Redeeming Love

Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth, Simply Stated. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. It begins with fullness. And you know, the Bible says that the weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And this is the happy ending to this story. It is a wonderful story about two people who get married. And we just feel like we want to add the last verse to this book and have it say, and they lived happily ever after. It is the story of a marriage between a woman whose name is Ruth and a man whose name is Boaz. Now it's a wonderful love story in and of itself, but Ruth was a Moabitess and Boaz was an Israelite. And Ruth was a stranger and alien. She was from Moab, which was a nation, a hated and hateful nation that had a curse upon it.

And she was alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel. And yet Boaz redeemed her, brought her in, married her, and Ruth has become, therefore, a picture of all of us. Ruth is a picture of the church, which is the bride of Christ.

And Boaz, who redeemed her, is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, our kinsman redeemer. Now in this fourth chapter, the key word is redemption. The word redemption is used in this one chapter at least 15 times. Let's just take one verse and you'll get the idea. Look in verse four. Now I know you may not know the meaning of that verse. All I'm reading that verse for is to show you the word redeem, redeem, redeem, redeem, redeem. We're talking, folks, about redemption and our kinsman redeemer.

That is, the one who is very near to us, the Lord Jesus, has redeemed us. So here's the story. Now remember, it begins with a funeral, but it ends with a wedding. It begins with a famine. It ends with fullness. It begins with weeping, but joy has come. Now there are three things I want you to see in this fourth chapter.

Three pictures. Remember that we told you that in the Old Testament, we have pictures of salvation and pictures of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes we have to look for a long time to see them.

And then they just burst out in front of us. Why does God hide these things? Well, I think for one reason, so we can have the joy of discovering. I think for another reason, it's one of the great affirmations and confirmations of the inspiration of the Scripture.

None of this could have happened just by chance. But you're going to see three pictures of salvation here in the fourth chapter of the book of Ruth. And what you're going to see is a picture of our redeeming Lord.

That's the Lord Jesus. And then you're going to see a picture of our renewed life, what happens when we come to Jesus. And then we're going to see a picture of our restored legacy. What we get when we come back into the family of God.

Are you ready for that? Let's look at a picture now of our redeeming Lord that's found here in this book. Look, if you will, now, I'm going to read verses one through six. Then went Boaz up to the gate and set him down on the ground there. And behold, the kinsmen of whom Boaz spake came by, unto whom he said, Ho, such a one, turn aside and sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down. And he, that is Boaz, took ten men of the elders of the city and said, Sit ye down here.

And they sat down. Then he said unto the kinsmen, Naomi, that has come out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech's. He said, 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 wilt 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. 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. And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance.

Redeem thou my right to thyself, for I cannot redeem it. Now right away, if you're not familiar with this, if you're a new Christian or new in the Bible, this is all very confusing to you. It makes perhaps very little, if no sense at all.

But let me give you some background that will help clear it up. This took place in ancient Israel, and there were some laws in ancient Israel that you need to understand. Number one was the law of the kinsman redeemer, and number two was the law of the Levirite marriage, the kinsman redeemer and the Levirite marriage. Now, God would give to a tribe and a family land, and he wanted that land to stay in the family. But sometimes an owner of the land would mortgage his land, he'd get bankrupt, and he'd sell his land to somebody else. But God had a plan that if a man did this, that somebody else who was a near relative could come and redeem that land and buy it back.

So, obvious, the name, kinsman redeemer. There was also a law in the land called the law of the Levirite marriage. If a man married a woman and they didn't have any children and the man died, then in order to keep his name alive, a brother of this man was to come and take this man's wife, who's now a widow, marry her, and endeavor to have children, that he would have his name perpetuated.

So the land and the name are very important. So there was the kinsman redeemer who could come and buy back the land, and then there was the kinsman who would come and marry the widow to raise up children. Now, Boaz is a kinsman redeemer, and also he's one who's going to marry Ruth. Ruth is a widow. Her husband has died and her estate has been sold, and so that's the background of this passage of Scripture.

If you don't understand that, it's going to be hard to understand. Now, there were three things that were necessary in order for a man to be able to buy back the land. First, he had to be a sincere kinsman.

He had to be wealthy enough to do it, and he had to be willing enough to do it. Now, friend, that is a picture of our redeeming Lord, and I want you to see that very clearly. Now, let me just go back before we get into this a little deeper and show you how Jesus is a picture of that.

Put in your margin, if you want to find these laws, you can find them in Leviticus chapter 25 and Deuteronomy chapter 25. Now, I want you to see how Boaz, number one, was legally worthy. Look, if you will, in verse 6. It is somebody who is nearer to you than I, and he has to have first chance, and if he doesn't do it, then I will do it. So they went out to the gate of the city, and Boaz waited until he saw this man who was the nearer kinsman than even Boaz. He said, hey, you, come over here. I want to talk to you, and he explained to her about Ruth and Naomi and the land and all of that, and he said, do you want to buy this property? Do you want to redeem this property?

You can do it. You have the right. You're standing in line. You're a near kinsman. You're a kinsman redeemer. He says, all right, I'll buy it.

But he said, Boaz said, now, wait a minute. Along with the land comes a woman, Ruth. You're going to marry Ruth.

If you buy this land, you're going to get Ruth along with the land. And this man said, oh, no, I'm sorry. I cannot redeem it, lest I mar mine own inheritance. Now, who is this man? Who is this nearer kinsman who cannot redeem? He's Adam. Adam. You see, everybody's either in Adam or in Christ. You see, who is my real, real close relative? Adam. We're all related to Adam, are we not?

And in Adam, all die. He is the near relative that we all have. I was preaching in a revival one time, and a woman said to me, she came up after me, which she said, you're a Rogers, aren't you? I said, yes, ma'am. She said, well, she said, I have been doing some work on our genealogy. She stood up real tall, she said, because I'm a Rogers. And she said, you will be happy to know that the Rogers came over on the Mayflower. I said, well, that's wonderful. I said, I traced it back further than that.

Boy, did she get excited. And I said, I traced it all the way back, and you need to know that we came from a crooked farmer and a drunken farmer. The farmer was Adam, and the sailor was Noah. That's how far back we go.

And that let some of the air out of her just a little bit there. But, folks, I want to tell you that our near kinsman is Adam. And in Adam, all die.

Remember what Boaz said? He sat there in the gate, and he says, let's get ten witnesses. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Who are the ten witnesses that say that our Adamic nature cannot save us? The ten commanders. Got ten witnesses, and there they are. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Count them up. And by the way, all of us are guilty of breaking all of them. You say, well, I've never committed adultery, or I've never killed anybody.

No, listen, friend, the law hangs together. The Bible says if we break the law at one point, we're guilty of all. We're guilty of all. God demands perfection. There are ten witnesses that say that we cannot redeem ourselves. And this near kinsman, notice how full of self he is. In verse six, I, I, I, me, my inheritance.

No, he can't do it. So full of self and selfishness. But there is one, therefore, who is next in line, the Lord Jesus. And so, friend, Jesus became a human being that he might become our near kinsman. You see, that's the reason for the incarnation. Why did Jesus step out of the glory? Why did he come down through that dark Judean night to be born through the portals of a virgin's womb? Why did the great eternal God become a man? Why the incarnation? Why the virgin birth? So that he could be our near kinsman. Let me give you a verse there.

Put it in your margin. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14. For as much then as the children, that's talking about us, are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, Jesus. Because you and I are flesh and blood, became flesh and blood, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death.

That is the devil. And the Bible now calls the Lord Jesus Christ our brother. Our brother. You see, that's why he became man, that he might be our near kinsman.

And so I want to say, put this down, if you make notes and like an outline, Jesus is legally worthy. He could not redeem us. As God, though he is God, he had to redeem us as man. He had to be our near kinsman.

Our estate was lost by man, the nearer kinsman. It is redeemed by man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me just share with you just a little bit from Revelation chapter 5. I want you to listen. We're talking about our Lord, who is legally worthy.

The apostle John is on the island of Patmos. And he has a vision. Of things to come. And here's the vision.

Listen to it. John says, And I saw in the right hand of him that set upon the throne a book, written within and on the backside. Now the one sitting on the throne, of course, is Almighty God. And John sees the father has a book, a scroll, it's written on the front and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. Now this book, friend, is the title deed of the whole earth.

This book is the official document that determines the outcome of all history. And John sees this book and is sealed. And John says, Who's able to open this book? And no man in heaven nor in earth, neither under the earth was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.

And no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, that's Jesus, the root of David, that's Jesus, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain. And the word for lamb here is the word means little lamb. I mean baby lamb, as it had been slain.

Now here's a little lamb that has been killed, but this lamb has seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book. The little lamb takes the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of oaks. And they took the book out of their waters, that's incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people.

Now, no one in government, no one in religion, no one in science, no one in philosophy, no one in economics, no one can open the book. And you know, the question is not who is willing, but who is worthy. John sees no one is worthy until he sees the lamb. And the angel says, Don't you cry, John.

The lamb is able to open the book. Now, I want you folks, listen to me very carefully. Our world's in a mess. You know that, don't you?

Our world's in a mess. And you know how Satan is described, number one, as a dragon? You know how the coming Antichrist is described? As a beast. Now, here is the great ferocious dragon. And here is the beast with his militant millions.

And you know who the Lord sets against the dragon and the beast? A little lamb. A little lamb. And friend, I want to tell you that that lamb has redeemed us with his blood. He alone is worthy.

Now, put it down. Worthy is the lamb. Jesus is legally worthy. But not only is Jesus legally worthy, Jesus is lavishly wealthy. Now, in order to buy back Ruth, Boaz had to have money. In chapter two, verse one, Boaz is not just called a wealthy man. He is called a mighty man of wealth. Remember that the kinsman redeemer, remember he had to be a near kinsman?

Number two, he had to have sufficiency to buy the estate back. Now, Jesus is lavishly wealthy. You see, Jesus paid a greater price for us than Boaz paid for Ruth.

Put this in your margin. First Peter chapter one, verses 18 and 19. For as much as you know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, underscore the word redeemed, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. Then put down Ephesians one, verse seven. We're redeemed through his blood. And then remember Revelation 5, nine that we already read. Thou has redeemed us to God by thy blood.

There's no redemption without a price. Jesus paid that price. Put down first Peter three, verse 18. For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. You know, sometimes I will preach on Calvary and I will study and try to imagine and to take from scripture all the stories, at least all of the things, the events that surround dark Gethsemane and bloody Calvary.

And sometimes I will be so moved when I study that I will weep. And I want to make it so real to the congregation. And so I said, God, help me, help me to tell people the price that was paid. Lord, illumine my mind. Father, anoint my tongue. Help me, Lord, to tell a jaded congregation the price that was paid. And I'm going to tell you something, folks. I've been preaching long enough to know that people's eyes glaze over. They become numb.

They don't seem to pay much attention to it. Let me tell you a story. There was a fisherman who went out fishing. He took his dog with him. This fisherman was a great fisherman.

And catching a fish was very important to him. And the dog somehow got sight of some movement on the shore, maybe some waterfowl or something. And the dog began to bark while the fisherman was trying to be very quiet to catch fish. He irritated the fisherman and he spoke to the dog. The dog kept barking. Again, he hit the dog.

The dog kept barking. This fisherman, in a fit of rage, took out a hatchet he had in the boat and took one of those dog's paws and put it on the gunwale of that boat and with that hatchet cut off that paw and threw it in the water. Then he took another paw of that yelping dog and put his hatchet down and cut that paw off and threw it in the water. Then cut both paws of the hind legs from that dog and with blood pouring out and nothing to swim with, threw that dog in the water to drown. I've been watching your face now as I've told that story. Some of you have been going like that.

How terrible. Friend, I've seen people get more upset over a dog having his paws chopped off than the Son of God hanging upon a cross in agony and blood. You see, what's wrong with us? What is wrong with us is that we have heard the story of Calvary so much that we fail to understand the price that was paid for us. Jesus, with the silver of his tears and the gold of his blood redeemed us. He redeemed you.

Say to yourself, he redeemed me. He died for me. Jesus was legally worthy. Jesus lavishly wealthy because he redeemed us with his blood.

And then last of all, he was lovingly willing. You see, Boaz did not have to buy Ruth nor did the Lord Jesus have to buy us. There's nothing that says that he had to redeem us. I have told you many times, he does not love us because we're valuable. We're valuable because he loves us. He just loves us by his sheer grace, just as Boaz loved Ruth before Ruth ever knew his name. And we love him because he first loved us. That's the great love that he has for us. And so, I'm going to tell you a great love that he has for us. And so, I want you to see, first of all, that Boaz is a picture, a picture of our redeeming Lord.

Have you got it? Legally worthy, lavishly wealthy, and lovingly willing. All right, now, here's the second thing I want you to see. Not only do we have a picture of our redeeming Lord, but we also have a picture of our renewed life. Now, I want you to think about who Ruth was and what Ruth was like.

Ruth had three major problems. They're found in Ephesians 2, verses 12 through 13. Now, Paul is describing what we were before we met the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, at that time, ye were without Christ. Now, everybody here in this room is with Christ or without Christ. Now, here's the description of those without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Now, friend, that's the story of Ruth. Now, Ruth had three problems, her past, her present, and her future. And every unsaved man, woman, boy, or girl is like Ruth.

And you've got three problems, your past. What was her past? Well, she was born a Moabite. She was an alien.

Look, if you will, again in this passage of Scripture, Ephesians 2, 12, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. She was a Moabite. She was under a curse. She lived under a curse. Deuteronomy 23, verse 3 says, an Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter the congregation of the Lord. The Moabites were descendants of Lot who had a child through an incestuous relationship with his daughter.

They were a thorn in the side of Israel. And the curse was upon them. And according to the law, the law could not admit Ruth. By the law, she was shut out. Spiritually, she was born on the wrong side of the tracks.

And so were every one of us in Adam-Aldi. Now, she was an alien. Now, she was an alien. And so that's her past. Now, her present, look at her present there in verse 12.

Strangers from the covenants of promise. She did not enjoy the things of God. She was without the things of God.

She was a stranger to these things. The joys of life of Christ were not hers. Hers was a life marked by tragedy and sorrow. And her dreams had turned to dust and our hopes had melted away. That's her present.

And if you're without Christ, that's your present. That's where you are today. And then Ephesians chapter 2 verse 12 goes on to say, having no hope. That was her future. Hopeless. Her past, curse, her present, her present, crush, her future, condemned. God helped people understand where they are. That's where you are.

City and church won't change that. You need Jesus. Ruth is a picture of all of us.

She had three major problems. You could sum them up in these three words, sin, sorrow, and death. That's the enemy of all of us. But now wait a minute.

I want you to see what happens now. Remember, put this verse down, Ephesians 2 verse 19. Now, therefore, you're no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.

Why? Because Boaz had redeemed her. Do you know what the word redeem means? It means to purchase, to buy back.

He had redeemed her. There's another word that has a little prefix that's used with redeem. And it has the word ex in front of it. It means to buy. And then again, it means to buy out or to buy take out of the marketplace.

That is, to take off the slave block. When our Lord redeemed us, not only did He buy us, but He took us out of the marketplace. That is, we're no longer for sale. That speaks of our eternal security. And then to redeem means to set free. And that's what happened to Ruth.

That's what happened to Adrian. I have been bought. I've been taken off the marketplace. And I, dear friend, have been set free in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's redemption. That's the wonderful doctrine of redemption that we read over and over again. Now, let me show you something very interesting.

This will help make it clear. Look, if you will, beginning in verse 7, and let's read through verse 10. Remember that they are there at the gate of the city, and this near kinsman says, I can't buy her back.

No, I don't want to mar my own inheritance. Now, notice in verse 7. Now, this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing. For to confirm all things, a man plucked off his shoe and gave it to his neighbor.

And this was a testimony in Israel. Therefore, the kinsman said unto Boaz, Buy it for thee. So he drew off his shoe. Now, here's the way it works. They would say, Look, you want to buy Ruth? And he says, No, I can't buy Ruth.

You buy Ruth for me. And took off his shoe. Said, She's yours.

She's yours. That's the way he confirmed it. He just took off his shoe and handed it to the other guy. That's a strange custom. But you know what?

There's so much richness in that. The Bible's a wonderful book. It talks of one person taking the place of another person. Listen, that's what Jesus did when he saved us. He stands in our shoes. He stands in our shoes. He takes the sin, the hell, the degradation, all that we have coming.

He takes the price that we cannot pay. And Jesus says, I will stand in your shoes as Boaz stood in the shoes of that near kinsman, the old flesh, the Adamic nature. And he said, I'll do for you what you can't do for yourself.

I'll stand in your shoes. They ask an old man one time who was a, who was a, he'd been saved. He wasn't biblically literate. But somebody said to him, Okay, what's it like to be saved?

He said, Well, I don't know whether I could explain it to you where you could understand it. But to me, it's like I'm standing in Jesus' shoes and he's standing in mine. A theologian couldn't have said it better than that. That's what it is.

That's what it is. Him who knew no sin. God has made to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Here was this woman, her past, she's an alien, her present, she's outside the commonwealth of Israel, outside the promises of God, her future, no hope. Boaz says, I'll take her place. I will redeem her. Now here's the third thing that I want you to see. Now we have seen two things now. We have seen our redeeming Lord. We've seen our renewed life. Now I want you to see our restored legacy. And very quickly, some things that Ruth got back.

And I just have time just to run through these real fast. But Ruth got five gifts beginning in verse 10. First of all, look at the family that she received. Moreover, Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of Malon, 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. Now Ruth comes into a family. And friend, when you get saved, you come into the family of God.

I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God. She received as a legacy a family. She also received a fortune. Because verse 10, Boaz, who remember is a mighty man of wealth, marries Ruth.

No longer is Ruth now just gleaning in the fields, picking up handfuls of grain. Folks, listen, when she married Boaz, she owns the whole shebang. I mean, she owns it all.

She is married to him. She shares his wealth. Did you know that the Bible says we're heirs of God and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ? You know what joint heir means? It means share and share life. I mean, everything belongs to Jesus belongs to us.

Have you ever thought about that? The Bible says the meek shall inherit the earth. And then she received a family. She received a fortune. She received fame.

Look in verse 11 of this same chapter. The Bible says, and be famous in Bethlehem. The name Ruth today is spoken up with reverence, one of the most beautiful names in the world.

And we're talking about her now. Thousands of years after her life, she is famous. Without Jesus, you're going to die. Your body's going to rot in the grave. Your soul will burn in hell. But if you know Jesus, you shine as the brightness of the stars forever and ever and ever.

If you know Jesus, folks, you've got fame. You're a royal blue blood. You're a prince.

You're a princess. You are married into the family of God. And then she received fruitfulness. Look, if you will, in verses 11 and 12 of this same chapter here.

And all the people that were at the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. The Lord make the woman that is coming to thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build a house of Israel and do thou worthily in Ephrathah, which means fruitful. She became fruitful. Jesus said, you've not chosen me.

I've chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. She became fruitful. And I wish I had more time to say that, but last of all, folks, she received a future.

She received a future. Look, if you will, in verse 16, as she had a little baby and Naomi took the child and laid it in her bosom and became a nurse unto it. And the women, her neighbors gave it a name saying, there's a son born to Naomi. And they called his name Obed. And he is the father of Jesse, the father of David. And David, of course, you know, is the ancestry of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a future this woman has.

She's up in heaven right now, serving the Lord. Listen, if people knew what they had in the Lord Jesus Christ and had any sense, folks, you couldn't keep them away with a machine gun. You could not do it. You see, listen, here you are, here you are, your past, you're an alien. You're present, you're a stranger to the covenants of promise.

Your future, you're without hope. But there is a boy as a kinsman redeemer. He, friend, is legally worthy. He is lavishly wealthy. He is lovingly willing.

And he says, hey, I want to marry you. I want to give you a family. I want to give you a fortune. I want to give you fruitfulness. I want to give you fame. I want to give you a future. I want to marry you. And that's what Jesus is saying to you today.

I gave my life to redeem you. I want you to be my bride. That's what the church is, the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, back in verse 11, when they got married, the Bible says all of those witnesses were standing around. Can you imagine Ruth saying, well, you know, Boaz, I really would like to be married to you, Boaz, but I don't want anybody to know it. Could we just do this in secret? No, she didn't feel that way. She was happy that everybody knew that she loved Boaz. That's why we have a public invitation.

Did you know that? That's why we ask people to come for them. I stand here and I have, we have weddings and coming down this aisle, coming down this aisle, dressed in white is the bride and there's the bridegroom. She's not hoping that no one sees her.

She's hoping everybody sees her. Here she comes, here she comes to Him, not ashamed of Him. Jesus Christ said, if you're ashamed of me and of my word before this sinful and adulterous generation, I'll be ashamed of you when I come in the glory of the Father with the holy angels. How can you be ashamed of the one who died in agony and blood on that cross for you?

You can't do it. He is your kinsman, redeemer, legally worthy, lavishly wealthy, and lovingly willing. And He said, I do to you.

It's time you said, I do to Him. Amen. Father God seal the message to our hearts. And I pray that many will come to Jesus today in His dear name. Amen. Amen.