Take your time, take all the
time you need. This is Mike Walker from Cottageville,
West Virginia, by way of, where are you from really? North Carolina.
North Carolina. Yes. North Carolina. Little Florida
South. Little Florida South. Lord bless
you. Thank you. You know, I never really realized,
I've told some of this, you've heard me say it, that I never
knew I had an accent until I moved to West Virginia. And I knew
I was in deep trouble when me and Sandy goes to Walmart one
day. And the guy says, you ain't from around here, are you? Problem was, he wasn't from around
there either. Lived in North Carolina 50 some
years. I'd have never thought I'd have
wound up in West Virginia. But God has a way of putting
you exactly where he wants you to be. And I wouldn't rather
be anywhere else than Cottageville, West Virginia. I'm so glad he
brought me there. He's given me a love for those
people and those people a love for me and I just rejoice. And
I say, why me? Why me? How great thou art. Then I enjoyed that song. Loved
it. Loved it. Those old hymns. We
never get tired of singing those hymns. There's a few people have
the gift today to write some, but there's very few. Know anything
about God. Know anything about His sovereignty
and His grace and His mercy toward sinners. I'm glad he's pleased
to reveal himself to us and see how great he really is. Tonight,
if you would, turn your Bible to the book of Ruth. We tried to begin last night
looking at chapter one, and if you want to put a title to the
messages, I didn't give you one last night, but I've entitled
it, Coming Out Full or Going Out Full and Coming Back Empty,
how that family, to Alimelech, took his two sons and his wife
down to that wicked place of Moab. And when your pastor was
talking, I think sometimes we don't stress enough upon, you
know, how sad that was, how that he knew what he was doing. He
willfully did it, and he rebelled against God. He had no right
to go where he did. And we know God brought good
out of it, and he does. God's not bound to anything.
God rules and overrules everything for His honor and for His glory
and for the salvation of His people. But He's still responsible.
God brought good out of what happened in the garden. If I
can tell you this, when Adam rebelled, he rebelled. He went
with his eyes open. And he says, I'll be my own God. I'll do my own thing. And we're
still suffering for it. And I think we forget when we
sin, it says, when lust is conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And when
sin is conceived, it brings forth death. God brought love out of
Solomon, but look at what he lost. His own sons, they said,
when he tried to get them to leave that wicked place, it's
just like he mocked them. I can tell you this, we all need
to take heed to this. We can lose our influence for
somebody. And that's sad. May God enable us to learn the
lessons from his word. He said, you take heed. lest
there be in you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from
the living God. Every one of us, if it was not
for grace, would be just like Orpah. And we would all leave
today. We would all leave the house
of God. We would all leave the house of bread. And we would
go right back to this world quicker than you could blink an eye.
Now, that's a fact. That's a fact. And God will teach
you that. So now we come to Ruth chapter
2. We are introduced to this man
called Boaz. It says in verse 1, And Naomi
had a kinsman of her husband, a mighty man of wealth, of the
family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz, whose name means
strength. Now, to understand this book,
not only this book, the book of Ruth, but to understand this
whole book, you must have some understanding of what a kinsman
is, what this kinsman-redeemer is. Now, we saw that everything
that they had, everything that Elimelech had and his two sons,
that they lost it. Naomi's lost it. Ruth's lost
it. How are they going to get back
everything that they've lost under the law? And even before
God instituted the law in the book of Leviticus, He gave this
principle that if a man died, Without having any children with
his wife, it was the responsibility, if he had a brother, that his
brother was responsible to go into his brother's wife and marry
her and raise up children and their firstborn would take on
that man that died, his name. He was to raise up seed to that
one that died. If he couldn't do it, it went
to the very next of kin. He had to be near a kin. That's why it says, Naomi had
a kinsman. of her husbands, a mighty man
of wealth, and of the family of Elimelech. And his name was
Boaz. If you want to see this illustrated,
and I think I need to mention this because you'll find this
out again in chapter 4. In Genesis chapter 38, it just
seems like that chapter just doesn't fit right where it's
at. It's talking about Joseph. And right in the middle of talking
about Joseph, he tells about Judah. And you know who came
from the line of the tribe of Judah? The Lord Jesus Christ.
Judah went down, and he took a Canaanite woman to be his wife. Well, then through that union
he has three sons. Well, the first son's name was
Ur, and he took Tamar and gave her to his son. Before they can
have children, God killed Ur. Killed him. They said God slew
him. Why? I don't know. But God slew him. Well, do you
know what Judah did? He took the next son. and gave
him to Tamar. It's his responsibility to raise
up children to his dead brother. He wouldn't fulfill the office
of a kinsman. You know what happened? God slew
him. You say, explain that, preacher.
I can't. It just says God slew him. But
that shows me something about the significance of what that
represented. About all this pictures the Lord
Jesus Christ being our kinsman redeemer. So what does Judah
do? He tells Tamar, he said, you abide at your mother's house
till my younger son is old enough to marry and then I'll give him
to be your husband. So she waits and she waits. The
son's grown. What does Judah do? He don't
give that son to Tamar. You know what Tamar does? She
finds out where Judah's going to be and she paints herself
up and disguises herself like a harlot. She goes in to Judah,
and she said, Judah, what are you going to give me? What are
you going to give me as a reward? And he says, well, I'll bring
you a goat or something. But she said, what are you going
to do till then? He said, here's my ring. Here's my stigma. Here's
my stat. And here's my jewelry, my bracelets.
She said, OK. And what happened? Tamar conceives. She goes out. He don't know anything
more. He thinks he's just been with
a harlot. Three months later, it comes
in and they said, Judah, Tamar's played the harlot. He says, bring
her here. We'll kill her. She's played
the harlot. And she says, now, hold on, Judah.
Whose ring is this? Whose bracelet is this? Whose
staff is this? He said, she's been more righteous
than I am. But what I want you to see that through Tamar, she
had twins. The first one starts to be born
first, and they tie a scarlet ribbon around his hand, and he
jerks it in. And then the other one's born first, who is the
firstborn, whose name is Perez. And if you'll read Matthew chapter
1, Perez is in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you
see, he was supposed to give this brother. It was his responsibility
to go in. So to be a kinsman, he had to
be near kin. And the Lord Jesus Christ, this
is why he had to become a man. He's got to be kin. Old writers
used to refer to him as our elder brother, didn't they? He's kin. He's next of kin. The kinsman
had to be next of kin. He had to be able to buy. He
had to be able to redeem. And he had to be willing to redeem. And the Lord Jesus Christ did
all three. But what does it say here about
Boaz? He's a mighty man of wealth. He's not just any man. He's not
just any kinsman. He's a mighty man of wealth. Gil said that meant he was mighty
in the Scriptures, and I can see that's it, too. He knew the
Scriptures. Our Lord, He is the Word of God. No man ever spoke like this man.
So we see here about Boaz. Then look at verse 2 about Ruth.
And if you'll notice this all in this book, how does it refer
to her? Ruth, the Moabitess. Ruth, the Moabitess. And you
know how we're referred to? As the sons of Jacob. We're still
sinners. Ruth, the Moabitess. Said unto
Naomi, let me now go to the field. England years of corn after him.
What's this? After him in whose side I shall
find grace. And she said unto her, go, my
daughter. She asked permission of her mother-in-law. Someone said that she was free
from the law of her husband, but not free from the law of
her mother-in-law. She asked permission to go to go do what? Glean. God had set up in Leviticus,
let me read you this, in Leviticus 19, he made stipulations for
the poor. He said, When you reap the harvest
of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy
field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
Thou shalt not glean the vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every
grape of the vineyard. Thou shalt leave them for the
poor and the stranger. I am the Lord. When you pick
your garden, you don't pick everything. You leave something for some
poor stranger to come along and glean. You know who Ruth is?
She is a poor, Moabite stranger. She's not an Israelite by birth. She's a stranger, an outcast. And you know what she's going
to have to do to survive? She's going to have to go glean in
somebody's field. And she knows they're going to
have to let her glean. She has no right to glean. She
has no demands upon gleaning. She says, in whom, in whom I
shall find grace in his sight. So do you see the picture? Ruth
comes back. And it says that, let me go glean. And Naomi said
unto her, go my daughter. As I thought about Ruth, you
know, she's not lazy. She didn't sit around the house
with Naomi, and I don't read that Naomi didn't go glean, Ruth
did. She goes gleans for both of them. And it says in Proverbs
13, 27, and you cannot apply this to any woman, she's just
a type here, it says, she looketh well to her ways, to the ways
of her household, and she eateth not the bread of idleness. She
didn't stay with the other women. She said, you let me go. Let
me go clean. I can tell you, gleaning was
probably hard work. It's not like going out before
a field's ever been gathered of corn or wheat or whatever
it is, and just pick the first year you come to. You've got
to stoop down and look for it. In the middle of the day, in
the hot sun, that's what she's doing. And you know, when we
come to God's Word, it's like gleaning. And you know, it's
hard work. You come, you say, well, I don't
I don't see anything. I don't understand anything.
Well, join the crowd. Isn't that right? He says, if a man desire the
office of a bishop, he desires a good work. And she's not lazy. She said, let me go clean. Let
me go clean. Ruth acted upon the light she
had. She was not too proud to glean. She said, in whom I shall
find grace in his sight. Remember, she has nothing. She's
poor. She realized that no one owes
her anything. She knew she had no right to
be there. We live in a world we're talking
about today. We live in a world of entitlements. People think
everything's entitled to them. You don't have to go glean, we'll
glean it for you. Isn't that right? That mentality
is not only in the world, I think it's crept into the church. She didn't say, now Naomi, won't
you go with me? She's got to go by herself. And
this is a stranger that don't know anybody. Do you see the
picture? She's got to go alone. And that's how we do it. She
knew Naomi couldn't help her. But I think Naomi told her, if
we're going to survive, if we're going to survive, you've got
to go clean. If she didn't, you know what
would happen? They'd have perished. They would have starved. If she stayed right where she
was at, her and Naomi both would have died. Ruth goes to the field
out of need. Need. Let me tell you something. If you get hungry enough, you
say, well, I'm too proud to play. You ever get hungry, you'll pick
up every crumb you can find. I think that's what the leanness
is. You may walk for Ten steps or twenty steps or more and never
find anything. That's gleaning. Look in verse three, boy, this
is good. So as she goes, now picture it in your mind. She's
a stranger. She don't know anybody. And she
don't know who owns what field. She don't. It's just like me. I'm a stranger to this area.
And I say, well, I think I'll go out in that man's field. Maybe
he'll let me pick corn out of that field. And you know what?
This is where Ruth sat. And it says, And she went and
came and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And her hap
was to lie on the part of the field belonging unto Boaz, which
was of the kindred of Elimelech. Do you see that? It says it was
her hap. What does that mean? It just happened. What's the
odds that she just happens to come to Boaz's field? What was just the odds of you
coming to Boaz's field? Who just happens to be her near
kinsman? Oh, don't you see grace here?
It's not an accident. You know what? All she is, she's
hungry. She's looking for something to
glean. And she just happens to wind
up at his field. Thank God for the day I wound
up at his field. It belongs to Boaz. Now don't you see verse four? And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. While I can understand, there's
a lot transpired between verses 3 and verse 4. She's been out
there all morning. Boaz comes out in the middle
of the day, in the middle of the hot sun. You say, why would
a man of wealth come out in the middle of the day? Why would
he come out to this field? But can you imagine? Everybody
that knows who Boaz is, I try to picture things in my mind.
It just means more to me. I picture him riding up on the
best horse there was. I can see Ruth maybe saying,
who's that? Oh, that's Boaz. Who's that? Don't you know he
owns the field? And he came out from Bethlehem
and he said unto the reapers, there he is, reapers, the Lord
be with thee. And they answered him, the Lord
bless thee. He said, the Lord be with you.
And then they said, well, you get all the honor. The Lord bless
you, Boaz. But don't you see, Boaz speaks
about Ruth. Now, don't you picture this.
What I can understand, I think reading from Gill and others,
that it's lunchtime and they're tired. She's been out gleaning
all day. And she comes over near that have like shelters made,
I don't know what they were made out of, where you could come
in and get in maybe during lunch and get out from under the heat.
And she's sitting over here, I picture it at the end of the
table. And Boaz says, who is this damsel? Well, what I want
you to see, he's not asking this for his information. He's asking
this for Ruth's information. He wants her to know that he
knows her. Our Lord will speak about you
and for you before he speaks to you." And he says, who is
this damsel? And the servant that will sit
over the reapers answered and said, this is the Moabite damsel
that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab. And she
said, don't you see this? I pray you let me glean and gather
after the reapers. among the sheaves. Now, I don't
know the significance of it, but if you'll notice over in
verse 15, when he told those servants, he said, don't you
rebuke her and you let her glean even among the sheaves. I take
it that she wasn't supposed to be there, but she asked, she
says, let me glean even among the sheaves. And so she came
and she had continued even from the morning until now that she
tarried a little in the house. She's been here all morning.
And don't you know, I can imagine if she's saying, Boy, he's going
to make me leave. If he found out I'm a Moabite,
he won't let me glean his field. And then he says, then he said
unto Ruth, what a blessing when he speaks directly to you. You come in and you hear him
speak and you say, he's speaking about me. He's speaking for me. And now he speaks to me. He said,
My sheep, hear my voice. And he looked right at Ruth,
and I can see her not wanting to lift her head. And he said,
Ruth, hearest thou not my daughter? He calls her his daughter. Go
not, don't you see this, go not to glean in another field. Neither
go from hence, but abide here fast by my maiden." This is not
only a, he's not asking her, this is actually a command. He
said, don't you leave my field. And he said, why, let thine eyes
be on the field that they do read. And go thou after them. Have not I charged the young
men that they shall not touch thee? Can you imagine what it
would have been like for a Moabite virgin to be wound up in another
field? Those young men might have taken
her and raped her or done anything to her. You said, really? That's
exactly right. You said, what does this picture?
The safest place for a sinner is in Boaz's field. You go to
any other so-called field, see how they treat sinners. They
literally spiritually rape them. That's exactly right, isn't it?
He says, don't you go to another field. You stay right here in
my field. He said, I've charged my young
men not to touch you. He said, don't you touch her. Don't you follow her. He takes care of her. And when thou art a thirst, you
go into the vessels and drink that which the young men have
drunk. You don't even have to draw the water. Everything you want. He's right
here in this field. That's what he's telling her.
And that's what we tell sinners. The safest place to be for a
sinner is under the sound of the gospel. That's right. He says, I'll give you pastors
after my own heart. So-called, you read it, the pastors
of this world, they're brutish. They don't care. They only care
about lying in their pockets. And that's a fact. And look in verse ten, look at
her response. 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 am a stranger? Why would he take knowledge of
me? Why would He even let you in
His field and give you everything you'd ever need? Grace humbles
sinners. And I tell you, we've done so
that He empties you and He will humble you. Humble you. By nature, we're so proud. Someone said we can get proud
of grace. We can get proud of race. We get proud of everything. We're nothing and nobody. What
right do we have even to be here tonight? We could be Orpha still
down in Moab. Strangers. Gentiles. Is anybody in here a Jew? A national
Jew? That means we're all Gentiles.
We're all Gentile dogs. That's right. And Boaz answered, verse 11,
and said unto her, It hath been fully shown me all that thou
hast done unto thy mother-in-law, since the death of thy husband,
and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother in the land of
thy nativity, and art coming to a people which thou knowest
not hitherto for. The Lord recompense thy work,
and a full reward be given unto thee of the Lord God of Israel,
under whose wings thou art come to trust. You ever seen little
bitties get under a hen? Somebody told me one time the
barn caught on fire with the little chicken house where the
chickens were at. And he said he was walking through there
and he was just kicking through the ashes and there was nothing
left. And he said he seen something
kind of piled up there and he went up there and he just kind of
kicked it like that. You know what it was? It was
that dead mother hen. And out from under her were them
little bitties. He said, under whose wings you've
come to trust? He looked out over Jerusalem.
He said, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often when I've gathered
you at the hand of God, her little bitties under her wings, and
you would not. He said, Ruth, you've come to get under his
wings. And someone said that also. Boy, I can see this, too.
It's also represented. You've come under the rest under
the wings of his angels that overshadowed the very mercy seat
of Almighty God. under whose wings you've come
to trust. And she said, Let me find favor
in thy sight, my Lord, for thou hast comforted me, and thou hast
spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like one of thine
handmaids. And Boaz said unto her, At mealtimes
come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel
in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers,
and he reached her parched corn, Like he reached it to her and
she did eat. And what's this? And she was
satisfied. You know what that means? She
was satisfied. He satisfies the hungry soul. Like that song we sing at back
home, Satisfied. All my life long, I fed upon
the husk of this world and nothing ever satisfied. You sit at his
table, I sleepy satisfied. You don't want anything else.
But you see the picture, she's sitting there with him and he
reaches a morsel across her and she takes it and then she gets
up and leaves. What's she doing? She's going
back to gleaning. Well, look what he says to his reapers.
And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young
man, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and rebuke
her not." Don't you rebuke her. She has every right to be there
because I'm going to let her be there. And then what he said,
he said, watch this, verse 16, "...and let fall also some of
the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them that she may glean
them, and rebuke her not." She don't even know this. She's gone
back to gleaming. And He says, when y'all go back
to reaping, you let handfuls, handfuls of purpose. For who? For her. Have you ever picked
this up? And sometimes don't seem to find
anything. Boy, and there's sometimes just like a whole handful. It's
not on purpose, it's of purpose. Everything God does, he does
for his people and he does it on purpose. I don't know how
many other gleaners was in the field that day. I don't know,
it don't say, but I don't think she was the only one there. But
he did this for her. You know what that's called? That's called distinguishing
grace. She don't know anything about it. Imagine God doing that just for
a year. Just for a year. Handfuls of purpose. And leave them that
she may glean them and rebuke her not. So she gleaned in the
field into the evening. Was there all day long? You know
what she did when she got done? She beat out that she had gleaned.
And it was about an eighth of a barley. I saw my step-grandfather
do this years ago. It wasn't barley, but it was
a bunch of what I call cornfield peas. You let them grow back
home till the shell gets plumb dry. You know what he did? He
went and picked them, and he put them in a sack. He took them
out in the garage, he took a broom or something, and he beat on
that sack, and he was breaking up the hull of those peas. And
you know what he did? He went over and he got him a
big old fan. And he turned it on. And he began to pour that
out in front of that fan. You know what happened? The peas
fell to the ground. And the chap bowed away. She
beat out what she had gleaned. And you know what she's going
to do? She's going to take it back to Naomi. And someone said this was enough
for her and Naomi to live on for a whole week. And where did
she get it? From Boaz's field. She beat out
what she'd gathered. Verse 18, and she took it up
and went to the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she'd
gleaned, and she brought forth and gave to her that she had
reserved after she was sufficed. She wasn't just thinking about
her own belly. I can see her. She said, I've
eaten enough. I said, I'm going to take something back from Naomi. I heard, Henry Mahan used the
best illustration I ever heard one time about witnessing. He
said, you know what witnessing is? He said, it's one beggar
telling another beggar, we found something to eat. And I said,
here, what it is, it's one beggar taking something to another beggar. If God ever does something for
you, you want to do something for somebody else. And her mother-in-law, verse
19, said unto her. I'm going to paraphrase it. Where
in the world did you glean today? You don't get this much by gleaning. This ain't normal. You know,
Ruth didn't know. She didn't know no difference.
But boy, Naomi did. Where did you get this? And where
wrought this thou? Blessed be he that did take knowledge
of you. And she showed her mother-in-law.
with whom she had wrought and said, the man, watch this, the
man's name with whom I wrought today. Oh, he's Boaz. I can see. Oh, Naomi said unto
her, Daughter, oh, blessed be the Lord God, who hath not left
off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said
unto her, oh, listen, the man is near of kin unto us. He's not only near of kin, he's
one of our near kinsmen, next kinsmen. Oh, don't you know who
he is? Oh, Ruth, let me tell you who
Boaz is. And till this point, Ruth has
no idea. That's how God teaches you. And do you find out who Boaz
is? Well, I wish I knew that when
I was sitting down at the table with him. Oh, what grace. Oh, what grace. Ruth the Moabitess said, he said,
he said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men until
they have ended all the harvest. And Naomi said unto Ruth, her
daughter, It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens,
and that they meet thee not in any other field." So she kept
fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean him to the end of barley
harvest, the end of wheat harvest. And she dwelt with her mother-in-law. I don't know how long this went
on. She went every day to glean. You know what Boaz is doing?
He's winning Ruth's heart. You know what he said in the
book of Hosea? He said, I will allure her and bring her into
the wilderness, and I will speak comfortably to her. You know
what God does to a sinner? He will win your heart. He will
make you willingly and lovingly, but he will make you fall in
love with him. For you love him more than anything
in this world. That's salvation. You want Him
before you didn't want Him, but now you want Him. He makes you
willing in the day of His power. Whenever one of us are unwilling,
we see no beauty in Him. But when He wins your heart,
I can tell you this, nobody was ever gracious to me like He was.
Nobody. I'm telling you, nobody. I didn't
find this in any other field, and I tried gleaning in a lot
of other fields. But thank God for the day I just
happened on his field. Now, chapter three. Now, Naomi here, I think she
can picture, be a picture of the church. She's instructing
Ruth on what to do. Ruth don't know the law, she
don't know what she's supposed to do. And it says, And Naomi,
her mother-in-law, said unto her, My daughter, shall I not
seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? And now is
not Boaz of our kindred, with whom's maidens thou wast? Behold,
he wentleth barley to-night in the threshing-floor. And what
she's telling her, she says, I want to find rest for you.
I'm seeking rest for you. And the church instructs sinners
where they can find rest. And she says, she's going to
tell her where Boaz is going to be. She knows exactly where
he's going to be and what he's doing. She said he's going to
be down and I send the barley harvest. And you think, well,
why would Boaz be down there? I picture down there at the barn
somewhere where all the grain's been brought in. If he's winnowing,
he's separating the chaff from the wheat. That's what he's doing.
And you know where you'll find him? That's where you'll find
him. Here's what it says, Luke chapter 3, verse 16. John answered
and said unto him, I indeed baptize you with water, but when my dear
than I cometh, the latches of whose shoes I'm not worthy to
unloose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost with fire,
whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his
floor, and he will gather the wheat into his garner, and he
will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. This is where you'll find
the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of his church, beating
out the wheat, and the fan is in his hand." She said, that's
where you'll find him. God uses his church, that's his
instrument, his local church, through his preachers, through
his pastors, to instruct sinners where you'll find him. And that's
what she's doing, Drew. She's going to tell him, she's
telling her where he's at. You know why? She's going to
send her to him. Worse thyself, verse three, and
anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down
to the floor. But make not thyself known unto the man, until he
shall be done eating and drinking. And he shall be. When he lie
down, thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou
shalt go in and cover his feet, and lay down there." Now, what's
this? "'And he will tell thee what thou shalt do.' And she
said unto her, All that thou sayest unto me, I will do. So now Ruth has to go alone,
and she's going to go find where Boaz is at. And I tell you this,
God gets sinners alone with Himself. And it says, and she went down,
and this is how it always is, we always have to go down to
the floor and get according to all that her mother-in-law bade
her to do. She might have said on the way
down, I just think I'll do it my own way. That old woman, she
don't know what she's talking about. I think I'll do it this
way. I'll just go in there and say,
Boaz! None of that mess. She does exactly what she's instructed. And what I think strange is,
it's almost to the letter what Naomi told her, what he'd be
doing, when he'd be doing. It's what he's doing when she
gets down there. I think Naomi had probably been
in her cell. I think that was a... I'd say
this ain't the first time Boaz has been here. And she may have
been here, we don't know, but she knew where he would be and
what he would be doing. And if you've ever been to the
threshing floor, you can tell another sinner what he'll be
doing. You can describe the character of our Redeemer. Isn't that right? And that's what she's doing.
She's a mullabyte. She don't know anything. She's
totally ignorant. And Ruth said in faith, whatever
you tell me to do, whatever you tell me to do, that's what I'll
do. Boy, I wish I could find some
that way. Don't you? Whatever you tell me to do. Whatever
you tell me to do, that's what I'll do. And when Boaz had eaten and drunken
and his heart was merry, he went in to lay down at the end of
the heap of corn, and she came softly and uncovered his feet. And she laid herself down. She ventures everything on him.
And you know what she does? She lays down and doesn't open
her mouth. And this is what sinners are
commanded to do. We come in, and we sit down at
his feet. And you know what we do? We sit
and wait. And just maybe, he may speak. That's what we do every time
we come together. We come, and what we do? We come and sit at
his feet. And we just lay down. Let me tell you this. Salvation
is not appearing in front of this church. Salvation is not
moving a muscle. It's when God enables you to
believe. You know why she did all this? She believed. She believed. How do you know she believed?
Right here? She laid down. Too many people are too proud
to lay down. They don't want to wait. Well, surely tell him something
else to do. Ain't there something else to do? No, you sit and listen. You come, you sit, and you listen. And just maybe he may speak to
you. It came to pass at midnight that
the man was afraid. He turned himself, and behold,
a woman lay at his feet. And he said, Who art thou? And
she answered, I am Ruth. What's this? I'm your handmaid.
You know what she's saying? You're sovereign and you can
do with me as you see fit. You can cast me away, you can
show me mercy, or you can damn me. It's up to you. I'm your
handmaid. I'm your handmaid." And then she said, "'Spray it
therefore, thy skirt, over thine handmaid, for thou art my dear
kinsman.'" You know what she's doing? He asked her, said, "'What
do you want? Who are you?' She said, "'I'm
Ruth, your handmaid.'" She said, "'Would you be pleased to cover
me with your skirt?' Would you do the part of the kinsman redeemer? You're my near kinsman, and I
know it. Would you redeem me? Listen in Ezekiel chapter 16,
verse 8. Now, when I passed by thee and
looked upon thee, behold, the time was the time of love. And
I spread my skirt over thee. Why did he spread his skirt over?
To cover thy nakedness. It's neckiness of the soul. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. Naomi's not here. This is not
between Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz. It's between Boaz and Ruth. We missed the track a long time
ago in religion. Man thinks he has it in his hands,
and it's between him and the sinner and God. It's between
the sinner and God. And we leave it that way. If God ever brings you like he
did, Ruth, and he brings you to his feet, and you come as
a beggar. Did you hear what I said? You
come as a beggar. And you say, would you put your
skirt over me? Would you cover my nakedness?
Would you, would you redeem me? Look in verse 10, I may come
back to this again in the morning, but let me read, let me just
read the rest of the chapter. And he said, blessed be thou
of the Lord, my daughter, for thou hast showed more kindness
in the latter end than in the beginning, insomuch as thou hast
followed not young men with a rich poor or rich. Why didn't she
look for somebody else? Why didn't she look for another
husband? She only wanted one. You know what it says in the Song
of Solomon? You remember how she went to sleep and she was
too lazy basically to get up and go to the door when he knocked
at the door and he reached in by the hole of the door and he
touched her heart. She gets up and goes to the door and he's
gone. Boy, her heart's broke now. She goes out into the streets
and she said, if you saw my beloved, and they said, what is your beloved
more than another beloved? And she began to describe him.
She said, his hair is black as a raven. And then she said, his
mouth is most sweet. He's altogether lovely. This
is my beloved. He's the only one I want. And
God will bring you to that place. You just won't run after any
lover. There's only one. There's only one. And I tell
you this, if he ever gets your heart, and he gives you a new
one, you know what he said? He shed his love abroad in your
heart. We're not even worthy to stand
and sing, oh, how I love Jesus. It ain't even worth talking about.
And I tell you this, his love for his people is. And he said, now, my daughter,
fear not. What's he going to say? She's
asking, what's he going to say? He said, fear not. I will do
to thee all that thou requirest. I'll do it. I'll redeem you. For all the city of my people
doth know that thou art a virtuous woman. If you see this and you
think about this. Now it is true that I am thy
near kinsman, howbeit There is a kinsman nearer than I. Tarry
this night, and he shall be in the morning. That if he, the
nearer kinsman, will perform unto thee the part of the kinsman,
well, let him do the kinsman's part. But if he will not do the
part of the kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of the
kinsman to thee, as the Lord liveth." Lie down here until
the morning. Whether he will, he don't, I
will. He's got to be dealt with. But
don't you worry about it. You don't have anything to worry
about. And can I tell you something
tonight? If you're His, you don't have anything to fear. Isn't that good? What do you
have to fear? He said, fear not. And she lay at his feet until
the morning. And she rose up before one to
know another. And he said, let it not be known
that a woman came unto the floor. And he said, bring the veil that
thou hast upon thee and hold it. And when she held it, he
measured six measures of barley and laid it on her. And she went
unto the city. Somebody said he gave her all
the grace she could carry. He gave it to her. And then when she was come to
her mother-in-law, she said, who are you, my daughter? In
essence, she's asking, are you Miss Boaz? And she told her all that the
man had done unto her, and she said, these six measures of barley
gave he me, for he said to me, do you see this? Go not empty unto thy mother-in-law. You're not going empty. Isn't it so beautiful? I mean,
it's just... Then said she, Naomi says to
Ruth, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter
will fall. Now watch this. For the man will not be in rest
until he hath finished the thing, the stain. He will not rest till
he's done what? Finished the work? And I tell
you, when he hung on the cross and he cried out, it is finished. It's done. It is done. It's finished. And she said,
look, you don't have anything to worry about. And I'll tell you tonight,
if you're his, you don't have anything to worry about. I have
a near kinsman. He says, I'm going to take care
of everything. Don't you worry about nothing. Amen.