Some people, God allows to run
freely until they run headlong into hell. Others, he graciously
hedges up and hedges up and hedges up until he forces them into
the arms of his dear son. Ruth is one of those chosen sinners
whom God He graciously and wisely worked all things for her benefit
until she was at last forced into the arms of Boaz, her kinsman
redeemer. Her father-in-law, Elimelech,
took his wife and their two sons and left Bethlehem, Judah, in
a time of famine. It was God who sent the famine
in Judah. in Bethlehem, and it was God
who had provided Elimelech with great wealth to carry down to
Moab. There in Moab, Elimelech's two
sons married wives. Elimelech and his sons died,
and Naomi, his wife, is left to care for these two widow daughters-in-law,
and they lost everything. And then Naomi heard. Somebody
came with good news. She heard the Lord had visited
his people again and that there was bread in Bethlehem. And she
said, I'm going back to Bethlehem. And she urged her daughters-in-law
to go back to their father's house and their father's gods
and find rest. And one of them did, but not
the other. One of the two daughters-in-law heard what Naomi had said. She heard about the Lord God,
the God of Israel, the one true and living God. She heard about
his grace and his mercy. She heard about his character,
his promises, and his covenant. And she heard Naomi tell about
the possibility, the possibility, just the possibility that they
might have everything they had lost restored to them by a near
kinsman. And so they went back to Bethlehem,
Judah. And they went back at the beginning
of the barley harvest. Oh, how merciful, how gracious,
how wise, how good our God is to his people. How gracious he
has been to our souls in hedging up our way, bringing into our
lives disappointments, pains, afflictions, and sorrows by which
he has sweetly forced us and irresistibly compelled us to
return to him, seeking mercy and grace in Christ. How graciously
he continues by every providence, by every providence to incline
our hearts to return to God our Savior seeking his grace and
mercy. Oh, how gracious it is of him
to visit our souls again and again with spiritual sustenance
when by our own sin and disobedience we call forth famine upon our
souls. Ever hasten, my brother, ever
run, my sister, Ever flee, O my soul, back to the Savior, back
to the Father's house, like Naomi and Ruth hurried back to Bethlehem,
Judah, convinced that in our Father's house there is bread
enough and to spare for our souls. knowing that there is no place
in this world for our souls to find rest, even as there was
no place in Moab for Naomi and Ruth. But I have so sinned against
him. How dare I come to him again?
But I've so often repelled his goodness. How dare I come to
him again? Let nothing dissuade you. Let
no fear keep you from fleeing to Christ and seeking mercy and
grace in time of need. To whom shall we go but to Christ,
the bread of life? Where else shall we go? He is
our Bethlehem, our house of bread. In him alone is life. In him
alone is bread for our souls. Like Ruth, let us make the determined
resolution. Where he goes, we will go, and
to know nothing among men but him. Be wise, O my soul. Forget not God your Savior. Forget your father's house, and
forget your own people. Forget life itself. All things
are nothing in comparison to Christ. Whom have I in heaven
but thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth. My flesh and my heart are constantly
failing. But God is the strength of my
heart and my portion forever. Now, if you will turn with me
to Luke chapter or Ruth chapter two, Ruth, the second chapter. Ruth and Naomi have come back
to Bethlehem, Judah, and here we're introduced to Boaz, Ruth's
kinsman redeemed. Everything in this woman's life
hinged upon that man, Boaz, who had the right and the might to
redeem her, and everything in our lives. Everything in our
lives hinges upon Christ, our great Boaz, who has the right
and the might to redeem us. Ruth chapter 2, and Naomi had
a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth of the family of
Elimelech. And his name was Boaz. And Ruth
the Moabitess said unto Naomi, let me now go to the field and
glean, glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find
grace. And she said unto her, go, my
daughter. And she went and came and gleaned
in the field after the reapers. And her hat was to light on a
part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred
of Elimelech, And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said
to the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered him, the
Lord bless thee. Then said Boaz unto his servant
that was said over the reapers, whose damsel is this? Among all
those folks out gleaning in that field. It was a time of barley
harvest, the strangers and the poor among the children of Israel
out gleaning in the field. Boaz fixed his eyes on this one
woman Ruth. Whose damsel is this? Verse 16,
verse 15. 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. And let fall also some
of the handfuls of purpose for her and leave them that she may
glean them and rebuke her not. Let fall also some of the handfuls
of purpose for her." Now here we see a good illustration of
the Old Testament law that required the people in Israel who owned
vineyards, who planted wheat, who owned lands, not to glean
everything, but to leave some for the poor, for the poor of
Israel and for the strangers who might sojourn among them.
Now, these things, like everything else in the book of God, are
written for our learning and for our admonition, for our consolation
and for our hope. Don't ever, ever forget this. Everything in the book of God,
everything recorded is recorded for that purpose. Every event
spoken here in the book happened, came to pass according to God's
purpose to teach us something concerning the gospel of God's
grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. In this passage, everything is
allegorical. Remember Paul spoke about Sarah
and Hagar, and he said these things are an allegory. Now that
doesn't mean they didn't really happen. They really happened.
But they happened in order to be an allegory, a spiritual story. Real things, but a spiritual
story. Real events, but given for, they
came to pass for a specific purpose to teach us spiritual truths.
Ruth here represents God's elect, all who are saved by his free
grace. Boaz represents the Lord Jesus Christ, our kinsman redeemer. He is the owner of all things. All the fields of this world
belong to Jesus Christ. He's the master of all things.
As Boaz was the master in his house, so Christ is the master
in his house in this church and in his church throughout the
ages. The whole world is subject to
him for this too is his house. He is the master of the universe. We who believe Obey Him willingly,
but everything obeys Him. Everybody obeys Him. Everything
in heaven, earth, and hell obeys him. Satan is as much his servant
as Elijah, as much so as Elijah, though Elijah was his willing
servant. Satan doesn't wiggle but by his
decree and by his power. The field in which Ruth gleaned
represents the word of God. And the young men, the reapers,
represent those who preach the gospel of Christ. Now, as Boaz
commanded his young men to let fall some handfuls of purpose
for Ruth, even so the Lord Jesus Christ commands his servants,
those whom he has called and gifted to preach the gospel,
to let fall handfuls of purpose for chosen sinners. I want to
show you four things in this message. Here's the first. Seeking
centers are like Ruth, gleaners in a field. I've told you before
the old writers, the older preachers used to talk about centers and
then talk about sensible centers and seeking centers and save
centers. I realize those those qualifications,
if you want to use that kind of language, can be stretched
and stressed beyond the point of revelation. But they are helpful
distinctions. And they're helpful distinctions,
I believe, clearly set before us in the scriptures. Let me
define what I'm saying. A sinner is a person under the
wrath of God, lost, ruined in his sin, Dead in trespasses and
in sins, but utterly unaware that those things are so. Unaware. When Adam sinned, we sinned in
him. When he died, we died in him. When he was cursed, we were cursed
in him. And all come forth from the womb,
cursed sinners under the wrath of God by nature. But not many
folks know it. Not many folks know it. Many
give lip service to it, but very few. know what it is to be lost,
ruined, condemned under the curse of God Almighty. A sensible sinner
is one who is awakened, awakened to know his lost condition, a
sinner under conviction, a sinner who knows that he is lost and
he needs Christ. Joseph Hart wrote this great,
great hymn describing what I'm trying to say. When Adam, by
transgression, fell and conscious fled his master's face, linked
in clandestine league with hell, he ruined all his future race. The seeds of evil once brought
in increased and filled the world with sin. But lo, the second
Adam came, the serpent's subtle head to bruise, he cancels his
malicious claim and disappoints his devilish views, ransoms poor
sinners with his blood and brings the sinner back to God. And then
Hart goes on to say, to answer or 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, the Lord was
sent. They're only sinners who repent. What comfort can the Savior bring
to those who never knew their woe? A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. A sensible sinner is a sinner
convicted of sin. The Holy Spirit comes and he
convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. I do not say,
I do not suggest, and I do not think that it takes a long process
of time. But it might with some. Some,
like the Apostle Paul, or like Saul of Tarsus, who was later
called the Apostle Paul, some are immediately convinced of
their sin, of Christ's righteousness, and of judgment finished. Others
are convinced little by little. The sensible sinner is one who
is convinced of his sin and is being more and more convinced
of his sin. And that one who is convinced
of his sin shall be convinced by the same Spirit of God of
Christ's righteousness and of judgment finished by his obedience. A seeking sinner is one who knows
that he needs Christ and he's seeking Him. Turn to Jeremiah
chapter 29. Let me show you. He feels his
need of Christ. He seeks him earnestly and sincerely
in his word, in his house, by prayer and supplication. And
all who seek him shall find him. All who seek him shall find him. No exceptions. Jeremiah chapter
29, verse 11. God speaks and says, I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then
shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and
I will hearken unto you. Did he say that? You'll go and
pray to me, and I'll hearken to you. And you shall seek me
and find me. when you shall search for me
with all your heart. Every sinner who seeks him finds
him. And I will be found of you, saith
the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity. In 2 Kings 7,
I read this afternoon of those four leopards. You remember God
sent famine upon the land of Samaria. And Elijah came and
he told them that the next day there'd be plenty of bread to
eat. And these four lepers were sitting outside the city and
they were starving to death. And one of them said to his other
three lepers friends, said, the Syrians got plenty of bread in
there. They got plenty of bread in there. And if we go in there,
they might kill us. They might kill us, but we might
find some bread. Why sit we here and die? If we go in there and they kill
us, we die. If we stay out here, we're going to die. Let's go
in there, maybe we'll find some bread. And before they got into
the Syrian camp, the Syrians, God calls them to hear the sound
of approaching huge army, and they fled and left a whole city
full of bread. Why sit here and die? There's life in Christ. You're
going to die without him. Oh, well, if I'm elect, he'll
save me. If you find your need of him, you'll seek him. You'll
seek him. The Syrophoenician woman came,
and she said, Lord, thou son of David, have mercy on me. My
daughter's grievously vexed with the devil. And the Lord ignored
her, and she was put off by the disciples. They said, Lord, send
her away. She's crying after us. She's bothering us. The Lord
seemed to despise her, and the disciples did. And finally, she
comes to him, and he said, it's not lawful to take the children's
bread and give it to dogs. And she said, I'll take that.
I'll take that. If you'll just shove some of
the crumbs off the table, it's all right for dogs to eat the
children's crumbs. And she went home, the master said to her,
oh woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. What a word. Mr. Hawker suggested
it is as if he put the reins of government in her hand. Be
it unto thee even as thou wilt. Clearly, Ruth represents such
centers. A saved sinner is one who has
come to Christ and continues coming to Him, who trusts Christ
as Lord and Savior, who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, convinced
of his sin, and convinced that Christ has brought in righteousness
for him, and convinced that judgment is done because sin was judged
by the Lord of glory when he died upon the tree as our substitute. When Ruth came into Boaz Field,
she came as a gleaner seeking bread. As such, she's a clear
picture of a sinner seeking the Lord Jesus in the house of bread. She was a Moabite, cursed, the
cursed offspring of a cursed father and a cursed mother of
a cursed race, and she knew it. She had no rights except one. Just one. She had the right that
God had given to strangers who sojourned in this world with
his people. She could go glean. That's all. That which God had given to his
people, she was allowed to go pick up off the ground. She was
allowed to go glean for herself as she needed it. She didn't
have to. She wasn't in any way under obligation
to do so. She wasn't forced by law to do
so. But if she was hungry, she had
the right to go glean. That's exactly our condition
by nature. We are cursed. the cursed offspring
of a cursed family, of a cursed race. We have no rights, no rights
except the right God gives to strangers in this world with
his children. Here it is. Whosoever will, let
him come and take of the water of life freely. What a word. Somebody says you don't you folks
don't believe in whosoever will while we do too. We just don't
believe in whosoever won't Whosoever will let him come and take of
the water of life freely Ruth had been reduced to a very low
poor condition look at verse 10 of chapter 2 Then she fell
on her face and bowed herself to the ground and said to Boaz,
why have I found grace in thine eyes that thou shouldest take
knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? She was once very
wealthy. She was married to Melod, the
rich firstborn son of the richest man in Israel, Elimelech. She was once somebody, and now
she lost everything. That's us, once wealthy. In our father Adam, we possessed
everything. God created the earth, sent man
in it, and said, Adam, boy, it's yours. Eat anything you want
to eat, drink anything you want to drink, Do with this earth
what you want to. It's yours. It's yours. The whole
thing. Every animal, every shrub, every
herb, it's yours. Do with it what you want to.
Except there's one spot here. This tree. This tree right here. This is the symbol of my right
to be God. Don't choose that tree. And the
day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And when Adam
saw what Eve had done, He reached and grabbed the fruit of that
tree and shoved his fist in God's face and said, get out of my
way. You've got no right to be God. And man's been following
his example ever since. Ruth was poor, hungry, desperate. I keep looking for some poor,
hungry, desperate folks. A poor, hungry, desperate sinner. And I'll show you a sinner who
is chosen and redeemed and shall surely be called. I'll show you
a sinner for whom Christ died and for whom grace is given.
Certainly, this is a picture of us. Listen to this. Wherefore,
remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who
were called uncircumcision, unclean by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hands, that at that time you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in
the world. What a description of man. No
hope. Without Christ. Without God. Not a word of promise. Nothing. Nothing. Oh, but God promises
sinners everything. God doesn't promise anything
except to faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. No man has any right
to even imagine that he can claim any promise given in God's Word
who does not believe on the Son of God. Don't have any reason
to believe God would look your way until you trust His Son. Without Christ, without God,
no promise, no hope. But now you who were far off
are made nigh by the blood of Jesus Christ. Though she was
a poor Moabitess, Ruth resolved to seek and to follow the Lord
God of Israel. Look at chapter 1, verse 16.
Thirty-eight years ago, Shelby and I got married, and it was
kind of customary among folks who were religious to have somebody
sing a song that's taken from these two verses. The only thing
I regret about our wedding, I wish we had done that, because it
demeans the message of these two verses. This is not a song
about a husband's love for his wife or the song of a wife's
love for her husband. It's not a song about marital
devotion unless you're talking about the devotion of a sinner
in need to Christ the Lord. Ruth had heard the message Naomi
declared to her. And Ruth wasn't willing to go
back to her father's house and wasn't willing to go back to
her father's gods. And she says in Ruth 1.16, Ruth
said to Naomi, entreat me not to leave thee, nor 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. And I've said all
that to say this. Blessed is that sinner who has
been taught by the grace of God to know something of the abject
poverty of his soul before God. hungry, desperate, in need of
help, that sinner will take his place humbly before God and seek
mercy in Christ. Blessed is that sinner who has
been brought to know something of the abject poverty of his
soul before God. 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. But if I die with mercy sought,
when I, the King, have tried, this were to die delightful thought,
as sinner never died. I urge you, come now to Christ,
come now to the throne of grace, cast your soul at the sovereign
throne of God Almighty, and sue for mercy. And if you don't get
it, you'll be the first. You'll be the first. Notice also,
Ruth having a very low opinion of herself and a very high opinion
of Boaz of whom she'd heard so much. had a high opinion of Boaz's
handmaids. Look at verse 13 of chapter 2.
Then she said, let me find favor in thy sight, my lord, for thou
hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto
thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaids. She knew she wasn't like his
handmaidens. She could look at her skin and tell her skin was
dark. She knew where she came from. She knew she had no covenant
with God's people. She knew she had no claim on
anything. But she wanted to be like his handmaidens. She wanted
to be like those of the children of Israel. Are you interested
in being cleansed of your sin, righteous before God, holy Unblameable
in the sight of the Almighty, having your sins forgiven, being
accepted of God always, all the time. Oh, I'd do anything to
get that. Would you do nothing? Would you
cast yourself at the feet of Christ the Redeemer? Here's the
second thing. But Boaz was the one out reaping
in his fields. And it is Christ himself who
reaps in his fields. And soon, we're told in Revelation
14, he will come to gather all his own to himself in glory.
But he is reaping right now. He has been reaping through the
ages, and he will continue to reap the fields of this world
throughout the ages to come. And secondly, I want you to see
this, gospel preachers. are his reapers. Like Boaz, our
master uses his servants as reapers. Preachers reap in two ways. Turn
to Matthew chapter 13. Our Lord's giving us the parable,
the wheat and the tares in verse 30. He says, I go out and sow
my wheat in my fields. And at nightfall, Satan slips
in the back gate and he plants tares in my field. What you going
to do? What you going to do? Let's go
jerk up the tares. If you do, you'll jerk up the
wheat. Watch this. Let both grow together
until the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I
will say to the reapers, gather ye first the tares and bind them
in bundles, watch this, to burn them. But gather the wheat into
my barn. Now, this is what gospel preachers
do. If God Almighty speaks by his
word through this worthless, dirty, empty vessel, one or two
things are going to happen. It's either going to be binding
up tares, or gathering in wheat. One of the two. We are always
a sweet savor of God, and then that perish a savor of death
unto death, and then that believe a savor of life unto life. But
always God's word accomplishes that which he pleases. It accomplishes
that to which he sends it, exactly according to his will. In this
place, we make no effort to purge out the tears. I get notes and
comments from folks all the time encouraging, you know, we, you
folks are kind of lax. You need to practice discipline
like the Baptist have historically done. The Baptist is about the
meanest bunch of people I know in this world. Just about the
meanest bunch of folks I know in this world. Well, we want
to have a pure church. Well, we'd have to put you out
first. We cast the gospel net and gather
in fishes. And if you gather in fish by
nets full, you gather in good ones and bad ones. That's just
the way it is. Wherever God sows wheat, Satan
sows tares, and he would have both to grow together. I had
a friend of mine, and he's still a friend of mine. He wrote to
me several years ago. He'd been asked to preach, and
he said, I'm going to be preaching Sunday on church discipline.
Could you give me some things that will help me? And I wrote
back to him, I said, why don't you preach on something the Bible
says something about? And something you know something
about that will be helpful to God's people. Because I promise
you, everything you've ever heard about church discipline is not
found in this book. It is not found in this book.
You see, you and I never, I don't mean once in a while, never James
Jordan. Do you or your pastor have the
ability to discern between tares and wheat, between sheep and
goats? All we look at is what we can
see and that ain't much. You might say, well, I know we
can't judge anybody, but we're fruit inspectors. Whoever told
you to go inspect anybody's fruit? This is God's business. By the
preaching of the gospel, God Almighty separates the sheep
from the goats and the wheat from the tares as he will. My
dear friend, Brother Harry Graham. I remember sitting on his hearth,
as I've told you many times, and Harry would ask me questions.
I was 19 years old, and I didn't have enough sense to listen to
many folks, but I listened to him. And he'd ask me a question,
never to learn something. I knew that. When he asked me
a question, I knew I was fixing to learn something. He said,
you know how to tell the difference between wheat and pears? Well,
I was raised on the south side of Winston-Salem. I'd never seen
wheat growing. All I knew about was wheat bread and white bread.
And I said, no. How do you tell the difference,
Harry? He said, you can't till harvest time. In harvest, the
wheat bows its head and the tares stand tall. Our Lord says, let
them both grow together, preach the word, and his servants will
bind the tares for the burning as they gather the wheat into
his barn. Here's the third thing. In keeping
with this story, the preaching of the gospel is like scattering
handfuls of purpose, the purposeful distribution of the bread gathered
from the word of God. Now, you'll notice here that
Boaz gave his young men four strict commandments regarding
Ruth. I take those to be four strict commandments from Jesus
Christ, my Redeemer, to me, your pastor, and to every man who
preaches the gospel. First he says, let her glean
even among the sheaths. Gospel preachers are not appointed
by God to guard and protect his word. giving it out in bits and
pieces and keeping back things he thinks folks aren't ready
for. No. Gospel preachers are to proclaim
the whole word of God, all the counsel of God in the context
in which it is given, keeping back nothing, knowing that the
whole word of God is profitable for the souls of his people.
People say, you don't preach that, you don't preach this.
You know, we talk about this in the coffee shop. No, we preach
the word, the bare, naked word of God. We're saying trust and
obey. We preach the believer's freedom
of the law and teach obedience to Christ. We proclaim free salvation
by the grace of God and we proclaim salvation free to all who want
it. We proclaim God's sovereignty, and we proclaim man's responsibility.
We speak of God's electing grace, and we speak of the open fountain.
We proclaim particular effectual redemption by the blood of Jesus
Christ, and tell any sinner who wants to plunge into the fountain,
come on and plunge in, it's open for you. Well, those are confusing
to men. No, men were born confused. You ever find out what these
things are, they'll help you. that needy sinners glean anything
they want, even among the sheaves. Then Boaz said, reproach her
not. Don't shame her. Don't shame her. How sad preachers
need reminding of this, but they do. It's not the business of
gospel preachers to chastise the Lord's children, but to comfort
them. As the man of God proclaims the
gospel, when it is applied by the spirit of God, the gospel
itself corrects, convicts, chastens, and comforts God's people. When
we set up standards, we do nothing but hinder men. There are no
prerequisites to you believing in Christ. None. I try deliberately
to speak often about the believer's experience of grace. But everything
I say about the believer's experience of grace, I say for the comfort
of those who experience the things I'm talking about. I'm not suggesting
you've got to have these experiences before you believe on Christ.
I'm not suggesting you must believe certain doctrines before you
can believe on Christ. I'm not suggesting you must have
these emotions and these feelings, or you must experience this thing
or that. You must have so much knowledge. I sat in a preacher's
home who's an absolute heretic to this day. unspeakably evil in his deeds
But some years ago I was preaching for him and I knew the direction
he was going in you've got to have this knowledge You've got
to know this you've got to experience that and I said what you're saying
and teaching is damning Because anything you put between the
center and Christ is works anything anything Come to Christ Well,
what come on? But I come to Christ, come to
Christ. Nothing keeps you from Him except
you trying to prepare yourself for Him, trying to make yourself
ready for Him. The issue, the only issue is
this, whether you be in the faith. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? I don't care about the evidences
of grace that men point to. The fact is a spark of faith
may exist and usually does in a great ocean of unbelief. Do
you believe on the Son of God? If you do, he's yours. But I don't know exactly what
condition I was in when I first made my profession of faith in
Christ. Your profession of faith in Christ this morning or yesterday
or 50 years ago is insignificant. Forget those things that are
behind. Do you believe on the Son of God? That's all that matters. Third, Boaz said, and let fall
also some handfuls of purpose just for her. I take that to
mean that gospel preaching is to be plain and simple. The simpler, the better. Handfuls
of purpose are purposefully left for specific people with specific
needs. They're left not by the preacher's
whims, but by the spirit's direction. True preaching is purposeful,
personal, and passionate. God can make stones, preach.
He doesn't need you or me. That bench you're sitting on,
Darwin, preach as good as you can if God should speak through
it. Well, that's ridiculous, preacher. Ridiculous or not,
it's so. But that bench can't feel what
a man feels. He can't know what a man goes
through. And God has ordained the use of men who feel what
men feel, who go through what men go through. who can have
compassion on men like themselves to preach to men like themselves.
And we ought to preach like that. I don't hear much preaching,
but when I get a chance to, I grieve so much because so many times
it's like a bench talking to a bench. It doesn't really matter. No passion, nothing purposeful,
nothing personal, nothing in it. Just the bantering back and
forth of intellectual theories about religious dogma and it's
useless. It's useless. Only men can feel
what men feel. And such men are to scatter the
bread of life with purpose by handfuls. handfuls of grace,
handfuls of redemption, handfuls of Christ, handfuls of mercy,
proclaiming Christ to men with simplicity. Some years ago, I
read a true story, two of them. Bear with me for a minute. Thomas
Manton was one of the most highly regarded of the Puritan writers
and preachers. In England, I have 22 volumes
of his books back here. And once in a while, I still
pull them down. But, you know, they weren't written
for folks with my slender apparatus. He was brainy, brilliant fellow. Well, this poor, unlearned, illiterate
farmer had heard that Matten was scheduled to preach. And
Matten was so famous. And he was coming within 50 miles.
And that man walked 50 miles to hear that famous Thomas Manton
preach. And Manton got up with all of
his learning. He spoke for an hour or so, probably
an hour or two, I don't remember. But he spoke for a long time. And he spoke about what the Greek
says and the Hebrew says. And he talked about the Latin
commentators and their comments concerning the thing. And when
he got done, That poor man walked out the door and Mr. Matten heard words I hope I never
hear. He tugged on his sleeve and he
said, I walked 50 miles to come hear you, Dr. Matten, and there
was nothing in it for me. That ought never happen. That
ought never happen. Preaching is to be done with
simplicity and with clarity. pouring out handfuls of purpose. Just, oh, I need to define. No,
just throw it out. That'd be all right. Well, I
need to explain this. No, just throw it out. No need
in telling folks how the bread was baked. Just put some butter
on it and serve it up. That's all that's needed. Joseph Irons,
I love to read his sermons, but apparently wasn't real good to
listen to, kind of dry to listen to. He read his sermons. He read
them. Now, I'll be honest with you.
I enjoy reading them, but when I read them, I have to read them,
sometimes read the same paragraph two or three times, because they
were well ordered. One Sunday, he got up to preach,
and he was suddenly stone cold blind. He couldn't see a thing. And he had to be helped up to
the pulpit, and he preached like he had never preached before.
Old woman went out the door, been under his ministry all those
years, and she said, would to God you'd gone blind 20 years
ago. Rather than reading a sermon,
he poured out his heart to the people. And then Boaz said, rebuke
her not. I take that to mean you don't
belong to me. You're not my children. I didn't
give you birth. God's people don't belong to
their pastors. They belong to God. And it's
not my business to whip God's children. That's not my business. My business is to minister to
them, to minister comfort to them. But don't you ever reprove? Yeah, unbelief. Don't you ever
rebuke? Yeah, unbelief. Our business
is to comfort God's people. But we're all legalists by nature.
We love the law. We love it. Oh, we love it. We
love it especially when we're beaten. The only thing we like
better than beating somebody else is being beat by it. We love to
be whipped and love to whip folks. And oftentimes, folks who know
better, at least in their heads, they know better. Nowhere free
from the law, but folks start to get out of line. They don't
start to, they're not coming to church like they ought to,
not giving like they ought to, not reading the Bibles like they
ought to, as if you have any business pying into those things.
Let's get up. Where did I bury that whip? No,
no. Comfort my people, saith the
Lord. Comfort my people. Now, there's
one more thing. I'll quit. All that we've seen
in this chapter took place after Ruth came to Boaz Field. But
there were other handfuls of purpose that preceded these handfuls
of purpose. Handfuls of purpose that were
altogether unknown to Ruth until she came to Boaz Field. Handfuls of purpose by which
God secretly hedged up her way. Hedged up her way. I read those
words in turning the hedging up of our ways. And when Mother
Oscar goes to load his cattle on the truck, been a while since
I've been down there, but I'll guarantee you what he does. He
gets them in a pen and then gradually keeps narrowing where they can
go. until they just got to get in the truck or the trailer.
That's exactly what he's talking about. Only it takes time the
way God does things. And he plants hedges in the way.
You can't go back and you keep getting more and more narrow
until the only way you can go is to the Savior. God hedged
up her way back when Lot committed incest with his daughter. from
whom the Moabites came, because God had chosen a Moabitess girl
by the name of Ruth. God was hedging up her way when
he gave plenty of food in Moab. All the days that Israel wandered
in the wilderness, God said, kill everybody. I mean, he just,
wherever you go, kill them all. Kill them all. Not to Moabites. Not to Moabites. Be careful you
don't do that to Moabites. How come? They were a cursed
race. Yeah, but there was somebody among them whom God had chosen.
And he is hedging up her way. God hedged up her way when he
sent famine in Bethlehem, Judah. Folks starving to death. And
he hedged up her way when he sent a limeleck down to Moab
in his rebellion. And he hedged up her way. When
she married Melod, oh, what good years. Imagine what must go through
her mind. Here I am, a poor Boabitis woman,
no Jew would ever look at me, and I married the richest one
in the whole household. Look at me now. And then God
took it all away because he hedged up her way. He hedged up her
way, marrying her to the son of a faithful gospel preacher. But Naomi was a woman. That's
the preacher God used. She told Ruth about God and his
ways and his grace and the law of the kinsman redeemer. And
God hedged up her way when Orpah went back. And Naomi said, I'm
going to Bethlehem. And God hedged up her way when
she went out to glean. And her hap was to fall in the
fields of Boaz. And God hedged up her way when
Boaz came and looked at her. And God hedged up her way when
Boaz dealt with the law for her and bought back everything she
had lost and married that poor Moabitess woman. That's the way
of our God. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose, by which he continually hedges
up our way. Oh, my God, graciously hedge
me in to your son. and lead me not to myself. And
what I ask for myself, I ask for these poor, sinful men and
women like me. Sweetly force them into the arms
of the Savior. Amen.