Come back to the book of Ruth,
Chapter 2. Ruth, Chapter 2. Verse 15. Ruth has come with her mother-in-law,
Naomi, back to Bethlehem, Judah, in the time of barley harvest.
And she's gone out into the fields to glean after that one who might
show her mercy, knowing that there's a kinsman redeemer who
has the right and the power to redeem her if he will. Ruth chapter
2, verse 15. And when she was risen up to
glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even
among the sheaves. Let her take anything she wants
and reproach her not. And let fall also some of the
handfuls of purpose for her and leave them that she may glean
them and rebuke her not. handfuls of purpose. That's my
subject this evening. In the Old Testament scripture,
under Mosaic law, God gave strict commandment forbidding men to
clean their fields thoroughly. They were required by law to
leave handfuls, not handfuls of purpose, but required by law
to leave gleanings in the fields. for the poor, the fatherless,
and the widow who might come along and gather those things
and be sustained by them." Here, Boaz commands his young men not
merely to allow Ruth to glean like other folks would glean,
but he commands them to put handfuls of purpose right in her path
specifically for her, and thus giving us a marvelous picture
of God's providence and God's grace. These things, like all
things recorded in the Old Testament scripture, were written for our
learning and our admonition that we, through patience and comfort
of the scriptures, might have hope. Obviously, in this passage
of scripture, Ruth represents God's elect. All who are saved
have been saved and shall be saved by God's grace. Boaz represents
our Lord Jesus Christ, our kinsman redeemer. He is the owner of all things. All the fields of this world
belong to him. He's master of everything. He's
king over all. He possesses all things and rules
all things, the master of the universe. That means that all
things in God's creation completely, always obey him. Every creature, every man, every
angel, every righteous man, every wicked man, every demon of hell,
Every event in history, everything in heaven, everything in earth,
everything in hell, everything, always completely obeys him. Some, like the demons of hell,
obey him against their will. Some, like Satan himself, obey
him against his will. sometimes knowingly, sometimes
unwittingly, but they all obey him absolutely. Others, his own,
obey him willingly. All things obey his will, obey
his command, and do his bidding. He's the master, and he rules
those things for the good of his people. for the everlasting
salvation of his people. Thou hast given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him. The Lord Jesus is Lord over all,
the quick and the dead, that he might give life to all his
own, that he might bring salvation to all his own. So the master,
the ruler, represented by Boaz, our kinsman redeemer, governs
the fields of the world to give salvation to his people. The
fields, of course, speak of this world and of God's word under
the rule of our Lord Jesus Christ. The young men described in our
text represent God's servants, these reapers, their gospel preachers. and the handfuls of purpose speak
of God's providence and God's grace. All right, here then is
this woman, Ruth. This woman chosen of God, the
object of God's mercy. She was herself that, and she
represents those who are chosen of God, the objects of his mercy. Here she is in the field, gleaning
in Boaz's field, seeking that which she could get for her sustenance,
at the same time seeking mercy from Boaz, her kinsman redeemer. The old writers used to make
a distinction between sinners and sinners. And I don't know
that distinction is always good, but they did serve a purpose.
I usually don't care to use the distinction, but they did serve
a purpose. Let me give you four clear distinctions that are set
forth, I think, with clarity in the scriptures. All men are
sinners. We understand that. All are depraved. All are born under the wrath
of God. All are condemned, all go forth from the womb speaking
lies. We sinned in our father Adam and we come forth from our
mother's womb speaking lies and the hearts of all are full of
corruption and only corruption all the time. That's the nature
of man. Man is dead in trespasses and
in sins. Man's a transgressor. Man is
vile. I know we hear politicians following
the tenor of preachers And they say, well, there's a little good
in all men. No, there's no good in any man. The book of God says there's
none that doeth good. No, not one. There's not a spark
of goodness in man that needs to be nurtured and taken care
of. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Even those
things that we look upon as good are full of sin, full of corruption. But not many are aware that they're
sinners. In fact, most get rather upset
if you suggest anything about them being evil. Then there are
sensible sinners. Sinners awakened to their lost
condition. Sinners under conviction. A sinner who knows he's lost
and needs Christ is what the old writers referred to as a
sensible sinner. One who knows he needs mercy. That woman who came with an issue
of blood and she said, if I could just touch the hem of his garment.
Oh, I need him. I need him. That Syrophoenician
woman said, Lord, my daughter is grievously vexed with the
devil. Have mercy on us. I need him. A sinner knowing
his need of Christ, knowing his need of grace, is described by
the old writers as a sensible sinner. I think that's reasonable.
Convicted of sin, he knows that he desperately needs God's mercy. Such sinners, convicted of their
sin, will soon be convinced of righteousness and of judgment
as well. Joseph Hart put it this way.
To understand these things are right, this grand distinction
must be known. Though all are sinners in God's
sight, there are but few so in their own. To such as these our
Lord was sent, there are only sinners who repent. What kind
of comfort can a Savior bring to those who never felt their
woe? A sinner? Why, he's a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
Find me a sinner. A man, a woman who knows he's
a sinner. Find me a young man or a child
who knows he's a sinner. I'll show you one chosen of God,
born of God's spirit, called by God's grace, redeemed by the
blood of Christ, who shall at last be with Christ in glory. Men by nature do not know their
sin. And then the scriptures clearly
speak of seeking sinners. Seeking sinner is one knowing
his need of Christ seeks him Seeks him with all his heart
he feels his need of Christ and he seeks him earnestly in his
word in his house in prayer and Supplication and that sinner
who seeks him will find him Hold your hands here in Ruth 2 and
turn to the book of Jeremiah. Let me show you Jeremiah chapter
29 Jeremiah 29 Let's let's start verse 11 The Lord God speaks here I Know
the thoughts that I think toward you saith the Lord thoughts of
peace and not evil To give you an expected in Then shall you
call upon me and you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken
to you. I Now look at verse 13. And you
shall seek me and find me. Aren't you glad he put that in
there? You shall seek me and find me when you shall search
for me with all your heart. If you need Christ, you'll find
him. If you seek Christ, you'll find him. If you want him, you'll
have him. And I will be found of you, saith
the Lord. And I will turn away your captivity
and gather you from all the nations and from all the places where
there I have driven you, saith the Lord. How can I say this with such
clarity that there's no mistake? Yes, we understand. God's elect shall be saved. All
of God's elect and only God's elect. No reprobate man will
ever become elect. No goat will ever become a sheep. I don't know why that's so difficult
for folks to understand. That is obviously taught in the
word of God. But there are a good many fellows
who preach as though they're scared to death. Some of the
non-elect might get in and they want to hedge about the scriptures
and take great care that the wrong people don't get in. Please
listen to me now. Please listen to me. If you can
get Christ, He's yours. If you can get Him, He's yours.
If you want Him, you can get Him. If you desire Him, you can
have Him. That glass, I'm aware of what
goes on when I'm not looking, but That doesn't have my name
on it anywhere. I wonder if that water was for
me. Well, how do you know? Where's your name there? What
right do you have to take it? I'm thirsty. Yep. It was put there just for
me. It was put there. I know. Are
you sure? Let's try again. Yep. It was put there just for
me. Just for me. I know because now I'm refreshed. Do you need Jesus Christ? Do you need righteousness? Do
you need forgiveness? Do you need acceptance with God?
I mean need it. Do you need someone to make you
whole? Someone to save you by free grace? Someone to give you good standing
with God? Someone and you can find acceptance
with God and peace in your soul? come to Christ, He's provided
specifically for you. And as sure as you taste the
water of life, I'm telling you, your name was
written in the book of life before the world was. I'm telling you,
God predestined you unto everlasting salvation. I'm telling you, you
are elect of God. We know your election of God,
Paul said to Thessalonians, because you believe God. We know you,
we know you're God's elect because you believe Him. We know you're
redeemed because you believe Him. We know you've been called,
regenerated, born again because you believe Him. Like the four
leopards of Elisha's day, those men you remember were starving
to death. There was no bread and they couldn't
go to the city. The law forbade them from going
in the city. They're afraid they're going to be killed. They're out
here starving. One of them said to his three
buddies, he said, here we are, four lepers, and we stay here,
we're going to die. We're going to die of starvation.
If we go to the city, they might kill us. But there's bread there. They might give us some bread.
Let's go to the city. And they went to the city and
found all the bread they needed. Like that Syrophoenician woman,
come to the Lord Jesus seeking mercy, acknowledging you have
no rights, no claims, no merit before him. That Syrophoenician
woman came with her daughter and she said, have mercy upon me. My daughter,
look at the poor thing. She's grievously vexed with the
devil. And Frank, the Lord didn't go to the best of seminaries.
He wasn't a good evangelist at all. Not by modern standards.
Oh, man, look at this. Strike while the iron's hot.
The Lord said, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. And it's not right to take the children's bread
and give it to dogs. He called her a dog. He called
her, are you calling me a dog? That's not how she responded.
She said, Lord, that's exactly right. That's exactly right.
But it's all right to take the crumbs that fall from the table,
the children's table, sweep them off the floor for a dog. And
the master said, Oh, I've never seen faith like this before.
I've never seen faith like this before. Take your place before
God. in the dust at the throne of
grace, seeking his mercy, and you'll find it. And then the
scriptures speak of sinners who are saved sinners. Sinners still,
but saved sinners. The saved sinner is the dog eating
crumbs from the master's table. They take their place, their
rightful place in the dust, acknowledge what they are, dog. There couldn't
be a more repugnant, reproachful term used by the Son of God to
speak to a woman than to call her a dog. It would not be less,
more repugnant, more reproachful for him to refer to her as a
harlot. To call her a dog? But she's, that's what I am.
Dirty, vile, filthy dog. A dog. There was a man by the
name of Mephibosheth. who preceded her by many years,
sitting at David's table. And when he found out David's
plans of mercy for him, he said, Who am I? Such a dead dog as
I am, that you should have mercy on me. Take your place in the
dust before God and you will obtain God's mercy in Christ. A sane sinner is one fairly convinced
of his sin. Convinced of righteousness by
Jesus Christ the Lord. Convinced that judgment is finished. A sane sinner is one who believes
God. When Ruth came to Boaz Field,
she came as a gleaner seeking bread. And as such, she's a picture
of sinners seeking the Lord, seeking the bread of life. She
was a Moabite, a cursed woman from a cursed people who started
with a curse in the beginning. She was a Moabitess. She had
no rights at all, no rights at all. except the right of a stranger. Just the right of a stranger.
God by law gave strangers in the land one single right. You can go in the fields and
clean whatever you want. If you're hungry, you can come
and eat. If you need some grain, you can come and get it. The
stranger, by law, has the right to get anything he needs for
his life's sustenance. What a picture of God's goodness
and grace. So it is with you and I. We have
no rights, no rights, but the right to pick up what God left
for sinners to glean in his field. had been reduced for very, very
low condition. Look at chapter two, verse 10,
verse 10. Boaz came to her and then she
fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground and said unto him,
why have I found grace in thine eyes that thou shouldest take
knowledge of me seeing I'm a stranger? She was poor, hungry, and desperate
need. And she humbly took her place
among the poor. Listen to this in Ephesians Chapter
2. Ephesians Chapter 2. Children of God, don't ever forget
where you were when God found you by his grace and revealed
Christ in you. Wherefore, remember that you
being in time past Gentiles, cursed people from a cursed race,
from a cursed father in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision
by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you were without Christ. being aliens from the
Commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise. Frank Hall, not long ago, you
were an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel, a complete stranger
to every promise of God. Complete stranger. And when you
were, you had no hope. You were without Christ, strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope. without God in
the world. How poor, how poor, how poor
you are, who without Christ, without God, without hope. Without Christ, without God,
without hope. That's utter poverty. But now
in Christ Jesus, you sometimes will fall off are made nigh by
the blood of Christ. This woman, though a Moabitess,
though a woman with a cursed ancestry from a cursed people,
had heard about a kinsman redeemer And she had heard the promise
of God connected with that Redeemer, the promise of God concerning
the Messiah. He promised to Adam and Eve in
the garden who would come through this seed in Israel, the seed
of Abraham, who is himself that seed by whom all blessings come. And she resolved, if it's possible
for me to have my heritage with this people. for me to have my
heritage with God's people, for me to have my heritage with God's
covenant people, for me to have my heritage with God's children
in this world. If it's possible to be had, I'm
not going to die without it. She had desperate need. And I want to tell you somebody
something about somebody who has desperate need. They won't be turned away. They will not be silenced. They,
you, you can't stop them. You can't stop them. Now somebody's
desperate need. Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of
Nazareth was passing by. He cried, Jesus, thou son of
David, have mercy on me. And his disciples said, shh, be quiet. You're making a disturbance. And he cried the louder, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. He was not about to continue
blind if it was possible for him to see. He had desperate
need. Sinners with desperate need seek
the Lord and find him. The hymn writer put it this way.
I can but perish if I go. I am resolved to try for if I
stay away, I know I must forever die. Perhaps he will admit my
plea. Perhaps will hear my prayer.
But if I perish, I will pray and perish only there. And if
I die with mercy sought, when I, the king, have tried, this
were to die, delightful thought, as sinner never died. Oh, you mean preacher? It's not
possible for a sinner to die seeking mercy at the throne of
grace. If you do, you'll be the first
one. You'll be the first one. Notice also that Ruth had a very
high opinion of Boaz's handmaidens. Look at verse 13. Then she said, Let me find favor
in thy sight, Boaz, my lord. For that thou hast comforted
me, and for thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid,
though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens. Now, you read some things here
making a spiritual comparison where folks even bother to do
that. The spiritual comparison is usually
horrible. They talk about Ruth wanting
to be like these handmaidens and to compare it to a lost person
wants to be like the believer. They want to change the way they
live. They want to be like that righteous
person, that godly person, that holy person. They want to talk
like them and dress like them and have a glow in the face like
them. No, no, no, no. Brother Daniel Parks had an article
in his bulletin this past week, an article he sent to me, I'm
not sure it was in the bulletin, distinguishing Christ's disciples.
And he said, in our Lord's day, there were a group of disciples
who strictly observed the Sabbath day. A group of disciples who
tenaciously followed the traditions of their religious followers.
There were a group of disciples in our Lord's day who were very,
very, very, very concerned about how other people viewed them
and their relationship with God. There were people, a group of
disciples who were careful about how they dress so that folks
look at it and say, he dresses like a godly man. And how they
talk, he talks like a godly man. And how they stood in the street
corners and prayed and said, he prays like a godly man. Boy,
if there's ever anybody who could pray, he could pray. And they were not our Lord's
disciples, but his sworn enemies, the Pharisees. Our Lord's disciples
deliberately, deliberately, did not concern themselves with any
of those things. None of them. None of them. When
they walked in the fields on the Sabbath day, and they were
hungry, these people got some corn, rubbed the corn in their
hands and ate it. They didn't concern themselves
with any of those things. They didn't practice the ceremonies
those Pharisees practiced. They didn't observe the traditions
of the Pharisees. They were concerned about knowing
Christ and following Christ and walking with Christ and that's
all. That's all. Ruth knew she wasn't like Boaz's
handmaidens. Boaz's handmaidens knew He was
their Lord, and they were under his constant care. Boaz's handmaidens
had everything they needed provided for them. Boaz's handmaidens
lived in peace in the land of Bethlehem, Judah, provided for
by Boaz. Ruth said, I know I'm not one
of your handmaidens, but I sure would like to be. I'd sure like
to live. and the conscious awareness of
your constant care all the time. So it is with the sinner who
knows his need of Christ. He knows he's not like God's
people. He knows God's people have a righteousness before God
upon which God smiles. He knows that God's people have
their sins forgiven. He knows that God's people live
in conscious peace with God. He knows that God's people, God's
people live not for time, but for eternity and live not for
the world, but for Christ and the center knowing his need of
Christ knows he's not like them, but he sure would like to be
possessing eternal life. Now, Boaz we see here comes to
reap his fields the reaper is Boaz But he uses Servants chosen
and appointed of him to reap his fields So it is today and
so it is in all ages with our great kinsmen Redeemer the Lord
Jesus he employs chosen servants and by whom he reaps the field. Gospel preachers are his reapers. I'm not looking for something
to say. I want you to hear me. I want you to hear me now. And I've weighed my words carefully. I wouldn't trade places with
any man in the world at any point in history. God's been pleased. God's been pleased to make me
a preacher of the gospel in this generation. The highest honor God Almighty
could ever put on any man except the God-man himself. Not only
save me by his grace, but make me a preacher of the gospel. The preacher is described by
our Lord Jesus in the parable in Matthew 13 as an angel sent
in the inner world. And he's sent by purpose of God
to gather the wheat into his garner, and to bind the tares
for the burning. I am relentlessly aware of this
fact. As I pray, God don't let me speak,
except you speak through me. Don't let me speak. God strike
me dumb or strike me dead. Don't let me speak unless you
speak through me. And that's not occasional. That's
every time I stand up to preach. Every time I stand up to preach.
And having said so, I'm keenly aware of the fact that you're
not going to hear me with no consequence. That's not going
to happen. That's not going to happen. Not
if God speaks by me. Either the word preached will
profit your soul, bringing you to Christ, or the word preached
will be as binding around a bale of tears, binding you and hardening
your heart for the burning. You will not hear God's word
preached in God's power without consequence, either everlastingly
good for your soul or everlastingly damning to your soul. one of
the two, one of the two. Considering that, the apostle
said, we are a sweet savor of God in
them that perish and in them that are saved. To the one, a
savor of life unto life, to the other, a savor of death unto
death. And he goes on considering these things, and he said, oh,
who is sufficient for these things? Who's sufficient for these things?
Not Peter, not Apollos, not Paul, not Don, not Mahan, not Nibert,
nobody! But our sufficiency is of God. Gospel preachers, these reapers,
gather the wheat, the bread of God's word, and prepare it for
his people. And they feed them as God said
he would cause his preachers to do, with knowledge and understanding. Those men who are called of God
do this great work, being gifted uniquely by God for the work
with an understanding in his word and with understanding of
men. The man who is gifted of God
to preach the gospel is given an understanding in the word
of God so that it understands the message of Holy Scripture. Sometimes you'll meet me at the
door and ask me a question about something in the book and I may
look at you like I'm just totally dumbfounded. I'll give you a
secret. I don't usually let this out.
That's because I'm totally dumbfounded. I don't have any idea. I don't
have any idea what that means. I don't know. I can't tell you. Can't tell you where Locke got
his wife. And I ain't really concerned
about it. If you want to study that the rest of your life, go
ahead and study it. I'm just not really concerned about that. I'm not
really concerned about that. But I'll tell you what I do know.
I know this book. I know what it teaches. I know
what you've got to know. I know the whole message of the
book. Not just me. Every man called
and gifted of God to preach the gospel knows the message of this
book. And he understands the whole
book. Not all the book, the whole book. And he studies. Gives himself
to the work. Gives himself to the work. Find
a faithful man and you'll find him in his study doing the work
God put in his hands to do. And he feeds the people with
that knowledge that God gives with understanding. Understanding
the people, understanding the word, understanding the hour,
understanding the day in which he lives, understanding the things
of God. Now Boaz says to his reapers,
let her glean even among the sheaves. I take that to mean,
let her have anything she wants. God's servants are not bidden
to hide the truth. but to proclaim the truth. I
can't tell you how many times I've heard since I was 17 years
old. Well, they're not ready for that. They're not ready to
hear that. That's, those are the things
we, we, we, we, we discussed those back here, but we don't
talk about that from the pulpit. No, that just confused people.
You can't preach on predestination, that'd just confuse people. Brother
Scott said whenever, said they were bored, confused, this'll
help them. No, we don't hide the word. We proclaim the word.
I actually had a preacher, a man I dearly loved. This young man,
he said to me one time, he said, Don, son, you can preach these
things in such a way that folks don't know what you're talking
about. I thought to myself real quick,
and I asked him, what's the point in preaching it if folks don't
know what you're talking about? And it didn't take me long to
find out That's just what most fellows do. They deliberately
cloak their words and language so that they can, well, you preach
election, oh, no, no, I wouldn't preach that. No, you misunderstood
me. You believe in election? Yeah,
but we don't talk about it. Only a false prophet. Only a
false prophet. Not God's servants. They don't
hide the word. They proclaim the word, all the
word. Boaz said to his reapers, reproach
her not. Don't shame her. How sad any preacher should be,
need to have this told him, but most do. As a man proclaims the gospel,
clearly sin's reproved. God corrects and chastens his
people by his word, but it's not my job to do so. It's not my job to set up standards
and require fellows to do this or that or the other thing. It's
not my job to govern your life. It's not my job to make sure
you do this or don't do that. That's not my job. My job is
to preach the gospel to you and leave you in the hands of him
who redeemed you with his blood. And he can take pretty good care
of his own. I've discovered he can take much better care of
them than I can. Third, Boaz said, and let fall also some
of the handfuls of purpose for us, for her. Handfuls of purpose
are handfuls purposely left for this specific woman. Certainly,
that has reference to preaching. True preaching, true preaching. You can write this down. You're
going to see it again soon, I promise you. True preaching. is always
personal, purposeful, and passionate. True preaching. I've made this statement. I regret
it. And I've heard others make it. I don't care whether you
believe this or not. Bill Rodley, I deeply care whether you believe
this or not. It matters a great deal to me
whether you believe this or not. It's for your soul's eternal
good. I deeply care. True preaching is personal. purposeful and passionate. God commands his servants to
give his people handfuls of purpose. The promises of God, the doctrine
of God, the full word of God, to heap it up by handfuls and
give it to them. And give it to them so that they
can get it. So they can get it. I once read
about Thomas Manton, the Puritan. He was called to preach at St.
Paul's Cathedral, and there was a huge crowd gathered. Dr. Menton, the Puritan, was a brilliant
man. If you read some of his works,
you'll find that he was a brilliant man, a brilliant, brilliant man.
And he preached to these people in his lofty learning. And he preached with reference
to the Greek and the Hebrew text. read the Hebrew and the Greek
text, and he spoke in Latin, using Latin terms to speak of
theology, and everybody was impressed. But there was one poor farmer
who had walked 50 miles to hear the good doctor preach. He walked
50 miles to hear a man preach the gospel. And when Dr. Manton got done with his preaching
and started out the door, the farmer pulled on his sleeve and
looked at him pitifully and said, there was nothing in it for me,
nothing for me. Oh, God, don't let me do that
to anybody, to anybody. It's my responsibility to preach
the gospel with clarity for you, every one of you, young and old.
I can't make you believe. I can't make you believe, I can't
make you understand, I can't give you spiritual discernment,
but I can dead sure make you know what I've said. And if I
don't make it so clear that you understand exactly what I've
said, one of two things or so, either I didn't want you to know,
or I don't know myself. One of the two. One of the two.
You hear a fella preach and say, Oh, that was so deep. No, it's
just many. There's a big difference. There's
a big difference. The preacher is sent of God to
preach with plainness, with clarity, with understanding, so people
get the purposeful handful God intends for them. I read years ago about another
preacher in England I've read a lot of his sermons. They're
very good. Very good. But he'd write his sermons out
and stand up and read them. And they were very dry. And one Sunday
he got up to preach, and just as he was about to get in the
pulpit, suddenly he was stricken stone blind. Just blind as a
bat. Just temporarily, just suddenly
blind. I had no idea what happened to him. Men had to help him in
the pulpit. And he had to preach without reading his sermon. And
oh, did he preach. One of the old ladies in the
church read about the torch. She said, would God, you'd gone
blind 20 years ago. God give us men who preach with
personal, purposeful, passionate clarity the word of God. Boaz
Reapers understood what they were responsible for, and they
left handfuls of purpose for Ruth. But there were other handfuls
of purpose, handfuls of purpose in God's secret providence. Oh, how good God is to his own
in his marvelous providence. Everything he does, he does for
her, his bride. Everything he does, he does specifically
for his own. Everything. Everything. All things are yours for you
are Christ and Christ is God's. Everything. I've said this many
times. I could write a book of great
interest about things I look back on. I'm talking about just things
I see. I'm not even considering the things I don't have any idea
about. Just the things that I've seen. I could write a book and
say, God did that just for me. Just for me. Nobody else in the
world benefited from it. Just me. Just me. It was done
just for me. And I would write the book if
I could do it and leave myself out of it. It'd be good for you.
But God did that just for me. Will you hear me, children of
God? Are you listening now? Whatever God did yesterday, all
of yesterday's yesterdays. And whatever God does today and
whatever God does tomorrow, He does, and he did just for you. Just for you. Handfuls of purpose.
Let me remind you of Ruth's history.
She was a Moabitess. Her great, great, great grandfather,
her original progenitor, was a fellow named Lot. who had a grandson who was his
son, born from an incestuous relationship with his daughter
on a night of a drunken stupor. Moab. And God immediately cursed the
whole race. Moab is cursed. Moab shall be
my washpot. Moab, the cursed people. But
when God commanded Moses and the children of Israel to destroy
all the enemies in the land and drive them out of the land, he
puts special protection over Moab. He said, don't hurt the
Moabites. Don't do this to Moabites. Put
special protection over them. Why? Because even among the Moabites,
God had his chosen. one of whom a lady named Ruth. Immelech committed a horrible
act of transgression against God, against himself, against
his family, against Israel, a horrible act of transgression, going down
to Moab. But if Lot hadn't committed incest
with his daughter, if Immelech had not gone to Moab, Ruth would
never have been born. While she's in Moab, she marries
one of Elimelech's sons, and he dies. And she comes under
the perpetual care of a godly preacher, a gospel preacher. God planted her in the preacher's
house. The preacher's name was Naomi. Naomi taught her daughter,
her daughter-in-law Ruth, about the Redeemer. Now here's a cursed
woman from a cursed daddy in a cursed race in the house of
a blessed woman. Naomi told Ruth about the Redeemer. And Ruth goes back to Bethlehem,
Judah. Now God has caused great harvest,
great bounty to come again to Bethlehem, Judah. and she comes
to Bethlehem Judah. Without all these things, without
all these things, without all these things, are
you listening to that? Jesus Christ would never have
been born at Bethlehem. We would have never had a Redeemer.
Abraham's seed would never have come into the world. because
God purposed it all. Read the first chapter of Matthew. Our Lord Jesus came from a long
line of folks. Let's see who these women are.
His great, great, great grandmas. There's Tabar and Ruth and Bathsheba, through whom the Messiah came
into the world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. That's God's
providence, handfuls of purpose just for me, just for you who
benefit from God's grace. Amen.