Page 135 - Fundamentals Ebook

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 relationship; it is not something that is artificially put
on.

In the history of redemption, who have been channels for the
greatest blessings in the church world? It’s been those who have
come back to Bethlehem. It’s those who have most known Him.
It’s those who have walked in an unbroken union with Him. It’s
those who have known for sure that He has dealt with everything
that stood in the way and, like Ruth, have become an oasis in the
desert in this dark and immoral world. Those are the ones that