Kinsman Reedemer

Good afternoon to all of you. Good to be with you. I'm sure they have my daughter do special music. I'm having a little time here. She cops out on me all the time. It's always enjoyable to come visit family and friends. This is kind of a home church now since Crystal lives here and Joe, so we appreciate that. She married into the Trone family, so it means we're related to half the church now. Both my son and my daughter married into big families in church, so you inherit tons of relatives overnight, which is great.

We're all family. I'm going to give a sermon today I gave a couple of weeks ago in Cincinnati, being the Pentecost season and harvest season in Israel. It's a lot we can learn about the themes of Pentecost, the themes of the feast, the themes of first fruits and agriculture, things that most Americans now don't raise any food or garden, and also they don't understand a lot of these things. But it's interesting when we talk about what happens this time of year. The Pentecost was thought to be the time when Moses or when Noah came out of the ark and offered his sacrifice, and all the eight people that were left alive, who were righteous somewhat anyway, were spared.

Pentecost is also when it's tradition, the Jewish tradition, that the Ten Commandments were given. And that was a special event, obviously, for all of us. We know, of course, it was the time that Christ told the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit, and it came on the day of Pentecost, a little short of 2,000 years ago. And also it's a type of the Jubilee, because 50 years of the Jubilee, and after 50 days in the wave-shoof offering, when Christ was accepted by God, that the Holy Spirit comes to beget us.

And all these events, plans of God, were carried out historically and were done very timely, in the manner that we expected. Pentecost, especially, one of the proofs that the Holy Days were kept after Christ died, because he talked with the disciples after they came back, after he was resurrected.

Never did he tell them, you know, you guys just, hey, get rid of the Sabbath, get rid of the Holy Days. In fact, he told them to make sure you wait until you get the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And if he was doing away with it, he should have said, well, hey, you guys need it now.

Let's have it right now, which he didn't. But all these things happen. But there's something interesting that happens in Jewish tradition. The Book of Ruth is always read at this time of year. And there's several reasons that it's done that way. And so I want to go to the Book of Ruth today and talk about some of the things that it means. Because we often wonder why God calls us.

Now, I've asked that question myself, and probably you have as well. Why did he call me? Why did he call you? And many of you that are middle-aged or a little older like I, depending on when you came to the church, or the younger people here don't really understand their calling in the same sense that you were born with this.

You know, all I remember was keeping the feasts and the Holy Days and understanding what God's way of life was. I had gone through 12 years of Imperial schools, which was the church's grade in high school, back many years ago, closed in the 90s, but they had that for a number of years. And I had 12 years with that, and I studied the Bible every day. And all the scriptures and all the Holy Days were all part of that. And so you wonder if you had a calling where, you know, you talked to some of the old-time members that had some special thing, an event in the Life Happen magazine, or in the trash can, or a radio station, or a telecast, some odd way, and you knew they were called.

And so there are those that have a different way of looking at their calling than those of us who didn't. So I had a full lifetime of the church. My wife was just the opposite of that, however.

She didn't know anything about this way of life when she came to the church. She came kind of, you might say, on a fluke in some ways because of the fact that she didn't know what she was getting into. And she had been raised a Lutheran, and the Lutherans are basically what I would refer to as rebellious Catholics. That's the way the Catholics see them, anyway. And they pretty much believe the same thing, except they don't want to say that the pope has the authority that he has. But in her case, she was a Lutheran, and finally she was about 16 or so, and she went and asked the minister to explain the Trinity. And of course, if anybody's ever asked anybody to explain the Trinity, no, it's to explain because it's not true, and you try to create these three in one, it doesn't work. So he finally told her to take it on faith. Well, she didn't have any faith in him, so she didn't take it. So she left. She decided she'd become a Baptist for a while.

So she went to a Baptist church, and they had a youth program and wonderful things, and a lot of charisma, and she enjoyed that. And they had an evening meeting, and they called everybody at the altar, and she marched up to the altar with a bunch of other young people. And that night she went home and realized she didn't know what she was doing. So she called the minister the next morning and said, I'm not coming to get baptized. I have no idea what I'm doing. So she didn't get baptized. About that time, her dad had lost his job with Bendix. He'd worked there for 19 years, and surprisingly, he was laid off, and they didn't have much money, and it was the 60s. Well, she came to college in 1971. But it was interesting because they wanted her to go to college, and they didn't have any money to send her to specialty school. They were afraid of the universities because of the 60s, the hippie movement, the drugs, the sex, all that stuff.

And surprisingly enough, her grandma had sent an envoy over to the house. Now, her grandmother had just come in contact with the church very recently, and she didn't send along an explanation of what that meant. Just this envoy with all these beautiful young people and pictures and a college campus, and it was Christian. And therefore, hey, this looks like a good place. They saw it had a work program, and she could work and pay for college, and they didn't have to pay for it.

And so they sent her to Texas. She went down there. And when she got there, she found all the people that disappeared on Friday night. They went to Bible study. She had never heard of that before, and then they went to church on Sabbath. And her parents were expecting her to come home for Christmas, and she called and told them that they don't have a Christmas break here. Her parents wondered, weren't they Christian?

Well, yes, but they don't give Christmas. And so she was not coming home for Christmas. She said she'd come back in January. She had this feast that was coming up in a few weeks, and she'd only been there a few weeks. And they were going to shut down the college for two weeks, and she wondered what she would eat. So they gave her $20 and told her they had a campground there in Big Sandy for the feast, and they told her to go out in the piney woods and meet the people and beg for food. Which she did. She survived. But it was all kind of strange to her. Very different. But yet, she knew that she wanted to be there, and she was wondering why.

But God knows who He calls and why He calls them. We turn to Leviticus 23, and we look at Pentecost. I'm going to set the stage for what I want to go to in Ruth. Again, traditionally, they read the book of Ruth during this time because it occurs at the time of the harvest. And the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of In-Gathering, the Greek Pentecost, which means count 50. And again, it says in Numbers 23 verse 15, you shall count among you, or unto you, from the morrow after the sabbath.

From the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven sabbaths shall be complete. 16, verse 16, even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall you number fifty days, you shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. They couldn't harvest the barley harvest or any of the grains or anything until this was done.

But notice the end of this section down in verse 22. About Pentecost. It says, When you reap your harvest of your land, you shall not make clean riddance of the corners of your field when you reap. Neither shall you gather any gleaning of your harvest. You shall leave them unto the poor and to the stranger. I, the Lord, am your God. This is another reason the book is read at Pentecost time is because Ruth was a gleaner in the fields.

And gleaning, for those of you who haven't studied it, is where they left the corners and the poor people could go and actually gather grain and have food to eat from those corners and leftovers. It was hard work and it was a kind of type of a working welfare where you had to work to get it. And so Ruth was a gleaner. And so when they waved this wave-sheaf offering, that started the harvest festival and it was an offering that was holy to God.

And God's people also are called firstfruits. We know that from various places. In James 1, 18, it talks about of His own free will, He begot us as a type of His firstfruits of His creation. And we are that indeed. And also it says we're redeemed.

Revelation 14, 4, it talks about the fact these were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits to God and the Lamb. So Pentecost is a harvesting of the firstfruits, not only of the grains, but also a type of the church when it gets harvested. And so it's interesting that in this discussion of Pentecost, it ends with the description that everyone's included in the meaning of the day, all the poor and the forgotten gleam in the field.

And so this wonderful book of Ruth is read at this time. It's a great book, a book about love, about kindness, about redemption. It also shows many of the laws of the Old Covenant in this book. And while most people tend to read the New Covenant or the New Testament, the Old Covenant covers a lot of ground. And Ruth itself actually describes many of the New Covenant promises that we have. So I want to go through a bit of that today.

Ruth is about redemption. Christ is our Redeemer. And as you read through the book of Ruth, I'd like you to think about your life and the things that happened in your life that brought you to where you are and how you look at them and how you think about them. Because you can see God's hand in Ruth's life all along the way. Not only Ruth, but Naomi, her brother-in-law, Boaz, and many other people. And so the book of Ruth shows us how God was dealing with her and helps us to see how God may be dealing with us in spite of any hardships or things we may go through. The historical setting of Ruth is around 1100 BC. And if you've studied history at all, you realize that was the period of the Judges before they had a king in Israel, before King Saul. A time when Gideon, Samson, Deborah, others were there, brought in at times to bring the Israelites back out of captivity or out of trouble and serve God again. They were always getting in trouble, turning away from God, then coming back to God, then turning away again. And during this time, they seemed to not be able to stay close to God for any period of time at all. Ruth is very interesting for many reasons.

The most peculiar reason is that Ruth was ethnically a Moabites. She wasn't an Israelite, and therefore she was different for most of the people. Now, she was related to the Israelites because she was related to Lot. The Moabites were Lot's daughter who had a son, Moab, and that's where they came from. And if you remember the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, where the angel talked to Abraham, they came down, they helped deliver Lot, told Lot he could take his family with him. Most of his family wouldn't go except two daughters and his wife. Then, of course, his wife looks back longingly at Sodom and turns into a pillar of salt. They told him not to look back. So she doesn't make it. And the two daughters go to this little town of Zohar, and there they decide for whatever reason that their father is not going to have seed. Maybe they think there's no men left alive on earth or whatever, but they get him drunk two nights in a row. And if you go to Genesis 19, you can read what happened and where they came from. And because they got him drunk that night, so they could preserve his seed. In Genesis 19, verse 36, it says, So both daughters of Lot were a child by their father. The firstborn Borosan, his name was Moab. He's the father of the Moabites to this day. Genesis 19.38, the younger son also bore a son, and his name, or the younger daughter bore a son, and his name was Ben Ami, the father of the sons of Ammon to this day. And so that's where they came from. That's where their family, their tribe, started. We read more about Moab in Numbers 25 and verse 1. When we start there, it says, The people began to fornicate with the daughters of Moab. Now fornication is against God's law, and so that wasn't a good thing to do. And so here Ruth, the Moabites, this is part of her lineage and her background. In verse 2 of Numbers 25, they called the people to sacrifice to their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to the Moabite gods. Another commandment breaking. Not too good. This isn't too good for the Moabites. In verse 3, And Israel joined himself to Baal Peor, and the anger of God was kindled against Israel. Why? Because of the Moabites. So Ruth didn't grow up worshiping God. She was kind of like Michelle. She came in not knowing a whole lot of things into this story, and she had a very tough genealogical history to overcome. I mean, you know, her ancestors got their father drunk, incensed, had a baby, they committed Israel to fornification, and they had them worshiping idols. So that's not a really good background to come from to try to join God's people. It's interesting the setting as well as in Bethlehem. And Bethlehem, of course, was where David was born, came from, and where Christ was born as well, for our Redeemer. And it's interesting that that's where the setting for Ruth is.

So here we go. Ruth is a Moabite, a foreigner. Her name is mentioned 12 times in the book.

Five times it's not just Ruth. Ruth the Moabite is Ruth the stranger, Ruth whatever.

It very carefully and specifically lets you know that she is non-Israelites, that she is not of the people of God, not of the covenant people. And that's stressed. Her status is an alien, a stranger.

Through the entire second chapter especially, you see this constantly being reminded that the woman was not an Israelite, not of the covenant. So why did she come into contact and why is this important?

Well, the following people are excluded from the covenant people. Turn to Deuteronomy 23. Let's get a little more background about Ruth as a Moabite.

She's not under the covenant and she's excluded. Deuteronomy 23.3. And Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. Interesting. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever. A little stronger there. So why is Ruth in the Bible? Why is she called into this scene? What does it mean? Verse 4 of Deuteronomy 23. Why? Because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you're Egypt. And they hired against you Balaam, the son of Beor, of Pethor, of Mesopotamia to curse you. Nevertheless, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loved you. And it says, you shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever. Wow. So how did Ruth ever come into the congregation of Israel?

It wasn't the tenth generation yet. There wasn't that and it was said forever anyway.

It was funny, my wife, when she came to college, her freshman year, Dr. Torrance was a registrar, and he let her read her file. And in her file, she read that she was part Gentile.

Now she came to me because she wanted to know which part of her was Gentile. She wasn't sure of arms, legs, what this meant because she knew nothing coming into the church. And so I fully explained. She asked me, she said, does that mean I have to marry somebody that's part Gentile?

And I took advantage of that and said, no, you can marry me. But it's interesting because she didn't know what it meant, and she was still learning, and it was difficult for her. She was kind of like Ruth in this situation. What does this mean? What's going on? What's going to happen?

And so, start Gentile. But it's interesting because God accepted Ruth. Why didn't He accept her? By the end of the book of Ruth, she's lauded as a woman of virtue. And in Matthew, she's messing in Christ's genealogy among three women mentioned. Rahab, the harlot, not Israelite. Ruth, the Moabites, not Israelite. And Bathsheba, which is not much my name, it says, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Doesn't even say her name. There, the only one that was Israelite-ish. So here in his genealogy, you have Rahab Ruth and the wife of Uriah. You've got foreigners and sinners in that. Interesting.

So why is Ruth able to come in the congregation of Israel? What is that about this book? Let's turn to Ruth 1 and start looking at this. Ruth is about kindness. It's interesting. I always like the fact that we have a word for unkind people. They're called Ruth-less, which is only a play in English, obviously, but fits pretty well. In Ruth 1, verse 1, starting out, it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. Now, why was there a famine in the land? Well, we don't really know for sure, but in the times of the judges, they went wrong so many times that famines were one of the things God sent when they didn't obey Him. Because they had promised, if you obey, you'll have peace, you'll have crap, you'll have a rainy season. They weren't obeying, probably, so He caused this. We don't know exactly why this famine happened, but it happened during this time. And God allows famines and disasters to occur for His purposes.

And He removes His blessing. So this happened, and obviously, God allowed this famine. He may have even caused it to happen, so we'd have this story that could be written, the story of Israel's King David and the genealogy of Christ. It's interesting because when we look at this story, we wonder if it was circumstance or not that God did this. This is like wonder, was Michelle's grandmother giving an envoy to her parents a circumstance? Or was it meant to be for part of a greater picture? So God caused the famine in the land, and He caused the liminec in His family. We read in verse 2, the name of the man was a limilec. Limilec means God is king. That's the name of El. God and limilec, God is king. The name of His wife, Naomi. Naomi means prosperity or sweetness. The name of His two sons, Ramallah and Chileon. They came into the country of Moab and continued there to avoid the famine, to have some food. Verse 3, a limilec's Naomi's husband died. She was left over two sons. I can relate to that fairly easily because my father died when I was three and a half years old or so. My mom had my brother and I, two little boys.

And at a difficult time, you don't know what's going to happen, where you're going to do, what you're going to be. This happened to Naomi. In verse 4, they took them wives, the two sons did, of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah, the name of the other Ruth, and they dwelled there about ten years. So they married. They were setting up life, shop. In verse 5, it says, Malon and Chillian died, both of them. Both of her sons died, and the woman was left only with her of her two sons and her husband. And she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab. Why? For she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord God had visited His people by giving them bread, the famine. She was going to go back to have something to eat because she had no husband or sons. God seems to have caused the famine and later seems to have caused the prosperity at this time to create this situation, to make Naomi move back to Israel without her husband, without her sons. Seemingly, you'd think that was a terrible thing.

So they return. The widows are going to come back, leaving Boaz, who we'll meet later in the story, as a type of redeemer for, waiting to redeem her. And God seemed to have worked all this out because God works out a great many things in our lives and in others' lives. We read them in the Bible and often we think, well, those are just biblical stories, but how many of those same things happen in your life and mine? We really don't know. Verse 7, she went out of the place where she was and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. And Naomi said to her, two daughters-in-law, go return each of you to your mother's house.

May God deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. So obviously she was a good mother-in-law and her daughters loved her and they helped take care of her. What she's doing here is asking God to give a blessing to them for how they treated her, to be kind to these two Moabite women because they did what was right by her as much as they could by their dead husbands and their dead father-in-law. And so in verse 9 she says, may God grant you that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband. She kissed them and they all lifted up their voice and wept. You can imagine these three women crying, weeping because their men who died and all three of them lost their husbands and she's told them to go back. But they loved her and they said to her in verse 10, surely we'll return with you to your people. And Naomi said, no, no, turn back my daughters. Don't come with me. Why will you go with me? And she says, will you go with me? Are there sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? Again, the law in Deuteronomy showed that if you didn't have sons, that a brother, if a firstborn didn't have a son or someone, that the brother would marry the wife and raise up seed. And that was part of the law and stuff. And she's saying, you know, am I going to have a son? Will you do that? In verse 12, she said, I'm too old to have a husband if I have a husband. And could bear a son even tonight. Would you wait for them till they're grown? Would you shut yourselves up not to have a husband? No, my daughters, it makes me very sad for your sakes that the hand of God has gone out against me.

Oh, it's me. God is just not really seen fair. God's against me. He's I'm hurting.

That was her thoughts and our thoughts at times. How many times you thought that God was doing something that was hurting you? It wasn't part of your plan. How come they're doing this to me? I didn't deserve this. And you say something differently than God sees it. God's thoughts are often not our thoughts. So we look at her life and we look at these women and they're all crying and hurting and trying to wonder what's going to happen. Verse 14, they lifted up their voice. Excuse me. Yeah. Yeah, there. Verse 14, they lift up their voice again and wept. And at this time, Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and she left. But Ruth clung to her. And Naomi says to Ruth, look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods.

You need to go back. Return after your sister-in-law.

It's interesting. Michelle, when she came to college, she had a friend who came in. That year there were about 15 people. They'd run an ad in the Plain Truth and about 15 people came that had very little background in the church. And she had a friend that was there in her dorm that she talked to Friday nights when everybody else went to church. They'd stalk. And Michelle was listening to all this and trying to learn. They didn't know much about the Bible. So she came close to failing out of college because she didn't have any biblical background. The Lutherans and the Baptists kind of left that part out. But it was interesting because they had the discussions and her friend would say, Michelle, do you know what they're saying here? They're saying that all the churches are wrong and that what they're teaching is right. And Michelle said, well, yeah, I'm finding it in the Bible. It does seem right. She believed it. Her friend left at the end of the first semester and she told all the other people that were friends, mutual friends, don't let Michelle leave.

She believes this stuff. And I'm leaving now and we're friends and she may leave and get homesick and want to go, but don't let her go. So Michelle stayed and her friend left at that time.

And it was in Ruth. She's staying. She's not leaving, but Orca, she left. She didn't recognize what was there. And so that was it. Look at the wonderful example, though.

In verse 16, we kind of see an example of Ruth's conversion at this time. Because Naomi's telling her to leave. Leave. Go back. Find a husband. Ruth says in verse 16, and treat me not to leave you. Don't ask me to go back. I'm not going back. Don't ask me to turn back from following you, because wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Listen to this oath she makes. And the Lord do so to me, and more so if anything but death parts you and me.

She made an oath to God that she's giving up what she believed to be with Naomi.

And it says, when Naomi saw she was determined to go with her, she quit nagging her to go back.

She saw the determination in her daughter-in-law. And we see this, and we read in Luke 14, 26, where it says, if a man doesn't love less, it says he doesn't hate his father and mother, but it remains love less than God, that they're not worthy to be his disciple. And Naomi, here and talking to Ruth, Ruth was giving up everything that she believed and was.

She was a woman. She couldn't be circumcised to come into Israel, which is what Gentile men could could do in a way, giving up their gods. But what she did do was take an oath. She renounced her gods. She renounced her people. She renounced everything she stood for. And she said she'd follow Naomi wherever she went. Your people will be my people. Naomi's a type of the church.

Ruth is in essence saying, your people, all the members of your church, will be my people. I'll fellowship with you. I'll learn about your God. Your God is my God. I've left my people. I've taken your people as mine. Most importantly, she was going to follow the true God. She believed that. And obviously, there was some good example in Naomi that made her see something there that she wanted. So in verse 19, it says, both of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And as it happened, when they came to Bethlehem, all the city was moved about them. And they said, is this Naomi?

After a number of years, you see somebody. Is that you? I had people come up and that I didn't recognize. No, we were in school together. We were. Okay. And that happens sometimes. And they say, is this Naomi? They recognized her. And she said to them, don't call me Naomi. Don't call me prosperity. Don't call me sweetness, which is what Naomi means. Call me Mara. Why? For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. Call me bitter. I went out full and God has brought me back empty.

Why do you call me Naomi? Since God has testified against me, the Almighty has afflicted me. And have you been afflicted? And if you think something's going wrong in your life that you didn't deserve, you still worship God. But something's not happening the way you wanted it to.

Verse 22 said, Naomi returned to Moabites, again, a daughter-in-law with her. They returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the Barbeley harvest, again, right before the wavesheap offering was being introduced. And they're back home.

In Israel. It's interesting because we're not going to be introduced to Boaz, Ruth's Redeemer, a type of Christ, our Redeemer.

Ruth 2, verse 1, it starts out, there was a relative of Naomi's husband, a man of great wealth of the family of a limilec. Again, the limilec got his king. His name was Boaz. Boaz means in him his strength. So Ruth, the Moabites, again emphasizing she wasn't of Israel, said to Naomi, Please let me go to the field and glean heads of grain after him and whose side I may find fiverr. Let me just go out and in the fields and maybe I'll find favor in someone's field and I can glean and get some food for us to help take care of us. She doesn't know where she's going to go to glean the grain. She's just going to go out and try to find someone who will show favor for their food. Naomi says to her, verse 3, Go, my daughter, go out, glean. So she left and went ahead and gleaned in the fields after the reapers. And she happened to come upon a part of the field of verse 3 belonging to Boaz, who is of the family of a limilec. Now it says she happened upon it, but I often wonder, did she really just chance upon Boaz's field? Was this just a chance thing? God is like that. You can't really always know exactly how He's directing you, exactly what He's going to do in your life, in your job, in your health, in anything. And you wonder what is happening and why, but we don't know. God is often in the details. He doesn't let us know about it without our knowledge. So here we are on the very first day that Ruth goes out to glean, she winds up in Boaz's field. Boaz, who's destined to be her Redeemer, this Christ is our Redeemer, she ends up in Christ's field, so to speak. God was working with this woman because He was bringing these two people together for His purposes. Ruth, a type of Christian, Naomi, a type of the church, Boaz, a type of Christ. He wants us to learn something from this book, this book that gives the genealogy of David and of Christ. It's interesting, Mr. Armstrong always used to quote John 644, no man can come to me except the Father which sent me draws him. A calling. And God is working in a few people's lives in this age, not every once. Everyone will yet be called in the Second Resurrection. But He's calling, and He's asking you to come become part of His church. Now, He didn't ask you. Now, I never heard a call. I never had anyone come to me. I've never been in a room and heard voices. You know, God didn't say, hi Aaron, I want you in my church. I'm calling you. I doubt if any of you got a calling like that either. But something, an envoy, or whatever, led you to God's truth. And I've never heard voices, at least not without people in the room, thankfully. I'm not crazy. And these are not random acts in Ruth's life, either. I don't think they're random acts in our life. So many of the things that happen, just as I don't think that envoy was random. And you're random. King David, in his example, and the genealogy with Christ, whose life has touched all of us, came from these two people. And I think God had that in mind because of the character and the nature of these people. Well, notice all the things that Boaz does for Ruth in chapter 2. And look at them in terms of what Christ may do for us. Ruth 2, verse 4, it says, Now, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you.

And Boaz said to his servant, who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this? Because somebody knew in the field. He hadn't seen before. And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, It's the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. Again, she's not an Israelite, not one of the covenant people. This is interesting, too, because the servant's in charge of the reapers. Boaz had people in charge of different things. Just in the church, there are people that become leaders, people that can help each other and guide.

But it's interesting that it again mentions that she's a Moabite, not an Israelite. Verse 7, and she said, excuse me, it's interesting that she tells her who it is. In verse 7, he says, Please, Boaz, let me glean and gather after the reapers from among the sheaves.

She's asking here for the lowest position in Israel, that of a gleaner. This was saved for the poor and for the stranger. Her humility shows through very clearly in this. It's kind of like Christ when he says, Don't seek the chief seat, but go to the back and let someone bring you forward.

She was taking the lowest seat, shows her character. She asked, Please, may I glean behind your reapers? Take from the corners of the field. And according to the law, they had to leave the corners of the field like the red Leviticus, for the poor and the stranger. There's nothing in the law that said they had to do any cleaning anywhere else. Just there among the sheaves, which she later cleans. And so she asked for the lowest seat. And she continued, it says, From morning until evening, though she rested a little while. It was hot in the heat of the day, I'm sure. She'd been working diligently all day long with just a little bit of rest. She wasn't there, gleaning in what she did. And Boaz then, in verse 8, says to Ruth, Do you not hear my daughter or listen to me, my daughter?

Do not go and glean in another field, but don't go away from here. Stay here close to my maidens.

He asked her to stay in his fields. He's saying, Listen to me. Hear me.

Christ tells the disciples at his church to listen. He says, My sheep hear my voice.

Listen, my daughter, hear. Stay here, glean. Verse 9, Let your eyes be on the fields that they reap, my reapers, and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men that they shall not touch you? And when you're thirsty, go to the vessels to drink of that which the young men have drawn.

Let the men help you. Draw the water from there.

Boaz said to Ruth, Don't go to another field. Stay here close to my women, my servants.

Let your eyes be on my fields and reap there. Stay close to God. Stay close to Christ. Stay close to his church, basically. Fellowship with my people. And also, when you're thirsty, go drink where my men have drawn water. And I'm going to give you water.

If you turn over to John 7, 37, keep your hand on Ruth. We're going back there.

Is it not like Christ to talk about water? Christ gave his Holy Spirit on Pentecost, which was that living water. And Boaz is giving the symbol of the Holy Spirit to Ruth when he says, Drink that water. John 7, 37, it says, On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, If anyone thirst, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

But he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive. On Pentecost, a few weeks later after he died. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not glorified. God wants us to drink freely of the Holy Spirit. How does this water benefit Ruth?

Well, it gives her refreshment, obviously. It gives her encouragement. It gives her strength to be able to glean more and to do the job to help Naomi, her mother-in-law, and her to eat.

She did not have to go back to town to get a drink. She was right there in constant contact. She didn't have to go away from Boaz to get water, but could stay there among all the reapers and blaners and the young men and get drink and food and be taken care of and strengthened. She had everything she needed right there. Boaz supplied the food. He supplied the drink. He supplied the work. And then later in chapter 3, we see he supplied himself to help her. So here in type, we see the Holy Spirit given in the Old Testament. A help to Ruth. A help to us.

In root 2, verse 10, what does Ruth do when he offers this thing to her? She fell on her face and bowed to the ground and said to him, Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? God, why did you pick me? Boaz, why did you pick me?

Why am I here? I'm a foreigner. I'm a sinner. Boaz did not have to do the things he did for.

He gave her all these additional blessings. Just as Christ gives us any blessings, some of which we don't recognize, perhaps. Verse 11, Boaz answered and said to her, It has been fully shown to me all that you have done to your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. And you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth and have come to a people whom you did not know before now. Yeah, you knew she was a foreigner, but it was fully known. Remember what Naomi said when she was sending him back? You've done all these good things for the living and for the dead. May God kill kindly with you. Boaz is saying the same thing. It's been fully shown all these things you did for your family. The things in the law that most of the Israelites wouldn't do. She was doing.

She had been doing her obligation to Naomi and to God, just as the law required. In verse 12, Boaz says, The Lord repay you, and a full reward be given to you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge. It's not the church of refuge for us, people of like mine. Verse 13, she said, Let me find favor in your sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me, and have spoken kindly to your maidservant. Though I am not like one of your maidservants, I am a foreigner. I am a Moabites. I got that bad heritage.

She was not of the Lamb, and she was a woman. That didn't help her either. A woman more like property at the time. Verse 14, a little change here, Boaz says to her, At mealtime come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your bit in the vinegar, and eat with me. And she sat beside the reapers, and he handed her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied, and then left. So now she's sitting with the reapers. He's giving her directly food. Just as Christ feeds us through His word. And she ate and was satisfied.

Here the Master is serving her, passing her food. Verse 15, she rose up to Glyn. Boaz commanded he's running letter glean, even among the sheaves. You're only supposed to be on the corner, but let her follow the sheaves. And not only that, don't criticize her, but also let handfuls of grain fall. Let more of it I'm harvesting fall, so she can have more.

He doesn't tell her this. He tells his people. He tells other people who are involved in our lives to do things. And he says, don't criticize her when she comes and picks those things up.

So she gleaned in the field until evening, and beat out what she'd gleaned. It was about an ephah of barley. Now she's going to go back to Naomi with her barley and tell her what happened.

Go down to verse 21. Ruth the Moabites, again, not just Ruth, but Ruth the Moabites, the foreign or the stranger, says about Boaz, he also said to me, you shall stay close by my young men until they have finished my harvest. So not only did he say, stay in my field and glean with my reapers, but stay the entire harvest. Stay here, not just one day or a week, but for the whole harvest. Stay in my field. God wants us through the entire harvest as well. He wants us to stay in his field, gleaning his script, a refuge in that spiritual body that he is the head of. In Naomi, verse 22, says to her daughter-in-law Ruth, that's good, my daughter. It's good. You go out there with his maidens and do so and make sure they don't fall upon you in any other field. I often wonder if it was unsafe in another field, perhaps. There are bandits and things at the time. Was it unsafe? Sometimes outside the church it can be unsafe. We get a lot of pulls from the world coming after us.

But she does what she's told, verse 23, so she stayed close by the young woman of Boaz to glean to the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest, and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.

So we see Ruth listen to Boaz. She listened to her mother-in-law. Ruth, the type of Christian, was obedient and stayed with her mother, the type of the church. God has given us permission, and Christ asks us to glean in his fields, to stay close to him and to his people. Boaz admonished her not to stray from his field, meaning stay with the church. Do not leave the house of God, the spiritual body. He says to stay with his young meaning, meaning fellowship is very important. Get to know the people and the laws and the rules. They'll help you. They'll take care of you. They'll protect you. They may correct you and admonish you, but that's where you should be. That's where it's safe to be, is with my people. Just like in Hebrews 10, where Paul writes, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together, because you can get lost out there on your own, but to endure one another. As we see time ending, Malachi 3 16 talks about people at that time who feared the Lord and spoke to one another. They were similar to this time of Ruth, and he says in there, he says, the Lord listened and heard those, those who spoke to one another about God. In a book of remembrance was written before him for those that feared the Lord and meditated on his name. For those who talk about God and meet together is a special place that God has. It's time to stay with the reapers, the assembling, the speaking, working together as gleaners in the same field is very important to God, very important for our health and well-being. And Boaz warns the young men not to harm her because they're under his protection. How often do we see the Bible warning shepherds to take care of the flock, not abuse them, make sure you're careful with them, and gentle and kind. And all of us need to be careful with God's people. We always have people coming in, children, new people, various ones. We have to be careful to help each other. All of us be gentle with Christ's gleaners, as Boaz said to protect them. And look at all the things Boaz is doing for Ruth. Without telling her, he set it up so she can succeed without her knowing it. She can succeed in her gleaning. Doesn't God do that for us so we can succeed? How much do we actually have to do? We probably think we're doing it all ourselves. How much do we really do? How much has God done for us that we don't even know about it out of his love, his kindness, and his grace?

Now we go to chapter 3, verse 1. Her mother-in-law Naomi says to Ruth, my daughter, shall I not seek rest for you so it may be well with you? And now is not Boaz of our kin he with whose maidens you were? Behold, he winnows barley tonight in the threshing floor. Therefore wash yourself and anoint yourself and put on your clothing, go down to the floor. This is what we clean up before we come to meet with God's people. She says, do not make yourself known to the man until he's finished eating and drinking. He's out there harvesting, and you're not making yourself known until this happens. And when he lies down, mark the place where he lies, and you shall go in and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what you shall do. Now this is kind of a strange custom for Ruth, the Moabites. I don't think they had any custom like that in Moab, and I'm not sure. My wife never came in and laid down at my feet, and if she had, I'd have been kicked out of college along with her. But it's interesting because she's going to do this custom, and what does he say in verse 5? Ruth says, all you say I'll do. She agrees to do this funny thing.

I'm not sure how many people would do that today. I'm sure some of the people on reality TV, the Kardashians wouldn't do this, I'm sure, go down and lay at somebody's feet and wait for instructions.

But it says, she was a grain field, verse 6, and did according to all her mother-in-law told her.

When Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap, and she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. So I'm sure he was very merry because he didn't know she was there. And usually you'd probably know somebody's laying down at your feet.

And it happened at midnight. I guess he sobered up a little. The man trembled and turned to himself, and he said, here, and behold, a woman was at his feet. Who are you? She answered, I'm your handmade Ruth, and you shall spread your skirt over your handmade, for you are a kinsman redeemer. She was understanding what a kinsman redeemer does.

Verse 10, then he, Boaz, said, Blessed are you of the Lord, my daughter. Blessed are you. For you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, in that you did not go after the young men, whether poor or rich.

You weren't seeking your own. You weren't seeking your own will. You were trying to do what God wants. She did her duty. She took care of Naomi. She was humble. She was selfless the way we should be, coming before God. And Boaz is saying to Ruth, a foreigner, that she had fulfilled what the law is about. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Do your duty. And she had asked him to be a redeemer for her, his duty. She had done what the law required, where it stated, go to your kinsman and ask him to redeem you. She had done that and gone for this older man Boaz, who had shown the kindness to her all the way along. And Boaz answers her and says, and now my daughter, do not fear. I will do to you all that you ask, for all the city of my people knows that you are a woman of virtue. They knew she was virtuous. And now it's true that I am your kinsman redeemer, but there is also a kinsman nearer than I, because the nearest blood relative had the right to redeem. And he tells her, stay tonight and it shall be in the morning. If he will redeem you, well, he'll redeem you. And if he does not delight to redeem you, if he doesn't delight to redeem you, as God lives, then I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning. And she did. She laid his feet till morning, and when she rose up, before anyone could know, it was dark.

And he said, don't let it be known that a woman came. He tells his servants, don't let anybody know that she came here tonight and what happened. But he tells her, bring a veil that you have and hold it. Scarf, large scarf that she had. And when she held it, he measured out six measures of barley and laid it on her. And she went to the city. He filled her scarf till she could take something home. She wouldn't go home empty to Naomi. And I'm sure he knew Naomi would know what this meant.

And when she came to her mother-in-law and she said, who are you, my daughter? It's still dark. She told her all that the man had done to her. And she said, these six measures of barley he gave to me. For he said to me, do not go empty to your mother-in-law. Go back to the church and help out. Don't go empty. Verse 18, her mother-in-law says, sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall. For the man will not rest until he's finished this thing today. He will not rest till this is done. In Matthew 26, Christ tells us that he's not going to drink of the vine until he returns to be with us. Philippians 1.6, we're told to be confident of what? That he who has begun a good work in you will finish it. It's going to help you. It's going to be done. He will do it.

It'll be done. Ruth was a beautiful woman in character, and Boaz thought it a great honor that she would ask him to be her kinsman redeemer. And she had asked that, and she'd gone above and beyond. What he said, you have done more now than you did in the beginning. How much would Christ love to see us go above and beyond and do more now than we did in the beginning? How many people start out with a first love and let it wane? He wants us to use God's Holy Spirit to change, to grow, to glean. He wants to present us to God blameless. Several places in the New Testament Christ talks about presenting us to God, holy, blameless, special people. Most people first love and then lose it. Christ wants us to see us grow and zeal, to be more at the end than at the beginning. Ruth did that, and she impressed Boaz with her gleaning, with her service, with her humility, with her kindness, with her duty, with her love of God. Boaz takes care of Ruth. Jesus said, I'm the bread of life. You who comes to me will never hunger. Ruth came to Boaz, and she didn't hunger. If we go to God, we won't hunger. Chapter 4 we go to now shows the redemption of Naomi and Ruth. Now the Redeemer, A Near Kinsman, is coming. If you want to read about what a kinsman is supposed to do, you can read it in Deuteronomy 25, verses 5 through 10. It talks about if a man dies without seed, how his brother marries or takes a kinsman, redeems her, takes over and gives an heir to it.

And it says, they call the elders together, speak to him, and ask if he won't redeem it. It says, the spit in his face. So you'll see in the story that the kinsman actually got away a little easy if it didn't do it. And it says he's supposed to take off his shoe. And so we see this happening, parts of the law in here in Ruth. So in chapter 4, verse 1, Boaz went up to the gate. So he's up in the gate in the side of all where he entered the city. And he sat down there, and behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spoke came by, the one who was closer related than he was. And he said, such a one, turn aside, come here, sit down, I want to talk to you.

And the man did. He came and sat down at the gate. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, hey, come here and sit down. I want you to hear. Witnesses, I want you to see this. I want you to hear this. I want you to know it. And he said to the kinsman, he says, Naomi, who came out of the country of Moab, sells a parcel of land, which was our brother, Elimelechs. And I said, I will tell it in your ear, saying, buy it before those who live here and before the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, then redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, tell me so that I may know. For there is none to redeem this besides you, and I am after you. And the kinsman, nearer than Boaz, says, I will redeem it. I could use a piece of land. Makes me more money. This is great. I'll do this. But that wasn't what God had in mind. So Boaz says, oh, by the way, verse 5, Boaz says, In the day that you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must buy also the hand of Ruth of Moab, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.

You got to take this foreigner, this Moabites, this woman, to be your wife if you want this, to redeem it. And the kinsman said, I can't redeem that for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance.

I'm going to mess up my genealogy. You redeem my right to yourself. I cannot redeem it. I don't want her. God and Christ want us. They want to redeem us. In verse 7, this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing to confirm everything.

A man plucked off his sandal and gave it to his neighbor. This is the testimony in Israel.

Therefore, the kinsman said to Boaz, buy it for yourself, so he drew off his sandal.

And Boaz said to the elders of the people, You are witnesses of this day that I have bought all that was a liminex, all that was chileons and malons from the hand of Naomi. And also Ruth of Moab, the wife of Malon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, so that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his people, his brothers, and from the gate of this place. We are dead without Jesus Christ. We're cut off without him.

And he's raising up seed. And you are witnesses this day. And all the people in the gate, the elders, said, We are witnesses. May God make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, for these two built the house of Israel. And may you be blessed in effort time, be famous in Bethlehem. Turn to Luke 24. Just look at that for a minute. But Peter, he wasn't ashamed, Boaz, was it? He wanted witnesses. It was required that they would see what was being done.

Luke 24, verse 45. Christ opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, verse 46, So it is written, so it behoove Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sin should be proclaimed in his name among all the nations beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things.

He's paying the price for our redemption, and they are witnesses.

And behold, I send the promise of my Father to you, but sit here in the city of Jerusalem until your clothed with power from on a high. And he led them as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and he blessed them. This is Boaz, pronounce the blessing on Ruth. Witnesses to our redeeming brother. Back to Ruth, chapter 4, verse 12.

Verse 12, it says, And let your house be like the house of Pharaohs, whom Tamar bore to Judah, seed of which God shall give you of this young woman. And Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife. He went to her, and God made her conceive, and she bore a son. And the woman said to Naomi, this woman who once thought she was cursed, God wasn't with me, call me Mara, don't call me Pleasant.

They said to Naomi, Blessed be God, who has not left you this day without a redeemer.

So that the name, his name may be famous in Israel, and he shall be to you a restorer of life, and one who cheers your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who you love, has borne him a son to you.

In the scripture, I read my daughter several times when she was little. She who is better to you than seven sons.

Ruth, a mulabitis, a foreigner, better than seven sons.

Christ said that if we're willing to give up our father, our mother, our land, our house, he'd reward us a hundredfold and give us eternal life.

She was better than seven sons. Naomi took the child, laid it in her bosom, became a nurse to it. And the woman, her neighbors, gave it a name, saying there is a son born in Naomi. They called his name Obed. He's the father of Jesse, the father of David.

And of course, in the ancestry of Jesus Christ. And the rest of the book talks more about genealogy. And near Kinsman, a Kinsman Redeemer, Oas acted as the Old Testament Kinsman Redeemer.

His actions were based on the levered law given in Deuteronomy 25, we mentioned.

The Kinsman Redeemer had to be a blood relative.

Christ became our brother by a virgin birth to a human woman.

And then, by being resurrected and becoming the firstborn in the church, the older brother for us, the one who has the right to redeem us from our sins, from our being cut off, from our inheritance, our brother by that virgin birth and by the Holy Spirit, the firstborn of many brethren. Our Kinsman, who has the right to redeem us, and the Kinsman had that money to redeem us. It didn't come free just because you're a relative. You didn't just inherit this. You had to buy it. And Boaz had to buy the Redeemer. The redemption of Ruth and Naomi. And Christ had to buy our redemption to purchase our forfeited inheritance. Christ created the world.

And he was able to pay the price for it.

Turn to Exodus 6, if you would, verse 5.

God is often portrayed in the Bible as a near Kinsman, the role of Israel's Redeemer. He is their creator, the savior of the people.

Redemption from Egypt was a type of this act of purchasing, of Kinsman, moved by love.

Verse 5 of Exodus 6, God is talking to the Israelites. And he says, I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. Who art for say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord, I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rid you out of their bondage. I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm with great judgments. And I will take you to me for a people. I will be to you a God, and you shall know that I am the Lord, your God. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

I am your Kinsman Redeemer.

I will take care of you.

Like Ruth said, your people are my people, your God is my God. And God is saying, He'll take care of us as our Redeemer.

Ruth carried many burdens, I'm sure, but she chose God's way of life.

God accepted Ruth.

I'm sure there was talk about Ruth. Israelites tend to gossip and talk and chatter.

And I'm sure there was a lot of talk about Ruth. The Moabites. Why is she here? What's happening?

Yeah, God took care of the married Moabite women, so He killed them.

Sure, there's a lot of chatter that way.

The other Kinsmen wouldn't redeem her. Didn't want to pollute his inheritance and his name. He was interested in the early New Testament church. Had a problem with Gentiles as well. Didn't want to let them in the church.

That's why God sent the vision to Peter and sent him to Cornelius. And actually had the flames of fire in the wind blow, so that Peter would know that, oh, wow, this is different.

You read in Acts 10, verse 34, when Peter's doing this thing.

He'd be there because the Jews were looking skeptical at foreigners.

Old Covenant forbid certain people for coming into Israel. And the church was spiritual Israel. And these people can't come in.

What does Peter say in Acts 10, 34?

Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. But in every nation, he that fears him and works righteousness is accepted with him.

God accepts people who fear him and do what's right, regardless their origins, regardless their race, regardless of their ethnic background, regardless of their bad history.

If they're righteous.

God's Spirit has been available to us since that first day of Pentecost when we repent and are baptized. The group of believers who are redeemed by our kinsmen, Redeemer, our closest in blood and spirit, that sacrifice of Christ. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2, if you would.

Ephesians 2, verse 11.

We see all that are accepted. All that can be accepted if they repent.

They change. Your people, my people, your God, O my God.

Verse 11. Therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, Moabites, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made by flesh of hands, and that at the time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant promises. You were like Ruth. You weren't a covenant people, having no hope without God in this world, not redeemed. Before Ruth met Naomi, she had no clue about Israel. She didn't know. She was a Gentile. She was a foreigner, an alien from the covenant. She was out of it. Just like Michelle coming to college had no clue where everybody was going, what was happening. But she wanted God. She wanted to find out. She wanted to be redeemed.

Verse 13. But now Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus you were once far off, but have been brought near by the blood of Christ, the kinsman redeemer. For he himself is our peace, has made us both one, has broken down that middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity.

Our sins that cut us off from our inheritance, eternal life, the promises.

Go back up to verse 4. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love, with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ.

And we're saved by grace. And raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace.

Think of all the things Boaz heaped on Ruth to make her successful. That in the ages to come, he might show his riches in grace and his kindness toward us in Jesus Christ.

That's what he wants. We were like Ruth, undeserving of becoming God's children.

We were estranged from the covenant by our sins. We were breaking God's laws.

But he, in his mercy, sent an envoy to send a magazine. Start opening your mind to his truth.

Maybe put you through some tough times. Face some tough issues. The Sabbath, the holy days, with a job, with health issues, whatever. But he was building you into what he wanted you to be.

We're part of the congregation. Boaz was a type of Christ. Ruth had strived to fill the terms of the covenant that she didn't know when she was young. She married an Israelite. She has to be covered by the Israelite law, by Boaz. We make our solvat baptism to be covered by Christ.

And he redeems us, and we become betrothed to him. And he wipes away our sins, our past, and we're part of his family, part of the congregation of Israel, the spiritual body. And we're at one with the rest of the body, the body of Christ, the Israel of God, part of the God family, the family of a limilec, God as king, the king family. Ruth was an Israelite because of her character. She was more Israelite in her character than anyone else in Israel. Boaz had no problem taking Eris' wife. She wasn't born in the church. She came into it because God wanted her, because of her character, her humility. Christ has no problem making us as bright as well. When we repent, when we're converted, when we receive his Holy Spirit, when all the past is forgotten, we're washed clean by his blood, we become a new man, part of the natural ology, grafted in, part of God's family. Ruth teaches us that in God's sight, conversion is so much more important than your ethnicity, your background, your previous sins, what you go through. Ruth is a Gentile, showed that God put He had in mind all along to save the whole world.

Everyone will have a chance, not just Israel, not just those genetically of Abraham's line, and Isaac and Jacob as part of the covenant, but He has the door open to all that will repent and live righteously, who truly do love God above all else and their neighbors themselves, who do their duty before God and willing to come under His covenant. These things were all written for us. The stories of the Old Testament are being relived every day in various lives of the people that God is working with. And like Boaz, Christ doesn't always tell you exactly what He's doing, when He does it or even after He does it. And you can look at those things as time and chance, but I'm persuaded they're not. Hebrews 11.13, when it says, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They were Moabites, really, in a sense, waiting for God's kingdom. They that say such things declare that they seek a country, and if they had been mindful of where they came, they could have returned, as Orpah did, to her people and to her gods.

But now, Ruth and you and I and they desire a better country. Wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city. He's not ashamed to be our kinsman redeemer. It's not ashamed of our past, because we've been forgiven of that. We look to the future. We do have hope as long as we're in God's church, in the spiritual body.

It's not a corporation, per se. It's a spiritual body you belong to. There's no group you can join that gets you in the kingdom. It's only through Christ's blood. It's our kinsman redeemer, that we have hope in our soon-coming marriage to Christ. This is a fiancé bride. Christ alone had the worth to pay the price for all humanity. He's the only one that had enough money, enough wealth to redeem all of mankind. The kinsman had to be willing to buy back the forfeited inheritance.

By sin, we forfeited our inheritance, and Christ laid down His life of His own free will.

The kinsman had to be willing to marry. Didn't have to. He could take off his shoe and say, no, I don't want it. Had to be willing to marry the wife of a deceased relative, the type of the bride-and-groom relationship of Christ. And Christ did that willingly.

And when the Holy Spirit came, as Christ said it would on the day of Pentecost, it opened a way for you and for me to be part of that, to be part of Him being our kinsman redeemer. Christ redeemed us with His blood and made us brothers and sisters when He gave us His spirit and baptism. Jesus Christ is our next of kin. Ruth made herself ready. She purified herself.

As we think about the fact that we're firstfruits of God, let us use God's Holy Spirit to make ourselves ready to truly love God and love our neighbors ourselves. And remember, let Christ be your kinsman redeemer.

Thank you, Mr. Dean, for that wonderful sermon, helping us to understand a little bit more about our redeemer. And if everyone would please rise and take up your hymnals for our last chance to sing of Him today, let's turn to page 162. We praise the old God, our redeemer, hymn number 162, after which we like to have the closing prayer of Mr. Joe Trom.