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a kinsman, and though he is willing, we see that his hands are
        tied.  He can only go so far.


        The third step is appropriation.  Ruth must appropriate Boaz.
        Ruth  must  reach  out  and  take  that  mantle  and  pull  it  over
        herself, and say, “All you are and all you have I claim as mine.”
        The simplicity of faith is that she just had to claim it.  That is
        what springs God into action and allows Him to create out of
        her an oasis in the desert.

        The fourth step is grace.  Grace is what God does.  Law is what
        man does. Right from the beginning of the book, Ruth was a
        doer.  She was doing, doing, doing, and doing.  Boaz had to tell
        her  that  he  would  do  for  her.    Ruth  3:11,“And  now,  my
        daughter, do not fear.  I will do for you whatever you ask, for
        all  my  people  in  the  city  know  that  you  are  a  woman  of
        excellence.”  Ruth needed to learn about rest.

        That brings us to the final stage.  What can the last stage be
        except marriage and union and the fruit of that relationship?
        And so Boaz marries Ruth.  I love Ruth 4:10.  “Moreover, I
        have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, to be
        my wife in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his
        inheritance, so that the name of the deceased will not be cut off
        from his brothers or from the court of his birth place; you are
        witnesses today.”

        Since this is the consummation and everything has been moving
        toward this marriage, let me speak of the consummation and the
        fruit of that relationship. Ruth 4:13, “So Boaz took Ruth, and
        she  became  his  wife,  and  he  went  in  to  her.    And  the  Lord
        enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.”   Ruth
        blessed the world by giving birth to Obed; to give the world
        Jesse; to give the world David; to give the world Psalms through
        David and to give the world a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
        Fruit is always the outworking of a relationship.  It is the result
        of union.  Christians need to learn that fruit is something that is
        produced  naturally  through  a  very  personal  and  intimate
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