If you would, get your Bibles and turn to that little book of Ruth. We're in chapter three again, and I gave you kind of an overview of some of the problems that you would run into in your thinking going through chapter three. Chapter three is definitely a challenge, and I want you to notice what it says in verse one. In verse one of chapter three of Ruth, it says, then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said unto her, my daughter, Shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? Now, Naomi desires to seek rest for Ruth. What does that mean? What does it mean to seek rest for someone else? I want you to turn back in chapter one to verse nine. Chapter one, and look at verse nine, there in the word of God we read, as Naomi is speaking once again in this passage, the Lord grant you that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them and they lifted up their voice and wept. Naomi's desire was for Ruth and Orpah at that time in chapter one in verse nine, to find rest in their husband. So here in chapter three in verse one, Naomi is seeking rest for Ruth. Now, what kind of rest that would be? That would be in getting her a husband. What does a husband do? A husband is to support his wife, protect his wife, that should come from the husband. Assuming the burdens of the future of the home and family should be a responsibility of a husband. One of the things that is often missing in our society in many homes, single mother homes, is a dad, which causes all kinds of problems and rebellion with young kids. What we see here is Naomi is playing Cupid. I don't know how many of you women ever played the matchmaker. I'm sure some of you have. I've heard. But here's Naomi doing it. She's seeking rest for Ruth. This rest would be in a marriage. It's a union. It is Ruth and Boaz. is what Naomi's got her eye on. If you spiritualize this text, what you have is that union that we have is between us and Christ. It is a relationship with Him. Let me give you just a few passages of Scripture. In Matthew chapter 11 and down in verse 28, the Word of God says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. You shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. When we're in union with Christ, we find our rest in him. I want you to notice, as Paul's writing concerning this over in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, In 2 Corinthians the 11th chapter, notice what the Apostle Paul says in verse two. For I'm jealous over you, with a godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. You see that union, the marital union. This union should be fruitful. Look what it says over in Romans chapter 7. In Romans chapter 7, there in verse 1, we read, Know ye not, brethren, For I speak to them that know the law, how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. For the woman which has a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives. But if the husband be dead, she is loose from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. You see, we're united in Christ for the purpose of bringing forth fruit. As we have been united with Him, as long as we abide in Him, you will bear much fruit, is what it says in John chapter 15. And therefore, as we are united to Christ, we're abiding in Christ, We are, as Paul says, married to Christ. We are to be bearing much fruit. In Ruth chapter three, as we look at just, we just look at the first verse, I want you to notice is basically what I'm gonna do is go through these 18 verses, divide it up in three different sections. In verses one through five, what we see is there's an opening dialogue between Ruth and Naomi, mainly Naomi and Ruth. That's Naomi playing Cupid. In verses 6 through 13, we have the darker portion of night. This all happens in a 24-hour period. The first five verses happens in the late afternoon. Then you got the darkness of night in verses 6 through 13. And then in verses 14 through 18, what you have is sunrise. The sun is coming up. So let us look at this opening dialogue in the first five verses. We read once again, verse one, then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said unto her, my daughter, shall I not seek rest for you that it may be well with you? And now is not Boaz of our kindred with whose maidens you were? Behold, he went with barley to night in the threshing floor. Wash yourself, therefore. Anoint you and put your raiment upon you. Get you down to the floor, but make not yourself known unto the man until he shall have done eating and drinking. And it shall be when he lies down that you shall mark the place where he shall lie, and you shall go in, uncover his feet, and lay thee down. And he will tell you what you shall do. Now Ruth very simply is very obedient. She said unto her, all that you say unto me will I do. Here's the matchmaker at play, Miss Naomi Cupid. She is setting Ruth up for Boaz. Previously, and it's been months ago, she had told Ruth, stick close to Boaz. Now what has all this gained so far up to this point for Ruth as she is stuck close to Boaz. What has Ruth gained up to this point? Let me tell you because I don't think you know the answer. A bunch of grain. A bunch of food. Something to fatten her up. Notice here that's all she's got as far as to show at this point from their relationship. Although Naomi has been trying to set them up pushing that direction Here's all the prophet. She is seeking rest for Ruth. I want you to look back because all this scenario takes place in the book of Judges. So I want you to look back in Judges chapter three, in the third chapter of the book of Judges. And I want you to notice down in verse 11. In verse 11, the word of God says, and the land had rest 40 years. and Othniel the son of Kenaz died. Now look down in chapter three and down in verse 30. Verse 30 says, so Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel and the land had rest four score years. Look in chapter five and down in verse 31. So let all your enemies perish, O Lord, but let them that love you be as the sun when he goes forth in his might. And the land had rest 40 years. One other passage of scripture, if you look over in chapter 8. Chapter 8 and down in verse 28. Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness or rest for 40 years in the days of Gideon. Now notice here the land of Israel had rest only as it was faithful unto the Lord. You remember how the book of Judges goes up and down. They would trust the Lord, God would send a deliverer, they'd have peace and rest. They'd rebel against the Lord, they'd turn against the Lord, they'd play the harlot against the Lord. God would send oppression. It was back and forth, up and down, throughout the book of Judges like that. Only as they abided in their walk with the Lord and were faithful unto the Lord did they have rest. So here is Ruth. Naomi's seeking rest for Ruth. And here's her plan. Notice it says in verse two, is not Boaz our kindred, with whose maiden you were? Look, he's winnowing the barley tonight in the threshing floor. Think of that. Naomi's thinking where Boaz is. Naomi wants Ruth to go where Boaz is. She tells her to wash herself, anoint, put on perfume, put your raiment upon you, in other words, come on, darling, put a pretty dress on, and get you down to the floor. But make not yourself known unto the man until he shall have done eating and drinking. And it shall be when he lies down, Mark the place where he's lying, go in, uncover his feet, lay down, he will tell you what you shall do. Now this is a very interesting passage of scripture. What if Boaz was not a noble man? What if he was not an honorable man? Other men that were workers, they were warned against. Here is Ruth obeying Naomi, but I want you to notice that Ruth there's a risk as far as being obedient here. Was Boaz, the reason he's not made a move or said anything at this point, was he respecting Ruth because she was a widow? The Word of God doesn't tell us. Was she dressed like in widow's clothes? And therefore, Boaz respected her because of that. And Naomi is telling her to change her clothes and perfume up and do all these things. The Word of God doesn't tell us that. Had she been dressing like a widow? Maybe. If so, she stopped her mourning here as far as how she dressed. There is a connotation that goes along with the threshing floor. I want you to notice here, this is where Naomi is sending Ruth. To the threshing floor is what it says in verse two. I want you to look back over to the book of Hosea. Remember in the Minor Prophets, Hosea is the first of the Minor Prophets. Hosea chapter nine, in Hosea the ninth chapter, Listen to what the Word of God says concerning, in verse one, Israel. Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy as other people, for you have gone a-whoring from your God. You have loved a reward upon every corn floor, that's the threshing floor. In other words, this is where whoredoms took place, was on the threshing floor. Do you see the risk that Ruth is taking? The tension seems to be mounting as we're getting further into Chapter 3. Let me add a little bit of tension to that. Ruth was a what? What country did she come from? Moab. She was a Moabitess. Where did the Moabites come from? All you men remember, think back, the incestuous situation with Lot and his two daughters. Out come Moab, here. Is Ruth the Moabitess like the origin of the Moabites? If you had not read this story, you could see how the tension would be mounting even more and more and more. Truly the Spirit is willing, but often the flesh is weak. This is something that I counsel young people, something I counsel the young couple today. You know what, you may be willing to do the right thing, but if you put yourself in a tempting situation, the flesh is weak. And as Brother Steve quoted me earlier this morning, when opportunity and desire cross paths, you know what, you got trouble. And even so, here's opportunity but it's their desire. One thing we've got to understand, we've got to teach our young people, sin is very luring. Sin is very deceptive. Sin is powerful. And people don't understand the power of sin. Once it gets a little grip into your life, sin becomes very addictive. How many addicts to how many different things of this world are there? I'm not just talking about drug addicts or alcohol addicts. I'm talking about all kinds of addicts to different things of this world. The Word of God teaches us that sin is a cruel slave master. In other words, once it gets you in its grips, it is hard to get out of the grips of sin. Look at David's life, a man after God's own heart. After he sinned, he murdered. After he murdered, he lied and lied and hid the sin. You see how deceptive sin is? It's only for the pleasure for a moment and nobody will know. Be sure your sins will find you out is what the Word of God teaches us. we must warn our young people about sin. We must remind one another as believers concerning sin, you're never too old to be beyond temptation. Hear me? Never too old to be beyond temptation. Getting into verses six through 13, what we're looking at, Ruth is obedient and she goes down to the floor. This is the darkness of night. A lot of things happen in the darkness of night. And the Word of God says, she went down into the floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law bade her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn, She comes in the darkness of night, softly tiptoeing over, uncovering the feet of Boaz, and she laid down at his feet. Oh, a few hours later in the darkness, it came to pass at midnight. The clock did not strike 12, but Boaz woke up. And it says the man was afraid and turned himself and behold a woman lay at his feet. Now let me ask you, I'll ask you ladies first. If you were sleeping and all of a sudden there's a man at the bottom of your feet, what would you do? I must say, it's not been too long ago, I was out on a hospital visit, got in late, about one o'clock at night, and I know Lydia heard me coming in the door, it's got a little genie on the doorknob, and as I come in, I think, I walk through into the bedroom door, ah! I wasn't even at her feet. No doubt, you ladies would do the same thing, you'd be startled to death. Now men, Uh-oh, I are one. How'd you like to wake up to that? You wake up, you went to bed, and I want nobody there. All of a sudden, somebody's down by my feet. How would you respond? Boaz was startled, and the word of God said he was frightened. That means startled. No doubt, we would be startled. We would probably be thinking we're dreaming. And here you are, and you wake up. Who are you? That's basically what Boaz says. Notice what he said. In verse nine, he said, who are you? Boy. And she answered, I'm Ruth, your handmaid. Can you imagine? The temptation, once again, is the threshing floor. These are respectable people, Ruth and Boaz. As Ruth responds in verse nine, and she tells him who she is, she says, spread therefore your skirt over your handmaid, for you are a near kinsman. Now, what does this mean? What does it mean to spread your skirt over the handmaid? We can let our imaginations run wild, but let's stick with Scripture. I want you to look over in the book of Ezekiel chapter 16. In Ezekiel chapter 16, and look down in verse 8, the Lord is speaking, and He's talking about Jerusalem. And He says in verse 8, Now when I passed by you and looked upon you, behold, your time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over you to cover your nakedness. Yes, I swear unto you, and entered into a covenant with you, saith the Lord God, and you became mine. And what does the Lord God do? He assumes responsibility for her. Covers her, protects her, washed her with water, clothed her. Even so, here is the same protective care that Ruth is seeking. And here is Boaz. Can you imagine him still coming to himself and his hair's all matted and out of place and everywhere? Now, if you don't have a lot of hair, you probably don't remember what it was like. But anyway, if I wake up in the morning, I'm everywhere. But you know, here's Boaz, you know, trying to straighten himself up. And then he hears this, you are the goal. You're the kinsman redeemer. You're the one that can play the role of the husband. Imagine hearing that at midnight. No doubt, Boaz is startled. What is Boaz's response? I want you to notice that he answers in a very gentle way, in a very gentlemanly way, and he answers with compassion and he answers with care toward Ruth. In verse 10 he said, blessed be you of the Lord, my daughter. For you have shown more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning. And as much as you followed not, young man, whether poor or rich. The kindness is that word that we often run into in the Psalms, hased. It's a covenant love. And here, he's interpreting Ruth's interest in him as chesed, that covenant love. But there's a problem. In verse 12, we read, in verse 11, he says, and now my daughter, fear not. I will do to you all that you require. For all the city of my people, we know that you're a virtuous woman. She's at Proverbs 31. She's a virtuous woman. In other words, ain't nothing weird going on here, even though she come from Moab. In verse 12, he says, I know it's true that I am your near kinsman, howbeit there is a kinsman that is nearer than I. In other words, there's someone that's before me that has to stand up as the Goel, as the kinsman redeemer. But what you find, though the problem is there, What is displayed here, Boaz is committed to the situation. He's committed to follow through and do everything he can. So listen to what verse 13 says, Terry, this night. Wait right here. Wait here tonight, and it shall be in the morning that if he will perform unto you the part of a kinsman, well, let him do the kinsman's part. But if he will not do the part of the kinsman to you, then will I do the part of a kinsman to you. As the Lord lives, lie down until the morning. Now, you know what, this is another precarious situation. I would not tell someone to stay there if I was giving counsel. If there's a couple living together and they're not married, I'm not gonna tell them, you need to stay together. No, you need to get your rear in the courthouse, get a license, get married. But here, Boaz says, spend the night. Now let me ask you, what would have Joseph had done? If you go back to the book of Genesis, Joseph took off running, didn't he? Imagine if Boaz had took off running. We would not have the same ending to the story. What we have is we've got a very respectable man and a virtuous woman in this little story. Let me highlight here in this situation. It does not matter how many safeguards you put up in your life, how many different ways you can safeguard yourself from falling into temptation, temptation will always find you. Did you hear me? No matter how careful you are, no matter how safe you try to be, temptation always has ways of finding ways into our lives. It's like this past year, I've tried to keep flies out of the house. Every time I open the door, a fly comes in the house. I kill the fly, and you know what? I find two more flies. Yeah, you all have the same problem. It seems like that's the same way temptation. No matter how much you try, it keeps coming. There's a story I read, it's been quite a few years ago, and I could not find exactly where I read it from, and it might have been in martyr's mirrors back here in our library, but Napoleon Bonaparte basically did an end to the Spanish Inquisition. And there was rumors that, and this was in the 1800s, that there was a castle where the Catholic monks were and they heard rumors that there was a torture chamber and people were still being tried for the Inquisition. So he sent some of his soldiers there. They could not find anything. The men seemed respectable and they said there was nothing there. And they could not find nothing. One soldier knocked over a cup. What happened with that cup, it was full of drink, of whatever was in the cup. And when he looked down, he saw the beverage, whatever it was, water or whatever, trailing down the floor into a little crack. As the soldier looked, he noticed there was a crack around where he could open that door. He opened the door and found a torture chamber. It's as late as the 1800s. There were still prisoners alive. Most of them were dead, starving. Some were just bones in there. What I'm saying is that temptation is just like that. It will find the little crevice in your life. Temptation has a way of slipping into our lives. The good news that we can take from this, as far as knowing that, the Word of God tells us over in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and down in verse 13, it's a very familiar passage of scripture, it says, there hath no temptation that's taken you, but such as is common to man. but God is faithful. In other words, whatever temptation might come your way, it's common to man. It's been known, it's been done before, but God is faithful. Who will not suffer or allow you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation, also he's gonna make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. You've heard the saying, and I've refuted this saying more than once, God will not put on you more than you can bear. Don't say that. God will put on you more than you can bear, so you'll lean upon him more that he'll give you the grace to bear it. You hear what I'm saying? There's a difference there. Sometimes we can go to our wits end when we get our minds fixed upon a problem or a situation that's going on in life. And it's more than we can bear. But God is faithful. He provides grace. When temptation comes into your life, act in holiness and not in lust. In Ruth chapter three and verse 11, that verse we just read, you are a virtuous woman. If she was not a virtuous woman, if she had her Moabitish ways, how they offered sacrifices to Molech, and how they offered children to this false god that killed these babies. Here's the lifestyle she'd come out of. God had made a change in her life. Looking at the last few verses here, in verses 14 through 18, what we see is, then came the morning. Here is the sunrise, the sun's coming up, and here is Boaz. And we see Boaz as a gentleman, he's very discreet. The Word of God tells us in verse 14, she lay at his feet until the morning, and she rose up before one could know another. In other words, no one saw her. And he said, Let it not be known that a woman came into the floor. Also, he said, bring the veil that you have upon you and hold it. And when she held it, he measured six measures of barley. Notice the word measures is italicized. And laid it on her and she went into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, who are you? My daughter. In other words, she changed. Something about Ruth's countenance had changed. Let's pause here just for a moment. Boaz sent her on her way with six of barley. Six something of barley. What is six measures of barley? The translators put that in there to make it make sense. If you think about it, an ephah, if there were six ephahs, it would be around 200 pounds of grain. Now I don't know many women that can carry 200 pounds of grain. I do believe Boaz and the gentleman, the way he did, he helped put it on her back or wherever. Either she was a hoss of a woman, or this is not the right measure. If it was a Ifa, Now the IFA would be the 200 plus pounds. If it was something that was a measure called a SIA, and there were six SIAs, that would be the equivalent to about 60 to 90 pounds, which sounds more reasonable. Still, that takes a lot of effort, but you gotta understand, Ruth has been gleaning in the fields, and she's not, she worked, she worked hard. You can imagine taking 60 to 90 pounds all the way from the threshing floor back into town to where Naomi is. So as she's coming, and in verse 16, when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, who are you, my daughter? You can imagine Ruth is kind of tired. She'd be a little bit exhausted, I would think, from carrying so much grain. And she told her all that the man had done to her. And she says, these six measures of barley gave he me, for he said to me, go not empty unto your mother-in-law. Here's something that's very intriguing. We'll pause here just for a second. As we're coming to a close here, I want you to notice that Boaz had insight to what Naomi was doing. Boaz said, you can't go empty to your mother-in-law. Look back in chapter one, in verse 21. You remember when Naomi came to town, back to Bethlehem? In verse 21, she said, I went out full and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi? Seeing the Lord hath testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me. Notice how the words are reversed here. Boaz says, I don't want you to go home empty to your mother-in-law. There's a powerful change that takes place here. Not only in Ruth's life, but also in Naomi's life. In verse 18, Then said she, sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall. For the man will not be in rest until he has finished the thing this day. In other words, he ain't gonna let it go until he resolves the matter. Boaz is committed to the situation. So the advice is very simply, rest, trust, Wait. Wait upon the Lord. In this situation, it was waiting upon Boaz, which is waiting upon the Lord. Not saying Boaz was the Lord, but wait for Boaz to do what he said he would do. You know, there is a Redeemer, and there is a Redeemer that is closer than Boaz, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. He is our Goel. And what he did, he gave his life, his blood, as a ransom for us. Therefore, we find our rest in him. Boy, there are times in our lives we really need to rest in him. He is our source of strength, our hope. our help. And as we rest in Him, you know what, I'm learning as I get older, sleep is vital to your health. I've been unhealthy lately, you all know about my dog situation. But rest is important. And how much greater is spiritual rest in Christ? Oh, how we need to rest in Him, our Kinsman, our Redeemer. We're gonna give a hymn of invitation. If there's anyone with needs in the congregation tonight, situations in your life you need to make right, that's what the invitation's for. Let us stand and go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, We are thankful that we have a Redeemer. And Lord, we do not fully fathom the price that was paid for our redemption. The life of your dear son that you gave for sinners such as I. Lord, how we ought to rejoice and your chesed, your covenant love that you have toward us. How we ought to rest in you. But how often we're like chicken little running around like the sky is falling. We ask you forgive us. We ask that you strengthen us. Help us to be faithful unto you, that your name might resound with glory throughout all those around us for Christ's sake. Amen. We're going to sing, There is a Redeemer.