Transcription downloaded from https://archives.bafreechurch.org.uk/sermons/30198/communion/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] The Book of Ruth is a book about God's remarkable working in history, both national and personal.

[0:15] The first person we meet with in the Book of Ruth is a man called Elimelech, whose name means, My God is King. And if the Book of Ruth teaches anything, it teaches us about the kingship and the sovereignty of God over every event, large and small.

[0:38] In spite of bearing the name, My God is King, Elimelech didn't really respond in obedience to God's rule in his life.

[0:49] There was a famine in the land. God had said long before this that He might send a famine to speak to His people and to call them to repentance for their sins.

[1:02] Instead of doing that, Elimelech and his family have gone off to Moab. And in Moab, Elimelech and his two sons die, and his wife Naomi finds herself a widow.

[1:15] But the remarkable God, who is the King of kings and who works salvation in this world, has used all of these events and all of these providences to reach with grace into the life and heart of a young woman from Moab, after whom this book is named.

[1:39] And Ruth has come back to Bethlehem with Naomi. And last night we watched as Ruth entered into the fields of Boaz and met a man who was to become pivotal and indispensable for her future good.

[1:59] Her relationship to that man is explored in this particular chapter, in chapter 3 of Ruth, where I want us to linger today.

[2:10] And once again, it's Naomi who gives us the best commentary on the events that take place in this particular part of the narrative.

[2:21] And at the very end of the chapter, this is Naomi's counsel to Ruth. It's a very interesting insight, because at the beginning of the chapter, Naomi has expressed to Ruth her desire to find rest for Ruth.

[3:03] The translation here says, My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you where you will be well provided for? Actually, what the Hebrew says is simply, Should I not try to find rest for you?

[3:16] That's Naomi's great concern for Ruth. That she'll find a place to rest. She's come as a stranger into Bethlehem, as an alien among God's people.

[3:30] God's law that seemed to close the door to her participating in the covenant community, also by grace, remarkably opened a door for her to come, because she was a stranger and she was an orphan and she was a widow.

[3:45] And these were the very terms by which someone could come in and glean in the fields at the time of harvest, pick up the corn that the reapers had dropped, and provision was made for her in the fields of Boaz.

[4:02] But now the harvest was over. What now for Ruth? Naomi's great concern for her is that she will find a place of rest, stability and peace, something lasting, not some permanent, not some temporary work in the fields, but some place where she will rest.

[4:26] It's such a glorious thing, because it's what we all need. And it's the very thing the gospel addresses. Our souls need a place to rest.

[4:40] When God made us at the very beginning, we rested in Him. Adam and God had a perfect fellowship together.

[4:52] And as long as Adam remained obedient to God, his king, he would have that rest and it would be secured for him.

[5:03] But he sinned against God and he lost his place of rest. And ever since then, people have been looking for rest for their souls in all kinds of places and all kinds of pastimes.

[5:19] But the gospel comes to us today and says to us, there is really only one place where the soul of man can rest.

[5:30] Jesus expresses it so magnificently in his great gospel invitation in Matthew chapter 11. Come to me, He says, all of you who labor and are weary and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

[5:47] It's what he offers today. And it's what he gives today to everybody who comes to him. For your restless soul, there is a place where you too can be at rest, where you can find peace with God, where your sins can be forgiven, where fellowship with God can be restored.

[6:10] The past is covered. The future is guaranteed. The present is taken care for. God in Christ offers you rest today. I don't know if you're a Christian or not.

[6:23] But if you're not, then I commend Jesus to you. In this world of storms, and in this restless world, that's just like the waves of the sea, never still, always moving, souls are lost, and looking for peace, and for rest.

[6:48] Young lives that have been broken before they've even begun. old lives wondering how they can deal with that conscience that continues to trouble them.

[7:00] I'm saying to you today that the gospel addresses that fundamental need. Your soul can find rest in Jesus Christ.

[7:10] And the reason that that is so is because of his restlessness. That's the contrast that there is here in this chapter.

[7:27] Naomi says to Ruth, I want you to have a place to rest. And the assurance that she gives to Ruth at the end of the chapter is, just wait and see.

[7:40] The restlessness of Boaz will be the place of rest for you. That's why Naomi sends Ruth to Boaz in this chapter.

[7:55] It's an intriguing chapter. It's a meeting with Boaz. Now, Ruth has already met with Boaz, but the meetings are quite different. In chapter 2, it was a meeting in the field.

[8:07] In chapter 3, it's a meeting at the threshing floor. In chapter 2, it's a meeting in the midst of all the activity of harvest. In chapter 3, it's a meeting at the end of the harvest.

[8:20] In chapter 2, it's a meeting in the daytime. In chapter 3, it's a meeting at midnight. In chapter 3, it's a very public meeting. But in chapter 2, it's a very public meeting.

[8:30] But in chapter 3, it's a very private meeting. In chapter 2, it's a meeting to secure provision, to secure food, to secure bread to eat.

[8:44] But in chapter 3, it's a meeting that is designed to secure the very rest, and the permanent stability that Ruth needs in her life.

[8:56] It's an intriguing moment when Naomi sends Ruth to Boaz. The reason she does that is expressed in verse 2.

[9:09] Boaz, Boaz, she says to Ruth, is a kinsman of ours. He's related to us.

[9:22] Now, the reason that that's important is this. God's law, to which we've already referred, and which is outplayed so much in the drama of the book of Ruth, God's law had made a specific provision for the continuance of a family line.

[9:45] It's actually one of the laws that shows what God thinks of the family unit. It's one of these laws which, although we cannot now follow it in its extreme detail, nevertheless translates into the New Testament into this great emphasis that God places throughout the Bible on the importance of the family unit.

[10:11] He deals with us in our families. He strengthens our families. He's the God of our families, of us, and of our children after us. One of the ways in which that's expressed in the Old Testament is through this law in Deuteronomy chapter 25.

[10:27] Now, it's very interesting how the book of Ruth seems to play out the laws of Deuteronomy 23 and 24 and 25. If brothers living together, are living together, says Deuteronomy 25, and one of them dies without a son, then his widow must not marry outside the family.

[10:48] Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

[11:04] The importance of the family and the continuation of the family line. Now, Naomi has been widowed and Ruth has been widowed and it's important that the family line of Elimelech be continued.

[11:22] If it's to be continued, then they must do business with the nearest male relative. And so Naomi sends Ruth to Boaz because he is a kinsman.

[11:39] He is related to them. So if Ruth is to find rest, she must go to a specific individual.

[11:52] And Ruth is sent to this man whose qualification to do everything that is necessary for her to find rest is simply how closely related he is to the family.

[12:07] Now, he will identify a problem that must be overcome, the problem of other relatives that may be closer. But he himself has this qualification of how close he is to them in blood and in kinship.

[12:25] And because of that, he's able to redeem. Because of that, he's able to secure the property. He's able to secure the marriage.

[12:36] He's able to secure the family. He's able to secure the name. That's his function if he's going to be a redeemer. And that whole concept of redeeming and redemption runs right through the Bible.

[12:51] And here today at the Lord's table, we are remembering the death of a redeemer. We are coming to the table and we are saying, I have a redeemer, someone who secures rest for me and someone who is able to do for me what I cannot do for myself.

[13:12] I need to go to him. If I don't go to him, nothing will happen. But if I do go to him and if I do business with him and I leave my case with him, he will give me all the rest that I need, all the security that I need.

[13:27] The past will be dealt with and the future will be secured because he will fulfill all the duties of a redeemer. And I have a redeemer today, not some earthly landowner.

[13:43] I have the owner of heaven and earth who in the person of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is my redeemer. And this little book of Ruth helps me to understand what it is that Jesus does to secure rest for my soul, pardon for my sins, and the hope of heaven.

[14:05] He has been restless as a redeemer to secure rest for me. And his great qualification for redeeming me today is simply the fact that he's my kinsman.

[14:22] He's related to me. He's connected with me. He's not simply the God before whom I have sinned, but he has come into my world and he has come into my nature and he has become a man in the person of Jesus, the Bible says.

[14:42] The Word that was always with God and always is God has become flesh and has dwelt among us. And my redeemer today is God's Son and there is none other.

[14:57] And just as surely as Boaz stands out among all the men of Bethlehem and all the people that were milling about the fields at this busy time of the year, only one of them is able to secure for Ruth the rest that she needs.

[15:15] And Naomi sends her to him. Go to him. Go to Boaz. He's our kinsman. You must meet with him. You must do business with him. The transaction must be between you and him.

[15:28] He's perfectly qualified to redeem. He's close to us as our relative and he's available and there he is and you go to him.

[15:39] And you take your case and you leave it with Boaz and Naomi will say to Ruth, he'll be restless until the matter is settled. Oh, do you see, my Christian friend, today as we come to the Lord's table, that's our only hope.

[15:53] I have no redeemer and no redemption within myself. There is nothing I can do to secure rest for my soul or peace for my conscience or hope when I die.

[16:07] There is nothing I can bring. My coming to the Lord's table isn't going to do it. The best things I do with my life aren't going to do it. But there is one, one unique individual set apart by God from all eternity to be the redeemer of the people of God.

[16:28] The Shorter Catechism asks the question, who is the redeemer of God's elect people? And the only possible answer is this, the Lord Jesus Christ.

[16:43] He's the redeemer of God's people. in His own essential being. He is everything that God is. He's the one who made all things.

[16:56] He's the one who created all things, who sustains all things, who empowers all things. From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. And in addition to all of this, He has become my relative.

[17:11] He's come so close to me that He's taken my nature and He's now found in this world as a man. Why is He a man?

[17:22] This great, unique God, why does He become a man? Is it so that we can marvel at the babe in the manger? Well, we marvel at the babe in the manger, but that's not enough.

[17:33] Bethlehem is not enough. It's not enough that we should come to look at the child of Mary lying in the manger. He had to come to that point, but this is not enough.

[17:46] No, He has to go at last to Calvary. And the restlessness of which Naomi speaks is true of this great Redeemer that God has set apart from me.

[18:00] And I watch Him through His life restless to do everything that God has commanded Him to do. Restless to obey. Restless to do the will of His Father.

[18:11] This is my very food and drink, He says. To do the will of my Father and to finish His work. That's all He's living for.

[18:23] To finish His work. It's all He's needing to do. It's the impulse that is driving Jesus Christ at every point in His life. I have to finish His work.

[18:36] I have to finish His work. And I read His story through the Gospels. I watch Him among men. I watch Him among friends.

[18:46] I watch Him among enemies. And He cannot sit still in any one place. Restless Redeemer. This Jesus going from place to place.

[18:58] This Jesus going from person to person. God, says the book of Acts, anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power and then what?

[19:11] He went about doing good. Don't you love that? He went about. He went all over the place doing good.

[19:23] He went to this place and that place and this home and that home and this city and that village that boat this place here. He's going about doing good and preaching the gospel of the kingdom but His going about and doing good is not the reason why He came.

[19:42] It only shows His restlessness to come to the point at last where He does what is necessary to be done for the salvation of His people and comes at last to Calvary and He is bound to a cross.

[20:06] Can't go about anymore. He has come to this particular point in His life. And I want to say today that it is the resolve of the Redeemer to settle the matter of rest for you that is your greatest hope and your greatest comfort for time and for eternity.

[20:43] Not what I do but what He's done. Not my obedience but His. Not my accomplishments but His. not being at rest until He finishes and settles the business that will secure rest for me.

[21:05] It's little wonder that Boaz stood out among the crowd as the only person to whom Naomi could send Ruth. And today at this table, today in this gospel, today in that heart of yours touched by the grace of God, you too know that there is no other person to whom you can go.

[21:32] Whom have I in the heavens high but you, O Lord, alone and on the earth whom I desire besides you? There is none.

[21:45] And so I come today to this unique person. And Ruth is sent to this unique place. Go to the threshing floor where he lies down and he will tell you what to do.

[22:02] The threshing floor was such an important place at the end of the harvest. All the grain had been gathered in and now to finish the whole business and the whole procedure, it's got to be sorted out and sifted at the threshing floor.

[22:18] The wheat and the chaff have to be separated from one another and it's big business, this business of the end of the harvest. Actually, when you read through the Bible, it's very interesting just to mark out how often important transactions take place at the threshing floor.

[22:37] Gideon, for example, was threshing wheat when God called him to be a judge. God did business with Gideon. Gideon said, I can't be a judge.

[22:47] God sets him apart. The threshing floor becomes such a decisive place between God and Gideon. It's the same with David at the end of David's life. David sins by counting the people and God meets him at the threshing floor, gives him certain choices.

[23:04] David's got important decisions to make at the threshing floor. It's the place where business is transacted between God and David. Jesus himself actually spiritualizes that whole idea.

[23:17] Remember when he says to the disciples that Satan had desired to have them, to sift them like wheat. There was something decisive going to be done at a kind of spiritual threshing floor where they were to be tested about their faith and they were to discover there the reality of Christ's power to keep them even when Satan was trying to sift them and perhaps even to prove that they weren't Christians at all.

[23:53] And Jesus then says this, there is a day coming when the whole world will be at my threshing floor.

[24:04] Do you remember that image that he uses of the final judgment like a harvest day when all the harvest will be gathered together and what is genuine and true will be taken into the storehouses and what is false and worthless will be cast out forever.

[24:22] It's the place of momentous, decisive, final judgment, God's threshing floor. And now at this threshing floor in Bethlehem, Ruth goes to Boaz.

[24:40] And I want to say today that the place is as important as the person because for Ruth this was to be a decisive moment as she committed her kiss to this one unique individual and all that he said to her there at that threshing floor was to secure her future and to secure her rest.

[25:02] And today the gospel points me to my great Redeemer. And I watch Jesus in his life and I watch him in all his obedience to the will of God and I ask why Jesus did you come into the world?

[25:24] And he tells me because I have an appointment with God at the threshing floor of judgment.

[25:37] There is an hour set apart at which Jesus transacts final decisive business with God.

[25:52] And for him that hour is the hour of his death and his threshing floor is a cross called Calvary. And he has lived his life and he has done what is right and what is good.

[26:09] And that righteous, peerless, sinless life now comes face to face with God. And the most momentous hour in human history has come.

[26:26] God is the Son of God in my nature, my kinsman redeemer, is going to transact business at that threshing floor that is going to have eternal, monumental, epochal significance for my soul and its rest.

[26:48] God is the God. So I watch as he comes before God and this sinless life is presented to God and the most remarkable thing happens.

[27:02] God judges that life that has no sin in it as if it were a life that had no righteousness in it.

[27:13] this life with no flaw God judges as if it had nothing but blemish. And at that threshing floor where Jesus, my Redeemer, does business with his Father, this Jesus who deserves rest at the end of a good life seems to descend into the pit of restless judgment as God pours upon him all of his wrath in a moment and concentrates an eternity of judgment upon Jesus Christ in that one moment of transacted business that is going to secure rest for me.

[27:59] What on earth is happening at Calvary? I'll tell you, at Calvary on earth, the God of heaven is taking all the needs and all the sins and all the blemishes and all the different things in my life that ought never to have been there.

[28:19] He's taking them all and he is binding them to the body of Jesus that is being taken now to that cross and is going to be made answerable and accountable for my sins.

[28:36] That's his business with God. I watch him in the garden of Gethsemane and his preview of the cross and his whole human nature recoils from the prospect.

[28:51] If it's possible, he says, let this cup pass. And I say, what? Is he going to rest in Gethsemane and not settle the matter? Is he going to leave it here and not go to Calvary?

[29:05] What a relief that he says, not my will, but your will be done, and goes at last to that cross, and faces the judgment, and does it in faith, and cries out before God, and now descends into hell.

[29:28] That phrase is used of Jesus in the Apostles' Creed, and some people quibble over it. Did he descend into hell when he died?

[29:39] Well, no, he didn't. When he died, he ascended into paradise. That's the promise he gave to the thief on the cross, but the Apostles' Creed is right, nonetheless. He did descend into hell, not after his death, but before his death.

[30:02] at that terrible, terrible moment when he cries out at Calvary, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[30:16] What does this mean? Is God not there? Is that what it means? Well, of course not.

[30:26] There is no place where God is not. And if he's anywhere at this moment, he's at Calvary, God is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. This is not a forsakenness that Jesus experienced because of the absence of God.

[30:43] This is a forsakenness that Jesus experiences because of the presence of God. Because when naked sin comes face to face with naked holiness, there there cannot but be absolute judgment and God pours out his wrath on that sin.

[31:08] And my Jesus at that moment, bound to that cross, descends into the hell of being abandoned even in the very presence of God.

[31:21] all to secure rest for me. He's gone to his threshing floor to transact that business and I can only look on.

[31:39] I can only look on. I can't be a part of it. This is between Jesus, my Savior, and God, my Judge, and I can only be a spectator to all that takes place there.

[31:53] He stands there before me bound to that cross and everything else is of such little significance compared to this momentous occasion when He's willing to do this for me.

[32:11] And my soul is lost in wonder and love and praise. And I look to Him and I simply say, as Ruth said to Boaz, spread the corner of your garment over me.

[32:35] You are my kinsman, redeemer. You've done all of this at that place, transacted that business rest, restless, until at Calvary you could say, now at last, it is finished.

[32:58] The matter is settled. there is at last a finality to the work of Jesus on earth.

[33:11] Spread your cloak over me. Isn't that what leaves you at the table today? The sacrament is a reminder to you that your salvation is an objective thing.

[33:28] He has done it for you. He has done it for you. But what He has done for you, He has also applied so personally to you, and He has made you His own.

[33:51] And I watch Ruth as she is content to leave the matter there, and comes back to Naomi with six measures of barley in the folds of her cloak.

[34:09] It's beautiful, isn't it? Hidden away there in the folds of her garment, all the evidence that she needs that Boaz will settle the matter for her.

[34:26] she sleeps well that night because all her concerns are in the hands of another, and she has the proof in the folds of her garment.

[34:41] that. And don't you? This gospel points you outside of yourself, away from yourself, shows you all that your Redeemer has done for you, but it's become so intensely personal to you.

[35:02] That's why the gospel comes to you and says today, let a man examine himself. And if you can find there in the folds of your garment these great gospel promises that are applied to you, the garment of your Redeemer covering you, the evidence of His love in your heart, these great signs of your interest in Him and His interest in you, then come to His table.

[35:37] Why shouldn't you be there? You know in the depths of your soul that these measures of barley only came from the hand of your Redeemer as a proof of His love and an evidence of His interest in you.

[35:57] And you have found rest in the restlessness of the Redeemer.

[36:08] God is that's why I come to the table today. My soul has found its resting place because He did business with God on my behalf.

[36:29] rest of the rest of the rest of the rest of the rest of the earth. And that's all I need to know. It is finished.

[36:41] Are you resting on that today? is that your hope and confidence today? There's nothing else in this restless world on which your soul can hang its hopes.

[36:59] But you can hang them here. This, to use a phrase from the Bible, see if you can find out what it is, this is a nail in a sure place.

[37:10] you can hang everything on this nail and it won't fall down. It's secure. And I'm saying today that that's all you need to come to the Lord's table.

[37:26] The knowledge that you've taken all the concerns of your heart and life and soul and past and present and future and you've hanged them up on this nail.

[37:40] of the work of my great Redeemer. What a glorious, glorious gospel.

[37:52] It's worth celebrating today as we do so at his table. Amen. Let's bow our heads in prayer.