The fourth chapter of the Book of Ruth. I'm conscious this has been something of a sprint. I would rather it had been a little more like a marathon, but we come to this final chapter and God willing, hopefully, we'll manage to work our way through the chapter. The drama is unfolding at an increasing pace. The writer beautifully and skillfully has constructed his narrative. At particular points he leaves us hanging almost breathlessly, wondering what's going to happen next. The chapter divisions are not a great help. They're a 13th century addition. They help us navigate a little, but at times they don't really add to the flow of the narrative. Now Boaz had gone up to the gate, that is to the place where the elders of the city would judge cases and execute judicial findings. And sat down there and behold the Redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, turn aside friend, we never know the name of this man. Actually in Hebrew he's simply Mr. So-and-so. We don't know his name. And maybe there's a reason for that. Turn aside friend, Mr. So-and-so. Sit down here. and he turned aside and sat down and he took ten men of the elders of the city and said sit down here so they sat down then he said to the Redeemer Naomi who has come back from the country of Moab is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech so I thought I would tell you of it and say buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people if you will redeem it redeem it but if you will not tell me that I may know for there is no one besides you to redeem it and I come after you and he said I will redeem it then Boaz said the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi You also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance. Then the Redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Now this was the custom in former times in Israel, concerning redeeming and exchanging. to confirm a transaction the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other and this was the manner of attesting in Israel so when the Redeemer said to Boaz buy it for yourself he drew off his sandal then Boaz said to the elders and all the people you are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belong to Elimelech and all that belong to Cillian and to Malan, also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Malan, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day." Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrata and be renowned in Bethlehem. May your house be like that of the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman. So Boaz took Ruth. she became his wife and he went into her and the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son then the woman said to Naomi bless be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer may his name be called out in Israel He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons has given birth to him." Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name saying, a son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse. the father of David. Now we come, not just to the conclusion, but to the theological climax of the book of Ruth. Now, these are the generations of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron. Hezron fathered Ram. Ram fathered Aminadab. Aminadab fathered Nashun. Nashun fathered Salmon. Salmon fathered Boaz. Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David. What do you do when all the lights go out in your life? When all you can see around you and within you are disappointment and defeat? Naomi had left Bethlehem full, but returned empty, to use her own words in chapter 1. She left full, she returned empty, but now her life overflows with blessing upon blessing upon blessing. Now the story of Ruth and Naomi is not in the Bible. to tell you that if you are a believer, everything will work out always well for you. That everything in the end will always work out good. Though actually, in the end, everything works out good for the believer. But that's not the purpose of the story of Ruth. God does not promise that His children, His treasured ones, the one He rejoices over with singing, God does not promise that His treasured ones will not live and die encompassed with sorrows and trials. What He does promise is that in the midst of your most fiery trials, In the midst of your deepest darknesses, when all the lights have gone out, this he stakes his godness on. I will never fail you. I will never leave you. And I will never forsake you. Let me remind you briefly of the background as the story escalates towards its conclusion and climax. The background is the provision of a kinsman-redeemer, a go-el, for Ruth and Naomi. The kinsman-redeemer was someone that God decreed would reflect His compassion and care for the poor and the weak and the widow and the orphan and the helpless. He was someone who would represent God and be a deliverer, a rescuer from his kin as they found themselves in penury and in poverty. God has a deep, deep compassion for the widow and the orphan in their affliction. And in the law, and we don't have time to explore in Exodus and Leviticus where this is all developed, but God made provision for a kinsman redeemer, someone who was of the same clan and who was able and willing to come and be godlike to the poor and the needy and the destitute among his people. That's why the letter to the Hebrews is so insistent in our Lord Jesus Christ being one with us. He can only be our kinsman redeemer as he became one with us in the humanity that he embraced out of the substance in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He became one with us that he might thereby be our kinsman, Redeemer. Well, as we come to chapter four, the plot begins rapidly to unfold and Boaz operates here as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove. He so wants Ruth to be his wife. You almost feel the texture of the language, the inner longing of this man. He can't get over his good luck, which of course is the good providence of a kind and gracious God, that a woman like Ruth, a woman like Ruth, a young woman like Ruth, could ever want to be married to someone like him. And he sets almost a trap for the kinsman-redeemer. And the writer skillfully records that for us. As we've discovered in these past weeks, Hebrew narrative rarely, if ever, stops to make moral judgments. It just tells us the story as it is. This fourth chapter is full of conundrums. There's the conundrum of, is Naomi actually selling the land or has she already sold it? The Hebrew is a little unclear, at least as to me. And in fact, the law did not seem to make provision for a widow to sell the land. But everyone seemed to know that there was a rightness about this. No one questions it. And the writer doesn't pause to say, let me explain the intricacies of clan life and kinsmen-redeemer relationships in ancient times. He doesn't do that. were not even told why the Redeemer had to marry Ruth. Boaz was not a brother to Malon. But everyone seemed to know this was the right thing to do. Verse 2, verse 7, verse 11. Everyone seemed to know this was the right, the appropriate, the God-honoring thing to do. And so, Boaz says, Will you redeem the land? Yes, I'll redeem the land. You take the land, you take Ruth. And the Redeemer says, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. We're not told precisely what that means. Take my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it. And what follows seems a little strange to us. Takes off his sandal. to confirm a transaction. One drew off the sandal, gave it to the other. This was the manner of attesting in Israel in those ancient times. I suppose that what seems strange to us, rightly seems strange to us, just as perhaps people in parts of Southeast Asia or Africa might look at the way we operate family courts in this country or my country, they might scratch their head thinking, that's a strange thing they do. There are weird people, these Americans and these Brits. This is all very foreign to us, but that's the way things were done. But what I want you to notice, especially here, is that in all his actions, Boaz acts as a man of his word and as a man of the word. You see this in verses 3 and 4 in particular. He is acting according to the law of God. He wants Ruth, but not at any price. He wants Ruth, but not on any terms. He wants to act according to the prescriptions of God's law concerning the rights of a kinsman redeemer. You see, we need to be absolutely sure that God never works against His commandments, but always works in harmony with His commandments. The way forward is always the way of Biblical command or of Biblical principle. Boaz, if you like, is a walking illustration of Psalm 119 verse 105. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. He's a walking illustration of a man whose life is shaped and styled by the commandments of God. He's hidden God's word in his heart that he might not sin against the Lord. And that's to be the permanent lifestyle of every Christian believer. What shapes and styles your life? Is it the culture of the day? Is it the culture and the mindset of your peers? Or is it the enduring, abiding mindset and style of God? God is stylish, isn't He? God oozes style, doesn't He? There is nothing monochrome or unidimensional about God's dealings with his people. They are multifaceted because he is multifaceted. We were thinking about that earlier in Sunday School where Hank was so helpfully exploring for us the holiness of God and as you dive, as it were, into the the limitless depths of the character of God, you find yourself as if we're diving into depths of color and drama and imagination. The Bible is the most dramatic of books. Stories like this are meant to be read dramatically. Sometimes I think we give the impression that God is not multi-perspectival and multi-faceted, but God is flat and drab and dull and monochrome. God is the very architect of technicolor. The creation, if you like, is some kind of reflection of the variegatedness of the God who oozes style as well as substance. The gospel, when you think about it, I mustn't get distracted here, but when you think about the gospel and its doctrines, now I used to think more systematically, I think I think a little more biblical systematic as the years have gone on, but when you think of the gospel it's just so rich in style and shape as well as in substance You sit back and you admire the beauty, the symmetry, the multi-facetedness. It's like a diamond with innumerable sides to it. Now how they got there from Ruth, I'm not quite sure, but the point is, you see, that Boas and his whole life was shaped by the style. of God's Word. That's what made him the manly man that he was. That's what made him act with integrity and discretion. Now the scene closes, verses 11 and 12, with all the people and the elders pronouncing a threefold benediction on Boaz. May the Lord make the woman, woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily, that is, get power in Ephrata, that is, by fathering and training worthy sons and daughters. And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Temar, Temar, yes, Temar, bore to Judah because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman. Isn't the Bible amazing? The Bible's never embarrassed to placard the often humbling, egregiously humbling ways of the covenant people of God. Rachel and Leah and Tamar were Gentiles. Gentiles were at the heart of the founding of Israel. That's one of the points the writer wants to bring out. Abraham was a Gentile. Israel's history is punctuated with Gentile converts. Rahab, Boaz's mother. But the mention of Tamar is astonishing. Genesis 38 is one of the most sordid and sorriest chapters in the Bible. But it's there. This is Messiah's line. Prostitution and incest. That's the theme. Read Genesis 38. Prostitution and incest are at the heart of the Messiah's line. Would you want the world to know that these sins were in your family line? Would you? Here is God identifying with sordid humanity. I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And the phrase we will hear tonight He was numbered among the transgressors. Jesus himself took those words upon his own lips in Luke 22. He was numbered among the incestuous and the prostitutes and the more respectable sinners. Have you ever been involved in prostitution? What a question to ask people in second press! It's a genuine question. If you don't think, if you think that second praise is beyond sins like this, you've never understood human nature and never understood the gospel actually. Have you been involved in incest? The Messiah's line, the line of the Lord Jesus Christ, a prostitution and incest in it. Has your life been marked by unspeakable sins? Well, let me tell you this morning. The Lord Jesus Christ says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I'll give you rest. Come to me and be cleansed. One of the passages in the Bible that I just love thinking about and reading is 1 Corinthians 6. Paul has been speaking in chapter 5 about incest. That's a church that he ministered in for 18 months. So who knows what will happen after six weeks of being Hamilton? And he says, do you not know that the immoral, the unclean, the male prostitute, the homosexual offender, the liar, the thief, the drunkard will not inherit the kingdom of God? And then these glorious words. And such were some of you. Maybe we're all respectable sinners. I don't know. But Paul could write to a congregation that under God he founded and said some of you were male prostitutes, homosexual offenders, drunkards, liars, deceivers. But you were sanctified. You were justified. You were washed clean. Maybe your sins are more respectable. You and I need still to be washed with the same blood as Rahab and Tamar. The same blood. Because sin, in all its forms, is against God. And we need to be cleansed. That's why every Christian has the same testimony. Whether Catherine, who in the kindness of God has really never known a day that the Lord was not her God. Or whether someone like me who could point to the day and the hour, maybe even the minute was converted. We have the same testimony. Saved by the blood of Christ. Redeemed by the Lamb of God. Sinners saved by grace. Same testimony. The closing verses are actually the conclusion and the climax of the story. It's where the writer has been heading all along. But he's done it in such a beguiling way, you think, as you read it, that it's really about Naomi and Ruth. And Boaz, actually, it is and it isn't. It is, but the deepest truth is, it's not about them. It's about David. It's about David. He's the last word in the passage. And the story ends with a list of ten names, selectively chosen, covering 800 years. And the writer is showing the lineage and line of David who's become king. And ultimately the trajectory is to great David's greater son, the Messiah of God, Jesus Christ. There's so much here, let me just try and summarise as we come to a conclusion. Notice the significance of Obed, who is the child born to Boaz and to Ruth. What does the Bible tell us about Obed apart from what we read here? Anyone willing to venture as a bow? What does the Bible tell us? What significance does Boaz have, apart from what we read here? Nothing. Nothing. And yet, Obed is deeply significant. Why? His significance does not lie with him being Naomi's redeemer. That's not the point. If you think that, you've missed the point. His significance is not ultimately because he's Naomi's redeemer. And he doesn't derive his significance from great acts of power and of might and of mercy. No one writes any stories about Obed. The birth of Obed has significance because he lives on and achieves significance through the lives of his son Jesse, his grandson David, and ultimately God's Messiah. Through David, the blessing of the male witnesses, verse 11, is fulfilled. And Boaz's name is called out, that is, becomes famous. Called out in Bethlehem. And through David, the prayer of the female witnesses to the birth of Obed is fulfilled. And Obed's name is called out in Israel. And to this day, the names of Naomi, Ruth, Boaz, Obed, are called out all over the world. the story is read. And in the providence of God, the genuine piety of all the major characters is rewarded. And unknown Obed is at the heart of this. Now here's the thing, you just never know what God is doing with your life. You might think, you know, I'm so insignificant, I'm not even sure if I didn't turn up for the next year, anyone would miss me in this church. I've met people like that. They get into such a vortex of darkness and depression. They think, I'm just a waste of space. You just never know what God is doing with your life. You can imagine sanctified imagination. Someone says to Obed one day, you know that God's promised deliverer who's going to crush the serpent's head and deliver his people and redeem them is going to come from you. I think Obed would have said, what are you on? What are you on? What planet are you on? You just never know what God's doing with your life. That's why the sovereignty of God isn't a doctrine to subscribe and tick off It's a doctrine to revel in, to suck marrow from, and to anchor your life in the God who is able to take the most seemingly insignificant of people and events and use them for His glory. In the panoply of God's dealings with humanity, Who will be the significant people that have come from Second Presbyterian Church, Yazoo City, do you think? I would probably guess when the day reveals all, we will be stunned. I didn't think she was that important. And then secondly, the significance of the 10 names. The first five names cover the period from the time of entry into Egypt, starting with Perez, Genesis 46, to the time of Moses. Nashon's mentioned in Exodus 6, Numbers 1. While the remaining five belong to the period of the early settlement in Canaan, to the closing years of the judges. When you come across genealogy, and I need to try and hurry on here, They must have been read as dull lists of ancestors. So why are they there? These are not early Mormons. Why are these genealogies there? Genealogies are recorded to underscore the truth that Yahweh, the Covenant Lord, providentially preserved the righteous line of the Messiah, even in times of great apostasy. That's their significance. They are placarded demonstrations of Yahweh's providential preserving of the righteous line of the Messiah, even in times of great apostasy. Jesus said, My Father is always working. Christians should often be disappointed. We should never despair. My father is always working. Will Jesus Christ lose one of those for whom he shed his precious blood? Not one. Not one. Will any of God's purposes fall to the ground? Not one. Will the human systems and powers of this world ever get the better of God? Not for a moment. So the psalmist says, the Lord reigns, let the nations tremble, but let the people of God rejoice. One of the hallmarks of God's people in any circumstance, and I hope I don't say this lightly, there are people who radiate joy even in the midst of darkness, because the Lord reigns. God's hand is all over history. You know, sometimes it's just a victory to get through a day. Maybe I'm the only one that thinks that. Sometimes when I get through a day, it just seems to me a great victory. I'm not sure we think as biblically as we should. If you're a Christian that you last another day when all hell is wrenched against you, when the world is seeking your blood to get through another day is cause for praise and thanksgiving to God. Lord, by your mercy, I'm still standing in Christ. I've not apostatized, I've not fallen away, I've not denied you. You see, our calling in life is simply to go on, to be faithful, to be faithful. And the third thing. Just mention in a sentence the significance of God's providence from a human perspective, Ruth and Boaz of the reason the Messiah was born in Bethlehem. But from a divine perspective, the event occurred when and where it occurred because God had providentially ordained the historical events to fulfill prophecy. His hand is all over history. And then the final thing I want to say really, although there's much more to be said, is that the whole of the Book of Ruth testifies to the significance of living by faith. As I said at the outset, it's a story with a happy ending, but not all believing stories have a happy ending. How did Paul end his life? Probably an executioner's sword in Rome. How did Polycarp end his life? Torn to bits by lions in the arena. How did Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer end their lives in 1555, burned at the stake in Oxford? How did Jim Elliot end his life? What then does the story of Ruth say to believers in Syria, Iraq and Pakistan this morning? It says the same thing to them as it says to us. Live by faith and not by sight. Live by faith, not by sight. The Lord reigns. Let the nations tremble. The Lord is great in Zion, he is exalted over all the peoples. And so the ten names that conclude the book. If I were to ask you, how many of us could write more than a sentence or even a sentence about Perez, Hezron, Ram, Aminadab, Nashun, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David, well David yeah we could write but what about the other nine? I could point to someone, I won't. Relax. You're not my congregation as such, so I can't do this. Tell me about Aminadab. What about Ram? They're in the Bible. They're in the Messiah's line. They all belong to the most privileged lineage in history. That's why they're there. That's why they're there. Live faithfully. And who knows what God might be pleased to do with your life. So Naomi and Ruth are redeemed. They're rescued from poverty. They're restored to dignity. But as we've been trying to see all along, the story of Ruth is a small chapter in a bigger story. one day a greater than Boaz would come, a greater than David, and he would be the kinsman redeemer. Within the vast tapestry of God's story of redemption are these little stories that highlight and illustrate and add to the ongoing trajectory of God's ultimate redemptive purpose. Which is what? What's the ultimate redemptive purpose of God? Not the redemption of sinners, but the glory of the Saviour of sinners. His name is called out in all the earth. Would we have time to develop that? His name is called out That's the purpose of God. That's what the book of Ruth's there for. To say to us, now, are you getting it? Do you see where all this is heading? As we began the story of Ruth in Genesis 3.15. God has ordained one who will crush the serpent's head. And who will be given the name, exalted above every other name. And when the father exalts the son, What the Son is going to do in our humanity is going to hand everything back to His Father. And God will be all in all. That's where the whole Bible is headed. A restored and a renewed creation. With Jesus Christ as its head, the God-Man, having presented it back to the Father. goodness, we're caught up in something cosmic. And to think, we're in a one-horse town called Yazoo City, and God is saying, maybe, but it's vital to my plans for the cosmic renewal of all things. Wow. That's gospel.