If you will, turn to the book
of Ruth. Ruth. You've got the first five books
of Moses and Joshua, Judges. Ruth. It's the eighth book in
the Bible. Growing up, my pastor when I
was young would say, I think this is going to be good for
you. And I thought, oh yeah, bull yawn. Is that better than
bull yawn? I think it's the same as regular
bull yawn. But they say it's good. And I said, well, OK. You're
a little more anxious, ain't you? I think this will be better
than bull yawn for you. I pray so. I want to look at
the message of grace here in the book of Boaz. We call it
the book of Ruth. It's about Boaz. I want to look
at the message of grace. The work of Naomi. What she does
to and for Ruth concerning Boaz. The message of grace. I want
to give you these characters here and what their names mean. That's real important. It was
a blessing to me when I looked these things up. They're in Bethlehem,
Judah. That's a house of bread. They
go down to Moab. Moab, remember that was that
incestuous child of Lot. Rebels, heathens, land of heathens. Emelech, his name means God of
kings, lowercase k. Naomi, pleasant, agreeableness. Grace. Grace is her name. Maylong means made sick. Chilion,
judgment, destruction. Orpha, stiff neck. Ruth, a female friend or the
most precious thing, an added associate. One made a friend. And Boaz. I don't know why I
didn't look this up before. I did yesterday. It's from an
unused root of uncertain meaning. This name ain't a name like it.
It ain't never been used before. It's a pillar. One of the pillars
is named Boaz in front of the temple. I hope we seem to learn
his name by learning what he did, who he is and what he did. We should be on the lookout for
our Lord Jesus Christ and every chapter and every verse of his
word. Look for who He is and what He's done. Grace is going
to be the one that teaches that. His grace towards us. Look here
in Ruth 1, verse 1. Ruth 1, verse 1. Now it came
to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a
famine in the land. Boy, nothing's changed. And a
certain man, a certain man of Bethlehem Judea, house of bread,
went down to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and
his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech,
the name of his wife, Naomi, grace, the name of his two sons,
Malon, sickness, Chileon, judgment. Ephratites of Bethlehem Jews,
they're from Bethlehem, Ephrata. And they came into the country
of Moab and continued there. There's a lot of facets to this
diamond. There's a mosaic of these scriptures,
each little tiny piece that paints that broad picture of Christ.
And I've heard this preached a couple of different ways, and
it's right and it's good. But here, Elimelech, that's a
picture of our father Adam. He was in the house of bread.
He brought us to Moab. And you know what? We went with
him willingly. Naomi and them children, they
weren't kicking and screaming. She wasn't complaining the whole
way. She said, Business is booming, let's go. Okay, we'll go with
you. We went down there with him.
And boy, did we continue. So they continued there. We continued
in that land. Verse 3, And Elimelech Naomi's
husband died, and she was left and her two sons. And they took
them wives of the women of Moab. The name of one was Orpha, stiff-necked.
The name of the other, Ruth, the added associate. And they
dwelled there about 10 years. Malon and Chileon died, also
both of them. Remember these names? Sickness
and judgment were put away, both of them. Stay with me. And the
woman was left of her two sons and her husband. The only original
one left out of this is Grace. Sickness has been put away, judgments,
been put away. This is, the work of grace is
the same. I didn't grow up in false religion.
I believe in grandparents, I believe in parents, and I had a faithful
pastor, and I grew up under the sound of the gospel. And grace
is the same for me as it was for Ruth and Naomi, as it is
for you, as it is for anybody. Because it's needed. Because
the sin nature ain't no different. A fella told me one time, he
said, you must not have many grave clothes. I said, I got
grave tuxedo, buddy. I grew up and I made a work out
of not working. We don't believe in works. Watch
this. I did. You young people screwing with
the gospel, you'll have a... There's some certain trials you'll
have that other people don't. But this grace was left. Verse
6. And she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the
country of Moab. For she had heard..." That's
us too, isn't it? "...in the country of Moab, how
that the Lord had visited His people in giving them bread."
Grace declares that Christ is victorious. That our sin sickness
is forever dead. Our destruction and our judgment's
been put away forever. And the Father's provided for
His people by visiting them and giving them Christ our bread.
That's the message. And it's God's grace to believe
what you've heard. It's God's grace to tell what
you've heard. That's a faithful pastor. He
just tells me what's inside of this book. That's what a true
pastor does. I know you're thankful for him.
He just tells you what God says. That's a miracle of God's grace
he does that. That's a miracle. Christ is the
payment. He's the reward. He's the cake
and we eat it too. He's all. You think everybody's
heard about this bread in Bethlehem, hasn't he? The house of bread.
Yeah, they've all heard, Paul said. Like the prophet said,
who's believed our report? The Lord's people believe. They
do. We just tell it. Some believe
this report. Naomi did in verse 7. Paul said in Romans 10, he said,
faith come by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. She'd heard.
about what the Lord had done. Heard where this bread was. Verse
7. Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was and
her two daughters-in-law with her. And they went on their way
to return into the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law,
Go, return each to her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with
you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. Graves says
go away if you can. Think about that. Grace doesn't
take people in the parking lot and beg them to come along. Our
Lord's not a beggar. We're the beggars. The world's got this
whole thing flip-flopped, don't they? Grace doesn't use trickery. Just proclaims the Word. It just
says there's bread in the Lord's house. If you have the need. David told you about that. If you have a need, you're hungry. If you have a need of justification,
that's what we need. We need life in Him. We need
atonement, at-one-ment with the holy God we've offended. Who's
gonna do that? The breadwinner. There's one. One. He did it one time. He does
it the same for everybody. And he did it perfectly. What a peace there is. If you
can have peace in Moab, stay in Moab. Our Lord did that. That was what mankind would call
the worst minister of faith. They lost 5,000. They walked
away. And He looked and said, there were 12 left. He said,
you want to go too? They didn't say, Lord, where will we go?
To whom? To whom will we go? That's a
blessed, blessed wedding to be called to it. Verse 9. Grace continues. The Lord grant
you that you may find rest each of you in the house of your husbands.'
And she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept.
And they said to her, Surely we will return with thee to thy
people.' The friend, who had an associate, Ruth, and the stiff-necked,
Orpah, both of them have the same outward profession. But
one of them has saving faith. God gave one of them saving faith.
If someone's sane, they want to go to heaven and not go to
hell. Anybody wants that. You want me to take you out back
and just whip you real hard? Well, no. Who would want that? They might even shed some tears
over it. Judas and Esau did. But when they find out the only
thing there in the house of bread is Christ the living bread, they
don't want nothing to do with it. The Lord Jesus said, I didn't
either. I ain't above them people. The Lord came to me and made
me hungry. And He said, come here. We'll feed you bread. Always gracious. Saving faith
clings to Christ. It has to. The gracious one. And I want to caution too. If
you come to this house of bread, don't come because your family
comes. Come for the bread. You'll have family there. Don't
come for social event. Come for the bread. There'll
be plenty of social events there, but come for the bread. And don't
come because people you likes there. You come for Christ the
bread. You may have family and we'll have joyful gatherings.
We have this whole weekend. And there's people I love. I
love you and I like you. But we're here. That's not the
motivation. We're here for the greater. Grace teaches us that. We remember Mark 10. The Lord
said it's easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle
than a camel. A rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven as it is
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. And an apostle
said, who then can be saved? Was them apostles loaded? Were
they wealthy people? No, it wasn't talking about carnal
riches, was it? Self-righteousness, pride. He said, but you shall, you give
up all these things on this earth. He said, you'll receive a hundredfold
now in this time. Houses and brethren and sisters
and mothers and children. You come to this house of bread,
everything will be provided. And that's so. That's so. You all come out
to California, and I got a Hyundai Elantra. You can put as many
miles on it as you want. You own it. You got a house you
can stay in. Our couch or wherever you want to. Our text is there
in verse 14. And they lifted up their voice
and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. But Ruth clave
unto her. This one made a friend clave
to her. Orphan must have just took a
different path. She was on her own journey, wasn't she? No.
No. Judas betrayed our Lord with
a kiss, didn't he? That kiss of self-preservation. self-exaltation. Ortho gave lip service. She gave
a tear or two. And she's left grace and she
left the Lord's grace and the Lord's provision and Him visiting
with His people and His doing and His will for something else.
It don't matter what something else is. Ruth, the friend, claimed
to grace and wouldn't let go. Just like Jacob did. I ain't letting go until you
bless me. I have to. I have to. It's not a choice,
it's a necessity. Luke 18, even that bad judge,
he gave in to that pleading widow. She wouldn't leave him alone.
And our Lord said, that unjust judge did that. Shall not God
avenge his own elect? We plead to him. He said, I'm
going to do everything, and you're going to inquire of me for it.
I'm going to do it, and you're going to ask me to do it. There's a certain blind man later
there in Luke 18. He kept crying out to our son of David, and
they rebuked him to hold his peace, and he just cried so much
more. It's necessary, a need. Verse 15, and then she said,
Naomi, said, Behold, thy sister Orpah, her sister-in-law, you've
gone back to her people, and unto her gods return thou after
thy sister-in-law. We are saved against our will
with our full consent. I've heard that my whole life.
We're made willing, ain't we? David wrote that, he said, Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. When a true
sinner is joined to Christ by the grace of God, there's unity.
It's the same, go wherever you want to work. I don't care. You
go to Malawi, brother Willie out there, you go down to South
Africa, you go to Australia, they don't make a difference.
Philippines, wherever that gospel is, it's the same and there's
unity. And it's nice when you don't have anything going. I
don't have your culture. I don't like your sports. I don't
like anything. Well, what have we got left to
talk about? The gospel. That's a good thing. That's a good thing. Verse 16. And Ruth said, And
treat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after
thee. For whether thou goest, I'll go. Whether thou lodgest,
I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God. And where there diest, will I
die, and there will I be buried. And the Lord do so to me and
more also if I ought to be put but death part thee and me. And
when she had saw that she had steadfastly minded to go with
her, then she left speaking unto her. I remember my pastor, when
I was young, said, the message of these four chapters is not
devoted to some pagan girl who's stuck by her mother-in-law's
side. That's not the theme, is it? No. Many people walk away
from this And they say, boy, they have high thoughts of Ruth,
don't they? To truly understand it, to understand the text, we
must have high thoughts of Christ in it. Naomi didn't try to run
her off. That's been established. She
ain't going to leave, is she? Now it's time to get to walking.
Grace is going to go for a walk with her. Boy, I thought about
that a lot. That's a hard thing to do. There
had to be a first step made towards Bethlehem. And they walked a
long way, and there was weathers, and there was hills, and there
was valleys, and they had to walk quite a bit before they
even got out of Moab. That's a journey. What a thought. Grace of God
begins to go with us. Walks with us, loves us, makes
us willing. And His Word says, I will walk
in them. I will walk in them. Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me. Most virgins said that's the
Lord's watchdog. Goodness goes ahead, mercy goes behind to cover
the sin. Well here, grace is right next
to you. Walking with you the whole way. Verse 22. And so when
Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law
with her, which returned out of the country of Moab, and they
came unto Bethlehem in the beginning of the barley harvest. In the
beginning. Not at the end. They was hoping
for some grains. And barley was the cheap stuff.
That was either for horse fodder, and later on down the road they
turned it into beer. But that was for poor people,
just castaways. And they was hoping to just get
a couple of morsels. Well, it's just started. Everything's ripe. And they just started pulling
it in, ain't they? Today's the first day of the barley harvest.
His mercies are new every morning. Every morning. We read there
in Lamentations 3, it's of the Lord's mercies that were not
consumed because, it's the root of grace, because His compassions
fail not. It's a cause of love. They're
new every morning. Which one? His mercies or His
compassions? Yes. Yes, they're new every morning. That harvest has just started.
Tomorrow morning, the day after, if He's pleased. Great is Thy
faithfulness. All this redemption, all this
life, all this mercy, it's all centered, all this grace is centered
on one man, Boaz. Boaz. Chapter 2, verse 1. The
law said, you remember that, I know your pastor talks to that,
for a kinsman redeemer, there's three things required. You had
to be related, you had to be able to redeem, and you had to
be willing. That's the three requirements.
Ruth 2, verse 1. And Naomi had a kinsman of her
husband's, a mighty man of wealth, mighty, of a family, of a limeleck,
and his name was Boaz. His name's something you ain't
never heard about. Boy, this is new. Grace tells us that.
Oh, he's wealthy. He's kin to us. And you about
to find out the motivation, if he's willing. It's out of love.
It's out of love. If I was back home, I'd say,
well, no, we're going to look at chapter 2 next week. That's
a good way to end, isn't it? I told Cody at this point. I
said, if you get a good start, so we'll look at the rest of
this this evening. But I want to go through here, and I want
to look at the work of grace, what grace does. It's on the
sign out front. We talk about it a lot. It does
something. If the Lord has something, it
does something. If he has a servant, they ain't sitting idly at home
playing video games. They're going to serve. If He
has a trophy of grace, it's going to set up on the counter. And
it's going to say, He's gracious. We're going to do something.
The third yoke, you ever seen some cattle yoked and they're
not pulling something? We're going to do something. Grace
does something. And it's precious what it does. Grace tells you
that you've been unknowingly gleaning in this Redeemer's field
the whole time. You've been walking this earth,
breathing His air and His lungs, and everything's His. It is. Look here at Ruth 2, verse 3.
Ruth chapter 2, verse 3. And she went and came and gleaned
in the field after the reapers. Ruth did. And her hap, her happenstance. Our Lord's a masterful author,
a storyteller. He speaks languages we understand.
Has she just so happened to lot on part of a field belonging
unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech." Ruth may have
thought it was hap. That's where we get the word
happenstance. Do you know the word happy comes from happenstance? People want to be happy all the
time. You ain't supposed to be happy. The word don't even mean that. It's just
there for now and then. But Boaz set his affection on Ruth before
she ever saw his face. She wouldn't even consider looking
at him. That's all in the field. She's there just to get some
food. She's a beggar. She's out gleaning the field.
And he asked, he said, who's that gleaning down there? And
they told him, he said, you give her a little bit extra. You drop
her a handful of purpose. Purpose, not a handful of accident,
a handful of purpose. And he said, those parts, they
didn't even brought the sheaves in yet. It ain't even cut. If she walks
over at 8, you let her eat anything she wants. Wherever she wants,
you let her take it. You leave her alone. He set his affection
on her. Verse 8, Ruth 2.8, Then Boaz
said unto Ruth, Here is thou not, my daughter? Go not to blean
in another field. Neither go from hence, but abide
here fast by my maidens. Don't you go anywhere else. You
stay right here. Let thine eyes be on the field that they do
reap. And thou go after them. Have I not charged the young
men that they shall not touch thee? And when thou art athirst,
go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have
drawn. I'm going to provide somebody
to draw water for you. You know what that means? Larry, I thought
of Moses. Moses got mad. He said, Do I
have to come to this rock and fetch your water? Yeah, that's
my job. That's our job, isn't it? We'll
just get you water. It ain't my water. I didn't make
the water. And he says, I provided men to give you all the water
you want. I've gave you meal on purpose. Verse 10. And she
fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground and said unto him,
have you said this? Is this the same? Why have I
found grace in my life? Why me? The whole world's saying,
why me? God's people say, why me? Why
me? That thou shouldest take knowledge
of me, seeing I'm a stranger? I ain't from your country. I
ain't like you, and I ain't worthy to be in your presence. Why me?
I'll tell you why. Grace confirms the Lord's grace
to us. It takes grace to tell us that
grace is for us. Look down at verse 20. Ruth 2,
20. And Naomi, grace. Said unto her
daughter-in-law, Ruth, his friend, his associate, added, 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. And Naomi
said unto her, The man is near of kin to us, one of our next
kinsmen. It's your redeemer that's done
that. Why me? Because he wanted to. He's related
to you. He's able and he's willing. Because
he loved us first. There's grace before grace. You
can get fancy theological names like provenient grace, right?
There's grace before grace, there's grace during grace while he's
giving us grace, and there's grace for the grace that hasn't
graciously come to pass you. God, what you want, that's what
it is. Grace guides us, it confirms the Lord's grace to us, and grace
guides us to be with those that's experienced the same grace. It's
the Lord's mercies He tells us those things. Look at verse 22.
And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter-in-law, It's good, my
daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, and that they meet
thee not in any other field. It's good to be in the Lord's
house in unity. It's good to be with His people.
That's good. It ain't bad advice for me to
ever tell anybody to do whatever you can to be where the Lord's
exalted. and where His people are and do whatever it takes.
That's good advice. God said so. It's right. And I ain't got to whip nobody.
You want to be there. That's a whole mess. You all come from
a long way away. You want to be there. Grace guides us to
be with those who have experienced that same grace. And grace seeks
to give us rest. A word of that specifically.
The intention of grace grace the Lord's grace comes to us
and gives us rest look here in chapter 3 verse 1 Ruth 3 verse
1 then Naomi her mother-in-law said unto her my daughter Shall
not I seek rest for thee? What's that come on to me all
you labor and heavy laden I'll give you rest what's grace do
look to him who's your rest Look to him Shall I seek rest for thee that
it may be well with thee? I'm looking for your goodness.
Looking out for you. How's grace going to give us
rest? Well, grace won't. But it'll direct us to Christ
our peace. It'll direct us to Christ our
rest, our finished work. That's what it does. The Lord's
purposed all of a sudden. Ruth 3 verse 2. And now is not
Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he
went with barley to-night in the threshing-floor. He's going
to show you where rest is. This is a good place. Wash thyself
therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and
get thee down. We've read that a lot of places.
Get you down to the floor. But make not thyself known to
the man, until 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.
You go down. You go all the way down to the Redeemer's feet.
That's grace talking. Grace is saying that. Boaz came
in from supper, and he went in, he lay down, and he was startled
a little bit, but Ruth's only response was to beg for mercy.
She didn't have a good plan. She didn't have a business model
she was going to give him. A prenuptial agreement. She just
begged for mercy. Look at verse 9. And he said,
Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth,
thine handmaid. Ruth 3.9. He said, Who art thou? She answered, I am Ruth, thine
handmaid. Spread therefore thy skirt over thy handmaid. You cover me. I don't want my
own covering. You cover me. I need your covering.
Spread therefore thy skirt over thy handmaid, for thou art a
near kinsman. There's no earthly picture that'll
perfectly portray the holy God, who he is and what he's done.
We're on this earth, but we're given tokens. He brags on Ruth
a little bit. But we're given these tokens.
That's what the whole Passover. They're celebrating this stuff,
the Jews' Passover now. But all that was given, the Lord
said, I give this feast for a token. It's just a picture. That way,
when your children say, Daddy, why are we doing this? You say,
well, son, the Lord gave his son for us to live as bloodshed.
Just so you have that to tell them. Circumcision, that's just
a token. This really happened, but this is a token for us to
see Christ in it. Well, there was another kinsman
at first that had claim on Ruth. Somebody else had hold on her
first. In Ruth 3, verse 12. Ruth 3,
12. It says, And now it is true that
I am thy near kinsman, howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than
I. Tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he
will perform unto thee the part of the kinsman well. Let him
do the kinsman's part. But if he will not do the part
of the kinsman to thee, if he can't do it, won't do it, ain't
able, isn't willing, then will I do the part of the kinsman
to thee as the Lord liveth. Lie down until the morning. That's
the law. That's the other thing that's
got a hold on us. If we're going to be redeemed, if we're going
to be justified, if we're going to be sanctified, if we're going
to be glorified, the law must be dealt with first. And we ain't
the ones going to deal with it. And we ain't going to deal with
it with somebody else. He's got to do it. Our Redeemer has to
do it. How's that going to happen? That's a good question. 4,500 years ago, I was asking
Joe, the oldest book there is. How can a man be just with God?
We've offended him. We broke his law. We can't make
up for it. We can't keep it in the future.
How? How? How can a man be just? How can
a man born of woman be made clean? We've offended Him. His law. Grace comes to us when that happens. I'm a sinner. Oh, God's holy. I'm in trouble. It takes God's
grace to come to us and says, be still. Just sit down. Oh, Maurice, you should go eat
a ham sandwich. Get in a shade tree. You'll be all right. Just
calm down. Lord's doing this. Redeemer does it. Wait on the
Lord, He'll deliver you. Ruth told Naomi all the things
that this man had done for her and everything he said, and down
in verse 18, Ruth 3, verse 18. Then said she, Naomi speaking,
here's what Grace says. Set still, my daughter, my added
associate, until thou know how the matter will fall. For the
man will not rest until he had finished the thing this day. You're going
to see the finished work today. You tore all the pieces? Sit
down. You're going to see your Redeemer's finished work today.
You're in a trial? That's the purpose of the trial.
We're going to learn something about who He is and what He's
done. Now, sit down. It takes the Almighty God of
heaven and earth to be gracious to us for us to do that. For
Him to tell you that's a mighty work of grace. Christ had to
give His life for us to receive that grace. That's something. I thought of a song whenever
I read that. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall never slumber nor sleep. The Lord's thy keeper. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day. You ain't gonna get a sunburn. Nor the moon by night. You ain't
gonna get a moonburn. You ain't gonna be up all night
long tossing and turning. The Lord shall preserve thee
from evil. He shall preserve thy soul. This ain't just a lady
getting married a long time ago. She didn't marry up. That's how
God saved sinners, isn't it? Chapter 4. Ruth chapter 4. Verse 1. Then when Boaz went
up to the gate, he sat down there, And behold, the kinsman of who
Boaz Spake came by, to whom he said, Ho, such a woman. Turn
aside, sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down.
That law came by. He said, Sit down. We're going
to talk. And he took ten men. Why do you reckon it wasn't nine? He took ten men of the elders
of the city and sat. Sit ye down here. And they sat
down. And he said unto the kinsmen, Naomi is come again out of the
country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which is our brother
Elimelech's. Remember Adam, our offspring?
This is his offspring. Verse four, And I thought to
advertise thee, saying, Buy it for the inhabitants and before
the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem
it. If thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me that I may know.
For there is none to redeem it besides Thee, and I am after
Thee. And he said, I'll redeem it.
I can bring them the house of bread. I can be the way. Verse 5, Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field
in the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess.
That sinner, that rebel, the wife of the dead. to raise up
the name of the dead upon his inheritance. And this ain't just
talking about a piece of land. You've got to give life. You
have to marry this woman of whoredoms and give life to her. That law says, wait a minute.
Wait a minute. I can't bring forth lawmakers. They broke the law. If they broke
the law, I can't bring them in. And there's no life I can give
them. If there's no life in, there's no life I can give. I
just declare what's right and I declare what's wrong. I can't
give no life. That's what Paul told us in Galatians
3. He said, if there had been a law given which would have
given life, verily righteous should have been by the law.
But the Scripture hath concluded, all under sin. You broke it.
The law can't bring you in. That tarnished the law. Admire
it. And I can't give life. You'd
be alive already. The Scripture says, "...conclude
it all and understand that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ..."
Not faith in, not faith of. His faith. His faithfulness.
"...by His faith might be given to them that believe." Verse 6, Ruth 4, 6. And the kinsman
said, "...I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar my own
inheritance." Redeem thou my right to thyself, I cannot redeem
it. Boaz, that name that's never been, there ain't a name like
it. This is the name above every name. He said, I'll redeem it. I'll redeem it. You're going
to be marred. It'll mar you and you can't handle that. He said,
so I'll be marred for them. I thought a lot about that. Donnie,
you've seen some stuff. I've seen some people, he said
his vision was more than anybody. His face was, I've seen some
people in bad shape. And I thought, so he said so,
how could that be? I'll tell you how it was. He
looked like Kevin Thacker in the sight of God. It was horrible. It was as bad
as it can get. He bore me on that tree. And
he said, I'll be marred for him. Give him to me. There was a transaction at this
gate with the ten elders, and work was completed, and shoes
were taken off, and Darwin's going to tell you all about that.
I don't have to. But verse 9, Ruth 4, verse 9,
And Boaz said unto the elders and to all the people, You are
witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Alimelech's,
and all that was Chilion's and Melon's of the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess,
that pagan rebel girl, The wife of Mahlon, the wife of sin sickness. I purchased to be my wife. The Father purposed it. The Son
purchased it. And the Holy Spirit comes and tells you about it.
Proclaims it. I purchased to be my wife. To raise up the name
of the dead upon the brethren. And from the gate of His place,
you are witnesses this day. And all the people that were
in the gate. You want to take great pictures? That's the cross
of Christ. That's where this took place.
All the people gathered at the cross, and all the elders, people
that's been around this for a while, new and old, and they said, we're
witnesses. You did all the work. You did
what nobody else could do. The name that nobody's ever heard.
Boy, this is something. This is something. We're witnesses.
Well, the Lord gave Boaz and Ruth a son. And Naomi, Grace,
rejoiced and nourished it. What about that next generation?
Here comes grace to rejoice in it, what the Lord's done. Nourish
it. Nourish it. It says in verse 16, And Naomi
took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto
it. Just nursed it. Sincere milk. That's what was given to it.
That boy's name was Obed. Obed was his name. Look down
at verse 21. And Simon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed. And Obed beget Jesse, and Jesse
beget David. Out of David came our Redeemer. Isn't it? This ain't a good story
about marrying up and shoe-throwing and everything else. This is
what the Lord does through His grace to His people. And it's
the same. Is it any different with you? I love how it does that in chapter
1. I've been doing it too long. We is out in the desert getting
on a different. And we is about to starve to death. And then
grace comes along and talks to us and comforts us and brings
us to Boaz. And then little by little we
see everything. We've been in his field this
whole time. He's done everything. Now we're just a witness. And
then you're going to go tell somebody else and you're going
to have an oil bed and you're going to nourish it and the church is going to
be used to it. I hope there's enough to be with
you. Thank you for that. Thank you.