The Wedding

[This recording begins slightly after Warren Wiersbe begins teaching]

claim his bride. And when you read chapter 4, the two most important people, of course, are the bridegroom, Boaz, and the bride, Ruth. And when you look at Boaz, remember, you are looking at an image, a picture, an illustration of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, with Boaz, it is in contrast. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ is our kinsman redeemer, but what Boaz experiences here and what our Lord Jesus has done for us are in contrast.

Then when you look at Ruth, the bride, as she comes to receive her bridegroom, you see the individual believer, of course collectively, the church. Nowhere in the New Testament are we told that Ruth is a picture of the church, but she's a good illustration of the church. She's not necessarily a type. A type has to have New Testament authorization.

But she's a beautiful picture of the individual believer. You and I as Christians are married to Jesus Christ, Romans 7:4. "We become dead to the law that we might be married to another," that is, to Jesus Christ, "and bring forth fruit for God."

So when you look at Ruth, you're going to see a comparison between the believer and the Lord Jesus. When you look at Boaz, you're going to see a contrast even though our Lord is our kinsman redeemer. We won't go into it now, but if you want to study it in detail, you'll want to look at Deuteronomy 25 and Leviticus 25. They deal with the law of the kinsman redeemer and the law of the levirate marriage.

Goes something like this: The land belonged to the Lord, and God told the Israelites, "I own the land. You're just simply going to use it, and you better use it my way. Every seventh year, let the land rest." They didn't do that. Every 49th year, get ready for the 50th year, which is the year of Jubilee. In the year of Jubilee, the land rests, the servants are set free, the debts are remitted, and any property that was sold goes back to the original owners.

Now, if Israel had followed these laws, two things would have happened. One, ecologically, they would have had a great land, and socially, there would not have been the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. But they didn't do it. As a consequence, when you get to the end of the history of Israel, before the Babylonians came and took over, society had fallen apart.

The rich gobbled up the land, the profits, the poor got poorer, the rich oppressed the poor, the government could do nothing about it because everything was confused. They didn't follow God's rules, and we're doing the same thing today. I'm not saying we in America should do what Israel did, but we exploit our land thinking it's ours. It's not ours. It is the Lord's.

Now, the second rule had to do with marriage. If a man died and left no heirs, his brother should marry the widow and raise up a family to perpetuate the name of the brother. In Israel, it was very important that families keep on going and that families hold on to their land. That's the way God ordained it. So that's the background of Ruth 4.

Now we're going to look at Boaz, the bridegroom, and remember, we're going to learn about the Lord Jesus. Some of you have not discovered how wonderful your bridegroom is. You see, in chapter 1, Ruth didn't even know Boaz. In chapter 2, she knew him only as the lord of the harvest. He said, "Now you stay in this field," and he arranged to feed her and protect her.

Chapter 3, she finds out that he is her redeemer, and so she comes and puts herself at his feet and surrenders herself to him. So now in chapter 4, he can do for her all that he wants to do. Are you letting the Lord Jesus do for you all that he wants to do? You say, "Well, how does that happen?" Put yourself at his feet. Let's see what he does.

"Now Boaz went up to the gate." Now the gate in that day was the equivalent of the City Hall in our day. That's where you took care of contracts, sales, arranging for marriages, all these legal things. "And he sat down there, and behold, the close relative of whom Boaz had spoken." Now he spoke about this back in Ruth 3:12. He said to Ruth, "Now it is true that I am a close relative. However, there is a relative closer than I."

You see a kinsman redeemer had to be a near relative, he had to have the ability to redeem you, and he had to be willing to redeem you. If he were in debt himself, he could not redeem you. But if he were a near kinsman, willing to redeem, and able to redeem, he qualified. Boaz qualified. But there was somebody nearer than he. Well, providentially, that close relative came by.

So Boaz said, "Come aside, friend. Sit down here." So he came aside and sat down. And he, Boaz, took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, "Sit down here." So they sat down. 10 was the fundamental nucleus for a synagogue. There were no synagogues in those days. But 10 men made it legal. Had to have witnesses.

Did you notice that one phrase is repeated five times? "Sat down." Boaz sat down, his relative sat down, the men sat down. Here's the first contrast. When Boaz redeemed Ruth, he sat down on earth. When Jesus redeemed me, he sat down in heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ finished the work of redemption on the cross and went back to heaven. Hebrews 1:3, "he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

In the temple and in the Tabernacle, there were no chairs because the priests could not sit down. Their work was never done. "It's not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin." The law could not redeem anybody, the priesthood couldn't redeem anybody, and the sacrifices couldn't redeem anybody. It had to be the Lord Jesus.

Now, when he finished his work of redemption, he sat down in heaven, but having sat down, he began his work of intercession. That's what the book of Hebrews is all about. Hebrews and the book of Ruth parallel each other. Naomi said to the girls, "Go back." Hebrews says, "Don't go back, go ahead."

Our Lord sat down in heaven. Did you know that Jesus is working for you in heaven right now? You may not have lifted a finger to do a thing for him all week, but he's working for you in heaven. First of all, he is our high priest. As our high priest, he intercedes for us, and he has grace available to help us when we're tempted, when we're tried, to keep us from sinning. If we sin, he's our advocate. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one." And we can come to him and confess our sin, and he will forgive us.

Now Boaz sat down on earth to take care of a temporal matter that would only last a lifetime. My Lord sat down up in heaven to take care of an eternal matter. He is the author of eternal redemption, not temporal, not temporary, not conditional, eternal, as he's seated at the right hand of the Father.

Keep a marker in Ruth 4 and look at Hebrews 13. The writer makes a powerful statement here. Hebrews 13, this benediction shows up at funerals and it it applies. "Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete."

That's the theme of Hebrews. "Let us go on to perfection." Let us go on to maturity. He writes in Hebrews 5:12, "You've been saved long enough you ought to be teaching others, but now you're in your second childhood. They have to teach you." How much do you know about the Word of God? How much do you know about the God of the Word?

Now God wants to make us complete. That's a beautiful word. It's the Greek word that gives us our word "artist," artidzo. Artist, artistry. What does an artist do? An artist takes nothing and makes something out of it. T. S. Eliot takes a blank piece of paper, writes a poem, it's worth a million dollars. A sculptor takes a hunk of clay and makes a beautiful statue, and it's worth a great deal of money. A musician takes a piece of paper and draws some lines on it and puts some funny-looking dots on it, and he has a symphony. That's artistry.

Now to make this a really good word, the writer put k-a-t-a in front of it, so the word is katartizo, which means several things. It it was used for the the setting of a broken bone. Doctors use this word. What's Jesus doing up in heaven? He's setting my broken bones. He's setting broken bones in the body of Christ. "My brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault," Paul wrote to the Galatians 6, "you who are spiritual restore such a one." That's the word ==katartizo, restore, set the broken bone.

How do you do that? With a sledgehammer? That's the way we do it. Christians are the only people, when somebody hurts, they make them hurt worse. We're the only army that when a soldier is knocked down, we kick him. And we tell everybody how spiritual we are. Because here's somebody who who sinned, and we showed him that sin is wrong, we kicked him.

He says, "You restore such a one." The purpose of discipline is restoration, and the purpose of restoration is ministry. Get the bone back working again. Don't put him on the shelf. Make you complete. Make you perfect. Set the broken bone.

It was the word that was used for mending nets. Here's a fisherman out catching fish, and in the process of catching fish, the the nets start to break. Peter was mending nets when he met the Lord Jesus and was called to be a disciple. You know why I go to church? I don't go to church to hear sermons. I hear them, and I benefit from them. I go to church to worship God. You know why? My net needs to be mended.

And when I come to the God's house with God's people and everybody around me is talking and jabbering and discussing football games and weather, and I bow my head, and I listen to the organist as she plays a beautiful prelude to get my heart ready for worship, and I say, "Lord, mend my net. I've been at it all week and and I'm getting frayed, and just mend my net." That's what Jesus is doing up in heaven today. That's why he sat down.

The word means to equip an army. I'm in a battle. I don't know about you, but my wife and I are in a battle against the forces of evil. And they're being unleashed today as never before, and I need to be equipped. And so I come to my High Priest in heaven, and I say, "Equip me for the battle. Help me to put on the whole armor of God." That's the word.

It means to outfit a ship. And there are a lot of storms today, and some of the ships are going down. And I come and say, "Lord, outfit my ship, rig the ship, get the sails where they ought to be and and make sure everything is where it ought to be, because I'm launching out and you've given me a cargo to deliver, and and I want to be faithful."

What's Jesus doing in heaven today? He sat down that he might be able to equip us. That's why we go to church. That's why we read the Bible. That's why we pray. That's why we have Christian friends. Some weeks ago, we were going through a valley. Doorbell rang. Christian neighbor happened to show up. She said, "I was walking by, and the Holy Spirit told me to stop." That's ==katartizo. Helping to mend the nets. We had prayer together. What a blessing she was to us. Do you do that? Boaz sat down on earth. The Lord Jesus is seated up in heaven.

There's a second contrast here. Boaz had a rival. He said, "There's somebody who's closer than I am." Jesus has no rivals. When he went to redeem me, nobody can come and say, "Hold it. I'm closer." Now, Satan would like to do that. Satan has you convinced, some of you, that he is a rival to the Lord Jesus. He's not. He has nothing in common with you.

The Lord Jesus is our near kinsman. Hebrews 2 said, "He didn't become an angel to save angels. He became a man, and not just a man, he became a Jew, and not just a Jew, he became a poor Jew." He identified with me in flesh and blood. He has lived through what I live through.

In recent months the Lord has opened up for us a ministry to Christian leaders who are hurting and bleeding. Some of them have been stabbed. Some have been crucified. Some have been kicked. It just seems like when the phone rings or the mail comes, or we're out traveling, that this is what happens. We find ourselves talking to people who are hurting.

I said to a man recently who told me his sad story, I said, "Well, congratulations. You've been promoted." He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "This is the fellowship of Christ's sufferings." When they start treating you the way they treated Jesus, you've been promoted, pal. You've been promoted.

He's gone through everything we've gone through. And nobody can come to you and say, "Hold it. I I know more about that than Jesus does." "I've got an answer for that question." No, Jesus has the answer. "I've been through that." No, the Lord's been through it. Boaz had a rival. My Lord has no rival. He is exalted far above all. And he's been given a name that's above every name.

I don't know what name makes you get thrilled, excited. I suppose if you're an athlete, the name of some great athlete would excite you. "Here he comes." If you're a musician, the name of some great musician or an author or a preacher. Does the name of Jesus excite you at all? He has no rival unless we find one. If we listen to the world, if we yield to the flesh. Boaz had a rival. The Lord Jesus had no rival.

Let's go on. Then he said to the close relative in Ruth 4:3, "Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, sold the piece of land which belonged to our brother," that means our relative, "Elimelech. And I thought to inform you, saying, 'Buy it back in the presence of the inhabitants and the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know, for there is no one but you to redeem it, and I am next after you.'"

And he said, "I will redeem it." Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also buy it from Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to perpetuate the name of the dead through the inheritance." Aha. And the close relative said, "I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I ruin my own inheritance. You redeem my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it."

Now, this word "redeem" is used over and over again because that's what Boaz was doing. Naomi, while she was off in Moab, property got out of hand. We don't know all the details here. It's not given to us. But in order for her to get that property back, somebody had to pay. Boaz said, "I'm willing to pay, but you have first claim."

Now, he didn't say, "I can't do it" in the sense I don't have the money, because initially he said, "Oh, I've got the money." The problem with his redemption was not money. It was Ruth.

For if he married Ruth, a young woman, and she produced a son, that son would eventually get that property, because Boaz was marrying Ruth to perpetuate the name and the family of her husband, who was dead, Mahlon.

So, that's why when the boy was born, Obed, the boy was given to Naomi. Naomi received Obed in the place of Mahlon. And when Obed got old enough, that property belonged to him, even though he was raised by Ruth and Boaz, and was the son of Ruth and Boaz.

Which leads me to a third contrast. Boaz, when he redeemed this property, gave his wealth. When Jesus redeemed us, he gave himself. Boaz didn't say, "Well, I'm glad I can redeem this. Now if you folks will wait, I'm going to go out and die." No, no, a dead kinsman-redeemer can redeem nobody.

He went and got his money and he paid the money to whoever received these things and they got the title all straightened out and the land was redeemed. And then, in redeeming the land, he also redeemed Ruth. No longer would she be a servant, an outcast, a foreigner. She now comes into his home.

I don't think we dwell on that enough. We sing, "Redeemed by the blood of the crucified one, redeemed, redeemed," and we take it for granted. Peter wrote and said, "You weren't redeemed with money." A lot of people think money can do anything. If you have enough money, it'll solve all your problems.

It didn't help J. Paul Getty. Was it six marriages he went through? And at one point he said, "I'd give all my wealth if one of my marriages would have lasted." Money doesn't solve problems. It can help in paying bills, but it can't solve problems.

The Lord Jesus did not redeem us with silver and gold, he gave himself, "who gave himself for us," says Titus 2:14, "that he might redeem us." So, I don't belong to myself. Ruth no longer belonged to herself. That land no longer belonged to the other party, it belonged to Boaz.

Another contrast here. "Now, it was a a custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging, to confirm anything. One man took off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was a confirmation in Israel."

Now, this is not the same as what you read in Deuteronomy 25. In Deuteronomy 25, if a woman came to her brother-in-law and said, "Your brother died, it's your job to marry me and raise children to perpetuate his name," and he said, "I won't do it," she took off her shoe and she spit in his face. And he would be called the man who's had his face spit upon because he wouldn't do his job.

That's not what this is at all. This is just simply a financial transaction. You see, when it comes to land, you claimed your land by walking on it. God said to Joshua, "Wherever the sole of your feet treads, you claim it." He said to Abraham, "Arise, walk through the land, the length and the breadth of it." So, in taking off a shoe he was saying, "I've walked through the land, and I've claimed it. Now here it is, now it's yours." Kind of a receipt.

Therefore, the close relative said to Boaz, "Buy it for yourself." So, he took off his sandal. And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, "You are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, from the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth, the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have acquired as my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren, and from his position at the gate. You are witnesses this day." And all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, "We are witnesses."

Let's stop at this point. Boaz sat down on earth. The Lord Jesus sits down in heaven. Boaz had a rival. Jesus has no rival. Boaz gave his wealth to redeem. Jesus gave himself to redeem. But did you notice that three times in this passage, you find that lugubrious phrase "the name of the dead," "the name of the dead," "the name of the dead." Why did Boaz redeem? To perpetuate the name of the dead. Whose name? Mahlon. The husband of Ruth. Because in Israel, the land and the people went together.

Now, Jesus didn't redeem to perpetuate the name of the dead. Some churches think that's what they're there for, to perpetuate the name of the dead. Some ministries do nothing but perpetuate the name of the dead. Jesus arose from the dead, went back to heaven, and I want you to know that today, by his redemption, he is perpetuating and glorifying the name of the living God.

One of the problems in churches today is some of us who are a bit older are always looking back, always looking back, and we have pictures and plaques and all sorts of things to perpetuate the name of the dead.

Now, we should honor those who had ministries. At our Back to the Bible office, we have a picture, a beautiful picture of Mr. Epp and of Mrs. Epp. We honor them. The Bible tells us to remember those who taught you the word of God and honor them for their faith's sake, but the purpose of our ministry is not to perpetuate the name of the dead. It's to glorify the name of the living Lord.

Nothing wrong with tradition. Tradition is the living face of dead people. It can bless us. Traditionalism is the dead faces of living people. And we can't make any changes. You don't dare do anything different. I'm not talking about changing theology or abandoning the principles of ministry.

I'm talking about what we used to say in Youth for Christ years ago, John, "Geared to the times but anchored to the rock." Why did our Lord redeem us? Not to perpetuate the name of the dead. Your great-grandfather may have given the organ to the church. Great. Tell the organist to use it to glorify the name of the living Savior, not your dead grandfather.

Something else is interesting here. Boaz had witnesses from earth. Now, he had to have witnesses because a couple of years later, somebody'd say, "Well, who owns this property?" "Boaz does." "How do you know?" "I got 10 men who'll prove it to you." They didn't always write down all these deeds and things that we have. Now you have to get two lawyers to do anything. You sell a doghouse, you have to have two lawyers.

Boaz got witnesses from earth. Jesus, in his redemption, has witnesses from heaven. What are they? The word of God and the spirit of God. 1 John 5 tells us that. "He who believes has the witness in himself." The night I was saved, the Holy Spirit came in. And when he came in, I said, "Abba, Father," part of the family, and the word of God. "These things have I written unto you who believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life."

How do we know we're saved? "Preacher told me when he baptized me." That's pretty weak. How do you know you're saved? "Well, I get real happy every once in a while." Pretty weak. How do you know you're saved? I've got an inside witness, the Holy Spirit, and an outside witness, the word of God, and these two go together. And I know that he's redeemed me. Be a tragedy for a person to go through life religious but no assurance. Boaz had some assurance, but he had witnesses from earth. Our assurance comes from heaven.

I notice something else, that Boaz was taking her into his earthly home. Ruth 4:11, "And all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, 'We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel. May you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.'" He was taking her into his earthly house. The Lord Jesus redeemed me to take me into his heavenly house. "I go to prepare a place for you. In my Father's house are many dwelling places."

You know, the average Christian never thinks about heaven until somebody dies. Or Aunt Matilda gets real sick, then we start talking about heaven. Heaven ought to be in our lives a tremendous motivation and blessing all day long. That's not morbid to think about heaven. Ruth, to take her into an earthly house. Our Lord redeemed us to take us to a heavenly house. To the average Christian, heaven is the place we go after we've had all the fun we can have on earth. But if it isn't going to be like some of the fun we had on earth, we're going to demand in-and-out privileges.

Now let's look at the bride herself, if we may. Our time is somewhat limited, but we'll focus on the bride now. And the keyword is not contrast, it is comparison. How am I, how are we like Ruth? Well, in two ways. Number one, she was blessed. Now that she was the bride of Boaz, she was blessed. All he was was hers. All he had was hers. All he could do was hers. All that he planned was hers. In chapter 2, she was at his feet thanking him for food. In chapter 3, she was at his feet saying, "I want to marry you. I don't just want your gifts. I want you."

I've been saying this all week. Please permit me to say it one more time. Jesus didn't die to solve your problems. That shocks some of you, but he did not die to solve your problems. He died to put a relationship between you and himself, because he loves you. And you get the right relationship between you and Jesus, you'll get your problems taken care of. Doesn't mean they'll all be solved. You may have to live with some of them. You may have to live with some of these things for the rest of your life. God may not change the circumstances, but he can change you.

She was blessed. No need to amplify this, you can do it yourself. In chapter 1, she's poor; now she's rich. When I was born into the family of God, I was born rich. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," says Ephesians 1:3, "who has blessed us with all," a-l-l, "all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

He sat down up in heaven, he handed me a bank book called the Bible and said, "All your blessings are listed in here, now start claiming them. Write some checks. You are a joint heir with Jesus Christ." That means you can't sign any check that he won't sign. That's why you pray in the name of Jesus. If I ask for something that he wouldn't ask for, I won't get it, because he won't sign a check for anything that he doesn't want me to have.

She was poor; now she was rich. She was a laborer toiling all day to gather some leftovers, now somebody else is providing for her. As I said yesterday, many of God's people are still living in Ruth 2. They're gleaners and leaners. They live on leftovers, whatever they get from somebody on the radio, whatever they get from somebody here or there, that's what they live on. Instead of saying, "I belong to Jesus. If I get next to his heart, you know what? He'll satisfy me. He'll give me all I need." Could you go on being a good Christian if your pastor resigned? Your Sunday school teacher were called home? I hope so.

In chapter 1, she was worrying; chapter 2, Naomi's worrying. What about the future? Now, she's not worrying. Anytime she had a problem, she said, "Boaz, I got a problem." You see, there is no chapter 5 to Ruth. Some of you would like to write chapter 5: And the next week after the wedding, Ruth said to Boaz, "I'm going to go out in the field and glean. I've been doing that now." Boaz would say, "What?" "I'm going to go out in the field and glean." "Well, for what?" "Well, we have to eat." "Well look, Ruth, we don't live on leftovers. I mean, I'm Boaz. What do you need? What can I do for you? I love you."

In the first couple of chapters she was a foreigner. "Who is this girl, Ruth the Moabitess?" An outsider. Now she's not an outsider anymore. She's an insider. She's in the family. We sing so glibly, "I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God." We don't realize what that means. "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called," we, sinners, dumbbells, "we should be called the children of God." The Greek text adds, "And we are."

We aren't just called it. We are. She moved from sorrow to joy, from despair to hope, by doing what? Putting herself at the feet of the Lord of the harvest and saying, "I want him. I don't just want his gifts. I don't just want him to solve my problems. I want him."

She was blessed, but even more than that, she was a blessing. And the rest of this chapter tells us she was a blessing to Boaz. Are you a blessing to Jesus? We say, "He's supposed to be a blessing to me." You're supposed to be a blessing to him. Are you a blessing to Jesus? I feel sorry for a wife whose husband's not a blessing to her. I feel sorry for a husband whose wife's not a blessing to him.

The Lord Jesus wants me to be a blessing to him. He wants to delight in me. He wants to have pleasure in me. To see me grow and and and to do his will. He wants to be able to look at us and say, "This is my beloved child in whom I'm well pleased." She was a blessing to Boaz. Oh, the joy she brought to his heart. I think sometimes we bring sorrow and grief to the heart of Jesus.

She was a blessing to Naomi. They brought the baby that was born and said, "Naomi, here's your grandson, Obed, servant, and when he grows up he's going to take care of you." And this older woman took the baby in her arms and she said, "I'll take care of this baby. I'm going to help Ruth and Boaz raise this baby." I'm glad that this book doesn't end by saying, "And Naomi was put out to pasture, they didn't need her anymore."

Those of us who are getting older are needed just as ever before. Trouble is some young people don't know this. We have wisdom we can share, warnings we can give, encouragement we can give, but don't be a critic.

When they laid the foundation for the temple in Ezra 3 after they'd come back from captivity, the young men were rejoicing and singing. They said, "Look, we've laid the foundation of the temple. Hallelujah." And the old men were standing there crying. They said, "Well, it's not like it used to be. Oh, you should have seen the other temple." Somebody wrote William Randolph Hearst and said, "Your newspaper is not as good as it used to be." And Hearst wrote back, "It never has been."

Now don't throw cold water on ministry. I've dedicated myself to do two things. One, be an encouragement to the generation that's coming along. An encouragement. Doesn't mean I agree with everything they do, and I tell them so, but I do it in love. Secondly, I want to leave behind some tools that they can use because somebody left some tools for me to use when I came along. And so I'm devoting my time to writing so I can leave behind something to help the next generation.

What are you doing besides criticizing the next generation? I feel so sorry for younger men when they get on boards that have been controlled by people for years. They haven't got a chance. Too bad.

I've noticed that the church is something like a a clock. I shouldn't refer to a clock at this stage of my message, but you know, a clock has an hour hand that moves rather slowly and a minute hand that moves faster and a second hand that moves even faster. It takes all three to tell time. God has ordained the church is this way.

There's some of us who are older now. We move a little slower, but we're needed if you want to know what hour it is. And then there are some younger people who are like the minute hand. They move a little faster and we need them. There are some who are like the second hand. Now it takes all three to keep the church on time.

The church is not a museum where we get together once a week, dust off the artifacts and sing, "As it was in the beginning, so shall it ever be, world without end." The church is a ministry. It's a growing, living body.

Every once in a while, people come to me who are a little older and they say, "I tell you, things are changing and I can't take it." And I lovingly say, "Are you the same person you were 10 years ago? Your body the same?" "No. Oh, no." "Well, if you're changing, why can't other things change?" Naomi had a ministry. The psalmist said, "I'm going to bear fruit in old age." I want that. I want that.

She was a blessing, Ruth was, to Boaz, to Naomi, to Bethlehem. Everybody in Bethlehem was thrilled to death that Ruth was married and God sent them a baby. You read the rest of the story. God sent them a baby. And when God wants to solve a problem, he sends a baby. He doesn't send an army, he sends a baby.

When he wanted to redeem the world, he sent Abraham and Sarah a baby, Isaac, that founded the Jewish people. When he wanted to straighten out the nation of Israel in apostasy, he sent a baby, Samuel. When he wanted to redeem the world, he sent a baby, Jesus. It's such a tragedy that we're killing them. We turn the womb into a tomb. Tragic.

She was a blessing to Israel because the last word in this book is David. Who gave David to Israel? Ruth. I know. You mention the name David, you think of Bathsheba right away. That's too bad. Why is it we remember things like that? The scripture says—not that David sinned, no question about that, but it says, "save in the matter of Uriah the Hittite." It didn't say Bathsheba, it said Uriah.

What David did to Uriah was terrible. But apart from that, David was a great man. David gave us the book of Psalms. David collected the money to build the temple. Solomon built it. Who gave David? Ruth. She was a blessing to Israel.

She's a blessing to the whole world because she gave us Jesus. Matthew 1, you find Ruth mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus. She's a blessing to the whole world. Today, this week, we have been blessed by Ruth. Why? Because she put herself at the feet of the lord of the harvest.

And when you do that, when you put yourself at the feet of Jesus, the blessing starts to grow. You'll be a blessing in your home, you'll be a blessing to your relatives, you'll be a bless- blessing to your community, be a blessing in your church, be a blessing to the whole world.

One evening in the little village of Bethany, a woman came to the feet of Jesus and anointed his feet. The house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. She wiped his feet with her hair. And she was criticized. You do something for Jesus, you'll get criticized.

Judas sounded so pious. "Why wasn't this sold and the money given to the poor?" That sounds so pious. I'm always afraid when people talk like that. He wanted the money for himself. Jesus said, "You know, I want you to know something. What she has done is going to be a blessing to the whole world." And it was. It is.

You want to be a blessing to the whole world? Do you want the ripples of blessing? You start by coming to the feet of the Lord of the harvest and you love him, and you say, "He has blessed me and I will be a blessing," and because you are a blessing to Jesus, you'll be a blessing to your husband or your wife, your family, your church, your community, and the ripples of that blessing will reach out to the whole world. But it starts at the feet of the Lord of the harvest.

We have yet to see our Lord Jesus, "whom having not seen, you love." Oh, I've met people who tell me they've seen him and I just tolerate it. I just tolerate it. My Bible says, "whom having not seen, you love." We love him even though we haven't seen him. It's not a matter of love at first sight. We've not seen him. We see him in the word and everything we know about him from this book makes us love him more. He's blessed us that we might be a blessing.

Now he's seated in heaven. He says, "I have claimed the inheritance and you're a part of it." He's made us into his inheritance, Ephesians 1:18. We're a part of an eternal inheritance because of his love. Now he says, "Let me make you, let me build you, let me mend your nets, let me set your broken bones, let me outfit you for the journey, let me equip you for the battle. I'm up here in heaven, I'm seated, I've won the victory, now let me make you all that I can make you, because you're mine."

And so we come to the feet of the Lord of the harvest and then we claim him as our own and we get next to the heart of the Lord of the harvest. And it becomes a love relationship. That scares some of you. Don't be afraid. It becomes a love relationship where the Lord Jesus loves us, and we love him, and he makes us a blessing to himself and to others. And it starts at the feet of the Lord of the harvest.

Now, Father, we have so often prayed, "Bless us," but now we're praying, "Make us a blessing." We're not content just to get all that we have from our heavenly Boaz, we want to give. And so I pray that you'll help us to receive and give, to become and to share through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.