Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the
world.
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along.
Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.
All right, we're going to continue our study in the book of
Ruth.
If you have your bibles, turn there with me.
Ruth, chapter three.
We're going to pick up where we left off last week.
If you weren't here last week, I'll try to catch you up with where
we are in this story.
The story of Ruth is a story of love.
It's a story of redemption.
And we're seeing the picture of the kinsman Redeemer.
Now, if you don't know what the kinsman redeemer is, it's an
individual that redeems another individual
in their loss.
And so we see Ruthenhenne, who has lost their husband.
And in this culture, losing your husband means losing your security,
losing your income, losing the future
promise that you had with that relationship.
And so what would happen, and God instilled this, was that the
closest family member to your deceased
husband would then take you in, take
care of you, give you security, give
you income, give you provisions and
all that.
And what we're going to see here in the story is that Ruth goes
to Boaz and basically petitions him
in faith to be her kinsman Redeemer.
She hears from Naomi that Boaz is her relative, a close relative.
So she says, this is great.
This is an opportunity.
And so we looked at last week Ruth's proposition, her proposal
to Boaz, to marry her, to give her security,
to give her salvation, if you will.
And the picture of that is the picture of what Jesus does for us
and the fact that he is our kinsman
Redeemer.
We come to him in faith for salvation.
We come to him in faith for security.
We come to him in faith for provision.
We come in him with faith so that he can do all the things that
he promises us.
And so what does Boaz do?
Boaz comes back to Ruth and he says, yes, Ruth, I will do that.
I will keep that role in my life as the top focus that I have.
I will take care of you.
If you go back, you'll see it there in verse number eleven.
He says, and now, my daughter, fear not.
And so the remedy to her anxiety, the remedy to her fear,
was that relationship with Boaz.
And we know the remedy to our fear, the remedy to our anxiety,
our concerns, would be to come to a relationship
with Christ.
And the Lord tells us, don't fear.
Fear not.
And we know that in two Timothy, chapter one, verse seven,
God has not given us the spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a
sound mind.
And so a lot of times in her life, our circumstances are realistic.
They're real.
They're real difficult circumstances.
Ruth was in a real spot.
She was in a real difficult position.
But because of her relationship, or at least in this
case, her future relationship with
Boaz, Boaz reminds her, don't fear.
And that's sometimes what happens to us in our own christian
life.
We've got circumstances and difficulties and loss and pain and
what have you, anxieties and all
of that.
But what God says is that a relationship with me will bring you
peace, it will bring you confidence,
it will bring you hope.
And so therefore, there's no reason to fear.
And so Boaz says, fear not, I will do to thee all that thou requirest.
All that thou needest, essentially, is what he's saying.
Everything that you need, I will be there for you.
And that's what God says to us.
And it's important to remember the sufficiency of Christ in your
life.
Sometimes as an individual, we think about this understanding.
At least I'll speak for myself that you know what?
I know that God is good.
I know that he loves me.
I know that he's all powerful.
But in my situation, I'm not sure if he's going to handle it.
I'm not sure that he's going to work it out the way that I think
he should work it out.
And really what we're doing is we're not putting our sufficiency
in Christ.
We're putting our sufficiency in worldly wisdom, in what makes
sense to us on paper or what makes
sense to us in a circumstantial event.
And so what the Bible tells us is that what Jesus Christ does for
us is sufficient in every way.
And that's what Boaz is telling Ruth here.
But in this promise comes an issue, the issue of a problem, verse
number twelve.
And now, it is true that I am thy near kinsman, but this is what
we left off with last week.
Howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than I.
And so we leave off last week with a lot of optimism, a lot of
promise, a lot of hope.
But now we see that there is a problem that is presented to Ruth
and to Boaz, and that is that there
is a nearer kinsman, a closer family
member.
Now, what does that mean?
That means that Boaz does not necessarily have the right to claim
this kinsman redeemer position unless
the closer relative gives up that
right.
And so we're going to see that exchange happening here in the next
few verses.
But until then, what happens?
Well, Ruth has a chance to trust in her kinsman Redeemer or
to fear.
She has a chance here to trust and to wait and to be patient or
to be anxious and running and trying
to manipulate situations.
There's a lot of things that she could do here in this case.
But let's see what happens here after Boaz tells her, hey, there's
a closer relative.
And so there's another kinsman Redeemer.
That's possibly the one that could take this relationship.
But the problem is for Ruth and for Boaz is they've already expressed
their love for each other.
There's already been this unveiling of their heart to each
other.
And that's what we looked at last week in that proposal.
If you would like to read through that, you can.
There might be some confusion if you don't know the context.
Essentially, Boaz wakes up in the middle of the night and there's
a lady laying at his feet, and he's
like, what are you doing?
And it's dark.
He's like, who are you?
And she goes through this whole spiel about basically how she
wants him to marry her, to redeem
her.
And so this is what he says at the end of verse number 13.
He says, tarry this night, meaning wait, wait tonight, and it
shall be in the morning, that if
he will perform unto thee the part
of a kinsman, well, let him do the
kinsman's part.
Meaning this is out of our control.
This is out of our hands.
We have to kind of let this play out.
So be patient.
But then he says something very interesting here.
He says, but if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then
will I do the part of a kinsman to
thee.
As the Lord Liveth, lie down until the morning.
So he's essentially telling her, we have to trust God if this
is going to come to pass, if God opens
this door, if God allows this to
happen, then we're going to run right
through.
And so this is going to be a picture of patience.
This is going to be a picture of trusting.
And that's a word that I want you to think about here this evening,
trusting God in his promises, in
the midst of difficulty, in the midst
of a problem, in the midst of a difficulty
that could possibly lead to us not
receiving what we expect we should
receive.
And so, you know, God tells us that he loves us.
God tells us that he's never going to leave us.
God tells us that he's never going to forsake us.
But sometimes there's situations in our life where we're
tempted to doubt that.
And what does God tell us?
God tells us to wait, to be patient.
There's another passage of scripture that we could cross reference
with this, and that's in psalm 46.
Most of you know this verse, but if you don't know this verse,
it's a wonderful verse to deal with when
we're going through a time of crisis
in our life, a time of uncertainty,
a time of waiting, possibly.
Psalm 46, verse number ten, says, be still and know that I am
God.
I will be exalted among the heathen.
I will be exalted in the earth.
So God's command for us in the midst of a crisis is to be still,
to be patient, to trust in him, to trust
in his word, to trust in his ways.
Now, if you know the context of psalm 46, it's all about chaos.
It's actually not a peaceful situation that the psalmist is in
right there.
A lot of times people will read psalm 46 and they'll get to
verse number ten and they'll think,
well, be still and know that I am
God.
That is all about when God gives you a peaceful moment in your
life, then you can just thank him
for that.
That's not what he's talking about here.
A few weeks ago, Brother Chris Phillips, our special speaker for
our marriage conference, was talking
about this very thing.
And he says, when God tells us to be still, it's not saying, hey,
be still in this peace.
It's saying, be still in the midst of the storm.
Very similar to when Jesus is on the water, right with his disciples
and the storm's coming.
What does he say?
Peace.
Be still.
So it's peace in the midst of chaos.
And I think a lot of times in our life we're waiting for peaceful
circumstances to have peace.
But the Bible doesn't say that's what happens.
The Bible actually says that we can have peace in the midst of
a difficulty.
So we go back to Ruth, and Ruth is now in a crisis moment.
She's in a moment of saying, now I've shown my love for Boaz.
Now I have my heart set on this kinsman redeemer.
This other guy, I don't know.
This other guy I don't want.
But now, possibly God might change the path.
God might change what's going on.
And so she's got to trust.
And I want you to think about that here this evening.
This understanding of trust.
The Bible says in Hebrews, chapter eleven, verse six that it's
impossible to please God without
faith.
You cannot please God without faith.
And so what is faith?
Well, a lot of times we'll say faith is believing in something that
we don't see, which is true.
But faith is also tied together with trusting, right?
I can say all day what I believe, but until I truly trust
in what I believe, I'm not really having
faith.
You've heard the classic analogy of the chair, right?
The chair is there.
I believe that that's a chair.
I believe that chair can hold me up.
But until I sit in that chair, that's actually the action of trust.
I'm trusting and displaying my faith that that chair will hold me
up.
And so we say that we trust God, or at least we say we believe
that God is who he says he is.
Well, it's that trust that proves that faith.
And so here Ruth has a chance to express confusion, express doubt,
or express trust and faith.
And so what happens?
Verse number 14.
And she lay at his feet until the morning.
And so Boaz and Ruth are not doing anything inappropriate, but
they're just here waiting till the
morning.
And she rose up before one could know another.
So she gets out of there.
And he said, let it not be known that a woman came into the
floor.
Now, Boaz and Ruth were not trying to hide anything, but it was
just that Boaz didn't want this near
kinsman to learn what Ruth had done.
Basically like, hey, let's let God figure this out.
Let's not try to manipulate this.
Let's not try to get in the mind of this other guy.
And so verse 15.
And he said, bring the veil that thou hast upon thee and hold
it.
And when she had held it, he measured six measures of barley and
laid it on her, and she went into
the city.
So he gives her something as she goes.
And I think that this is a picture of how God expects us to
trust him.
In most cases, when God gives us a promise, he's going to give
us a provision in the midst of that
promise, right?
So what?
Boaz makes a promise to her.
He says, let's trust.
Let's let this play out.
I will take care of this.
I'm going to go to the other kinsman.
I'm going to take care of this for you.
You don't have to worry about this.
He says, here, take these provisions and go.
And that's what God does to us.
When he's asking us to trust him, he's saying, look, I've given
you all these provisions in your
life.
Now trust me in the midst of this doubt.
Trust me in the midst of this darkness.
And so he says, I will perform it.
I will do this.
I will take care of this.
And so, just as Boaz is doing all the work for Ruth, so does Jesus
do all the work for us in the midst
of our salvation, in the midst of
our doubts, in the midst of our loss,
in the midst of our hope that we
have.
And so, verse 16.
And when she came to her mother in law, she said, who art
thou, my daughter?
And she told her all that the man hath done to her.
So she explains all the stuff that happened between her and Boaz.
And she said, these six measures of barley gave he me.
For he said to me, go not empty unto thy mother in law.
And this is the truth.
I mean, sometimes we feel like we're empty.
Sometimes we feel like we are without.
But God always gives us everything that we need.
Philippians, chapter four.
Paul says, God, my God, shall supply all your need.
And so when God is making us go through something, or at least
allowing us to go through something,
he's always going to give us the provisions
that we need to get through that
struggle, even though it might not
feel that way sometimes.
But he's given us enough in his word.
He's given us enough in his presence for us to understand that
we can trust in something.
It's not like God just leaves us out on a ledge and doesn't give
us truths in his word so that we
can trust in that.
The word of God is a rich depth of faith that we can have in
the concept of, hey, this is what
we go back to.
God tells me all these things, and so I can go back to that.
And I think that that's important to realize when we're coming
to this understanding of trust and
faith.
Right?
Faith cometh by hearing.
This is Romans chapter ten, verse 17.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
And so if you want to grow in your faith, you have to grow in the
understanding of what God's word
says.
It's always linked together.
You can't just grow in faith by saying, well, I'm just gonna try
harder.
I'm just gonna, like, really pull myself up on my bootstraps and
keep trying.
The truth is that when we don't have that proper object of
faith, we're never gonna have solid
faith.
We're never gonna have a solid footing.
Like, I put my faith in a lot of things sometimes, and probably
not the greatest things to put my faith
in.
You know, there's been times I don't know about you, I don't like
heights, but sometimes I've climbed
up on some ladders that probably weren't
very trustworthy.
Okay?
I probably shouldn't have trusted them, and I probably shouldn't
have gone as high as I did on that
ladder.
The truth is, is that sometimes we put our faith and trust
in something that is really not reliable.
But the truth is that when God calls us to do something, and when
he asks us to do something, it's
the most reliable thing.
And the reason we can have that proof is through his word.
And so she says, I have what I need here.
He didn't leave me empty.
Verse 18.
Then she said, this is Naomi's advice to Ruthenhenne, which at this
point in time, Naomi is giving good
advice.
She wasn't giving good advice back in chapter one, okay?
If you remember back then, she was telling Ruth to stay in Moab.
Keep worshipping your idols.
Even further on, Naomi said, hey, I'm bitter.
God's taken everything away from me now.
Naomi's perception has changed, and now she's a lady that's
giving wonderful advice.
She says, sit still, my daughter.
That's reminiscent of that psalm 46 passage.
Be still and know that I am God.
She said, there is a time in the midst of a struggle that you
have to sit still and trust in your
kinsman redeemer.
And that is one of the hardest things to do.
One of the hardest things to do is just sit and be patient and
wait for God to do his work.
A lot of times, we want it right now.
We live in that society.
We live in a smartphone society where everything, we can
just pull it up, and that's access.
Right now.
Right now, I guarantee you.
But let me say it this way.
Yesterday my phone stopped working.
Okay?
It stopped working.
About 430.
I don't know what it was.
It popped up all these error codes, and I didn't have reception.
You know what?
I think it was like 430 by 438.
I was at the Verizon store, okay?
I'm like, I gotta have my phone.
Okay?
This is my access point.
This is where I do everything this is where I do my work.
This is where people communicate to me.
So I drove over there and they fixed it for me, and I got out, and
I was like, peace, right?
But for those eight minutes, I was stressed because I'm like, someone
could be reaching out to me, right?
And I started realizing, what, you know, where have I gotten to
in my life where I'm so reliant on
this now?
There are reasons for that.
My wife was out with the kids somewhere else, and I didn't have
a way to contact her, and I was concerned
that she might need me.
So there are things.
It's not like I was just playing games on my phone and I couldn't
take eight minutes without it.
I just wanted to make sure that my wife wasn't traveling and
needed something.
But anyway, the concept of this immediate gratification has
caused us as believers to struggle
with this understanding of being patient
and waiting on God to do his work.
Sometimes God is going to do it in his timing, and most of the
time, our timing is not God's timing.
Like, come on, lord, when are you going to do this?
When are you going to work this out?
And so, for her, this was just one evening, but it probably seemed
like an eternity.
But Naomi says, sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the
matter will fall.
She essentially tells her this advice, don't stress about it till
it actually comes to pass.
There's nothing you can do right now except for trusting in
God, praying, giving it over to him.
And I want you to see another passage of scripture that ties so
well into this, and that's Philippians
chapter four.
We've already mentioned in Philippians chapter four the principle
of God providing needs.
But in Philippians chapter four, we also see this idea of prayer
and giving it over to God in the
midst of anxiety.
I know for me a lot of different things bring me anxieties
and concerns and tempt me to not trust
in God.
But whatever it is for you, Philippians chapter four, verse six,
says something very interesting.
It says, be careful or I be anxious for nothing, but in everything
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
So we're asking in faith, let your request be made known unto God.
So the Bible tells us what to do when we're being still, and that
is to bring our requests, our struggles,
our anxieties, our cares over to
God with thanksgiving.
Meaning, Lord, you're gonna do what you're gonna do, and I know
it's good.
And do all that.
And what does it say in verse number seven?
And the peace of God which passeth all understanding.
Meaning no one can understand this outside of those who are in
Christ.
And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep
your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus.
And so in the midst of conflict or the midst of crisis,
or in the midst of anxieties, what do we
do?
We turn it over to the Lord.
Be careful.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication,
let your request be made known unto God
with thanksgiving.
And therefore, the product of that patience is what peace?
The peace of God.
And so that's an amazing product of that patience.
And we even see that in Galatians, we see the fruit of the
spirit.
One of the elements of the fruit of the spirit would be in the
King James.
It says long suffering, which is a good way to describe patience,
suffering long.
But the Bible says that there is this understanding that when we're
in the spirit, we're more able to
be long suffering and be patient
and wait upon the peace of God.
And so we go back to Ruth and we see Naomi giving Ruth this same
advice.
Basically this sit still, wait, allow God to work out this
matter, for the man will not be in
rest.
So she contrasts Ruth's role in this problem and Boaz's role.
What's Ruth's role?
Sit still, be patient.
Trust.
What's Boaz's role as the kinsman Redeemer?
Well, this man will not be in rest until he have finished the thing
this day.
Meaning Boaz is the one doing the work.
Boaz is the kinsman redeemer.
Let him do the thing that he does.
And that's what it means for us as christians to say, let God
do his work.
Trust in him, trust in his goodness, trust in his holiness,
trust in his power, trust in his provision.
And say, you know what?
I can't stress about this.
This isn't my issue.
There are certain things that we should have concern over things
that we're doing in our life, about
the actions that we do and the reactions
that we have.
But really, sometimes there's going to be things that are outside
of our control that we can't stress
about because that literally will bring
us to a place of selfishness, pride
and anxiety.
And then that will lead to a very negative place because we're
thinking it's all about us.
We're thinking it's all on us.
And really the truth is that the Bible tells us that our salvation,
our redemption, is not on us.
It's ultimately on the Lord.
And so we see a transition from verse 18 to verse one.
And you know that the chapter divisions are there for organization.
So the story continues on, and we got to see what happens in verse
one, because now we shift focus from
Ruth and her challenge of patience
and prayer and peace to now the kinsman
Redeemer, what he's doing, and that's
Boaz.
And so verse one says, then Boaz then went Boaz up to the gate
and sat him down there.
Now, a lot of people might ask the question, maybe you don't.
Maybe you didn't catch it, but, like, why is he going to the
gate?
There is great significance to the gate.
The gate was the place where everyone that was any importance
would go to.
It wasn't just the gate of the city.
It was the place where a lot of matters would be judged.
It would be the place where all the powerful men would sit, all
the wise men.
And people would come with needs, they would come with concerns,
they would come with conflict.
It would be a place of trade.
It would be a place where people would sell their wares.
And when I was in Israel, if we could actually throw up, I have
a picture up there.
Hopefully you guys can find it.
It's on the slides there.
When I was in Israel, we actually got to go to one of these
gates, and the words weren't there.
If you could take those words down, you can see the gate there.
Yeah, we'll get it up there in a second.
It's going to be hard for you.
I'm the one in the very middle, the dark blue there.
Not that it matters, but if you can tell there's a wall there,
and then there was like a bench that
the people would sit.
So they said, when we're in Israel, they're like, all right,
all the pastors, all the wise men.
Okay, we want you to go sit.
So that was all the pastors on our tour, and we all sat down there.
But it's interesting how it would go, because basically it would
be like an l shape.
They would go in.
There would be like a bench, and then they would come around.
And so there would be security there as well.
And so that picture is just kind of showing you what it would
have been like.
Boaz is going, and he's sitting at the gate waiting for this
other man who would have been probably
wealthy, well, to do powerful.
He would have gone through that gate as well.
And so he knew that this was a place where this person would be.
So he's in the place that he should be.
So you guys can go ahead and take that down if you want to know
more.
If you want pictures about stuff I was doing in Israel, I'll
try to throw them up when I can,
when they're applicable.
That was, I believe, at the same time of Dan.
That's in northern Israel.
But anyway, so that's the gate.
That's the gate that he went to.
Not that specific gate, but a gate like that.
And he sat down there and behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz
spake came by.
So now here's his moment.
Boaz is going to petition for Ruth, but he can't just say, I want
Ruth and you don't want her, because
the rightful thing for Boaz to do,
the honorable thing is to offer it
to him.
That's what he has to do if he's an honorable man, which we see,
Boaz is an honorable man.
And so Boaz comes in and then what does he say here?
This is a really interesting thing.
He says, ho such a one.
Now that's an interesting thing to say.
If you were to put it in our terms today, it basically means mister
so and so.
He doesn't say the name.
And a lot of commentators would say, why doesn't he say a name?
He obviously knew this person.
A lot of commentators would say that this person doesn't get
the honor of having his name in scripture
because of his, his act that he does
here.
Basically, he denies his responsibility.
And we're going to see this come to pass here.
So he misses the opportunity to be the kinsman redeemer.
And so therefore he doesn't get any honor here.
So we have a guy named Boaz who is going to get the honor because
of his responsibility and his faith
and his trust and his action.
And then we see this other guy who had the opportunity and selfishly
turns it down so he gets no recognition
here.
Ho such a one.
Turn aside.
Sit down here.
And he turned aside and sat down.
So he's going to get his attention here.
He's going to come to this place where he's going to petition.
And, you know, I think that this was probably at least if I was
Boaz, I would be nervous, right?
Because now Boaz is like, great, I have a wife, but now I got
to get this guy to not take her as
a wife, right?
So this is, this is, there's a lot at stake for Boaz here because
remember, Boaz is nothing.
A perfect kinsman redeemer, like our savior is a perfect kinsman
redeemer.
So Boaz still has flaws.
He's still a human being.
And so Boaz is going to basically explain it.
But before he does that, we see him again.
Being an honorable man, he brings witnesses.
Now, why does he bring witnesses?
Well, very similar to why we would bring witnesses.
So there would be people that were watching, so that there would
be people who could vouch for what is
said here.
And so he took ten men of the elders of the city.
Again, picture in your mind that gate, okay?
That gate with everyone sitting there.
He says, hey, ten of you, come here.
Listen to this.
And he says, sit ye down here.
And they sat down.
And he said unto the kinsman Naomi, that is, come again.
Out of the country of Moab selleth a parcel of land which was
our brother Elimelech's.
And I thought to advertise thee, saying, buy it before the inhabitants
and before the elders of my people.
If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it.
But if thou will not redeem it, then tell me that I may know,
for there is none to redeem it beside
thee, and I am after thee.
And he said, I will redeem it.
Now, you might say, what's going on here?
He didn't mention anything about Ruth.
Well, there's actually a few elements to the Kinsman Redeemer.
It's not just about a spouse being reunited with the family, but
it's also about the land to be reunited
to the family.
So the kinsman redeemed are played different roles.
He was also the person who would redeem the land.
He would buy back the land.
And so, for whatever reason, Boaz presents the land first.
He says, hey, there's some land that you can acquire because
you're the kinsman redeemer.
Would you be willing to redeem this?
Because Naomi's well past her age of childbearing, and so he doesn't
mention Ruth here.
He only mentions Naomi.
And he says, naomi has some land.
Would you redeem it back?
And what guy wouldn't want in some land, right?
He was like, great, I will do it.
I will redeem it.
And probably in Boaz's heart, you know, at least sometimes we don't
want to speculate, but in my heart,
if I was Boaz, I'd be like, oh, no,
my heart would have sunk.
When he says, I'll redeem it, I'll do it, because it's a package
deal.
With the land comes Ruth.
With the land comes being a husband.
And so we're going to see here that he's going to add more to it.
Then said, boaz, what day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi,
thou must buy it also of Ruth, the
Moabitess, the wife of the dead,
to raise up the name of the dead upon
his inheritance.
So he says, well, there's more to the story.
You're going to get some land, but you're also going to have a wife,
a Moabitess wife, for that matter.
And we see this man, we don't know his name again.
And so, selfishly, I believe he says, great, I'll take the land,
of course.
But when the wife is thrown in, we see him backpedal.
We see him go, whoa, that's not for me.
So selfishly, he didn't want to do that work.
He didn't want to go that far.
He wanted the benefit of the land, but he didn't want to do the
work truly as a complete kinsman
redeemer.
And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself.
And we see more to his heart in his explanation here.
He says, lest I mar mine own inheritance.
So he says, hey, I was willing to gain something from this, but
I'm not willing to sacrifice anything.
I'm not willing to give up any of my inheritance, because probably
he had children that he needed to delegate
the money to and give that money
to eventually.
And he's like, no, I don't want to lose anything that I have
already.
I'm not willing to sacrifice.
This is a perfect picture of every other thing in the world that
people put their faith in, right?
There is nobody or nothing that's willing to sacrifice for you
or at least give up their life.
Jesus is the only kinsman Redeemer who said, look, I'm willing
to put my life on the line for you.
I'm willing to die for you.
And so this is a picture of a willing kinsman redeemer, willing
to sacrifice.
Boaz is the one willing to sacrifice.
This other fellow is not willing to sacrifice.
He says, that's going to marden my own inheritance.
Redeem thou my right to thyself, for I cannot redeem it.
So Boaz's heart goes down, and then it goes back up, because this
man says, look, I want to redeem
it, but if it means losing my inheritance,
not going to happen.
You can take it.
You can have this.
And I think that's a beautiful picture of the relationship that
we have to Christ.
He is the only one who offered that sacrifice for us.
And then so many times we turn to these things in the world that
we think are going to give us hope and
peace and salvation.
But let me tell you, none of those things ever, ever gave you
the sacrifice of life.
I used to tell the teenagers this all the time, but I could say
this to adults.
Those people that are putting out content on the Internet and Hollywood
and whatever, they don't care about
your well being.
They want your dollars, they want your attention.
But so many people are so given over to these things that are
pulling them away.
And the truth is, is that they don't love you.
The one who loves you proved his love for you, and that's Jesus
Christ.
And therefore your kinsman redeemer is willing to sacrifice.
So now we get into a really interesting thing here, and this
is where we're going to kind of wrap
up this evening.
And so, verse seven.
Now, this was the manner and former time in Israel concerning
redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm
all things.
And we're not going to understand this, okay, you're going
to say, what are we talking about
here?
Remember, this is thousands of years ago, different culture, different
ways.
This would have been the norm for them back then.
Okay?
So to confirm all things, a man plucked off his shoe and gave
it to his neighbor.
And this was a testimony of Israel.
Therefore, the kinsman said unto Boaz, buy it for thee.
So he drew off his shoe.
And so you would say, what's going on here?
This was just something that they would do.
This was a ritual that they would accomplish in completing this
task of the kinsman Redeemer.
And so this would have been the custom of sandal transactions,
verse nine.
And Boaz said unto the elders and unto all the people, ye are witnesses
this day that I have bought all that
was elimelechs and all that was Chileans
and Mahlons and the hand of Naomi.
And so this was very, very interesting here.
He says, basically, you are the witnesses.
The world is the witness of what Jesus Christ did for us.
And so all these people were the witnesses what Boaz did for Naomi
and Ruth.
And so, moreover, Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have
I purchased to be my wife, to raise
up the name of the dead upon his
inheritance, that the name of the
dead be not cut off from among his
brethren and from the gate of this
place.
Ye are witnesses this day.
And so everyone could be the witness of what Boaz was doing, and
everyone could be a witness of what
Jesus Christ has done for us and
our lives.
And so we're going to stop there, here this evening, because
we're going to conclude it next week because
there's more to the story.
The story doesn't end with Boaz and Ruth's marriage.
It actually continues on with a legacy.
And we're going to talk about that legacy more, actually, not next
week.
We have a guest next week, but we will conclude that in two weeks.
But I want to go with some takeaway thoughts here tonight because
we're talking about this idea of
kinsman Redeemer.
But.
But I think that in this story, one of the greatest lessons
is that challenge for Ruth to be patient
and to sit still and to trust in
her kinsman redeemer to do the work
and figure out that problem in her
life.
You know, I know that some people, by nature, are more prone
to worry than others, but probably all
of us at some point in our lives
have a chance to wait and be patient or
not be patient in the midst of a
difficulty, in the midst of a quote
unquote problem.
And, you know, I used to think growing up that if I could just run
away from all my problems, everything
would be okay.
I remember one time, I don't know how old I was.
I couldn't have been much older than Micah, so I was probably
like ten or eleven years old, and I was
having a rebellious stage in my life,
and I was getting upset with my dad,
and my dad had all these rules, and
I said, fine, I'm going to run away
from home.
I don't know if any of you have ever went through that process
in your mind.
And I thought I really was going to.
I went to my room and I started packing my bags, and I was
like, I'm going.
And my dad's like, oh, you're going to go?
Okay.
You better take some food with you.
Better take.
You know, my dad knew I wasn't going anywhere, but I was so set
that I was going to go somewhere,
and I was like, I'm going to go somewhere
that doesn't have rules, and I'm going
to make my own rules.
And by the time I probably left and my parents probably could
tell the story better than me, maybe
they don't even remember it.
I don't know.
We'll see.
But I'll have to ask them later if they're watching.
But before I left, I realized, you know what?
There's nowhere that I can go that I have it this good.
There's no one that's going to love me like my dad and mom.
There's no one that's going to protect me like my dad and mom, no
one's going to feed me like them,
right?
There's all these things in my mind that are running through my
mind, as rational as a ten or eleven
year old could be.
I started realizing that all of these things are never going to
bring back to me what I have in that
relationship with my parents.
Now some of you might say, well, you know what?
You didn't know my parents, okay?
I should have run away from them because I think I could have
found, no, I know what you're saying,
but we got to think about it from
the perspective of we have a perfect
father, we have a perfect heavenly
father who sometimes we feel like
we can go somewhere else and figure
it out on our own.
But he has us coming back every single time saying, look, I
forgive you.
It's the classic picture of the prodigal son, right?
He meets us, he wraps his arms around us and he says, I alone can
give you what you need.
I alone can be sufficient in your life and provide for you and
protect for you.
So Ruth had the opportunity to stress and to worry and to fret about
it.
But then we have that picture of peace.
Be still.
And so I want you to think about that understanding of peace
here this evening.
Have you ever desired peace and quiet in your life?
By way of testimony, I have a house with a nine year old, a six
year old and a eight month old.
I desire peace sometimes, okay.
Sometimes I'm like, I just want it to be peace and quiet, okay?
But that's very far and few between in times of our house.
But the truth is, is that there's a greater peace.
I think sometimes that people are seeking after in this world.
And we all know that some people try to seek that peace in
all the wrong places and you could
fill in the gap.
Okay?
I tried to do this to bring peace, but it didn't satisfy or temporarily.
It satisfied for maybe a week or a month, maybe even a year or
so.
But ultimately those things of the world that are packaged so nicely
to say, here's peace, here's pleasure,
here's comfort, all of those things
are eventually going to fall apart.
All those things are going to rust away, that's eventually going
to tear us down.
But what the Bible says is that there is this peace that passeth
all understanding.
And if you have tasted of that peace, it's the most amazing thing,
it's the most comforting thing to
know that no matter what happens
to you physically, emotionally and spiritually,
that nobody can take away the love
that God has for you.
Romans chapter eight.
If you are ever struggling with the concern of God caring about
you or loving you or taking care
of you in the midst of a difficulty,
read Romans chapter eight.
And if you believe the word of God as the word of God, Romans chapter
eight will bring you right back to
the place where you need to be.
Because by the time you get to the end, it starts with in verse
one, there's no more condemnation to those
that are in Christ Jesus.
And it ends with the fact that nothing in this world can separate
us from the love of God.
And he lists all of these things and he says, no, we're more
than conquerors.
Because no matter what comes in my life, I can still have that
peace that passeth all understanding.
And so there's going to be times that aren't peaceful in our
life.
There's going to be times where we don't believe that.
There's going to be times where we go through struggles.
But I'm going to tell you that that center point of God's peace
is found in knowing him and knowing
his word and resting in his presence
in our life and just being still and knowing
that he is God.
And one of the greatest things that I was able to accomplish in
my life when it comes to my spiritual
walk was not, hey, I gotta just try
harder.
It was, I wanna just know God and know him in a deeper level.
And the more I got to know him, the more I realized that he's
not going to fail me.
And there's gonna be days where, there's days where I'm talking
to someone and I catch myself going,
you know, I know this, but, and then
I, anytime we say that, that's where
we're in the problem, right?
Because I know that God is good, but, and then we say something
else, whatever it is.
But my situation is really tough.
Well, right.
And I think that's one of the many reasons why God gave us his
word.
For us to see all the other people that went through struggles
and how when they trusted in God, there
was always reward.
Because there's a second part of that verse in Hebrews chapter
eleven.
I want you to see that with me because this is so important, because
sometimes we only heard of, hey,
it's impossible to please God without
faith.
And you're like, well, now what?
Is it impossible for me to ever please God?
Because I don't have the type of faith that I need to have.
Well, Hebrews eleven six says, hey, it's impossible to please God
without faith.
But then there's a positive side to this.
Anytime God says something in the negative, he always is going
to bring the positive side of it.
Like, don't do this, but do this.
So in Hebrews, chapter eleven, verse six, he says, but without faith
it is impossible to please him.
But then he says, why?
He gives the background, he gives the deeper understanding.
He says, for he that cometh to God must believe there's that trust
that he is, meaning that he exists,
that he is who he says he is.
And there's an and there that's joining two things together.
So believe that he is who he is and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him.
Meaning I have to believe that God is going to reward my faith,
not in the way that I think sometimes,
because there's going to be some people that
say if you have enough faith, all
of your problems are going to go
away.
Well, I can tell you there's a whole chapter called Hebrews chapter
eleven, okay?
It's called the hall of Faith.
And it says, all these people that had faith, but it didn't say
that all their problems necessarily
went away, their circumstances went away,
their bigger problem of sin went
away.
And so what I'm gonna tell you here this evening is there is a false
teaching out there, and I gotta tell
you the truth about this, okay?
There's some people that will teach you that if you have enough
faith, all of your sicknesses will
just go away.
And if you're not, the problem with your condition is that you don't
have enough faith.
That's misleading, right?
That is so misleading because the Bible doesn't say, the Bible
doesn't promise that all of my problems
and sicknesses will be taken away
here on this earthen just because
I have faith in God.
Now, can he do that?
Yes.
God is a miracle worker.
God can do what he wants to do.
And we should plead with him for healing.
We should plead with him for our circumstances to go away.
But what we do know is that sometimes God doesn't heal us in
the way that we expect God's going
to heal us in a greater way, in a different
way.
And the Bible speaks all to that.
But I will tell you that the Bible does say that there is one
great healing one day, that all of
our sickness will go away, all of
our sadness will go away, all of
our pain will go away, all of our
struggles with sin.
And that is one day, the Bible says, and the theological term for
this is glorification.
But it's that day when we are reunited with him.
One day, and that might happen sooner than later.
You know, you never know when that's going to happen.
But the truth is that we should long for that day.
As christians, I long for the day when my sinful flesh is not fighting
against the spirit.
I long for the day where there's no more waking up in the
morning and things are aching and
pain and all of that.
I long for the day where there's no more chaos in this world.
The Bible says that day is coming, but until then, trust in
him that it's coming.
God is going to make all things right.
David the psalmist says, God, it seems like you're letting all
the bad people get away with this
and all the good people are going
through difficulties.
And David's speaking for us.
Sometimes.
Sometimes it looks like people are getting away with stuff that's
evil.
Like, when's God going to judge them?
Let me just tell you.
And we don't, like, rejoice in this necessarily in the fact that
they're going to be judged, but we
should rejoice in the fact that God
is going to make all things right.
He is the great judge.
He's the one that's sitting on the bench of the city, but ultimately
his bench is higher than everybody else.
There's the Bema seat, but there's also going to be one day,
the bema seat is the judgment that
God is going to say, okay, this is
what you did for me as a christian
rewards, right?
That's the judgment seat of Christ.
But there's also what's called the great white throne judgment.
And so what that means is that God is going to judge all of those
that have rejected him.
And so all these people that have rejected God and turned their
way to evil, God's not going to let
it go unnoticed.
God is a righteous judge now.
He's patient and he has grace.
He's long suffering.
But the Bible says that he will right all wrongs in this world.
And we have to have faith in that.
We have to have faith in that as christians.
And that's what we are looking at when it comes to the peace of
God in our lives.
But until then, what do we do?
We preach the gospel, okay?
For a lot of us, we want to be the judge.
We want to be the judge and the jury and take out our wrath upon
people.
God did not call us to do that.
God called us to project and to proclaim and to display the gospel
message in that time that we have
in this age of grace.
And so what do we do we preach the truth?
We say what is true, we call out what is wrong, but we have grace
to preach the message and love to
preach the message, to give people
the opportunity to come to Christ.
You know, I know some people that will say, including myself,
that person could never come to Christ.
That's not our judgment.
That's not our job.
Our job is to proclaim the truth of the gospel.
There have been people that have changed because of the Holy
Spirit, not because of logic, not
because of wisdom, but because of
the power of the Holy Spirit changing
their heart from a heart of stone
into a heart of flesh.
And so that's where our peace comes from, the bigger picture, the
peace of God, which passeth all understanding.
Now, I'm going to move forward a little bit here, and I am going
to tell you that as a christian today,
we have a lot of reason to be anxious.
We have a lot of reason to question.
We have a lot of reason to even sometimes doubt the goodness
of God because we look at circumstances.
What I would tell you is you can watch the news, okay?
There's nothing unbiblical about watching the news.
But what you deal with when you watch the news is either biblical
or not biblical, okay?
You can do everything in your life biblically or you can do everything
in your life unbiblically.
So it doesn't necessarily mean this.
Like, for example, this is what I try to do sometimes.
I just try to not watch the news, okay?
I'm like, okay, if I just don't watch the news, I won't have
any problems.
The truth is, is that people will tell me what's going on in the
world.
Then I immediately start stressing.
So it doesn't really matter.
I can't avoid the temptation always.
That's what happened when all these people tried to be monks.
And there's still people that try to do this.
They try to go live out on a monastery thousands of miles away.
They try to remove everything.
And they say, okay, I'm never going to sin again because I don't
have any outside distractions.
And then they realize they have something called the flesh,
okay?
And the flesh is going to still want those bad things.
And so it's not about just avoiding the bad.
It's about really living and relying on the goodness and the grace
of God in the midst of all this.
And so that's how you can have the peace of God.
And so I'm not here today to say, hey, don't watch the news or
don't deal with your neighbor don't
go to work, okay?
Because you might say, well, my problem's at work.
If I just didn't go to work, everything would be okay.
I can't tell you.
Well, just quit your job, okay?
You gotta deal with it.
You gotta deal with the problems of this world, okay?
But there's a way to deal with it biblically, and that is to look
to Christ in the midst of your decisions,
in the midst of your reactions.
So we'll be back in two weeks to conclude the book of Ruth.
I hope that it's been a good study for you.
It has been for me.
I've heard the book of Ruth so many times, but this time through,
I really wanted to see it through the
lens of the kinsman redeemer only.
Not that we can't take other elements of it, but I think that
kinsman Redeemer is that main theme
through.
And I think that was a blessing.
Now, if you want to know what we're going to be studying next,
I'll tell you in two weeks.
But I'm still praying about a few different studies.
So we're going to be getting through this in two weeks and then
we'll move on.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us@middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly@joshmissaroiddletownbaptastchurch.com.
if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow
along for future podcasts and updates.
Thank you so much.
God bless.
Have a wonderful day.