What did we have at the beginning? Eternal Life. We were heirs of the world. We had Life; we never had to die. We never had to be sick. We never had to get old. We never had any worry. There were no funerals, no graves, no evil, no death, no gray hairs, no stooped shoulders, no mourning, no crying. We had Life Eternal. We had the jurisdiction over all the earth. We were just a god (messiahettes) on the earth: walked about, and if this tree didn’t look right standing there, we’d say, “Be thou plucked up and set over here,” and it would do it. When the winds blew and we didn’t want it to blow, we would say, “Peace, be still,” and it did it. And so Jesus had to come back in order to redeem all that back to us again.
And now nature in itself is groaning, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.
And we have the Earnest of our salvation now, and can take our brother that’s dying with cancer, and stand by that little breath of redemption, and pray the prayer of faith over him that will turn a shadow of a man back to a healthy man again. Imagine what we will we do when our full possession comes!
Nature knows that. Nature’s groaning and we’re groaning with it. Nature is waiting for the manifestations of the sons of God, because nature was cursed with its master. When its master was cursed, then nature fell with the master. But when this Kinsman Redeemer came and redeemed back the Man who is the master over nature, then nature is just waiting for the main master.
All nature is waiting for its master. And the master is the sons of God that were given this earth. Now, God will have His heavens, of course, but this earth was given to men.
When the work of Redemption was finished, we have all things again. What kind of all things? We have all power. We have Eternal Life. We have eternal health. We have eternal youth. We have eternal power. Oh, we’re just eternal with the Eternal. But we’re still waiting for that time to come, waiting and groaning, waiting.
And this Bible, this seven-fold Book of seven redemption plans has been brought to us. Now, we’re going to get over in the 10th chapter, verse 7 where the mighty Angel proclaims something, and He had a little Book that John had to eat. And when John did eat, he got it into his belly and it was bitter, but in his lips it was sweet.
When you have digest It, then It gets bitter, everybody’s against you, everybody telling “You’re a holy-roller, you’re this, that, or the other. You’re off your head.” So it’s hard to digest It; but when you’re testifying of His glory, It’s sweet in your lips. And when you stand up in a meeting, you say, “Glory to God.” Oh, when you’re going through that great siege, it’s hard; but then when you’re out of that, you can testify, then It’s sweet in the lips. That’s this Book of redemption. (Revelation 10:7-9)
Now, notice in the plan of redemption how God foreshowed it. He worked it out perfectly in Ruth and Boaz. There are four stations or four junctions in Ruth and Boaz. The first is Ruth deciding. She had to decide whether she was going to go into this land or not with Naomi. She had to make a decision. Then after she got there, the next thing she had to do was serve in the field of Boaz; out there, barefooted, gleaning behind the reapers, serving. And then after she had found grace in Boaz’s sight, then she had to wait till Boaz done the kinsman redeemership, to take back all Naomi lost in order to bring in Ruth, the Moabite. And then the next stage, is Ruth rewarded.
Now, watch. Ruth, deciding, perfectly…
Oh, if anybody would say that Bible wasn’t inspired, there’s something wrong with them. Every Word of It’s inspired, every Word of It fits right together just like a dovetail on a plank. It just goes perfectly together like the cogs on a mighty wheel turning, just timed to the millionths of a second, just exactly right.
Now, notice Ruth, deciding, she had to make a decision whether she was going to decide to go over there or not. She had to make a decision. Now, that’s the way every believer has to do. You’ve got to leave your old life; you’ve got to leave the old things of the world. Is that what you’ve done since you became a Christian? You left the parties and nightclubs. You had to come over into a bunch of people that looked like they had spasms; they holler, and cry and jump up and down, my was it a crazy bunch to you. So you had to make a decision whether you would go or not. And you knew that when you did, your own people were going to make fun of you. That’s just automatic and you just have to accept it. Ruth had the same thing. What would the Moabites say to her when she crossed over to go over to Israel, to a bunch of fanatics? When she made up her decision, she went over into the new land.
Now, that’s justification. Ruth, making her decision a type of the church, the Gentile church, she decided and crossed over into the land. Now, a lot of times, we think that’s all you have to do. She had just got started. She hadn’t gone anywhere yet; she just got over into the land.
Now, the next thing she had to do; she had to work. She become a legalist. She had to work out her own salvation with fear and trembling like you did. She went out into the field, and put her clothes upon her, and went out into the fields, and gleaned behind the maidens in order to get sustaining food for the day. What was she doing? She was trying to find favor with Boaz. So she worked her way through the stage of legalism. And that’s exactly what the church did. The Luthers believed it by faith and come into the land. But the Methodists taught sanctification, which was the legalistic standpoint of it. You’ve got to do something. I got to quit this and that. “I got to let my hair grow out," said the women. They had to stop painting their faces or wear trousers. They had to do something. That’s what Ruth did, first, the state of justification, then the state of sanctification.
Now, when finally she found favor with Boaz, what happened? Naomi told her, “You wait here while Boaz does the work of a kinsman redeemer, 'cause he is the only one that can do it. He is our next kinsman redeemer, and you just wait here. Don’t go in the fields anymore. Don’t do this, that, or the other. You just wait until the kinsman redeemership has been fulfilled.” And she rested. Amen!
That’s exactly what the church has come to in this last stage of Pentecost. See? In the beginning of Pentecost they all worked up, and they had to do this, and everything else. Now, what is the church doing, the true church? She is just resting. What is Rest? Rest is the Holy Spirit, the sabbath day. (The Seventh-day Adventists want to tell us about being the seventh-day sabbath or something like that.) In Hebrews the 4th chapter, said, “We which have entered into His Rest have ceased from our works as God did from His.” So the sabbath is the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 4:10.
Ruth resting is a type of the church resting in the promises of God. We have the Earnest now of our salvation. We’re not worried whether we’re going over there or not; we’re going. That’s right. God said so. God promised it, and we’ve got the Earnest. Christ has accepted us. No way to get away from It now, we’re there. All you have to do is just wait till He’s done doing the Kinsman Redeemership. We have the Earnest of it right now, waiting for the time that when He comes back.
The next phase is Ruth being rewarded.
Now the church first entered into justification under Luther. Then it went into sanctification under Wesley, then into the baptism of the Holy Ghost in this last days, and is now resting with the Earnest of our inheritance that we know that something happened in us; we’ve passed from death unto Life, and waiting, groaning with nature for that time when we will receive an immortal Life, an immortal fulness. Our bodies will be redeemed. Everything’s redeemed, and we’re just waiting from Him to return back from the gate.
Then what? Ruth was rewarded. That’s when we’ll be rewarded. That’s what this seven-sealed Book is going to open up to us. What are these things? They’re mysteries. They’re not written in the Word; they have to be revealed by the Holy Spirit; but if you’ll notice, actually, they are revealed all down through the Scriptures, but they been hid from the people. When we get to the roll after while, you’ll see how it was fixed; then you’ll know just how them things open up.
Do you now see it? Ruth under sanctification, laboring, legalist, Ruth, resting, waiting for Boaz to return from the finished work…
Now, our Boaz did finish the work at Calvary. But before He comes to take us to His home, He goes home first (in John 14) to prepare a place for us. Glory!
Let not your hearts be troubled: if you believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it wasn’t so, I would’ve told you. But I’ll go and prepare a place for you, and return again to receive you. John 14:1-2.
So Boaz goes down, and what does he do? He goes down, took the elders and before the gate took off his shoe, and said, “Let it be known today that I redeem Naomi and all of her inheritance.” He got the Moabite Ruth with it.
And when Jesus came, who did He come to redeem? Israel. What did He do in taking Israel? He got the Gentile Bride. The Gentile church is just a sister to that woman, the Israelite church. So He had to redeem Israel in order to get this Gentile Bride. And he had to redeem Naomi in order to get Ruth, his bride.
Now, what did Boaz do? Before he could take Ruth, he goes out to the farm and fixes it up. Could be he painted everything up, and put new rugs on the floor. Or he might’ve built a new house. And he got everything ready, and then he returned back with a corsage on for the wedding.
What was Ruth doing? Not one thing: resting, waiting no more toiling. You ask, “Do I have to be a Methodist? Do I have to join the Baptist? Do I have to be a Presbyterian?" No, sir just get the Holy Ghost and rest.
We’re watching for the coming of that glad Millennium day when our blessed Lord shall come and catch His waiting Bride away. Earth is groaning, crying for that day of sweet release, when the Kinsman Redeemer comes back and takes His Bride.