I want to return today to our series of messages on the book of Ruth. We've come in these studies to the second chapter and we've seen there that it is a chapter of guidance. Chapter one really was a chapter of grief, but here the chief subject is that of guidance and indeed of gleaning that was in connection with that guidance of God. When we come to this chapter we see that Boaz, the mighty man of wealth, the kinsman of Naomi's husband is introduced. He is of course a type of Christ and we are supposed to look upon him in that particular way. The last time when we talked about the guidance of the Lord, we referred especially to the words of verse 3 of Ruth chapter 2. It says there, and if you read it with me, it says, She went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech. Now, in reading that particular phrase, her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, You and I would say, it just so happened that she came to that part of the field. That's how we are to understand that. And yet, when we read Scripture, and we know what the Bible says about the providence and the sovereignty of God, we know that there's no such thing as things just happening. And that's why we talked about this particular fact that Ruth's steps were directed to the field of Boaz by a great providence. She didn't go to that part of the field because she knew that he was a kinsman. She didn't. She didn't realise that at this point. She had no idea whose field it was yet. It just says that she happened to stop in Boaz's field. That guidance, therefore, for her was an unconscious thing, at least from her point of view. But it was very definitely planned by the Lord. Because we know this is true of every believer. Because God worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. And sometimes there are things that happen to you unconsciously that are the guidance of the Lord. That's why you'll be able someday like Rutherford to look back and say, I'll bless the hand that guided and I'll bless the heart that planned when thrown to where glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. The Lord was planning it all. Is there anything in a believer's life that we can say happens just by chance? No. Is there such a thing as luck, good luck or bad luck in the life of a believer or anybody else for that matter? No, there's not. There's no such thing as a roll of the dice, or that's the way the cookie crumbles. The fact of the matter is that God is dealing with us providentially. And the language of verse 3, therefore, while it's suited to our human understanding, it sounds like a coincidence. Actually, the reader is meant to infer that God was leading Ruth, even though to her it seemed like a chance occurrence. That's how we are to understand it. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delighteth in His way. You're not here this morning, for example, by accident. It's not just a happenstance that those who are in our congregation are here this morning. This is planned. This is part of God's great purpose. And it's a comfort for Christians to know that they're being guided and led by the Lord. It's good for me to know that my steps are being ordered by God. That's why we should acknowledge Him in prayer. That's why we should be seeking His will. But as well as this great Providence, Ruth was guided, we noted, by a gracious provision, or she was guided to a gracious provision. She did expect to find favour, that's why she said in verse 2, let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. She expected to find grace, or as the word is, favour. She thought she was going to be favoured. But I know she had no clue, she had no idea just how much she would be favoured, a lot more than she expected. Just like believers, the Lord has made provision for us far and away above anything that we would ever have imagined when we were first converted. We have all of this. the grace of God to enjoy in life, the grace of God in salvation, the grace of God in sanctification. But we have yet to look forward to more. In Ephesians 2, it says in verse 6, that the Lord hath raised us up together, that is, with Christ, and made us sit together in heavenly places, or in heavenly things in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Think about that. In the ages to come, there are people who don't believe in an afterlife. There are people who will tell you when you die, you get buried like a dog and that's it. Well, they're wrong. They're wrong. The Bible says it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, There is something after this. The judgment. And for the believer, there is a glorious after this. That in the ages to come, he says, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace. Notice in that chapter, in Ephesians chapter 2, the Lord has been speaking about grace. In verse 5, the words in parenthesis, we were dead in sins, He's quickened us together with Christ, by grace you're saved. So we're already recipients of grace. But oh, there's so much more grace to come, in the ages to come. A gracious provision. Now Ruth was able to avail herself of the merciful provision of the God of Israel. Under the law, the poor, the fatherless and the stranger and the widow were able to be cared for. When you walked through the fields that had been gleaned, there would be sheaves that had fallen on the ground. Those who were gleaning were not allowed to go back and lift them up. They were to be left for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. And so there was this privilege of gleaning after the reapers, just as there was in the vineyard, the grapes that were left on the vines and at the corners of the fields. This was Ruth's by virtue of the precept of God, a privilege that the law afforded her, but it afforded her that by grace. But not only that, she experienced the gracious provision of Boaz himself. You'll notice in chapter 2, for instance, that not only did she glean in the fields to get food for herself, but Boaz actually himself fed her. In verse 14 we read, she sat beside the reapers and he reached her parched corn. That was a delicacy, that was a specialty that was handed to her. He fed her himself. Here's gracious, personal treatment of her by Boaz himself. And that's what touched her heart. That's what caused her to bow to the earth in grateful adoration. That he should actually, in her words, take knowledge of her. She said this in verse 10, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, saying, I am a stranger? She was favoured of him, just as we as believers are favoured by our heavenly Boaz. In the Gospel, we can think of the Lord's gracious provision toward us, for he's blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are recipients of amazing grace. But as we go on in this chapter, We see that Ruth is not only seen to have come to a position of satisfaction, and it mentions that actually in verse 14, she did eat and was sufficed. It mentions it again in verse 18, after she was sufficed, after she was satisfied and had enough. That was her position. A position of satisfaction. She has also come to a place of service. And that is the subject that comes before us quite a lot in Ruth chapter 2. Ruth gleaning and gathering in the field. It says that in verse 2, she wanted to go to the field and glean ears of corn. Verse 3, she went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And then in verse 7, She said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. And she did continue to do that according to that verse. This is reminiscent of every Christian. We've been brought to a position of satisfaction. And if you're not satisfied in Christ, you have really cause to wonder if you're saved. Because there's no satisfaction anywhere else but in Christ. You'll find that as a believer. The hymn writer was correct when he said, Now none but Christ can satisfy, none other name for me. There's love and life and lasting joy, Lord Jesus, found in thee. In the things of the world there's no lasting satisfaction. You read in the book of Proverbs of the person who drinks and keeps on drinking. What happens after he has this experience of woe and redness of eyes and so on? I will seek it yet again. Never satisfied. The eyes of a man are never satisfied, the Bible says. That's true of everything that this world has to offer. It can't and it won't satisfy you. But if you're a believer in Christ and you know the Lord and you're seeking to walk with Him, you'll find that there's satisfaction in Christ. You're in a position of satisfaction. Whatever comes or goes in your life, whatever trials that you face, whatever hardships you come up against, you're still going to be in a position of satisfaction. But not only that, you're in a place of service if you're truly saved. Ready to serve. That's the attitude of every believer. The position and the place that Ruth now occupied and enjoyed. It was a position of satisfaction. It was a place of service. But you will notice that it was connected with two specific persons. The first one was God himself. The second one was the Goel, or the kinsman-redeemer Boaz. Look at the first one. In verse 12, Boaz says to her, the Lord, the word there is Jehovah, recompense thy work, that means pay you back for your work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel under whose wings thou art come to trust. And that's a beautiful picture. of the little baby birds under the mother, under her wings. Under whose wings thou art come to trust. That's the place that Ruth now occupied. That's a place that she enjoyed. It was a place connected with a specific person, God Himself. Let me tell you, the book of Ruth is not just a love story. It's not just a sentimental tale of a widow who became an accepted immigrant in Israel, who settled down there, who remarried and had a family. All of that is in the book. But that's not what this book really is about. It's a story of grace and mercy bestowed by God on an unworthy sinner. It's a story of a woman who was brought by God like a mother bird under the wings. A place of protection. A place where she would be near to the heart of God. Ruth was a true convert. who left not just the nation of Moab, but the idolatry and the paganism of that land and that country. And she trusted in the one true and living God. If you go back to chapter 1 verse 16, we remember her words, She had come under the wings of the Lord God of Israel. So this is a story of a conversion. And like all genuine believers, Ruth was brought under the protection of the Lord, kept by His power. Now not only did she find a place under the wings of her God, but she found a place gleaning in the fields of the goel. The goel is the Hebrew word for kinsman redeemer. And that's a recurring theme in these chapters 3 and 4. It's mentioned as well in chapter 2, in verse 20, where Naomi said at the end of the verse, the man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen. It literally means one that has right to be a redeemer. The one that has right to redeem. The Goel, the kinsman redeemer. So here is Ruth, and she's under the protection of the Lord. But she's receiving the provision of Boaz and the provision that she received in the fields of Boaz was on account of her being under the wings of Jehovah God. See these two persons and these two positions are inextricably linked. The provision that she received from Boaz was because of her being under the wings of Jehovah. The Lord was showing that His blessing was upon Ruth by providing for her in those fields. And she was there for a purpose. She was seeking to glean and she was looking for bread. We find that in verse 2. She was looking for ears of corn. She was looking for provision. She was looking for bread for her and for her mother-in-law to eat. And I think there's a great spiritual lesson here in this. There's a number of spiritual lessons actually. A person who's truly saved, and there are many who profess to be saved, but are not saved. Their lives show it, and even their mouths testify to it. Now the Bible says in James chapter 3, that out of the same mouth there should not go forth blessing and cursing. I was just hearing a story of people who had gathered for a picnic and someone offered prayer, giving thanks to the Lord for the food and even using the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't five minutes before that same person was using the F word and various other curse words in the company of those who were at the picnic. My friends, that's blasphemy. But what it is, is an indication of somebody who has enough about them to know that there is a God. They have enough about them to know that you should thank God at least formally for your food. But God doesn't mean enough to that person that their life has been changed so that their tongue has also been changed. I remember my father when he was talking about his own testimony. He used to say, before I was converted, I had a very filthy tongue. And I find that hard to believe. Because I never heard my dad use swear words or profanity, ever. I never heard him take the Lord's name in vain, even one time. I never heard him use curse words. And yet he's telling us that before he got converted, he would drop the F-bomb, as they say in this country, every other word nearly. So what happened? What happened to him? He got changed on the inside. That's what happened. A work was wrought in his heart. That's what happened. And that was manifested on the outward. That's what happens when you're truly saved. You don't just make a profession and tell everybody, oh, I'm a Christian. It shows up in your life. That's what happens. A person who is truly saved, therefore, like Ruth, is going to be found seeking for spiritual bread and gleaning in the Word of God. If you've come to trust in the Lord, you're going to be seeking and searching for Christ, the Bread of Life. The Lord Jesus gave a command in John chapter 5. You know, the Roman Catholic Church doesn't like sola scriptura. They don't like the idea that it's all in the book. They don't like the idea that everything that we do has to be based on Scripture. But Jesus said, John 5, verse 39, search the Scriptures. He didn't say, let the priest search the Scriptures for you and tell you what it means. He said, search the Scriptures. You search them. For in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." You want to find Christ? You want to get to know Christ? You want to commune with Christ? Get into the book? That's where you'll find Christ. You don't find Christ by going and sitting with a fishing pole on a Sunday morning down at the river and looking up into the sky. That's not how you find Christ. I once heard of a fella and he said, I'd rather be fishing on Sunday morning and think about God than be sitting in church and think about fishing. You know what happened to that fella? At age 49, he had a massive stroke. And guess what he started doing from then on? He was in church every Sunday. If you're a child of God, you're going to be seeking and searching for the bread of life. You're going to be searching for Christ in his word, both in the word read and under the word preached. That's where you find Christ. That's where you find the living bread for your soul. The table is spread in the house of God that you might eat. Now, how often God employs the figures of fields and sowing and seed time and harvest in the Bible to refer to the gospel and spiritual things. Just think about it and look it up for yourself. Think about the parables of Jesus. The parable of the sower. The parable of the wheat and the tares. He was always talking about the harvest. He said to the disciples there at the end of Matthew chapter 9, and again in Luke chapter 10, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields. They're white already to harvest. He talked there in John chapter 4 about reaping and sowing and how that there are those who come having entered into the labors of other men. What is he talking about? He's talking about preaching. He's talking about the ministry of the Word. And no, it's not enough just to read the Bible in your own home. You need to be under the Word of God in the house of God. That's why there is a church. Otherwise, we just shut the door and close it up and don't have church. If you don't need to be here, if you can be here, you should be here in the house of God. I believe that I was taught that as a child myself, and I've sought to practice it my whole life. Look at the parables of Jesus. Read the words of Paul and Peter in the epistles. They talk about the seed. the incorruptible seed of the Word of God by which we're born again. James talks about that. Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 speaks of himself and Apollos, one soweth and another planteth. God giveth the increase. What's he talking about? He's talking about the preaching of the Word. And so, when Naomi asked a question of Ruth, In chapter 2 of Ruth, in verse 19, we could apply that spiritually. Her mother-in-law said unto her, Where hast thou gleaned today? Maybe we could come late at night, any day of the week, including the Lord's Day, and ask you the question, Where hast thou gleaned today? What's the field that you've been gleaning in today? Well, yes, we have to go to our place of work. Yes, we have to do our normal duties and our chores. We can't leave those things. Those are all important. But it could be asked, couldn't it? Where hast thou gleaned today? Have you been in the Word at all? Where did you glean? Were you under the Word as much as you could be? Someone wrote this, commenting on this chapter. What is the church? It is where sinners gather in gospel fields in order to glean corn for bread. The church is nothing but a gathering of poor, empty, needy sinners, gleaning in the fields of God's provision in order that their souls might be fed, because their trust is under the wings of Jehovah." Now, in Boaz, we see one who undertakes the role and the responsibilities of kinsman redeemer on Ruth's behalf. The essential role that he's playing here in this book is one of provider. All that she will need, her redeemer will supply to her. And when we apply that spiritually to ourselves, we're like Ruth. Our heavenly Boaz has opened up vast provisions to us in gospel fields, in our own Bibles. You know, you think about the history of our Bible. On the way home from the week of prayer, I went to a college in Tennessee where they have some wonderful displays. And one in particular is to do with the history of the Bible. culminating in our authorised version, the King James Version. Tremendous exhibit. There's a replica there of the Gutenberg Press that was used to print the Word of God in other gospel literature. And I thought to myself, what a heritage we have. What we owe to these men and women who gave their lives that we might have the Word of God in our mother tongue. And yet some of us hardly read it. You know, in the former Soviet Union, there was a time when in the underground churches it was reported that people would meet together of a Lord's Day and sometimes on other days, and they would have maybe just one Bible for the whole congregation. So they took all the pages out very carefully, out of the Bible, and someone would take home Genesis chapter 1. Somebody else would take home whatever portion it was. And the next time they came back, they would hand that back in and trade with somebody else. That's how they were able to have the Word of God and read it. And some of us have got piles of Bibles at home like this. And when do we ever read it? Some of those Bibles are gathering dust. I've seen that in my ministry through the years. There are people who can hardly tell after many years of professing to be saved, what part of the Bible is what. You ask them to read in a certain portion, to turn up a certain portion, they don't even know whether it's Old Testament or New. And yet they're supposed to have been saved for years. What is wrong? But you ask them about something secular, they can tell you right off like that, in a heartbeat. They can tell you about music, about sports, about the weather, about politics. Oh, politics. They can tell you about all that stuff. It's at the tip of their fingers. And they know virtually nothing about the Word of God. I was preaching last Lord's Day in a church and I was saying there that biblical literacy is rare. There's a lot of biblical illiteracy. People who can read, but they don't read. We have this treasure that God has given to us. Where hast thou gleaned today? Don't let a day go past when you haven't been finding out what God the Lord is saying to you. And were you under the word as much as you could be? That's another thing. You know, if you were actually told that you couldn't come to church under pain of death or imprisonment, what would you do? Would you just stay home? I'm not going to prison or worse. Read about the Covenanters in Scotland and what they had to do in order to worship God. They would have given their right arm for the privilege of being in the house of God. Do we? Is that our attitude to these things? These are serious questions. Boaz was the provider of all that Ruth would need. God has provided for us in our Bibles and in Bible preaching churches what we need to glean for the benefit of our souls. And if you think you don't need much church life or you don't need fellowship with God's people or that your Bible can sit on a shelf for a whole week until you bring it to church and still go on with God, you're sadly mistaken. You're sadly mistaken. Where hast thou gleaned today? You know, if you ask some people that question, where do you do your gleaning? The first thing out of their lips would be the TV, the internet, secular magazines and periodicals, novels. What about gleaning in the Lord's fields? One man observed, our profession To be trusting in God is seen in our diligence in gleaning in his field. Now let me just say something about this gleaning before we finish today. In Ruth's case it was no doubt a daily gleaning. Chapter 2 verse 23 records that she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest. Now that wasn't brought in in one day. This was day after day after day that she was gleaning. So it was a daily gleaning, each and every day until the end of the harvest. The end of the harvest for us is the end of the world or the end of our lives. And as we pray, we should be praying, Lord, give us day by day our daily bread. Our daily bread. There used to be a little periodical printed by, I think it was a Renew Bible class called Our Daily Bread. A daily gleaning. Is that true of us? It was a diligent gleaning. You'll see this from verse 3. She went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers. We see it in verse 7. They testified of her. She came and had continued even from the morning until now that she tarried a little in the house. She was busy. She was diligent in gleaning. Again in verse 17. So she gleaned in the field until evening, that means evening time, and beat out that she had gleaned. She gleaned in the field until it started getting dark. Oh, she was diligent and hard working. That was true physically. Is it true of us spiritually? Are we diligent in our attendance upon the things of God? Are we pursuing holiness? Pursuing godliness? See, the Bible says in the book of Hebrews, that we are to follow after holiness. We are to follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. That word follow, Hebrews 12, verse 14, means to diligently pursue. Again, this was something that Paul wrote to Timothy. And he said that he was to flee youthful lusts, but he was to follow 2 Timothy 2, verse 22. Follow righteousness, faith, charity or love, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. To follow righteousness is to pursue diligently after it. Didn't Jesus say, blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled? Are we hungry and thirsty for the things of God? Is there a diligent gleaning going on in our lives? A daily gleaning. Diligent gleaning. It was a determined gleaning. I love this in verse 17 of Ruth chapter 2. It tells us there that she beat out that she had gleaned. Here she is pulling these sheaves that were left. She gathers them in bundles. And then she starts to beat them out with a flail of some kind. She beat out that which she had gleaned. What's the application of that? Well, do we skim over the pages of our Bible if we do read it? If we do read it, do we speed read without beating out in prayer and meditation what we've read? See, it takes time to study the Bible that it might sink into our ears and into our hearts. But the rewards are plentiful. Notice here that when she beat out that she had gleaned, Ruth 2 verse 17 tells us how much it was. And it was about an ephah of barley. Now why is that significant? Well, if you go back in your Bible to Exodus chapter 16, you will see there in relation to the gathering of the manna, the bread from heaven, that it tells us in verse 16, This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded. Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man according to the number of your persons. Take ye every man for them which are in his tents." That's Exodus 16, verse 16. Notice that. An omer for every man. That was a measurement. But go down to the end of the chapter. Exodus 16, verse 36. It says, now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah. So if an omer was every man's part for one day, and an omer is the tenth part of an ephah, that tells me that what Ruth had beaten out was ten days worth of corn. It takes time to study the Bible, but the rewards are plentiful. Ruth gathered ten days provision in one day. Is that how we study the Word? But not only was it a determined gleaning, it was a devoted gleaning. You see, Ruth not only gleaned for herself and for her own benefit, but for the benefit of others. I think this is really important. It says that in verse 17, she gleaned in the field till evening. She beat out that she had gleaned. It was a bit of barley and she took it up, verse 18 says, and went into the city. And her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she, that's Ruth, brought forth and gave to her that she had reserved after she was sufficed. It's clear, isn't it? What the application is? That we're not just to be gleaning in the Word as believers for our own benefit, but we're to give out as well. Are you sowing the seed of the kingdom, brother, in the morning bright and fair? Are you taking the bread of life to others? Am I? Are we taking the opportunities to tell others of Jesus, the mighty to save? We shouldn't be content to be satisfied ourselves with the bread that the Lord gives us and yet allow sinners around us to go hungry. There's a story in the Old Testament of lepers who were hungry and went out to seek from the enemy bread, but when they got to the enemy camp, they realized that the enemy had fled. in the twilight, left their tents and their horses and all the camp as it was, and they fled for their life. The Bible says in 2 Kings 7 verse 8, When these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver and gold and raiment, and went and hid it. And came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to another, We do not well. This day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace. If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us. Now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household." The significance of that is that the king's household and all who were in the city were starving at that point. And here they were, hoarding everything up for themselves, hiding it, until they realize we do not well. This is not right. This day is a day of good tidings. You know what good tidings literally means in the New Testament? Gospel. This is a gospel day and we hold our peace. Now therefore come that we may go and tell. That's why God has placed us in this world. Robert Haldane of Scotland said, Any man who does not care about the souls of others is a man who needs to be saved himself. That's very challenging, isn't it? Romans 10 verse 14 says, How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they'd be sent. That's what motivated Jim Elliott and his missionary friends to go to the jungles of Ecuador to reach previously unreached people. Because they realized that those were people with souls. People who would go to hell if they did not hear the message of the gospel. And Jim Elliott and his friends, the story is very well known, were martyred in the attempt to bring the gospel to those people. But the very man who speared Jim Elliott to death later became a Christian. and travelled along with Nate Saint and others, Nate Saint's son, I believe it was, around the United States, telling his testimony of how many people in those tribes that they had gone to reach had come to know Christ. Are we gleaning in the field? And if we're gleaning in the field, are we seeking to take the bread of life to others as well? You will notice here that Naomi finally saw what Ruth had gleaned and beat out. She saw it. It was evident to her. It tells us that there in verse 18. And her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. If the Word is doing you good, Christian friend, it is going to show in your life. And the converse is also true. If the Word is not doing you good, it will show in your life. May God help us. May God help us to be gleaning and gathering and seeking to bring the bread of life to others.