Years ago, I was reading a sermon by Charles
Spurgeon, and he told about a young preacher
that had been invited to preach at a chapel in Wales,
an old Welsh chapel. And he brought his message. He thought it was pretty good. And he stepped down in front
of the pulpit to greet the congregation as they came by to speak to the
Biston preacher. And the people passing by one
at a time would shake hands with this young man make a comment
or two about the message. And finally, one of the elders,
one of the older men in the congregation came by and shook his hand and
never said a thing. Not a word. And he started on
by and the young man knew this elder and knew he was one of
the prominent men of the church. And he reached and caught him
by the arm and drew him back towards him. He said, sir, he
said, you didn't say anything about my message. And the old
man said, well, son, it was a mighty poor sermon. And the young man was shocked.
And he said to him, he said, but I prepared. I prepared a
long time. getting ready to preach that
message. Oh, he said, I could tell it was well prepared. He
said, was my delivery not a good delivery? No, he said, son, you've
got a good voice. You've got a good delivery. You
can hold people's attention very well. Well, he said, what about my
illustrations? Were they good? The old man said,
excellent. Well, how can you say it was
a poor sermon? if it was well prepared, well presented, well
illustrated. The old man said, son, it was
a poor sermon because there was no Christ in your sermon. But he said, sir, Christ was
not in the text. Oh, he said, that's where you're
wrong, son. Christ is in every text, Old
and New Testament. And your business is to find
out how that text points to the person and work of Christ, and
preach Christ. He said, son, the scripture says
in Acts 10, 43, to him, give all the prophets witness. And
our Lord said himself to the Pharisees, he said, you search
the scriptures. You search the scriptures, for
in them you think you have life. But the scriptures testify of
me. And son, when our Lord spoke to the disciples on the road
to Emmaus, he began at Moses and the Psalms and the Prophets
and preached to them the things concerning himself and opened
their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures.
And your sermon was a mighty poor sermon because there was
no Christ in it. And many people who read the
book of Ruth fail to see Christ. They spend their time talking
about this testimony that Ruth gave, and it's beautiful, I love
it. Look down at Ruth, chapter 1, verse 16. When she said to
her mother-in-law, entreat me not to leave thee, I return from
following after thee. Whither thou goest, I will go,
and whither thou lodgest, I will lodge, and thy people shall be
my people, thy God my God. And when thou diest, 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."
That's fine, that's wonderful, but it exalts Ruth. It calls attention to Ruth, and
that's not what these four chapters are about it all, they're about
Christ. And the person and work of Christ,
I'll tell you where it starts, over here in the book of Leviticus,
turn over there just a moment, you have to turn with me to the
book of Leviticus, chapter 25. You see the Lord divided the land among the tribes, and put
different tribes in different places. He says here in Leviticus chapter
25, verse 23, the land shall not be sold forever. You can't
just sell this land forever and let it pass on to whomever, even
strangers. The land shall not be sold forever.
For the land is mine, God says. This is my land. You strangers
and your sojourners are here with me. And in all the land
of your possessions, you shall grant a redemption of the land.
There's going to be a redemption of the land. Got to be. Got to
come back to the original tribe, the original owner. No matter
what happens, it's got to come back. So if your brother, verse
25, be waxen poor, or for some reason he has sold away some
of his possessions. Now he sold it. He's out of it. He's either poor, or he's in
debt, or something happened and he sold the land, and it's out
of his hands now. But there's got to be a redemption.
And if any of his kin, man's got to be kin to him, come to
redeem it, this person, this kinsman redeemer, has got to
be able, wealthy, and willing and kin to it, that's the three,
that's the same thing, kinsman redeemed. If he comes to redeem
it, then he shall redeem that which his brother sowed. But
what if he doesn't have a kinsman redeemer? Well, in the year of
Jubilee, you remember, number 7 years and 1, 50 years, all
of the land goes back to the original owner. All the slaves
are set free, all the debts are paid, All the land is redeemed,
it goes right back to where God gave it. It's not your land,
he says it's my land. But now if a man gets in trouble,
like we got here in Ruth, and sells it, then it's got to be
redeemed. But it's got to be redeemed by
a kinsman redeemer. Now let me show you that in Ruth.
Turn to Ruth, chapter 2. Let's look at chapter 2. Chapter
2, verse 20. I know some of you read ahead
this afternoon, And it's all right if you read it a hundred
times, you'll still discover something different. But here
in verse 20, we're at Ruth 2.20. And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law,
Blessed be the Lord, blessed be he of the Lord, blessed be
he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the
living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, This
man is near a kin to us. This man is very near kin to
us. Talking about Boaz. In fact,
he's a Limelec's nephew. A Limelec's brother is named
Simon. And this is Simon's son, Boaz. And he's a Limelec's nephew. He's near kin to us. Alright. He's one of our next kinsmen.
If your Bible has a mark there, one of our next kinsmen over
in the margin, it identifies what a near kinsman is. It's
one that has the right to redeem. Now he's got to have a right.
He's got to be kin to him, he's got to be mighty wealthy, and
he's got to be mighty willing. That's the three things. So she
said, this man you've run into, he's my husband's nephew. He's our next kinsman. He has
the right to redeem. Alright, look at Ruth chapter
3 verse 9. Here it is again. Ruth 3 verse
9. And he said, Who art thou? And
she answered, I am Ruth, thy handmaid. Spread therefore thy
skirt over thy handmaid, for you are a near kinsman. Look in the margin now. I got
a three by mine. She said, Ruth knew this, Naomi
told herself, you are one that has the right to redeem. You
have the right. You're the only one I know that
has the right to redeem me. All right, one more. Look at
Ruth 4, 14. And here all the women, it's
things over now, and Ruth's married to Boaz, and she's going to have
a baby. little boy, and the women, verse
14 of chapter 4, and the women said to Naomi, Bless the Lord. Now that's time to bless the
Lord when you've got a near kinsman redeemer. Bless the Lord. Bless
the Lord. Which has not left thee this
day without a kinsman redeemer, that his name may be famous among
Israel. So that's what we've got here.
The Lord Jesus Christ is our kinsman redeemer. And 13 times
in the book of Isaiah, he's called our redeemer. So let's go back
to chapter 1. I call chapter 1 a dreadful fall. A dreadful fall. Let's look at
it. I'll just skip along here. In verse 1, it came to pass in
the days when the judges ruled, There was a famine in the land.
This is before David now, just back before David. And a certain
man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to sojourn in the country of
Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. Now this man, this
man, it says in the next verse, he gives us his name, it's Elimelech. This is a high-ranking man. His
brother was prince in Judah, prince in Judah, Simon. This
man is a high-ranking man. This is a dreadful fall. This
man took, there's a famine in the land. Well, famines were
normal to those people in the desert countries. But God always
brought good times and bad times and good times, but this man
gave up on God. And he just got his wife and
his two sons and sold out. And he went to a pagan country. the people of God, he left the
worship of God, he left the nation of God, and went to Moab. The
pots of Moab, that's what it boils down to. He and his two
sons. And now watch verse 2. The name of the man was Elimelech,
named his wife Naomi. You know what Elimelech means?
My God is king. His mama named him Elimelech,
which says my God is king. And Naomi's name means sweet
and pleasant, and they had two sons, and it says here they were
Ephratites. Do you know one of the names
of Bethlehem? Bethlehem of Ephrata. Remember? Ephrata in Genesis,
Micah. These men were Ephratites. Special
men. Simon, and Limelech, Malon, and
Chileon. They've left God. You talk about
Adam's fall, Here's one very similar. And they went down to
the country of Moab, verse 2, they weren't shopping around,
they went there and stayed. Continued that. Well, God dealt
with them. And Elimelech, Naomi's husband,
died in a very short time and left her and her two sons. And
those two boys, you know what they did next? They did what
you used to do when you go to a pagan land. You'll marry a
pagan woman. You start hanging around folks like that, you're
going to mess up. And they did. And they took to
themselves two pagan women. One named Orphan, one named Ruth.
And they lived about ten years and God killed them. This is
all to tell us the story. And you remember the rest of
it. Alright, let's go over here now to verse 6, and then she arose with her daughters,
and that she might return from the country of Moab, for she
heard how the Lord had blessed his people in giving them bread,
and he always does. He always does. So she took them
out to a certain place. Now look at verse 14. And they lifted up their voice,
these two girls, she's told them she's going back and for them
to stay where they are, stay with her people. And lifted up
her voice and wept. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law
and went back. Where'd she go back to? Read
the next verse. Behold, Naomi said to Ruth, your
sister-in-law is gone back to her people. And back to her gods. Now you go too. You go too. But I'm going to show you something
in this next verse. It's like the two thieves on the cross.
They both began to crush this man in the middle. You be the
Christ, save yourself and us. And one of them died. Brother
Todd and I have preached the message here not long ago. One
of them died, and he sins. But the other one, something
happened. Something happened that the old-timers
called Provenient Grace. Provenient Grace. What is Provenient
Grace? Well, you have Sovereign Grace,
you have Saving Grace, you have Keeping Grace, you have Restraining
Grace, you got Provenient Grace. And just look it up in Webster's
Dictionary when you get home. Provenient Grace means this,
listen. It means preceding grace. It
means grace before grace. It means grace going before,
prior to any human action. So this girl, faced with the
fact she'd probably never have a husband, lived the rest of
her life alone with this old woman. Something's going on in
here. I can't go back. Like that thief
over here, he stopped cursing. He turned and said, Lord, you're
not going to stay dead. You're coming into the kingdom.
Would you remember me? I cast everything I got on you.
What about the eunuch? He went up to Jerusalem to worship.
What did he do that for? Something going on in here. God
was dealing with him before God revealed the truth to him. This
man was seeking the Lord before he knew the Lord he was seeking. Cornelius, Lydia, I keep naming,
Zacchaeus, Provenient Grace, and you and me too. For some
reason God sent me to Ashland, Kentucky to hear the gospel.
But it came here before I ever heard it. Provenient grace. You may be sitting here tonight
for one cause or another cause, but I'll tell you whose cause
it is. It's His cause. You may have provenient grace,
you may not, but thank God you do. This girl did. She said,
I'm not going anywhere but where you go. And so don't tell me to leave
you. Where you go, I go, and where you lodge, I lodge. That's
just going to be the way it is. That's determination and seeking
the Lord. But she didn't know why, didn't
know whom, didn't know what it was all about. She just knew
this woman had something she wanted. I'm going to stay with
you. All right, this next chapter
now I call Sovereign Mercy. Well, let's look at verse 19
a minute. So these two of them, Ruth and
Naomi, In verse 19, chapter 1, they came to Bethlehem. And it
came to pass, when they would come to Bethlehem, all the city
was moved about them, and they said, is this Naomi? See, she's
well known. She's only been gone 15 years
or so. Long enough to be down there.
Her husband died, and these two boys married, and they lived
15 or 20 years. But she... The ruins of this
terrible experience It left its mark on her. She left there. Well, she's going to tell us
how she left. They gathered around. Is this the same Naomi that left
here? I look at human beings and I
think, is this the same fellow God created in his own image?
We don't bear much likeness, do we? What a ruin. And she said,
verse 20, don't call me Naomi. Naomi means sweet and pleasant.
Call me Mara. That means bitter. For the Lord
hath dealt bitterly with me. And she deserved it. And so did
Elimelech. That's right. They deserved it. Sinners don't need to be pitied.
They need to be blamed. We're to blame for what we are
and what we do. That's right. We need to be blamed.
That's right. She said, I went out of here
full. God blessed us. I left here full,
and I've come home empty. That's what happened to Adam.
The rich is now poor. The sweet is now bitter. The
king is now a pauper. So why would you call me Naomi,
seeing the Lord has testified against me? The Almighty has
afflicted you. But He has to afflict you before He blesses
you. He's got to bring you down before He raises you up. You've
got to confess your sins before they're forgiven. It's got to
be lost for your pound. And she's in that place now. So she returned, and Ruth the
Moabitess, her daughter-in-law with her, returned out of the
country of Moab, and they came in time for the barley harvest.
Alright, the next verse, Sovereign Mercy. So Naomi had a kinsman
of her husband, a mighty, such a man, a mighty man. We're talking
about our Lord here now, the one who represents our Lord.
The Kingman Redeemer is Boaz, and we're talking about Christ
now, dealing with us like he's going to deal with Ruth. And
his name is Boaz. You know who Boaz is? Turn to
Matthew chapter 1. I'm going to show you just how
critical this is here. Man of wealth. Man of power,
man of prestige, near kinsman. Oh, our near kinsman is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the one that's going to
buy back our lost estate. Look at Matthew 1, verse 5. I've been telling you about Simon,
back there in verse 4. Amminadab, and Amminadab begat
Naason, and Naason begat Simon. Now here's Simon. And Simon begat
Boaz. And you know who Boaz's mother
was? Rahab of Jericho. That's right. Simon married Rahab
after the children of Israel came through there and the wall
fell. God, your God's my God, and she married Simon. She married
this fella, this Ephraimite from Bethlehem. And she had a boy,
his name is Boaz. And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth,
and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David. This man Boaz is
David's great-great-grandfather. So we're dealing in high, we're
dealing in some influential, powerful people. Simon's brother. His son, Boaz,
is a Limelech's nephew, and that's the near kinsman. So watch this,
this is so good. So Ruth, in verse 2, Ruth the
mulberry said to Naomi, let me now go to the field and glean
ears of corn after him in whose sight I may find grace. And she
said, Naomi said, well go my daughter. Now here is the tradition. This man Boaz and all the men
he knows, they have all these lots and lands and farms and
they raise corn and barley and wheat and all these things. Well,
it's the reaping time. And when the reapers go through
cutting the barley, cutting the grain, poor people, I mean poor
people, would follow the reapers. So they'd gather up everything,
but every once in a while they'd leave something, just leave Here
and there, you know, you can't get everything. So the Lord ordained
that these poor people could have whatever the reapers left
behind them. That's what it's called. So this
Ruth said to her mother-in-law, let me go follow the reapers
and pick up whatever I can so we'll have something to eat,
make some bread, something. So she said go. Now here's Sovereign
Grace, listen. And she went and came and gleaned
in the field after the reapers, and her hop, it so happened. You believe that? It so happened. It was ordained. There was all
these fields she could have gone to. She came to Boaz's field. God sent her there. God, who
gave her pervenient grace, now has given her a well-ordered
direction, predestinating grace. That's it now. predestinating
grace. She's got in the right pew at
the right place to hear the right gospel. It couldn't have been
anywhere else. So her hat was to lie on the
field belonging to Boaz, who was a kindred of the Levite.
She didn't know this. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem
and said to the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered,
The Lord bless you. Then said Boaz to his servants, He said, whose damsel is that?
And the servant that was sent over the reapers answered and
said, that's the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out
of the country of Moab. And she said, I pray you, let
me glean. She said this to the reapers.
She said, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.
So she came and she'd been here from the morning. She'd been
here all day until now. She tired a little bit in the
house, but she'd been here a while. You see, she's diligent. And
Boaz said to Ruth, he turned to Ruth, he said, Now, hearest
thou not my daughter? Go not to glean in another field,
neither go from his, but abide here, fast by my maidens. And
let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou
after them. Have not I charged these young
men that they'll not touch you?" These girls following these fellows
got into problems sometimes. And he said, now, this is how
the Lord takes care of you and me. Before we ever come to know
Him. He hedges us about. He says, they're not going to
touch you. And you just glean all you want to. I'll take care
of you. When you're thirsty, listen,
go to the vessels and drink that which the young men have drawn.
You're one of mine. You're one of mine. The Lord
preserves us and protects us and keeps us when we're out there.
Don't even know him. She didn't know who this man
was, but he knew who she was. And she fell on her face and
bowed herself to the ground. She said, sounds like one of
the old timers, doesn't it? Sounds like Moses. Why have I
found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge
of me? I'm a stranger. I don't even belong here. That's
a humble heart, isn't it? And Boaz answered and said to
her, It's been fully shown me all that thou hast done to 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 has come unto a people which thou knewest not hitherto. Heretofore,
the Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee
of the Lord God of Israel. under whose wings you've come
to trust." 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 thy handmaid, though I be not like unto one of your
handmaidens. I'm different. I'm a stranger.
I'm from a pagan land, but you've been good to me. And though I
said to her, Now at mealtime come thou hither, and eat the
bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar, And she sat beside
the reapers, and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat,
and was sufficed and left. And when she had risen up to
glean, Boaz commanded his young men, I love this passage right
here, now this right here. Oh, how the Lord has provided
for his elect. And he commanded the young men,
said, Let her glean, even among the sheaves. Don't stop her,
don't reproach her. And I tell you what, do. Let
fall some of the hands full of purpose. Just drop some on purpose. Get a big one, toss it there.
Oh my. He cares for his own, and don't
rebuke her. So she gleaned in the fields until evening and
beat out that which she'd gleaned, and it was about an ephah of
barley. You know what that is? An Ifa
is six gallons and three pints. It's enough to last her and her
mother five days. An Omar is one-tenth of an Ifa,
and an Omar, O-M-E-R, is enough barley to bake bread to last
a man all day long, and she had six gallons. Here she comes home
with it now, that's really it, and she took it up, and went
to the city, and her mother-in-law, she still doesn't know who this
man is now. She still does not know. She's
got the grace of a believer, she's got the humility of a believer,
she's got the attitude of a believer, she's got that provenient grace,
God's working with her. He knows her. And she brought
forth and gave to her that she had reserved after she'd survived.
Verse 19, now her mother-in-law said to her, I bet she was shocked,
don't you? Where hast thou gleaned today? And where wrotest thou? Blessed
be he that did take knowledge of thee. Somebody helped you
out. And she showed her mother-in-law
with whom she had wrought, and she said, The man's name with
whom I wrought today is Boaz. Oh, my. Naomi said to her daughter-in-law,
Blessed be the Lord who hath not left off his kindness to
the living and to the dead. And Naomi said to her, This man,
this man is near kin, akin to us. He's one of our next kinsmen.
And Ruth the Moabite said, Well, he said unto me also, Thou shalt
keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all the harvest.
And they only said to her daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, that
thou goest out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in the
other field. So she kept fast by the patience. They didn't try to seal this
deal right away. Naomi didn't call up And Boaz would say, I
hear you're interested in my daughter, daughter-in-law. No,
just patience. So they kept fast by the maidens
of Boaz to glean until the end of the barley harvest, of the
wheat harvest, and she dwelt with her mother-in-law. Now here's
a picture of repentance and faith. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law,
said to her, now my daughter, I seek rest for thee, that it
may be well with thee. And now, chapter 3, verse 2,
is not Boaz our kinsman? This man is our kinsman. He's
my nephew, my husband's nephew. And he's wealthy, and he's a
near kinsman, and he can redeem us. He doesn't owe us anything. He doesn't owe you anything,
doesn't owe me anything at all. He doesn't have to do it. It's
not required. He can if he will. That's what
that leper said to our Lord when he fell at his feet. He said,
Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. But I want you to know
something, Ruth, I want you to know something. He doesn't have
to. So she gives us some instruction. Verse 2, And now is not Boaz
of our kindred, with whose maidens I was? Behold, he winneth barley. tonight in the threshing floor,
he's down in the threshing floor. Now you wash yourself, therefore
anoint yourself, put on your raiment, and you get down there
to the floor, but don't you make yourself known to him, don't
you bother him or aggravate him or put any pressure on him until
the man, until the man, until he shall have done eating and
drinking. It shall be when he lies down, You go mark the place
where he doth lie, and you go in there and uncover his feet,
and lay down at his feet, and he'll tell you what to do." Now,
a lot of folks had bucked right there, wasn't they? I'm not lying
down at anybody's feet. Well, Mary did. She sat at the
feet of the Lord. The Canaanite woman did. She
came and said, the Lord told her he was sent to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. She said, but I, oh, he said,
don't give the children's bread to dogs. She said, yeah, but
I'm your dog. Where do dogs lie? At the feet. So, lie down. Don't you tell him anything,
he'll tell you. This sovereign mercy is sovereign. This sovereign love is sovereign.
He doesn't have to. He doesn't owe us anything. You
just be still and be quiet. Preachers always tell people
what they need to tell the Lord. You just be still and know that
I'm God. Lie down at his feet. So she
said, OK, all that you say to me I'll do. And she went down
into the floor and did according to all her mother-in-law bade
her. And when Boaz had finished eating and drinking, his heart
was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn.
And she came softly and uncovered his feet and laid her down. It
came to pass at midnight the man was afraid and turned to
himself. Behold, a woman lay at his feet. He said, Who are
you? She said, I'm Ruth, thy handmaid. Spread therefore thy skirt over
thy handmaid, for you are one that has a right to redeem me. You're the one, and there's only
one. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. You're all I've got. You're all my hope. That's just
the way it is. You save me or I'm lost. You
prosper me or I'm in poverty for life. You bring me into light
or I'm in dark. You're the only one. And he said,
Well, blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter. Thou showed
more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch
as thou followest not young men, whether rich or poor. Now, my
daughter, fear not. I will do to thee all that thou
requirest. For all the city of my people
doth know thou art a virtuous woman. And that's true. I am
your near kinsman. However, there's a kinsman nearer
than I. I don't know who that is. But it may be that Boaz has a
brother that's older than him. You know, older, first born,
got more authority than the next one. I don't know. But I think
what he's saying here, I think in reference to our near kinsman
Christ, the law has first claim on us. That's a good possibility. It represents the law. The law's
got first claim on us. And that's the one who has the
claim. I've got to buy you from him.
I've got to deal with him before I deal with you. So that's what
he's saying there. There's a near kinsman than I. Tell him this night and in the
morning that if he will perform unto thee the part of the kinsman,
well, let him do it. But if not, if he'll not do the
part of the kinsman to thee, then I will do it. I'll do the
part of the kinsman. As the Lord liveth, lie down
till the morning. And she lay down until the morning,
and she arose up before one could know another, and he said, Let
it not be known that a woman came unto this floor. Bring the
veil that thou hast upon thee, and hold it. And she held the
veil, and he when she heard that he measured six measures of barley
and laid it on her, and she went to the city. And she came to
her mother-in-law, who said, Who art thou, my daughter? And
she told her all that the man had done. And she said, These
six measures of barley gave he me, for he said to me, Go now
empty it to your mother-in-law. Then her mother said, Sit still. Sit still. My daughter, until
thou knowest how the matter will fall out, this man will not rest
until he's finished this thing." Oh, I like that, don't you? Our
Redeemer, our kinsman Redeemer is not going to rest. He that
hath begun a good work in you, you finish it. So he met with
this fellow, and he told him about this, and he said, well,
Naomi, I'll take care of that. And Boaz said, If you do, you
got to marry Ruth. And he said, can't do it. I can't
marry Ruth. I can't marry her. That ruined
my inheritance. The law can't help Ruth. The
law can't help sinners. The law can't redeem us unless
we're perfect. So they exchanged the shoe. That's
what it was. And let me read the last of it
in chapter Verse 11, chapter 4. And all the people that were
in the gate and the elders said, We're witnesses. The Lord make
the woman that is come unto thy house like Rachel and Leah. Which
two did build the house of Israel? They were Jacob's wives. Remember
they had the 12 sons. Rachel and Leah had the 12 sons.
Jacob's 12 sons. and do thou worthily in Ephrathah,
and be famous in Bethlehem. And let thy house be like the
house of Phares, whom to-morrow bear unto Judah," you know that
story, "...of the seed which the Lord shall give thee of this
young woman." So Boaz took Ruth, she was his wife, and when he
went in unto her, the Lord gave her conception, she bore a son.
And the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath
not left thee this day without a kinsman redeemer, that his
name may be famous in Israel. And my, it was famous. And he
shall be like unto thee, a restorer of thy life, and as a nourisher
of thine old age for thy daughter-in-law, which loveth thee, which is better
to thee than seven sons hath borne him. And Naomi took the
child, and laid that little boy in her bosom and nursed him.
And the women, her neighbors, gave it a name, saying, This
is a son born to Naomi, and they shall call his name Obed. He's
the father of Jesse and the grandfather of King David." That's a happy
story, isn't it? Oh, my. Grandfather of King David. And right in the house and lineage
of Christ, I'll show you one more thing and I'll let you go.
Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1. Here in chapter 1, it traces
the house and lineage of Christ Jesus from Abraham down to Mary. In verse 1 through 16. And they're
all men except three. The three women mentioned in
this entire genealogy, from Abraham to our Lord, three women. And
all of them were pagans. Did you know? All of them. One
of them was Tamar. She played the harlot and had
a son named Phares, had twin sons, Phares. And then there
was Rahab. who was in Jericho, and hid the
servants of God, and married Simon, and then there's Ruth
from Boaz, who married Boaz. And all of them here, look at
verse 3. And Judah begat Phares and Zarah
of Tamar. That's a woman, mark her there.
And Phares begat Esrum, and Esrum begat Aaron, and Aaron begat
Abinadab, and Abinadab begat Naasan, and Naasan begat Simon,
and Simon begat Boaz of Rahab, mark that one, and Boaz begat
Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse. But there's the three
winners. The Lord's merciful and gracious, plenteous in mercy. and the lights to show mercy
to lost people. I hope that's a blessing to you.