REDEMPTION

Douglas Steven

Ruth 2: 1-4, 8, 10-12; 4: 1-8; Revelation 5: 9,10

These scriptures speak about redemption. It is part of the gospel, but before you can have redemption, you have to have a Redeemer. And the only one who has the right to be a redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ. In order to redeem anything, as you would know - redeeming means to buy a thing back - a price has to be paid. In order that man might be redeemed to God, a price has been paid. The price was the laying down of the precious life of the Redeemer. The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to lay down His life, to redeem man to God, to lay a basis for God to come out in blessing for man, for you and me tonight. Jesus Christ came into the world, the great Redeemer: His work was to redeem man lost through sin. Sin came into the creation at the beginning, as we read, when the earth was formed and man was placed in it in innocence, but Satan worked in the heart of the woman, the man, and brought sin into God's creature and into His creation. Sin came in through man: "... by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death", Rom 5: 12. So what is to happen? God provided a basis for the blessing of man. Very quickly His plan came to light. He had a Redeemer in mind because He clothed Adam and his wife with coats of skin. He knew that one who was sinless, guiltless, had to be found whereby man could be clothed and be suitable in His presence. It looked forward to the incoming of Jesus. All the blood of the bulls and the goats that was offered in the Old Testament was not sufficient to redeem God's creature to Himself. God had to come to the earth Himself, and He came in in the form of a babe in Bethlehem's manger, "God manifest in flesh, O wonder of His universe!" (Hymn 400). Do you think of it? Is your heart affected by it tonight? Just for a moment be affected by the incarnation, the incoming of Christ into the world, the Redeemer coming into the world, Himself the Creator, coming and taking on a body, prepared for Him, coming into that body in the form of a babe in a manger. How attractive, nothing more attractive! And He grew up as a boy and as a young man, in every way, in every moment, in every detail, in every step of His life perfection, moving on to Jerusalem, to Calvary, to the cross, day by day. He was the Redeemer.

I read in Ruth because it shows that the redeemer, this man Boaz, this mighty man of wealth, really a type of Christ, has a great affection, and so it is with Christ. You do not redeem a thing you do not love. You know the story about the boy who built the boat: you have heard it, I am sure, many times. He built his boat, he loved his boat, and he painted it and set up the mast and he looked at it and loved it, and he lost it. But he saw it in a shop window and he said, 'That is my boat', and he went in and he bought it, and as he came out of the shop with the boat in his hands, he said, 'I have my boat; it is mine. I loved you. I made you. I have paid for you. You are twice mine.' That is what redemption is. You are twice mine. God made man in His image and likeness and man fell. And what did God do? God redeemed him. He bought him back again. What did it cost God? Oh, the love of a Saviour God when He sent His only-begotten Son into the world to save sinners, to redeem man to Himself! And here I thought of this woman, Ruth, she lighted on this field by chance, on the field of Boaz. Perhaps you have come to the gospel meeting plenty of times. Perhaps you have just chanced to come. It just happened to Ruth. It says, "and she chanced to light" in that field. Maybe a work of God was there, but there she was and she found favour and her ways were pleasing. She came under the notice of Boaz right away. He comes to the reapers. What does he say to them? "Jehovah be with you! And they said to him, Jehovah bless thee!" What a link there was. God is not going to impute your trespasses. He is not going to bring up your past history, not as the gospel is preached. He is not imputing your sins. Because He has a Redeemer at His right hand, God is saying tonight from heaven that a basis has been laid, "Come now, let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow", Isa 1: 18. He will reason with you about your sins: "Come now, let us reason together". Would you not like to reason with God about your sins? Oh, you say, I have been forgiven. God will reason with you about your sins, sins that perhaps you have forgotten may be brought to your remembrance; God will reason with you about them. "Come now, let us reason together". He will knock on your door and say, Let me in. I will talk to you about it. You can talk to God about your sins. Christ is in glory, the work has been done, He is there in glory's heights, seated at the right hand of God. That is where the Redeemer is sitting. He is looking down here, looking for the results of the great work that He has accomplished, the work of redemption. He is looking for results in your heart and in mine. Do you trust Him? Do you know Him as your Saviour? Have you confessed Him as your Lord? Can you say like Job of old, "I know that my Redeemer liveth", Job 19: 25. Most of us here know it. How wonderful it is! What a Redeemer He is! What affection He has!

Boaz speaks to Ruth in that way. Chapter 4 is the chapter of redemption but I read about how Ruth came under the influence of Boaz. Boaz noticed her. He gives her great credit. She says, "I am a foreigner''. She did not take any ground. There was no confession on her part. She was a Moabitess, a foreigner. She took a lowly place. But what does Boaz say? He says, "It has fully been shewn me, all that thou hast done to thy mother-inlaw ... and how thou hast left thy father..." and so on. That was true of Ruth. She clung to Naomi. "Jehovah recompense thy work, and let thy reward be full..." God will give you full credit. That is why I read that. God will give you full credit for your coming here tonight, or for any part you might have.

Then it says, "And Boaz went up to the gate..." I think he saw that this was something that he was going to have for himself, and that is what the work of redemption secures. Boaz takes up the man who had the right to redeem, "he that had the right of redemption, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by". And he said, You sit down here until we talk this over. And he took ten men to witness what had been done, and so on. And the man, he would not do it. He was going to do it, and then when Boaz said to him, You have not only to redeem it but "if thou wilt redeem it, redeem it; but if thou wilt not redeem, tell me, that I may know; for there is none to redeem besides thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it. And Boaz said, On the day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance". There was not only the question of redeeming the title, but there was a question of maintaining life, and the man was not prepared for that. The man is a type of the law; "For what the law could not do...", Rom 8: 3. There is what the law could not do. It cannot redeem. There was nothing wrong with the law, but the law could not redeem man to God because of the fallen nature of man. The law could not redeem man, but there is a Redeemer. Here is the Redeemer, and it says of him, "Now this was the custom ... a man drew off his sandal, and gave it to his neighbour, and this was the mode of attestation in Israel. And he that had the right of redemption said to Boaz, Buy for thyself; and he drew off his sandal". We think of the footsteps of Jesus, of the stoop of Jesus! He came down. He moved from glory's height. As we often quote, "he, being rich, became poor...", 2 Cor 8: 9. Think of Him becoming poor! Think of the stoop down from glory's heights into this world of sin and woe. I think the Spirit would refer us to that, the stoop of Jesus. The scripture affected me as I read it, the movements of Jesus, the Redeemer. We love to trace His footprints here amidst the desert sand, day by day, moment by moment, every moment pleasing to the heart of His God and Father. And so Boaz redeems Ruth and he has full title to her. He not only has the legal title, but he has the moral title. Oh that is a wonderful thing, not only legally, on account of the law. It has all been done legally, but it has been done morally. Jesus has come into this scene and established the basis legally and morally. And how did He do it? He established it on the cross when He took on the whole question of sin, when redemption was accomplished, when Jesus died. They slew Him: wicked hands took Him. A wicked hand took a spear and pierced His side when He was dead. What does the hymn say:

"Though man in hatred pierced Thy side,

Thy blood love's answer gave" (Hymn 230)

Think of the immediacy of the answer! Immediately there came out from the side of Christ blood and water. Think of the witness there was to that! And then He was put in the grave and then raised from the grave by the glory of the Father! Redemption had been accomplished.

That is why I read in Revelation: "And they sing a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open its seals; because thou hast been slain and hast redeemed to God, by thy blood..." That is what Jesus has done, the great work of redemption. He has redeemed to God what was lost through sin. He has redeemed it by the shedding of His precious blood. Does it mean anything to your heart, the blood of Jesus, shed on Calvary's cross,

"Shed for rebels, shed for sinners,

Shed for me"? (Hymn 167)

Can you say like Peter 'precious blood'? Peter says, "... ye have been redeemed, not by corruptible things, as silver or gold ... but by precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish...", 1 Pet 1: 18,19. Oh, how true that is! That is the Redeemer. Is He your Redeemer? Do you know Him as your Redeemer? Are you a believer? Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? These are the questions the preacher would ask tonight, simple questions, how real they are!

We come time and time again to the gospel. I love to hear the gospel. I love to finish the day with the gospel: "God's glad tidings ... concerning his Son ... Jesus Christ our Lord", Rom 1: 1-4. Do you love to hear the gospel? Do you like to hear about the Redeemer? One day you are going to meet Him. One day you are going to be like Him. Is it so with everyone here? Oh that it were so for the whole of Kirkcaldy! A basis has been laid. The Lord Jesus Christ, in His death, has made a righteous, holy God propitious. John tells us that, that Jesus Christ "is the propitiation for our sins; but not for ours alone, but also for the whole world", 1 John 2: 2. The Redeemer has done it and has made God propitious, God ready to forgive, to come out in grace.

But the Lord Jesus is not only a propitiation for our sins, but He has been the Substitute. He has taken my sins in His body. Has He been your Substitute? Can you say He has been your Substitute, that you should have been there, I should have been there, that should have been me that died as a result of my sins? You say, Well, I am not all that bad a sinner. Dear friend, you are born in sin. The Bible tells you that all have sinned. There is not one person who can say that they have never committed a sin and one sin would bar you from heaven eternally. The Redeemer has shed His blood that your sins might be for ever removed. He has borne the penalty. He has borne the cost. He has taken it all away. Leviticus 16 tells you that. He is not only the propitiation, the blood on the altar which makes God propitious, but the antitype of the animal that is sent into a country afar off, into a far off land where God can say, "... their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more", Heb 8: 12. How wonderful these truths are, propitiation and substitution. The Redeemer was both to those who believe. Is He your Substitute? He is the propitiation for God, but do you know Him as your Substitute? Do you know Him as your Redeemer? - "I know that my Redeemer liveth". He is up there now and we have been together today here in this place and in other places remembering Him in answer to His desire that He should be remembered and we have entered into the service of praise. The Supper is public: we love to remember Him, to show forth His death until He come, and surely He is coming soon. We believe that. That is how it should be in all our hearts. We look for His return. We are waiting for it, any moment, any day. We do not know when but He is coming and we show forth His death until He come, not only to come for us. (He is going to come and rapture those who are redeemed, those who have been bought by His precious blood and secured for Him now eternally. "The dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord", 1 Thess 4: 16,17). But He will come to reign. That is, we are showing forth His death, until He comes to take up His rights here in this world. Wonderful time! The Redeemer then will have His rights publicly acknowledged by all. He will reign supreme, the Prince of Peace, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Isaiah tells us: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace" chap 9: 6. That is the day to come. We hold that in our affections for our Redeemer when He will come to take up His rights here. How wonderful! May every heart be thrilled by the return of Christ. He will come for us, but come with us again, come with us to reign. What a great day! Not in these bodies, bodies that are deteriorating every day, but in bodies of glory, like unto His own body of glory. Well, we have power here on the earth to be maintained. What a power we have! What a privilege we have. We have the power, the gift of One that is God Himself, the blessed Spirit of God who has been given to us. Think of the believer being indwelt by a divine Person. How it would preserve us in our day-by-day walk, the knowledge of the gift of the Holy Spirit. So you are maintained here in the light of the great work that the Redeemer has done, maintained here for His pleasure until He come. May it be so for His Name's sake!

KIRKCALDY

9 July 1995