Sermon #9 Ruth Series
Title: “Handfuls
of Purpose”
Text: Ruth 2:15-16
Readings: Mark Henson
Subject: The Typical Significance
Of
The Beginning Of Barley Harvest
Date: Tuesday Evening ― August 17, 1993
Introduction:
The title of my message
tonight is “Handfuls of Purpose.” Let’s read the text together
(Ruth 2:15-16).
“And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men,
saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: And let
fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may
glean them, and rebuke her not.”
In the Old Testament, under
the Mosaic law, gleaning was one of the rights of the people. The farmer was
forbidden of God to reap the corners of his fields. If he, by some over-sight,
mistakenly left a bundle of wheat in his field, he was not allowed to go back
and pick it up. It was to be left for the widows, the fatherless, and the poor
in the land. The same thing was true of their orchards and vineyards.
In this second chapter of
Ruth, we see this law of gleaning being fulfilled. The things recorded in this
chapter are written for our learning and for our admonition. Indeed, all that
is written in the Book of Ruth is intended by God the Holy Spirit to show us
the goodness, grace, and glory of Christ, our Kinsman Redeemer. As we have seen
in this Book…
· Ruth
represents all who are saved by the grace of God.
· Boaz
represents the Lord Jesus Christ, our Kinsman Redeemer. ― He is the owner
of all things. All the fields of this world belong to him. ― He is the
Master of all things. As Boaz was master in his house, so Christ is Master in
his house, the Church. Everything is subject to him. And he is the Master of
the universe. We obey him willingly; but all things obey him absolutely (John
17:2).
· The field in which Ruth gleaned represents the Word of God.
· The young men, the reapers, represent those who preach the gospel of
Christ.
Proposition: As Boaz commanded his young
men to let fall some handfuls of purpose for Ruth, even so, the Lord Jesus
Christ commands his servants, those who preach the gospel, to let fall some
handfuls of purpose for chosen sinners.
Divisions: In these two verses, we
have instruction by example for both sinners who are seeking the Lord and preachers
who are serving him. In our text...
1.
Seeking
sinners are compared to gleaners in a field.
2.
Gospel
preachers are compared to reapers.
3.
The
preaching of the gospel is the scattering of handfuls of purpose, the
purposeful distribution of bread gathered from the Word of God.
Seeking Sinners
I.
Seeking sinners are like gleaners in a field.
The old writers and
preachers used to talk about sinners, sensible sinners, seeking sinners, and
saved sinners. I do not care much for those distinctions, as a general rule.
Sinners are sinners. But the distinctions do serve a useful purpose.
· A sinner is a person under
the wrath of God, lost and ruined in his sin, but utterly unaware of his sinful
condition (Rom. 5:12).
· A sensible sinner is a
sinner awakened to know his lost condition, a sinner under conviction, a sinner
who knows that he is lost and needs Christ.
· A seeking sinner is one who
knows he needs Christ and is seeking him.
He feels his need of Christ,
seeks him earnestly in his Word, in his house, by prayer and supplication, and
will find him (Jer. 29:11-14). Like the four lepers of Elisha’s day, they have
resolved not to perish if life can be had (2 Kings 7:3-4). Like the
Syrophenician woman, such needy souls will not cease seeking the Lord God in
Christ and the mercy they need from him until they have found him and obtained
mercy (Mark 7:24-30).
· A saved sinner is one who
has come to Christ, one who trusts Christ as Lord and Savior, one who believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Ruth came into Boaz’s
field, she came as a gleaner seeking bread (vv. 2-3). As such, she is a picture
of a sinner seeking the Lord in the house of bread.
A. She was a Moabite.
She was the cursed offspring
of a cursed race; and she knew it. She had no rights, except the rights of a
stranger to glean in the fields. That is exactly our condition by nature. We
are the cursed offspring of a cursed race (Rom. 5:12; Eph. 2:1-4). We have no
rights, but the right to pick up what God has left for sinners, the right to
glean in his field.
B. She had been reduced to a very low and poor
condition (2:10).
She was once very wealthy,
married to Mahlon, daughter-in-law to Elimelech. Like her, all Adam’s sons and
daughters were once very wealthy. “God
created man upright!” Before the fall, our father Adam possessed all God’s
creation and ruled over it. God gave man everything, even a righteous nature.
But, like Ruth, fallen man is reduced to abject poverty (Eph. 2:11-12).
· She was poor.
· She was hungry.
· She was in desperate need of
help.
· She humbly took her place
among the poor.
C. Though she was a poor
Moabitess, Ruth had resolved to seek and to follow the Lord God of Israel (1:16-17).
Blessed is that sinner who has been taught by the
grace of God something of the abject poverty of his soul before God. Poor, hungry,
and in desperate need of help, he will humbly take his place in the dust before
the throne of grace, seeking mercy (Heb. 4:16).
I can but perish if I go,
I am resolved to try;
For if I stay away I know
I must forever die!
Perhaps He will admit my plea,
Perhaps will hear my prayer;
But if I perish, I will pray
And perish only there!
D. Notice also that Ruth had a very high opinion of
Boaz’s handmaids (2:13).
She knew she was not like
his handmaidens, but she wanted to be. And those who seek Christ have a very
high opinion of God’s people. They know they are not like the children of God,
but they want to be. They want forgiveness, righteousness, and acceptance with
God. They want to be found in Christ, accepted, at peace with God, possessing
eternal life.
GOSPEL PREACHERS
II.
Gospel preachers may be compared to reapers.
A. Christ himself shall come as
a Reaper (Rev. 14:14-19).
B. Our Master uses his servants
as reapers. Preachers are reapers in two ways.
1.
They
reap the wheat and bind the tares of this world (Matt. 13:30; 2 Cor. 2:14-17).
The preaching of the gospel is God’s ordained instrument both for salvation and
condemnation.
2.
They
gather the wheat, the bread of God’s Word, prepare it for his people, and feed
them with knowledge and understanding (Jer. 3:15).
Every gospel preacher is
responsible to feed the Lord’s sheep. Those men who are called of God to do
this great work are uniquely gifted and qualified by God for the work to which
they are called (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Tit. 1:5-9).
“HANDFULS OF PURPOSE”
III.
In
keeping with the story before us, the preaching of the gospel is the
scattering of handfuls of purpose, the purposeful distribution of the bread
gathered from the Word of God.
Notice that Boaz gave his young men
four strict commandments regarding Ruth. I take these to be four strict
commandments from Christ to every man who preaches the gospel.
A. First, he says, “Let
her glean, even among the sheaves.”
I take that to mean that
Gospel preachers are not appointed by God to guard and protect the Word of God,
giving it out in bits and pieces, as they see fit. Everything in the Book of
God is profitable to his elect (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Let needy sinners glean
anything they want “even among the
sheaves.”
B. Second, Boaz said, “Reproach
her not,” or “shame her
not.”
How sad that any preacher
should need to be told that, but many do. It is not the business of gospel
preachers to chastise the Lord’s children, but to comfort them (Isa. 40:1-2).
As the man of God proclaims the gospel of God, when it is applied by the Spirit
of God, it convicts, corrects, chastens, and comforts the people of God.
When we set up standards and tell sinners they must meet those standards or forever perish, we are guilty of reproaching and shaming them, setting up barriers between them and Christ. This must not be done! There are no pre-requisites to faith in Christ!
· Not Experience!
· Not Doctrine!
· Not Emotions or Feelings!
· Not Repentance!
· Not Knowledge!
The issue is “whether ye be in the faith,”
not your evidences of grace. The fact is, a spark of faith may exist (and often
does) in an ocean of unbelief.
C. Third, Boaz said, “And
let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her!”
I take that to mean that
gospel preaching is to be plain and simple. “Handfuls
of purpose” are purposefully left for specific people, with specific needs.
They are left, not by the preacher’s whims, but by the Spirit’s direction. True
preaching is personal, purposeful, and passionate. God can make stones preach,
but he uses men to preach to men. Only men feel what men feel. We are to
scatter the Bread of Life with purpose, but by the handfuls!
· Handfuls of Promises! ― Promises for
Saints! ― Promises for Sinners!
· Handfuls of Doctrine! ― Sovereign
Election! ― Effectual Redemption! ― Free Justification! ―
Certain Perseverance!
· Handfuls of Christ! ― His Person!
― His Work
· Handfuls of Grace (Eph. 1:3-14, 15-23; 2:1-10)
· The Farmer who walked 50
miles to hear Thomas Manton ― “There was nothing in it for me.”
· The Preacher who was
Suddenly struck Blind
D. Then Boaz repeated his first
command using stronger word ― “Rebuke her not.”
God’s people do not belong to their pastors, teachers,
elders, or visiting evangelists. They belong to God. They do not belong to me,
but to him. It is not my place or yours to chastise his children. Yes,
sometimes the faithful pastors and teachers must reprove and rebuke; but they
must do it with all longsuffering and patience.
Illustration: “You’d better be careful
how you treat my children.”
Boaz’s reapers understood
that they were responsible to care for, protect, and provide handfuls of
purpose for Ruth. They understood that she was distinctly the object of his
love; and they treated her accordingly.
Application: “So she gleaned!”