Good morning, everybody. You
want to turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. Once you get there, if you look
down at verse 36, that's where our text is going to come from.
We'll read it. Luke chapter 2 and look at verse
36. And there was one Anna, a prophetess,
the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was of a
great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her
virginity. And she was a widow of about
four score and four years. That's 84 years she'd been a
widow. Which departed not from the temple, but served God with
fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in that instant
gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all
them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. I want to give
you the back story that leads up to this woman Anna here. I
have to read through the second chapter of Luke. It begins with
Luke's account of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a
beautiful story. And it specifically says that after Christ was born,
he was circumcised on the eighth day according to law. And his
mother Mary went through the process of purification after
she had a child, once again according to the law. And then his parents,
Mary and Joseph, they brought him down to the temple. Every
male that was born in Israel, a sacrifice was to be offered
when they were born. And his parents brought him down
to that temple according to the law. The scripture is very clear
about that. All this was done according to
law because this man, this God-man, Jesus Christ, you know who he
was? He was a law-keeper. From his very birth, from the
moment he was born, he kept God's holy law and he kept it perfectly.
He kept it ceremonially. He kept it outwardly. In his
speech and in his actions, his works, they were always beautiful,
they were always perfect, they were always good works before
God. His speech was always right,
it was always timely, it was never anything that was lying,
anything that was in error, it was always perfect. He kept it
ceremonially, he kept it outwardly, and he kept it inwardly. in the
deepest crevices of the thoughts of his heart, they were all perfect
before God. This was and is a truly righteous
man, the only one to ever live. Now, like I said, according to
the law, Mary and Joseph brought him down to that temple for that
sacrifice. And when they entered the temple,
two people laid eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ as an infant, two,
inside the temple. And both of them immediately
recognized who he was. The first one was a man named
Simeon. And Simeon had been waiting a very long time for this, because
the Lord had spoken to Simeon prior to this personally. He
told him, you will not die until you've laid eyes on the Christ,
on the Messiah. And Mary and Joseph walk in,
carrying Christ, and Simeon takes him up in his arms, and here's
what he says. Look down at verse 29. He says, Lord, now lettest
thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine
eyes have seen thy salvation. And there's so much spiritual
significance to that statement. If the Lord ever reveals Himself
to me or you, if we ever see Him with those spiritual eyes,
we're going to see the exact same thing Simeon saw. You know
what he saw in the face of Christ? He says, I've seen my salvation.
And that's who you're going to see and that's what you're going
to see if the Lord ever gives you eyes to see Christ. Your full, free,
frank salvation found in this man, Jesus Christ. And you're
going to have the same thing that Simeon had. You know what
he had? He had peace. He said, Lord, let now thy servant
depart in peace. I have peace. If you ever see
that all your salvation is found in this man, Jesus Christ, you'll
have peace. What does that look like? It's
peace in knowing that if God is at peace with his son, Christ,
which he is, and if he is my salvation, which if you are a
sinner, he is, that means he's at peace with me too. Because
he's made my peace with God. There's no peace to be made.
There's no warfare left. There's no reason for God's anger.
It's all gone and now there's just perfect peace in this man,
Jesus Christ. The second person who laid eyes
on him in that temple was Anna. And when Anna sees him, she does
a few things. Look at verse 38 again. And she coming in that
instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord. Now if the Lord
ever gives you eyes to see Christ, you can see your salvation. You're
going to have peace. And you're going to give thanks,
just like Anna did here. This thing of being thankful,
we just celebrated Thanksgiving, didn't we? We observed that holiday.
And I assume that the original purpose of that holiday was to
consider all the blessings we have and to give thanks to the
Lord for it. That's not what it means nowadays. We all get
together and just eat turkey and things like that. But, truly,
every believer, everyone who the Lord has redeemed, they're
a thankful individual. They give thanks to God. But
what does that look like? What does that look like? I think
that most of the time, for us, for the believer, that thanksgiving
comes in the form of a question. And the question is this. Why
me? Why would you have mercy on somebody
like me? Why would you show grace, this
unmerited kindness to somebody like me? Why would you sacrifice
your own son for somebody like me? Why me? You know, Mephibosheth
had that exact same question. You remember 2 Samuel 9, David
and Mephibosheth? David's the most powerful king
in the whole land. And he said, I made a covenant
with Saul's son, Jonathan. Does he have any children? Because
I'm going to be merciful to him. I'm going to be kind for Jonathan's
sake. He says, there's one, there's Mephibosheth. He's lame on both
his feet. He can't do anything for you, and he can't do anything
for himself. David said, you go fetch him.
And they bring Mephibosheth before David. And Mephibosheth thinks,
he goes, I'm going to die, right? I'm the heir to the king's rival,
to his enemy, right? I'm a goner. And if it had been
any other king, he would have been. He would have been slaughtered
right there. But David brings him in, in the middle of the
court, and he says, here's what I'm going to do. Everything you lost? I'm now restoring it to you.
You're going to be a wealthy man. This house, it's your house now. You
live with me. My table over there, that's what
you're going to eat every single day. And my table is going to
cover your lame feet. And I'm adopting you. I'm taking
you on. You're now my son. And this is
how Mephibosheth answered. This is what he said. And he
bowed himself. and said, what is thy servant
that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? That's what true Thanksgiving
looks like. That's what thankfulness looks like. Why me? After that, she gives thanks.
She has something to say. Look at verse 38 again. And she
coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake
of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Now, she had a particular topic.
She spake of Him. She spake of Christ. I thought,
this is probably one of the best statements I've heard about preaching.
She said, wherever you're preaching from, no matter what chapter,
what verse, what book, what story, you better be able to entitle
that message, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If not, we need
to burn that message and start all over again. The situation
is too dire. We're sinners. We're going to
die very, very soon, and we're going to stand before a holy
and just God who demands perfection. The situation is too dire, and
time is too short. There is nothing else worth talking
about. It is Christ and Him crucified. That is always the message. And
if it's not, that's not a message from God. She had a particular
message, and she had a particular audience. Did you catch it? She
spoke to all them that looked for redemption. Now the gospel
has a particular audience. Christ is for a particular people.
He died to save a particular people. This is not universal,
it's particular. And that audience is this, all
them that looked for redemption. I think we need to take a few
minutes right now and find out whether I'm part of that audience
and whether you're part of that audience. Because if you're not,
you might as well leave and I might as well leave because this isn't
for you and it's not for me. But if you are, there's some
things we need to learn here. All them that looked for redemption.
What does that word redemption mean? It means this. It means
the release of something because the debt has been paid. Something
has been bound up. something is in captivity, some
item, someone, it is bound up and it will not be released because
there is a debt that must be paid. And the only way that thing,
that person, will be released is if that debt is paid in full. That's what it means to be redeemed.
And this is a term that has been misused and misrepresented from
society from the beginning of time. Now I'll give you an example
of that. If you read books or you watch
movies, you've probably read or watched a redemption story.
And here's how it normally goes. It starts with the main character,
and for lack of a better term, he's kind of a scumbag, right?
He's morally bankrupt. Perhaps he's engaged in some
big action that was dishonorable. And the point is that no one
really has any respect for him. He's not a good guy. And then
towards the end of the story, normally sometime near the time
of his death, He engages in some honorable selfless action and
the moral of the story is he redeemed himself. And you can
too, right? No matter how bad off you are,
no matter what you've done, anytime you want, you can turn things
around. You can be a good person, right? You can make it back up
and you'll be fine. You can work your way out of
this mess. You can redeem yourself. Before God, nothing could be
further from the truth. I want to be very clear about this.
I want to make this very strong statement here. There is absolutely nothing,
nothing you and I can do to redeem ourself back to God. There is
absolutely nothing He will accept from us. Now this is a strong
statement and I want to back that up with a scripture. Turn
over to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter 1, look at verse 18. I want to remind you, the concept
we're talking about is the concept of redemption, being brought back. 1 Peter 1, look at chapter
or verse 18. For as much as you know that
you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers. Now that word conversation, that
means conduct. Your conduct and your traditions received from
your fathers. What is this conversation and
what are these traditions that we keep on passing down from
generation to generation, one father to the next? It's two-fold
really. And the first one is sinful,
wicked, evil nature. It began with Adam in the garden. The
Lord put Adam in the garden. He made him upright and he made
him innocent. Gave him one law, one rule. Donated the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. In the day you eat thereof, you
shall surely die. One man, upright and innocent. One command, he can't keep it.
He disobeyed God and here's what the scripture says about him.
He died. He died spiritually. He lost that innocent nature
he took on wicked and a sinful nature that could do absolutely
nothing but sin. That's it. And he's been passing
that down from generation to generation. That tradition, that
conversation is being passed down from him to his children,
to their children, to their children, all the way down. Our parents
pass it on to us, we pass it on to our kids. That sinful,
wicked, evil nature that ensures if it comes from us, it's sin. God can't accept it, not in any
way, shape, or form. That's the first tradition. That's
the first conversation. Here's the second one. It's salvation
by works. Read that again. Look at verse
18. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation. You know what that word vain
means? It means powerless. We keep on passing down this
powerless tradition, this powerless conversation from generation
to generation, and the tradition, the conversation is this. There
is something you can do to make it right with God. Anytime you
want, you can turn this around. You at least have the capability
of being good. There's something you can add.
There's something you can do. It's the greatest lie that's
ever been told, and we keep on passing this vain conversation,
this powerless conversation down. from generation to generation,
every time, still telling the greatest lie ever told. So what
then? If you and I cannot do anything
to redeem ourselves back to God, is there any hope for us? How
can a man be redeemed? Look at verse 19. But with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, Now
if you want to know how a man can be redeemed, it's it right
there. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
shed his blood for a particular man. He had to take on the sins
of that particular man. He had to suffer the wrath of
God for that particular man, and he had to die for that particular
man, for that man to be redeemed, to be ransomed back to God. Listen
to this. This is Galatians 3.13. It says,
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. That's the only way a man can
be redeemed if Christ bore my curse in his body and he suffered
the wrath of God for it and he died putting that curse away
to where it is no more. That's the only way. It's the
only thing that has any efficacy with God. That's it. Now, a question
for you. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
him being made the curse for us, was this God's plan B? Was it, well, man fell. I didn't
see that coming. And in response to man's fall,
which is, well, just something I couldn't plan for, I created
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Was it God's plan B? Was he reacting
to the fall of man? Look down at verse 20. Who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you. No folks, the fall was not an
unforeseen event that God just didn't see coming. It was purpose,
just like every other thing that happens around here. Everything's
just according to the good purpose and will of God. The fall was
for the cross. You see, that said he was foreordained
before the foundation of the world. The cross has always been
the eternal purpose of God himself. And the purpose is this, to glorify
himself in the person of Jesus Christ through him single-handedly
all by himself saving a particular people. Everything is for the
cross. Everything. Everything you see
here, this whole universe, this complex world, this place exists
for one reason, so a Roman soldier could dig a hole in the ground
and drop a pole in it so that Christ would be crucified on
that pole. That's why all this exists. Everything is for this
purpose, the glorification of God in the person of Jesus Christ. With God, folks, there are no
unforeseen events. There's no missed shots. There's
no near misses. Everything happens according
to His purpose. Everything is working together
to glorify God and for the good of His people. Now, the original question. Am
I part of this group? Am I part of this audience? All
those looking for redemption. What does it mean to look for
redemption? It means you haven't found it in yourself. Now, if
you can look inside yourself and you can find a reason that
God would be merciful to you, or you can find something that he'd
be pleased with, whatever it may be, I've made an appropriate
decision. He's pleased with that. You can
find that in yourself. You've found your Redeemer. It's
you. I'm better than, you know, 70% of everybody out there. I'm
at least in the top 30% of society. I'm not perfect, but who is,
right? A whole lot of people that are worse off than I am.
You found your Redeemer inside yourself. Whatever it may be,
I go to church on Sunday, I read my Bible twice a week, all that
stuff, you found your redeemer, he's inside yourself. And that
means you're a debtor to the whole law, every jock and every
tittle, and you will fail. But those who are looking for
redemption, that means they can't find it in themselves. They need
a redeemer. They've got a lien against them,
a sin debt they can't pay off. and to be released, they need
a Redeemer that's gonna pay the full price and buy them back
to God. Here's what it looks like, look
at verse 21. Who by Him do believe in God that raised Him up from
the dead and gave Him glory that your faith and hope might be
in God. The people of this audience,
they're looking for redemption. and they can't find it in themselves.
They need a Redeemer, and they find it in one place. They find
it in God. Their faith and their hope is
all in God. And you find that interesting
that the word God is used there. And you could use that interchangeably
with Christ, but it's speaking in two ways. Our faith, our faith
and our hope, we have the same faith and hope in God the Son
that God the Father had in Him. What was the faith and hope that
God the Father had in the Son? In the covenant of grace before
the foundation of the world, God the Father gave his people,
his chosen, he gave them to the Son. And he said this, he said,
I am holding you 100% responsible for them. Everything that is
necessary for me to accept them, it's gonna have to come from
you. You're gonna have to do everything. I'm not gonna look
to them for anything. And he gave us to Christ, and
he said, hands off. And he trusted his Son with that
which was most precious to him, his people. And he trusted him
to do everything that was necessary to ransom us, to redeem us, and
to bring him back to God without a scratch on us. Perfectly acceptable.
And you know what? That same faith that the father
had in the son, I got that same faith in the son. Every believer,
everyone who's looking for redemption, they have that exact same faith
in the Son. I'm trusting that He has done
everything that is necessary to make me acceptable with God. And that word salvation, that's
a big word. There's a whole lot of stuff involved there. There's
a righteousness that had to be worked out. There was sin that
had to be put away. There were transactions that
had to be made with God we know nothing of. Here's the point,
I'm trusting whatever transaction needed to happen, whatever needed
to be done, He said, it is finished. That means they're finished transactions.
The debts have been paid, I owe absolutely nothing, and it's
all because of Him. That same faith and hope that the Father
had in the Son, we've got that exact same faith and hope in
Him as well. Just the same. The same faith and hope that
the son had in the father, we have that exact same faith and
hope as well. What faith and hope did the son have in the
father? In that same covenant, when the father gave the elect
to Christ, the father said, you're going to have to die. That's
the only way they can be redeemed. I'm going to have to punish you.
All my wrath is going to come down upon you for their sin.
And you're going to have to die. You're going to go to that grave
for only three days. And after three days, I'm going to raise
you from the dead. And this was the last words of
Christ from the cross. He said, Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. And right then, he had no positive
communication from his father. He felt no love. He could not
detect a positive presence in any way. All he had was the wrath
of God. He had an enemy pouring his wrath
down upon him. That's all he had. And the promise
of God was this. You die for them. You put away
every one of their sins. I'll raise you from the dead.
And in the midst of all that agony, in the midst of all that
wrath, having nothing but the promise of God, he never stopped
believing. He trusted his father to the
very end. And after three days, what happened?
The father was good to his word, and he raised him from the dead.
And why did he do that? Because Christ held up his end of the
bargain. He put away all the sins of everybody he died for,
which means it would have been an injustice to keep him dead,
to keep him in that grave. God is just and justice would
not allow him to be dead any longer. He had to be raised from
the dead because there was no more reason for his death. And
we have the exact same hope and faith in the Father. I have this
hope that because of what Christ has done, one of these days,
probably real soon, I'm going to close my eyes in death. I'm
going to wake up just a short time after that and I'm going
to be incorruptible. A sinless body. being perfectly
conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, resurrected with and
in Him, having eternal glory with the presence of God. I'm
trusting him to do that for Christ's sake. And when I wake up, he's
going to say, well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter
into the joy of your Lord. And he's going to say that because
my goodness and my faithfulness and my good servitude, it's all
Christ's. He's going to be looking at Christ
when he says that. Now I want to use the remainder
of our time to give you an illustration of redemption. I want you to
turn over to the book of Ruth. Leviticus 25 gives us laws concerning
the concept of redeeming in Israel. And here's how it worked. Let's
say that you had many debts. And to pay your debts, you had
to sell off your possessions, right? If you were poor, you
had lost everything, and you were destitute. Someone could
come back and they could buy up everything they lost and they
could restore you, everything you had before. It's called a
kinsman redeemer. But there were things that had
to happen here. There were specific elements that had to be met along
the way. Number one, that redeemer, he had to be of near kin. He
had to be bone of your bone and he had to be flesh of your flesh.
If he had the right to redeem, he had to be your near kin. The
second one was this. He had to have the wealth to
redeem. He had to have the ability to get all your stuff back, to
get all your possessions back. He had to make it right with
everybody else. He had to pay them off to get all your stuff
back. He had to have the wealth. He had to have the ability to
redeem. And the third thing he had to
have was this. He had to have the willingness
to redeem. Because if you were destitute and you had to sell
off all your stuff, that was your problem. You got yourself
in that mess. He was under absolutely no obligation to buy you out
of your problem. But if he was willing, he could
do it. Neerakim, able, willing. Those are the three things. Now,
in the book of Ruth here, We have what I think is the most
beautiful story of redemption anywhere in the scripture. Obviously,
it's four chapters. We're not going to look at the
whole thing. I just want to pick out a few high points along the way and
share it with you. But I do want to tell the story
along the way. I think most of you are familiar with it, but
it begins with a man named Elimelech. Elimelech's a very wealthy man.
He lives in Israel and he has a wife named Naomi. He's got
two sons, Malon and Chilion, and they both have wives. There's
Ruth, the namesake of the book, and then there's Orpah. And there's
a famine in Israel, and so they go on down to Moab. Just a short
time after that, Elimelech, he dies. And both his sons, they
died too. And so now you've got the three
girls. You've got Naomi and Orpah and Ruth. And being a widow back
in those days, it was bad news because that meant you had no
support. No one to support you. And they became destitute. They
became poor. They went from being very wealthy,
very powerful, very young, and now they've gone to this great
destitute state. And so Naomi goes to the girls
and she says, I've got nothing else for you. I don't have any
other sons. I have no wealth. I have nothing for you. You need
to go home. You need to go back to your families, go back to
where you came from, go back to your gods. And Orpah says,
OK. And she goes on back. But Ruth won't go. She won't
go. And I want you to hear what she
has to say. Look at Ruth 1, verse 16. This is Ruth speaking to Naomi.
And Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from
following after thee. For whither thou goest I will
go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my
people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die,
and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more
also, if aught but death part thee and me. Now, this is the
hope and the desire of everyone who Christ has redeemed. It's
union with Christ. You notice how closely what she
says there to Naomi, how closely it resembles what we confess
in Believer's Baptism. When he lived, I lived. That's
my hope. That when he lived that perfect
life, that righteousness that began at his very birth, we saw
that. That perfect, righteous life. Really, I lived it too.
I lived it in him, and that is my righteousness before God.
Where he died, that's my hope. That's where I died too. He died
burying me in his body. He died burying my curse in his
body. And when he died, I died in him. That's when I was punished.
When he was raised from the dead, I was raised in him. True union
with Christ, that's the great desire of everyone who Christ
has redeemed. Is that your hope? Is that what you want? You've
been redeemed. Now, look down here. Naomi and Ruth go back to Israel,
and people recognize her. Remember, she was a big deal
in Israel, right? Elimelech was a very powerful
man, a very rich man. They start to say some things.
They say, is this Naomi? She used to be so beautiful.
She used to be so young. She used to be so powerful. Everything's
different now. And some of these people ask her what happened.
Look at verse 20. And she said unto them, call me not Naomi.
Call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with
me. I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again
empty. Why then call ye me Naomi, seeing
the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted
me? And what she just said there,
everyone who has been redeemed by Christ, that's a confession
concerning himself. I'm empty. I went out full. I
used to think I had a whole lot. I used to think I thought I had
power with God. I thought I had something that
he would be pleased with, but I don't have that anymore. I
found out I'm empty. I've got absolutely nothing before God.
I'm an empty-handed sinner, a mercy beggar, nothing more. I'm bitter,
full of bitter sin, and nothing more. Now, Chapter 2. Ruth and Naomi are in Israel.
They live there. And there's a law in Israel. Here's how it
goes. If you were poor, you could go
out to the fields of the rich and you can glean in those fields.
And if you were a rich man, you had fields, you grew crops. When
you sent your reapers out there to gather the harvest, they'd
pile it up into sheaths and they'd carry it away. As they were carrying
the crops away, when the reapers would drop some on the ground
and fall off the piles, they were not to pick it up. It was
to stay there on the ground, and that was left there for the
poor, so the poor could come and glean in the field. They'd
have something to eat. It was a welfare program in Israel. And it just
so happens, Ruth goes out, and she's going to glean the field,
and she ends up in the field of a man named Boaz. And she
doesn't know it, but Boaz is near Kennefer. She's a woman
like a brother, as a matter of fact. He's near Ken, and he's
a very, very wealthy man. She doesn't know this. She doesn't
know she's in his field. And so as she's gleaning in the
field, Boaz comes out. And he lays eyes on her. And
he's immediately filled with compassion and kindness towards
this woman. He sees her gleaning in the field.
And he grabs a serpent. He says, who is that? He says,
well, that's Naomi's daughter-in-law. Her name's Ruth, the male body.
He says, I've heard of her. And immediately, he has this
compassion. Ruth hasn't seen him. Ruth doesn't know she's
in his field. She has absolutely no idea who
he is. But he's laid eyes on her. And
he's going to be compassionate to her. Look what he says. Look
at chapter 2, verse 15. This is Boaz talking to a servant. And when she was risen up to
glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, let her glean even
among the sheaves, and reproach her not. But let follow also
some of the handfuls of purpose for her. and leave them, that
she may glean them, and rebuke her not." He says, you make sure
that when you're carrying those sheaths around, you make sure
you drop some on the ground just for her. You do it on purpose. You think about the love and
the care the Lord has done for his people. Before we ever knew
him, before we ever had any interest in him, before we were ever seeking
him, There he was, looking upon us with that eye of love, with
that eye of compassion, always dropping those handfuls of purpose
all along the way, leading us to Christ. Then Boaz gives Ruth
a command. It's a very gracious command.
Look at chapter 2, verse 8. Then said Boaz unto Ruth, hearest
thou not my daughter? Go not to glean in another field.
Neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens. Let
thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after
them. Have I not charged the young
man that they shall not touch thee? And when thou art thirst,
go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young man hath
drawn." He says, Ruth, this is my field, right? Everything here
I own. This is all mine. And everything
you need, you're going to find right here, Ruth. You need food?
You go glean it off the sheaves right there. You need water?
It's already drawn. You don't even have to draw it
from the well. It's there waiting on you right now. Go get a drink
of water. You need a place to lie down? The barn's right over
there. In this field, you're protected. I've already told
my young men, nobody's gonna touch you. Everything you need
is right here in my field, Ruth. Don't go to another field. And
this is the command of Christ, this beautiful command to every
sinner out there. And the command is this, don't
go to another field. Come to Christ. He will not turn
you away. Come just as you are. Come poor,
come needy, and you will find everything you need. Don't go
and do. Don't lean in another field and
bring it over here to show me what you've got. Absolutely not.
Don't go anywhere else. You come, and you lean from my
field, and you get everything you need. The gospel's for sinners.
It's my favorite part of it. Ruth gathers all this food. Boaz
gives her just this great wealth of food. And she brings it on
back to Naomi. And Naomi asks her where she
got it from. And Ruth says, well, I got it from this man named
Boaz. Mind you, she knows absolutely nothing about Boaz. Has no idea
who this guy is, but Naomi does. Naomi hears this name, Boaz,
and she knows that's a limolex brother. He's near of kin to
us. And she tells him, Ruth, he's
near kin. He's a kinsman redeemer. He has
the right to redeem us. And Ruth, you've already seen
it. You know he's got the ability. He's got the wealth. You've already
seen it. But here's the thing, Ruth. Is he willing? Is he willing
to redeem us? Because he doesn't have to. It's
not his responsibility to redeem us. It would just be grace. It
would just be mercy if he did. So here's what you do, Ruth.
He's going to go sleep on the threshing floor tonight, and
you go down to where he's sleeping, and you uncover his feet, and
you lie down, very important here, next to his feet. And Ruth,
you don't say a word. You say absolutely nothing, and
you let him speak. And we'll find out whether he'll
redeem us or not. So she does that. Look at chapter
3, verse 8. And it came to pass at midnight
that the man was afraid, and turned himself, and behold, a
woman lay at 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 hast
shown 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, listen to this, I will do to thee all
that thou requirest. He was near a kin. He had the
right to redeem. He checked the first box. He
had the wealth. He had the ability to redeem,
to buy back everything they had lost. He checked the second box,
but she was worried about this third one. Is he willing? Because
he doesn't have to. You ever get worried about the
third one? I do. Christ is near akin to me. He
was made man. Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. He has the
ability. I have no doubt about that. If
he wants to save me, he'll do it all by himself. He'll do it
to the tune of his own glory, and all he has to do is just
do it. That's it. Just will it. Nothing too hard for the Lord.
He's got the ability. But this last one, is he willing
to save somebody like me? This just answered it right there.
To every sinner that comes to Christ, comes with absolutely
nothing, just like Ruth, an empty-handed sinner, need everything done
for you. He comes, you come to him and
he will always answer this way. I will do to thee all that thou
requires. This is a Spurgeon quote. I keep
this on my phone because I like to look at it. It says this,
it's very simple. It said, no one in hell can say
I went to Christ and he turned me away. Absolutely nobody. If you're a sinner and need a
mercy, you come to Christ, you will hear this exact same thing
every single time. I will do to thee all thou requirest. Now, there's an issue though.
Look at verse 12 of chapter 3. Boaz speaking, he says, and now
it is true that I am thy near kinsman. How be it there is a
kinsman nearer than I, Terry, this night, and it shall be in
the morning, that if he will perform unto thee the part of
a kinsman, well, let him do the kinsman's part. But if he will
not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part
of a kinsman to thee. As the Lord liveth, lie down
until the morning. There's an issue. Somebody has
the greater claim to Naomi and Ruth than Boaz does. There's
a nearer kinsman. And he may want to take this
right to himself. So we're going to find out about this. Boaz
is going to figure it out. He says, if he'll do it, if he'll
play the part of the kinsman, well, let him do it. And if he
won't, Ruth, I'll do it. But let's find out about this.
Chapter 4, verse 1. Then went Boaz up to the gate
and sat him down there. And behold, the kinsman of whom
Boaz spake came by, unto whom he said, ho, such and one, turn
aside, sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down.
And he took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, sit ye
down here. And they sat down. Why ten witnesses? What do you think? Ten commandments. This Neer Kinsman that's being
talked about here, he's a type of the law. God's holy law. That's
what he's talking about here. Go on reading in verse three.
And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out
of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land which for our
brother Elimelech's. And I thought to advertise thee,
saying, buy it before the inhabitants and before the elders of my people.
If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it. But if thou wilt not redeem
it, then tell me that I may know. For there is none to redeem it
beside thee, and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it.
Then said Boaz, what day thou buyest the field of the hand
of Naomi, thou must buy also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife
of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.
And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I
mar my own inheritance. Redeem thou my right to thyself. Listen to these last words here.
This is the law speaking. For I cannot redeem it. Now, this near kinsman that's
being talked about here, it's the law. That's why it was 10
witnesses right there. And this is the statement of
the law. I cannot redeem it. Best commentary on this passage
of scripture is Romans 8, verses 3 and 4. I'm going to read it
to you. Says, for what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. Anything wrong with God's holy
law? Is it weak in any way? There is absolutely nothing wrong
with God's holy law. It's perfect. Where's the weakness?
It's in us. We can't keep it. The law demands
perfect satisfaction. The law demands it be kept every
jot and tittle every single time. and we cannot keep the law. That's
the weakness of the law. Don't try to come unto God based
on what you've done and what you haven't done, because the
law can't redeem you. He says so right there in the
story. I cannot redeem it. No man can come to God by way
of the law and find acceptance. Furthermore, folks, the law was
never given as a mechanism of salvation. The law does one thing
only. It declares my guilt. It beats
me up. So I've got nowhere to look but
Christ himself. That's it. That's the only purpose of the
law. But understand this. When Christ
redeemed his people, he didn't skirt the law. He didn't go around
the law. He didn't bypass the law. He fulfilled the law. And
the law demanded of you and me, of every believer, it demanded
fulfillment in two ways. Number one, we broke it. That
means we had to die. Christ fulfilled that punishment.
Bearing our sins in his body, he died under the wrath of God,
fulfilling the punishment the law demanded. It's fulfilled.
It's got nothing else to say to us. We've suffered. We've
died. It was appropriate. God has satisfied the end. Another
thing it needed. It needed to be kept. Not only
could I just be neutral, not only I just haven't broken God's
holy law, I had to have kept God's holy law. Christ did that
too. He kept God's holy law. So the law now, for everyone
Christ redeemed, it's fulfilled. It's not skirted. It's not passed
by. It's not pushed away somewhere.
The law is lifted up. It's honored in the salvation
of God's people because Christ kept it in both ways, through
suffering the punishment of it and also keeping it, every place,
every time, everywhere. Let's look at how the story ends.
Ruth 4, look at verse 13. So Boaz took Ruth, and she was
his wife. And when he went in unto her,
the Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son. And the women
said unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee
this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. You know, the title is This book
is Ruth. Ruth is not the main character,
nor is she the centerpiece of the story. This book would be
better entitled Boaz. That's who this is about, because
this is all about Christ. And he shall be unto thee a restorer
of thy life and a nourisher of thine old age, for thy daughter-in-law
which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, have
borne him. And not only did Boaz restore
Ruth and Naomi everything they'd lost, he bought back everything
they had and they were wealthy. They restored everything they
had. He took Ruth to be his wife and she had a son. You know what
the law cannot do? It cannot produce life. It never
can. The only thing that can produce
life is Christ. That new man in Christ Jesus.
But this is what we have. Everyone who's been redeemed
by Christ. Every sinner who's looking for redemption and you
can't find it in yourself and you find it only in God. This
is what we have. We have true sonship with God.
Because of what Christ has done for us, truly we are sons by
adoption and sons by birth. And this is the reality of the
situation. We are strangers and pilgrims
here. This place should feel somewhat uncomfortable to us
because this is not our home. But we're going home. And there,
we are joint heirs with Christ. Everything he has come to him
has come to us. In the person of Jesus Christ, we're going
home to be with our Father and to be with our Savior. And that
truly will be home. But we have true sonship with
God, joint heirs with Christ. I'm going to leave you there.