Bible Covenants Part 7 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Praise God, friends. I’m so glad that you’re with us today. We’re gonna be sharing from Ruth, talking about redemption is the right of the covenant. You know what? The Bible is a book of redemption. Jesus came to buy us back from everything that Adam lost in the garden. And when you begin to understand that, you can, by faith, enter into grace and receive all that God has for you. Stay tuned. Blessings. Friend, I’m so glad that you’re with us today. And today we’re sharing on Bible covenants. We’ve been teaching for, this is the second week, but we’re actually gonna be talking about Ruth. And Ruth is a picture of the covenant, beautiful picture of the covenant. And it’s really talking about redemption is the right of the covenant. And we’re gonna get into the Word of God today. But Ruth actually is a Moabite, and it’s amazing, Aaron. There are two Gentiles that are in the lineage of Jesus. They’re Ruth and they’re Rahab, and they’re both women. And so only two Gentiles, both of them are women, but you know what? God’s covenant is an inclusive covenant. And both of them are in the lineage of Jesus. And in this story, Boaz is a family member of Naomi, right? Who has the right of redemption, and he steps in. And so Ruth follows Naomi back to, you know, the land of Israel, back to the Promised Land when, you know, Naomi and her husband had went away from the Promised Land because of a famine. And then her husband died, her two sons died. But Ruth, one of her daughter-in-laws comes back with her. And then she comes into a relationship with Boaz, and really, you know, comes into great blessing through that. And there is great blessing available through this covenant. But, you know, it’s really a great picture of redemption.

Aaron Well, I like that you said that the, you know, this is, it’s an inclusive covenant. You know, the Bible is incredibly inclusive, like you said, but the only thing that God sees in the realm of the Spirit is faith.

Yes.

So it doesn’t really matter if you’re a man or if you’re a woman or what nationality you are, or, you know, who your family were before you. God really sees faith, and that’s something that Jesus started preaching right away in his ministry. You know, when he preached for the first time, opened the scroll of Isaiah, this is in Luke 4, you know, he was in his hometown of Nazareth, and he was preaching from Isaiah 61 this prophecy of the jubilee and how he would be a fulfillment of that jubilee. He used two examples, you know, of freedom of jubilee. And the examples were so politically incorrect that the religious rulers there that heard him preach tried to kill him. So he used two examples from the Old Testament. He used the example of the widow woman from Zarephath, who was from Sidon. That’s where the, you know, Baal worship came from. That’s where Jezebel is from. So he used her as an example of someone who received, you know, grace from God. And he also mentioned a name in the leper, the Syrian general, you know. And Syria’s always been at odds with Israel, even today, you know, there’s always just-

Some type of challenge.

There’s always some kind of conflict going on there between Israel and Syria. But he was the general, but he actually was healed because of his faith. He went to Israel, sought out the prophet, and, you know, he had some pride issues to get over, but he ultimately did what the prophet said, “Go bathe in the Jordan seven times.” And, you know, really what what matters is, you know, are you gonna do what the Word says, are you?

Are you gonna believe God?

Are you gonna believe God?

In this case, you know, Ruth comes by faith, looking for grace, obtains it, and really enters into this covenant. And she’s mentioned again in the lineage of Jesus, which is really, really amazing. And there’s also a relationship, right? Between Ruth and Rahab. And so Boaz happens to be, you know, come down kind of through, I think the lineage from Rahab. So he’s open, right? To Ruth. So anyway, when we read this in Ruth 1, it says, “It came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab. He and his wife and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech. And the name of his wife was Naomi. The name of his sons were Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem Judah. And they came to the country of Moab. And Elimelech Naomi’s husband died, and she was left and her two sons. And they took wives of the women of Moab. The name of one was Orpah, the name of the other was Ruth. And they dwelled there about 10 years. And Mahlon and Chilion died also of them. And the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.” Then Naomi arose with her daughters in verse six, daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab because she heard in the country of Moab how the Lord had visited the people, his people, and giving them bread. So she was leaving, so she goes to her daughter-in-laws and tells ’em, “Hey, stay here. I’m old. I’m not gonna have any sons that could be your wives, be your husbands at this point in time.” And she feels like God, you know, sometimes we feel like something is not true. And she feels like God’s against her. And she actually voices this in verse 13 and says, “The hand of the Lord is gone out against me.” And they lifted up their voice in verse 14 and wept again and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth claved to her, and she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law’s gone back to her people and her gods. Return after your sister-in-law.” And Ruth said, this is a beautiful confession of faith, you’re talking about faith. And in verse 16 through verse 17, “Intreat me not to leave you or to return from following after you for where you go, I will go; where you live, I will live; your people will be my people; and your God, my God; where you die, I’m gonna die, and there, I’m gonna be buried. The Lord do so to me and more if anything except death part between me and you. And when she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking to her. And so they went till they came to Bethlehem, and it came to pass. When they came to Bethlehem, the city was moved about them. And they said, ‘Is this Naomi?’ And she said, ‘Call me not Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.'”

So Naomi, you know, her name actually means sweet. And because of the situation that happened, her husband died, her two sons died, she was so bitter, she just said, “I want to be called bitter. Call me Mara.” And, but you know, what God actually gave her, Ruth, you know, you need to look at what you have, especially when you’re going through a time of great loss. And, you know, it’s kind of interesting. She had two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth. And in verse 14, it said Orpah kissed her, but Ruth really clung to her. So some of these people in your life who’ve just kissed you, who’ve been with you a season, but then they’ve just left, you know, look at the people who stayed with you. That’s what really matters.

Right. Amen.

And rather than just grieve the people who’ve kissed you and moved on, maybe used you, abused you, they weren’t really there for you, they didn’t really have your heart, just let ’em go. And, you know, Ruth clung to her. Ruth, her name actually means to be a true friend. And the Bible talks about how important that is to have true friends there. There’s a friend that sits closer than a brother.

Yeah, Proverbs 18:24, I believe, it’s talking about Jesus.

So Ruth is one of those types of people. And, you know, you might just have one of those people in your life, but they’re extremely important. You know, God gives us these people. So some people really just break down by these Orpahs in their life that have kissed them and left. But you need to thank God for those Ruths that are in your life. And it might just be one person, it might be two, you know. There aren’t a whole lot of Ruths out there.

Well, I’ve had a lot of good friends. You know, my dad told me, and my dad died when I was just 17, he was 40 years old, but my dad taught me well. And he told me, “Lawson, you’re gonna be really well-off if you have at least three good friends in life.” And I can tell you, I’ve had a lot more than three. Now I’ve had a lot of people leave me.

You’ve had a lot of Orpahs, but.

Right, but ultimately, what this is talking about is faith, and you brought that up, but faith is our choice. And you see that plainly between these two daughter-in-laws of Naomi. But Ruth chose to believe God, and she came by faith looking for grace.

And there is no guarantee that, you know, what would happen to her.

No.

You know, she was just moving with a widow woman, you know, back to her home country, so there’s no guarantee that things would really work out for Ruth. But because she put her faith in God, you know, God sees faith. God, you know, and he-

Faith pleases God.

Faith pleases God, and he is a rewarder of people of faith. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Yes, he certainly is.

So she followed Naomi ’cause she knew something was different about Naomi’s God,

Right. When we jumped into chapter two, it says, “Naomi had a family member of her husband, a mighty man of wealth, the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz.” So Boaz is a family member with the right of redemption. So in this case, he’s a type of Christ. And Ruth said to Naomi, “Let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn.” They would let poor people or people that had less glean after the reapers, and see whose sight I will find grace. So she came by faith, looking for grace. And her mother-in-law, Naomi said, “Go my daughter.” And she went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she fell on the field of Boaz. “And behold,” it says in 2:4, “Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, ‘The Lord be with you.’ And they answered and said, ‘The Lord bless you.'” Now, this is really powerful because he comes and he’s speaking blessing, right? And when we speak blessing, he also received a blessing. So Jesus came to, you know, bring blessing to us, right? The blessing of God, but also, it’s a blessing, his inheritance is in the saints. That’s what the scripture says. So, you know, there’s a lot of things going on. And so when he comes, he notices Ruth and he asks about her, and he asks the young men, and they said, “Hey, she came from early, she’s worked late, she’s spent very little time in the house, she’s very diligent.” Faith is a diligent thing, right? The Bible says, “Follow those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” And so Ruth really shows that she’s been very diligent. And so we’re gonna come back in a little bit in the second half of the broadcast and we’re gonna talk about how Boaz really provided for her and protected her before she ever knew him. In that aspect, he’s a type of Jesus, because Jesus provided for us and Jesus protected us before we ever knew him. And so we can, by faith, enter into this covenant of grace and receive the blessing of God.

Awesome. Well, just stay tuned. If you need prayer during this break, you’re welcome to give us a call, we’d be happy to pray for you, but you wanna stay tuned. We’re talking about Bible covenants and how just faith in God changes everything. So stay with us. We’ll be right back after this short break.

Friends, we’ve been teaching Bible covenants from my syllabus that I’ve been teaching at Bible School that I developed over 20 years ago. I’ve been teaching it for over 20 years in Bible School. We actually have that syllabus free of charge on our website, plus “Hebrews: The Better Covenant” in book form, in audio, and video downloadable form. Check our website out. This is a problem with many people. They’re identifying with the problem rather than identifying with the promise. And if you identify with the problem rather than the promise, it’s gonna be hard for you to receive the promise. Now, what would you act like if you really believed that God had already answered your prayer? Praise God. Hallelujah. There you go. You’d start shouting. Friends, I’m so glad you stayed with us. We’re right here in the scriptures and we’re in Ruth 2, and we’ve been talking about how Ruth comes by faith, looking for grace. We said faith is our choice. And then she comes as a stranger, really, with her mother-in-law into the Israel, into the Land of Promise, and she goes to glean, right? To find, and when she goes, she comes to the field of Boaz. And Boaz is a type of Christ. He’s a family member with a right of redemption. So he hears about her, he hears, do you know faith? You can see faith. And when he talks to his servants, “Who is this person?” They said, “This is Ruth and she’s of Naomi’s family, and she’s come and she’s worked and she’s been very diligent from early till late. She spent very little time resting,” and it gets his attention. And so he goes and he begins to speak to her. Aaron, you wanted to share something?

Yeah, I wanna share something here. So when Boaz speaks to Ruth, starting in verse eight, this is really profound actually, because, you know, Ruth has just lost her husband, she’s moved with her mother-in-law to a different country, is at the bottom of society. She’s just a beggar, basically, just picking up the scraps after the reapers. But even though all this went on, she remained thankful. She was incredibly thankful.

Yes.

And you talked about how faith is recognizable, thankfulness, just having a thankful attitude. Man, that is a part of faith, and we really see this here. So Boaz speaks to her, “You will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not glean in another field nor go from here, but stay close by my young women. Let your eyes be on the field, which they reap and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you?” So he’s protecting her. “And when you’re thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.” And you can see here just her thankfulness. She falls on her face, bows down to the ground and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I’m a foreigner?” And Boaz answered and said to her, “It has been fully reported to me all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth and have come to a people whom you did not know before. The Lord repay your work and a full reward be given to you by the Lord God of Israel under whose wings you have come for refuge.” So ultimately, you know, we know the end of the story that she’ll marry Boaz, but he’s saying, you know, God is the one that’s gonna take care of you. God is the one that’s gonna provide for you. He’s the one that’s gonna reward you. And he actually saw that faith that Ruth had in the one true God of Israel.

And I think it was the same faith that he saw in his mother, you know? And so he saw this, you know, in Rahab, and now he’s looking at Ruth. And then in verse 13, she said, “Let me find favor. Let me find grace.” So she comes by faith and she’s looking for grace, you know, in the eyes of the redeemer, right? “In your sight, my Lord, that you have comforted me, for you have spoken friendly to your handmaid, though I’d be not, you know, I’m of a different family, I’m of a different culture, and I’m not a Jew.” And so Boaz said to her, you know, “Come here.” And he fed her and then she left. And then he told the reapers in verse 16, “Let some,” not only did he protect her, but he said, “Let some handfuls fall on. Don’t just let her get the scraps. Leave handfuls.” And when she came back, she had not only that, she had plenty, right? “She had reserved after she was sufficed.” And her mother-in-law saw what happened. Her mother-in-law say, “Hey, this isn’t normal.” When she comes back, she’s like, “What happened?” And, “Where did you go?” And, “Blessed be he that took knowledge of you.” And she said, “Hey, don’t go in anybody else’s field. You stay in that field. You found favor there.” You know, sometimes people, you know, come by faith, looking for grace and they find it, but then if they’re not, you know, watchful, they’ll forget about the favor that they’ve received. They’ll forget about the blessing. I see pastors sometimes, and they’re in a really great place of blessing, a great place where God’s really helping them, and they get upset about some little thing or they get their eyes on something else, and really, they’ll leave their place of grace. And you don’t wanna leave the place of grace. You know, you wanna stay connected where God’s given you grace. And so she stays there. And then Naomi speaks to her in chapter three and says, “My daughter, I’m gonna go seek rest for you that it may be well for you.” There’s a rest of faith. You know, the Bible actually talks about this in Hebrews 4, talking about the rest that we’ve received in Jesus. It says, “There remains a rest to the people of God.” And when we come into the rest of faith, we cease from our own works, we cease from our own performance, and we move into ultimately the performance of Jesus. And this is a type of that covenant, right? I come by faith, looking for grace, and ultimately, Jesus is the embodiment of the grace of God. And so we receive, you know, grace. And so Naomi goes for, and then the harvest is finished. And once the harvest is finished and Boaz is getting ready to go lay down, you know, with this great harvest, right? Then Naomi instructs, “You go after he lays down, after he goes to sleep, and you uncover his feet and you lay down there by him.” And so Boaz wakes up and finds her and he’s a little bit startled, but he’s seen this faith. And so this faith is attractive. And so he speaks to her, you know, when he sees this in 3:13, it says, “Tarry this night, it will be in the morning that if he will perform.” He said, “You gotta,” there’s a family member ahead of me.

Well, this whole start of this chapter is really amazing ’cause essentially, Ruth proposes to Boaz. You know, when she’s there, she says in verse nine, “I’m Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing for you are a close relative.” She’s saying, you know, “I wanna be your wife.” And that’s incredibly bold. And faith is bold. You know, the Bible says we’re to come to the throne of grace with boldness, you know? And the way Ruth approached Boaz was incredibly bold, you know? He is a wealthy landowner, wealthy, you know, person in this community. And she, at this time, was still nobody. But Naomi told her what to do. You know, you dress nice, you wash up, you smell good, you know, but you go tell him that-

Interested.

you know, if he wants you, yeah. That you’re there for him, and she did that. That’s incredibly bold. Faith is very bold.

Well, the other thing was she was obedient. And a lot of times, people don’t realize the connection between faith and obedience. You know, the scripture actually says about Abraham, I think it’s Hebrews 11:8, that by faith, he obeyed God. And by faith, she obeyed her mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law was the voice of God in her life.

Well, and her mother-in-law was telling her too, like, this is the Word of God. This is the law that a close relative could redeem someone from this type of situation. And in the law, it’s called the kinsman redeemer. And this is actually the only place in scripture where we see that this is, you know, enacted. It of course points to Jesus, but, you know, Naomi knew the law. She knew the Word of God, and the Word of God works for you when you obey it.

Right, and obeying the Word is living by faith.

And it’s believing it.

Yeah, and that’s what, see, sometimes people, there’s actually a scripture, and I wanna turn there. I think it’s Romans 10:16. And it says this in Romans 10:16. It says, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?'” He quotes Isaiah 53:1, and Isaiah 53 is looking at Christ on the cross. So, you know what? Not everybody has obeyed the gospel. When you hear the gospel and he says, Isaiah says, “Who has believed our report?” So in a New Testament sense, obeying the gospel is believing the gospel. So she believed what her mother-in-law said. She believed what the Word of God said, and she acted on it, and she received from it. And so when Boaz wakes up, he tells her in verse 13, “Tarry this night, it shall be in the morning that if he,” ’cause you got this family member that’s ahead of me in the line to receive you. “If he will perform the part of a kinsman to you or a redeemer, let him do it. But if he will not, then I will do it as the Lord lives. Lie down until morning.” So she does that, and then she goes home and Boaz goes to the city gate. That’s where they did business, right? Jesus already finished the work at the cross. He said, “It is finished.” You know, there’s room at the cross for you. You may feel like you’ve failed, but, see, the gospel’s not about you. The gospel’s about Jesus. And Jesus has already done that work and finished it. Boaz already finished the harvest. He was resting, right? And she came and laid down at his feet, and by faith, to enter into that grace. So he goes, this family member said, “Oh, yeah, I want the field. I’ll buy it.” But then he says, “Well, when you buy it, you’re gonna have to get Ruth.” He’s like, “Listen, I got enough problems with my own wife, my own family, and I’ll just let you buy, go ahead.” And so they strike up this deal. And then Boaz comes and takes Ruth into his family. And when he does that, you know, it’s not very, I mean, the ladies begin to speak to Naomi about Ruth, that, man, this is better than seven sons if the Lord gave you seven sons. And Boaz took Ruth in verse 13, she was his wife, and he went in unto her, and the Lord gave her conception. This is Ruth 4:13. Then verse 14, the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, which has not left you without a redeemer, that his name may be famous in Israel, and he shall be unto you a restorer of your life.” This is a type of redemption and a nourisher of your old age. This is actually, restore in the Hebrews, the Hebrew word shuv, which means to turn back, restore, restore a favor blessing, restoration of blessing. You know, retrieve, reward, reverse, reverse the curse. And said again, nourisher means kul, is the Hebrew word kul means to keep, maintain, nourish, or make provision. So he’s gonna make provision, she’s gonna have a child. And so she has this child, Ruth becomes the great grandmother to King David. And she’s listed in the lineage of Jesus. So, what a powerful story of redemption that we see.

That’s awesome. I love that, restore of life. God is such a restorer.

Yes.

You know, he’s doesn’t take, he doesn’t steal, he doesn’t kill, he doesn’t destroy, but he restores. And, you know, whatever the enemy’s, you know, taken from you from your life, God is the one that wants to bring restoration. And when he restores things, he leaves them better than they were previously.

Amen, that’s fantastic. Well, praise God. You know, God is so good. I’m so glad that you tuned in today, and we have great resources. I’m actually teaching from my syllabus, Bible Covenants, and I created this syllabus years ago. I’ve taught this for over 20 years at Charis Bible College here in Colorado for Andrew Wommack and, you know, the leadership there. And I’m just really, really pleased to be a part of that. But I have all the notes, they’re my personal notes, they’re on my website. This syllabus, downloadable, free of charge, you can get it. You can also get my book on “Hebrews: The Better Covenant,” and that’s available on Amazon or through our website. And you can get all these different teaching. We have hundreds of hours downloadable audio, downloadable video, free of charge on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com. If you need prayer, if you want to partner, give us a call. Blessings.

Announcer Hebrews 8:6 says that we have a better covenant based on better promises. In “Hebrews: The Better Covenant,” you’ll learn how the new covenant is better than the old, simply because of Jesus. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of “Hebrews: The Better Covenant,” a $35 value free of charge. Don’t miss this opportunity to know what Jesus accomplished in establishing this better covenant. Visit CharisChristianCenter.com today to download your copy.

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