages. Somebody was preaching the other day, I listened to a message, he's talking about he is at perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. That's a mind that is set on Christ in the glory of his person and the power of his finished work.

But the one I go to is, Hebrews 12.2, running the race of grace, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. If you look within yourself, and not that that's bad to do, we must self-examine. But not to find assurance, because if we find assurance based upon what we see in ourselves, It ends up being self-righteousness. That's right. We find assurance looking to Christ, resting on Christ, pleading his righteousness. Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm gonna go to this verse this morning in the message in 11. God be merciful to me, the sinner. I say that right now just as much as I said it at the beginning of this journey. Don't you? Don't you really? I don't stand before God and say, well, God, I need you now, but not as much as I needed you earlier, you know? No. No. I need God. In fact, I'll say it this way. I need God more now than I needed before. Because I've become a craggy old man now. I complain, you know, all that stuff. And that's unbelief. That's all. It shows my weakness. It shows this, that if it weren't for His grace, I would be lost.

Well, Naomi and Ruth, you see what's happened here. They've got it made, but not by bare hands. It's by Boaz. And here we're brought back to the book of Ruth and the theme of it. The kinsman redeemer as portrayed by Boaz, a type of Christ who is the kinsman redeemer of every true child of God. And I've got a little paragraph in here.

You know that word kinsman that's used here as Naomi, if you look at verse 20. Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. To the living, that's Naomi and Ruth, and even in respect to the dead, that's Elimelech and the two sons who are dead. In other words, in respect to Naomi and her family, Boaz has done this act of kindness, and Naomi said unto her, the man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.

Now that word kinsmen there is the Hebrew word goel, G-O-E-L. And it's a redeemer, that's what it means. one who's a redeemer. Such a near kinsman has a right to avenge the blood of the slain, to redeem their houses and possessions, if sold or mortgaged, and their persons by marrying them and raising up seed to a deceased brother or kinsman, and such was Christ to his people. in every way.

Look at verse 21. And Ruth the Moabitess said, he said unto me also, thou shalt keep fast by my young men until they have ended all my harvest. What a statement. You stay with my reapers until the harvest is in. Don't go anywhere else. You see, there's only one gospel. There's not many gospels or many shades of the gospel. There's only one. And this is the same as the Lord instructs his people to stay with his witnesses, his church, his preachers.

I want to be where the gospel is preached. How about you? I want to be where the truth is told on God and on Christ and on me. I don't want to go to a place where they spend time bragging on people just to get them in and keep them in. I don't want to go to a place where they just entertain us. I want to hear the word of God.

And that's what Boaz is saying. You stay right there because any other gospel's deadly. And then look at verse 22. And Naomi said, and we'll do that until the harvest, until Christ comes back again. Until we go to be with him or he comes back. Verse 22, and Naomi said unto Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet not in any other field. No other field now. So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest and dwelt with her mother-in-law. So, there you have it. Ruth kept fast by the maidens of Boaz.

When you go hear a preacher, me, whoever, what does the Bible tell us to do? It says try the spirits, doesn't it? Test the spirits. What's the test? How do we test them? Well, if they're not wearing the right clothes, or if they're not a good, eloquent speaker, can hold our attention. No, no, are they preaching God's word? What Isaiah say back in Isaiah 8, 20, to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, there's no line in them. That's the test, okay.