morning is from Ruth chapter three, it's the text that we'll look at later on in the service. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter, should I not seek rest for you that it may be well with you? It's not bow as our relative, with whose young women you were. See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash therefore and annoy yourself and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. And he will tell you what to do. She replied, all that you say, I will do. So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law commanded her. And when bow as it eaten and drunk and his heart was married, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight, the man was startled and turned over and behold a woman lay at his feet. And he said, who are you? She answered, I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant. For you are a redeemer. And he said, hey you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after younger men, whether poor or rich. And now my daughter do not fear, I will do for you all that you ask. For all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. And now it is true that I am a redeemer, yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. Remain tonight. And in the morning, if he will redeem you good, let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning. So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, I did not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor. And he said, bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out. And she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. And she went into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, how did you fare my daughter? Then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying, these six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, you must not go back empty handed to your mother-in-law. She replied, wait my daughter, until you learn how this matter turns out for the man will not rest, but will settle the matter today. And man, our children are learning this verse that they've been working on. That wedding yesterday, Mark and Carmen made a beautiful couple. It was just kind of nice. Earlier in the week, I was meeting with Kevin and Caitlin and with Tim and Stephanie Weldon, the youth workers for our church. And we were talking about various things and somehow the topic of marriage and pre-marriage counseling came up. I don't remember how, but I made the comment that I think pre-marriage counseling should be done real early, like high school, junior high school, or something. I said that and they were like, what? And I was like, okay, as I thought about it, I understood the confusion. And so I guess I would change the word to say, or change my view to say, I think pre-dating or pre-engagement counseling ought to be given to folks at a very young age to help think about what they're moving toward, if indeed they're moving toward marriage and their life and such. And that's kind of the focus of what we're going to be looking at this morning in Ruth chapter three. You know, the scholars will tell you often in Hebrew literature that's broken into parts in a part. The middle part is the important part. Try not to say part anymore. And in chapter three, which I think is laid out well, the center section says this, at midnight, the man was startled and turned over and behold a woman lay at his feet. He said, who are you? She answered, I am Ruth, you're servant. Spread your wings over your servant where you are a redeemer. That's a proposal. She is saying, will you marry me? And he responds favorably, not with tears. I'm so glad or something like that. But he said, may you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter, for you have made this last kindness greater than the first. And you have not gone after younger men, whether rich or poor. This I think is the focus of the passage. And we'll look at this and we'll kind of break out four different questions that pastors, elders, parents, friends, I guess pastors, elders, and peers would be a better way to say it, can talk to those who are thinking about marriage, thinking about a relationship they have. And just help them think through, okay, is this the one God would have me marry. But before we get into that, I feel constrained to give something of the bigger picture of the book of Ruth so that we hear that as well. And to that end, this is kind of like introduction and part of the sermon. So here it's not the main focus, but it is important. So the main purpose, I believe, of the book of Ruth is to show that God in his providence is raising up a king to overcome the dark ages, the period of the judges, and in this king to bring about righteousness for the nation. And through this king to raise up ultimately the king of kings, the Redeemer of God's elect, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why I believe the book of Ruth is found in the Bible. But there's so much more there. I think there's a second theme that's kind of runs through the book of Ruth as well. It's a book that we see a godly covenant community. There's a remnant in Bethlehem that loved the Lord. And there are covenant community. There are people seeking God's faith, faith by faith, in the midst of a nation that has gone astray, a church that is just experiencing darkness and unbelief and sin. Connected to that, we see the three kind of stars of chapter three, Naomi, Ruth and Boaz, and they are all people of faith. And they're serving the Lord during a dark and difficult time in Israel's history, but they're seeking God and they're living by faith. And I think that's a good word to us as we kind of reflect on where we are as a nation or maybe as a world. The world seems to be smaller and smaller and it's not always encouraging. Some things seem just so dark, so much atheism, so much secularism, so much unbelief. And it's encouraging to know that people of faith can live by faith in the midst of that, and it makes a difference. And in fact, God uses it in His providence for the accomplishing of His will. That's going on as well. There's a third purpose, and that's to show that God is responding to Naomi's blessing of Ruth in chapter one. Kind of interesting. In chapter one, Naomi blesses Ruth in verse nine. She says, the Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. I guess she's saying that to Ruth and Orpah, but for Ruth who stays with her, this is almost the words that Naomi says at the beginning of the chapter, shall I not look for rest for you? A way of saying, it's time to get you a husband, young lady. So there is this blessing that God brings to battle, and I think that's kind of cool too, that when we bless in the name of the Lord, and in a sense it's a prayer, I don't know how you separate blessing someone in the name of the Lord and prayer because you're calling on God's name, may God bless you. He's there and it's understood. It's kind of neat to see that it's okay to be the blesser or the prayer and then to have feet kind of to your faith and be a part of it because Naomi is going to say, okay, let's figure out how to do this and kind of set the course and direction of what's going to happen in this chapter in the neck. But the fourth aspect, the fourth theme is what we're looking at, it is that of a godly romance, right? It's just a beautiful, beautiful story. When we remember it started in chapter two, they bow as had eyes for Ruth, I guess he heard about her before he saw her, but when he saw, he came to his field during the harvest time and saw this young woman gleaning among his servants. He asked about it, who's that girl? And oh, this is Ruth the Moe virus, you know, and she's been working hard and all that. He shows a little bit of attention to her and he tells her, look, you can just stay with our workers throughout the whole harvest season, follow behind them. I've told them to treat you well. You can drink their water, you're safe here. And then he tells you know, he's just very kind to her so much so that she says, why have I found favor in your eyes? And we talked about this, I think three weeks ago, it could just be wondering and kind of like, wow, I can't believe it. You are being so kind to me. I'm a foreigner and you're treating me this way, but it could also be, okay, I'm a very vulnerable person. Why are you doing this? What are you looking for? Whether she had that in mind or not, I don't know, but bow as easily able to answer the question, I am attracted to you because you're faith. You have left Father and Mother and Sister and Brother, you've left your nation. You've left it all to come here. And you have come under the shadow of Almighty and under His wings, you have sought refuge. May God bless you for that. And so she responds to this kind words by saying, oh, you have spoken kindly to your servant and my heart's encouraged by that. And so there's a little bit going on in chapter two. Well, chapter three, it really kind of kicks up, doesn't it? But let me make one more kind of comment before we look at these four questions that I recommend you ask yourself or the person you're giving counsel to. If you look at your bulletin, at the bottom of the order of worship, there's a quote from John Piper. I wanted to print it for you so that you had it handy and accessible. We're not really looking at it today, but these are good quotes. This is where John Piper, I think, does a good job of consolidating what the scriptures teach about, biblical manhood and biblical womanhood. And he puts it into a relatively small definition. And my challenge to you, and this is like extra credit or homework, or I guess that's ridiculous at the end of the school year, isn't it? But nevertheless, for your edification, it really is worth taking the book of Ruth and these definitions and looking how Ruth and Boaz compare to what biblical femininity and masculinity look like. I think it's amazing. I think they're good, godly examples in the Bible to show us the definition that Piper gets from all of the scriptures. And if you'll do this, just notice one other thing that I think is kind of amazing. If Ruth is indeed practicing mature femininity, a freeing disposition to affirm, receive a nurture strength and leadership from a worthy man, and in this case from Boaz, in ways appropriate to a woman's different relationships. If that's what she's doing, isn't it amazing that she's the one who does the proposal? Will you marry me? And he gets it. He knows he's being proposed to because he responds, all that you ask, I will do. There is this one little snap who he mentions, but they understand what's going on here. And we should too. And I hope that kind of like rattles your cage a little bit when you think about biblical manhood and womanhood, you know, leadership and submission and stuff. I just think that's cool. But the four questions I want us to look at today, I think are good questions that anyone who is interested in getting married or especially if they're attracted to someone should be asking themselves. And every parent here who has children who are unmarried with the potential of getting married, you should pay attention. In fact, the whole covenant community, we should all care about this as we care for one another. So let's ask these four questions and see how they flow from the text. This is the first one. Would this marriage relationship be pleasing to God? Good question. I think to start with, would this marriage relationship be pleasing to God? I would argue that that's kind of what's going on here. In fact, these questions I'm getting, it's kind of, it makes me think of some one, you know, blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of wicked or stand in a way of scoffers or sit in the seat of mockers. I got those scoffers and mockers mixed up. Sorry, but you get the idea. But, and here's why I wanted to go, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law, he meditates day and night. He'll be like a green tree who has leaves that are always green and such. My point is this, it's in meditating in the word of God that you're going to come up with principles like this. There's no table of contents, passage that says for those principles on pre-marriage. Look here. And there's nothing in the index that says that either. It's the mind that's saturated with the scriptures that will see principles like these, and they'll pop out. But here's the question. And again, here's how they do. Would this marriage relationship be pleasing to God? When Naomi starts to give counsel, she talks this way. It is not bow as our relative. And that's important. She says relative from here on out, the word will be redeemer. Go hell is used seven times, that root form for redeemer, for kinsman redeemer, for the one who's going to buy back. It's used in, and Ruth uses it when she reveals herself to bow as in verse nine, spread your wings over your servant for you are a redeemer. What they're saying is look the scriptures have spoken. Leviticus 25 talks about how to redeem a poor person's land and so on. The the leverite principle is mentioned about how you should continue the family, the leverite principle, by the way, that's talked about. And I think it's deuteronomy. I can't remember the chapter. Forgive me for that. It's not an exact fit. It's a basic guideline in this particular case because they don't match. It doesn't correspond one for one, but as is not the younger brother and that sort of stuff. But the idea is there and they're seeking God's word to determine God's pleasure in their relationship. That's the key. They're seeking God's word to determine God's pleasure in the relationship. And and bow as is that way too. He blesses her in verse 10. May you be blessed of the Lord my daughter. You have made this last kindness, the first kindness being leaving your own country and coming under the wings of the Almighty for refuge. Your conversion story. You're trusting in Yahweh as God. And that's and he says that. And then he says in verse 12. And now it is true. I am a redeemer, but there is a redeemer nearer than I. I want to follow what God says as we try and work this out. We want to do what is pleasing to God. And they have that kind of attitude. They show that in the way they work. And that I think is a great principle for anyone seeking to get married. What does God want? Would it be pleasing to God? Now he doesn't give us specifics on this man and this woman should be matched up. There's no continuing revelation that way. But there are things that teach us about it. For example, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. A Christian is not to marry an unbeliever. That's second Corinthians 614. The same advice is given to widows in 1 Corinthians 739. When a husband dies, the woman is free to remarry, but only in the Lord. It's just a principle that the Scriptures give. The questions that kind of follow under this would be, does this person use their gifts and skills for the glory of God or for self gratification? Does this person use their time for self gratification or serving others, serving the Lord? How do they express, if I marry this person, will we be able to serve the Lord together? Because if they're serving themselves, this is again a general principle, but the chances are it may be a long time before that changes. Let me encourage you not to practice what's sometimes called missionary dating, right? Like I'll date it and hopefully he or she will come to Christ and it's just not done in the Scriptures. That's really rebellion, right? And the idea of this is, well, he's got this, he's got this, he's got that, or she's got this, she's got that, but I can change him. That's called, well, respectfully, foolishness. It just doesn't happen that way. You ask the question, would this be pleasing to God? And God, you know, the fact you may know someone who has a Christian married a non-Christian and it worked out. And you say, see? Well, yeah, I see and God is incredibly merciful, but see what his word says first and determine what's pleasing to him from that. Okay, so that's the first question. The second one would be this, what does Godly trusted counsel say? Now, just picking up from the end of, excuse me, chapter two, you may remember that Naomi comes back. She's got lots of grain. Sorry, Ruth comes back. She's got lots of grain and her mother-in-law Naomi says, wow, plus it'd be the man who took note of you. How did this happen? And they start talking. Oh, oh, I said, oh, oh, he's one of our close family members. Oh, really? So there's a lot of talk, I think, during, you know, day by day going on and every day, so my dear, my daughter seems to be the diminutive that Naomi uses with Ruth's stove, my daughter, how to go today? Did you see Boas today? Hey, you got a lot of barley today, you know, how the talk would go, right? Well, and then when she does start to give advice, here it is in verses one through four. Now Naomi or mother-in-law said to her, my daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? She's saying, it's time to get your husband. And I love, I think it's worth meditating on what it says there. It's, I think it's what it ought to be. Maybe not what it always is, but what it ought to be, right? Rest that it may go well with you. Those are good words. Is not Boas our relative and whose young, with whose young women you were? See, he's winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash yourself, therefore. Anoint yourself and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies, then go and uncover his feet and lie down and he will tell you what to do. What do you think about that? I got to honestly say about the council. I'm a little bit dubious about the midnight meeting at the feet where Boas she is. You know, it's just a little bit awkward for me. I never thought of myself as a prude, but I just wonder if that part was wise advice. I say that though saying, I don't know the culture and we don't either. And there's a lot here that we don't know. But let me defend Naomi a little bit. She gives advice that's clear. It's time for you to have a husband. You need rest. I want it to go well for you. And the little thing she puts together, this is how she says, Boas will know what to do. He'll tell you. So I'm guessing there's some cultural stuff going on that we just don't know about. I'm sure there's cultural stuff that's going on that we don't know about. And probably I'm guessing that it probably has to do with why we're going, what's up with this midnight meeting? It doesn't midnight madness or something, right? But do you remember when the armed forces went into Iraq and the tanks kind of toppled down that statue? Do you remember that? And remember the image, the Iraqis were taking off their shoes and whacking the statue. Do you remember that? And maybe the image is still in your mind of Saddam Hussein's portrait or whatever on the ground. And people just stomping on it. And there was something going on that way. There was something about culturally about shoes and feet. And that sort of thing. Do you remember when President Bush was giving a press conference and that fella took off his shoes? And there's something to their culture in the Middle East that has to do with feet and shoes and that sort of thing, right? I remember talking to an Ethiopian missionary who told me you never sit with your foot, you know, kind of pointing at somebody because that's considered rude. You just don't do that sort of stuff. So I'm confessing we might not know exactly what's going on culturally with this, take the sheet off his feet. Maybe just practical, you know, about Mednadu, be cold enough, he'll wake up. And then you can say, hi. But I imagine there's some more cultural stuff going on there. And he does wake up. And she, it's interesting. It says at verse 5, all that you have said, I will do. And then we're told she did all that he commanded. But then when he does, when she does, when Ruth rebuilds herself to Boaz, she says, spread your wings, wings skirt. It's the same word. It's the word used a couple of times. It's the word used when Boaz says, you've come under the wings of the Almighty for refuge. You've taken refuge under his wings. She's saying, okay, you've been the provider in the name of God. Keep providing in the name of God.
When she says, please do this for your redeemer, we don't find those words in Naomi's mouth, but maybe they were there. Nevertheless, she's taking Ruth takes Naomi's counsel and she acts on it. And I think that's good. I think wise counsel, godly counsel, someone who's thought through things, it's good. We have to be careful. It's got to be trusted in godly, but there it is here. And I think the same thing is true for Boaz. It comes out much shorter and a little bit different. It's verse 11 when Boaz says, and now my daughter, same dominion to be used as my daughter. And now my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask for. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman, a woman of noble character. All the townsmen know, this is a small town. Everybody knows everything, right? I mean, there's no secrets. And the talk is, this is a noble woman. And the way he says it shows us that there's been at least some counsel given. Now, I don't know, guys usually give counsel in a different way. His friends might say, come on man, man, the girl likes you. Maybe something like, look, if you don't ask her out, I will. I don't know how they gave counsel, but the talk was, this is a godly woman, everyone knows it. And so he was in this way encouraged toward Ruth. Third question, am I attracted to this person's faith and faithfulness? Am I attracted to this person's faith and faithfulness? Now in chapter two, it started when they were attracted. And we looked at this before, so I'll just go over it quickly. You remember Boaz had already heard about her. He heard from his foreman of his crew that she'd been working steadily. And I think it heard from town's men about how she left father and mother and all. And he offered, he offered her, hey, work here, spoil my people. We'll take good care of you. And she responds to this and says, why have you taken notice of me? Why have I found favor in your eyes? That you would take notice of me since I'm a foreigner. And he explains why you left father, mother and everything came. And you've come under the shadow to take refuge under the wings of God most high, the God of Israel. And then she says, I found favor in your sight. And you have spoken kindly to me. So there's this faith that they see. He sees her faith and he moves toward her on the basis of it. She's left everything to follow me. She asks her question. And if you remember, if you were here three weeks ago or thereabouts, when she said, why have I found favor in your sight, it may just be wonder and all, I'm a foreigner, not even like like a servant of yours. And why are you showing me so much kindness? That could have been it. But it could be too. I am a foreigner. I am vulnerable. Most men don't show this kind of favor unless they want something. Why have I found favor in your sight? Whatever it is, Boaz gives the bright answer. I see your faith. I see what you've done. It's a beautiful thing. And she responds to his faith, saying, you've spoken kindly to me. You've encouraged me. You've comforted me with your word. So that when we get to chapter three, we see it all the more. Spread your wings over your servant for you are a redeemer. Biblical language that he gets. And he responds, may you be blessed of the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness, has said, by the way, greater than the first in that you have not gone after younger men, whether poor or rich. I say faith and faithful because of this faith we see and kind of like snapshot. Did that by faith? Oh, did that by faith? We can see faith when we respond in a godly way. When we initiate in a godly way, when it's just obvious, okay? God says this we respond to it by faith. Oh, there it is. And we see it. But faithfulness is when we see someone who's full of faith and they're living their life by faith. There's the sequential faith acts that are taking place in their life. They don't just have faith for a weekend or faith for the holidays or whatever. They live by faith day and night. And that's something to be attracted to. Are you attracted to the person's faith and faithfulness? Again, if not, you could run into some trouble. Fourth and final question we see in the text. Can I make and keep covenant marriage vow? Can I make and keep covenant marriage vow? When Ruth asks him to spread her his wings over her because she is a redeemer, he says, in verse 12, it is true that I am a redeemer, yet there is a redeemer near than I. Remain tonight in the morning, if he will redeem you good, not to us, but you know, he's got to say that. Let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you then as the Lord lives, I will redeem you lie down until the morning. At my point, it's just they thought through the covenant vows that they were making. And it was a covenant. They would make vows. There was a way that things had to go. And if you look historically at the wedding ceremonies, they made vows. Much like we saw yesterday, those of us who were at the wedding, there's the intention of consent. Will you? Are you willing? Oh yeah. And then I will. I will be faithful. For better, for worse, richer or poor, sickness and health. Good times are bad. I think he said, we make vows. And there before God. And so we ask, can we keep those vows? That's what was going on here. Just three things real quick that did not raise to the level of being an important thing. Three things that are not considered vital for a good marriage relationship. The first one is this a difference in racial or ethnic background. She's Ruth the Moabite. He's the Boaz, the Bethlehemite. They are from different races. And it's not a problem. They have the same fate. The second one is age. The only one who calls Ruth my daughter is Naomi. And Boaz, not a great pickup line. I don't think. But it points out that there's probably a age difference there. That in the fact that when he praises her, he says you didn't go after young men. Probably older. There's an age difference. You know, if there's a, if there's a racial difference, ethnic difference, just those cultural differences can cause conflict and stress and a marriage. Not a reason not to. Scriptures give full freedom to us to do that. Same with the age, you know, a large age span difference. There can be, in a sense, same sort of cultural differences. There's a different way of looking at things and such. But it's not an issue that would stop a couple from marrying. And then the third one that I see in the Texas, they come from different economic status. He's wealthy. He's a respected man in the community, a landowner with employees working for him in such. And she is a poor, foreign widow, gleaning in the field. And that economic difference, that social class thing doesn't matter. They're faithful that they can get married before the Lord. Well, it's a romantic text, right? True love. Yeah. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's great when it does, all right? It does happen for all of those who have faith in Jesus Christ because Jesus is our Kinsman Redeemer, right? He had to be made like his brethren in all respects. So he took on flesh and blood. And he redeems us. He redeems us. We, in fact, he teaches us to pray, right? And the Lord's Prayer. And forgive us our deaths as we forgive others. And then he is the one who pays our debts for us, right? He redeems us. He pays the debt we cannot pay. He's our Kinsman Redeemer. He's our brother. He's the one who pays our debt. He is the bridegroom of the church, bridegroom of the church. He does everything for us. And if we think about it, what he did in coming to redeem to collect a people for himself a church was pleasing to God. That's what God wanted. In fact, when he came, he said, I delight to do your will. And it was the Father's will to crush him so that he would be the sin bearer for us and to pay the debt. He sought the Father's counsel. He said, all that the Father sends me to do, I will do. I always obey. I never act on my own. I always do what he says. In fact, for me to do the will of God is like eating. It's my food. Our Lord Jesus got good counsel from the Lord and followed it. Our Lord Jesus gives us faith. And then he delights in the faith. He gives us. Isn't that an amazing thing? He is a great lover. He gives us faith. He gives it to us as a gift. We respond to him in faith and repentance. And then he delights it. And in every time we act in faith, it pleases God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's a wonderful thing. And finally, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. And he left the riches of heaven and became poor that we through him would have the riches of heaven and inheritance. The promised land, not just a little piece of desert in the middle of east, but a new heavens, a new earth, a new Jerusalem, falling down from heaven, right? This moves us to the Lord's table. Well, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth where the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. There you are.
He loves us. He nurtures us. He cherishes us. He washes us with the water of his word. He presents us as spotless and blameless in his sight. We all have true love. Whether we have it in this life, whether God gives us a spouse in this life, all of us who have faith will have all the fulfillment, all the satisfaction. We lose nothing. And this is a meal that we talked about that. Let me read the words of institution. I...