Amen. Well. There is that. Great Reformation saying. Post tenebrous Luke's, which is after darkness light, but I know that on this day every year it feels like. The opposite post Luke's tenebrous after like darkness. because here we are, and it's just barely 6.15, and it's already dark outside. But I promise you that we will adjust. Friday was Reformation Day. We're taking a break this evening from our walking through the model prayer, Matthew 6. So I want you to turn to that great gospel-filled book in our Bibles this evening. Chapter 4, beginning with the letter R, you know the book, the book that is saturated with the Gospel, the glory of Christ, the greatness of what Jesus has done. Of course, I'm speaking of the book of Ruth. Chapter 4, Ruth. Chapter four, and I want to consider a small text. But this text should cause us to prize the precious truths that were recovered in the Reformation, and I hope will be an encouragement to us tonight as we prepare to take the Lord's Supper. Ruth, chapter four, beginning. In verse 13, would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's word? So Boaz took Ruth, she became his wife, and he went into her, and the Lord gave her a conception, and she bore a son. Let's pray. Father, would you help us to understand this text? We pray, O God, that you would grant us grace and help us to understand the beauty of the precious doctrines of union with Christ, justification by faith, alone. Lord, I pray that It would be said of all of us in this room that none of us are any longer a Moabite. We've been married to the kinsman, and our past is redeemed. I pray, Lord, that you would give us ears to hear. Holy Spirit, be with us. Pray for those unable to make it tonight. Lord, particularly one person on my heart, I pray for him. Lord, I pray that you would grab hold of his heart and direct it back to us. And we pray it all in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Sermon title tonight is simply this, no longer a Moabite, no longer a Moabite, Ruth, is mentioned thirteen times in the Bible by name. Twelve of those times, you might expect, or the majority, but it's twelve, vast majority, are in the book of Ruth. And then you have one of those times in the book of Matthew, which is in the genealogy of our King Jesus. The book of Ruth is the eighth book in the Old Testament, in the way that we order them, And here in verse 13 is the very last time that you're going to read for the entire Old Testament, it's the very last time you're going to see the name Ruth. For the remaining 31 books of the Bible, this is the last time you see the name Ruth. And I think that's significant for this reason. The very last time that we see Ruth's name mentioned in the Old Testament, she is referred to in a unique way And you might not think it's unique, but it's unique because all the other times she's referred to in a different way, but it's a unique way in our text she's referred to now simply as Ruth. So Boaz took Ruth. She's no longer Ruth the maidservant in our text. She is no longer Ruth the Moabite. She's no longer Ruth anything else. She's just Ruth. In a very real sense, her marriage union with Boaz has now changed her identity. She's in covenant with God. She's part of the family of God. She is redeemed. She no longer is a Moabite. All right, so what big deal that we kind of feel like we might understand that because in our today's immigration and such and we even have a brother in our church who is coming from another country and then trying to gain the US citizenship. So is that? That's what you're talking about, right? So she's just changed countries. It's something like that. Actually, it's much more significant than that. And it has everything to do with this past Friday and Reformation Day. We'll get to that in a moment. But first, let's just understand a little bit about this moniker attached to Ruth's name, the Moabite. Ruth the Moabite. So first, let's consider Ruth's past. Who is Ruth? Where is she from? Well, I'm going to tell you a little bit about her past, but I will tell you that in the book of Ruth, she is referred to as a Moabitess seven times. Let's just read them. I had to think for a second in my mind if I was going to do that. Let's do that. Ruth 1. Ruth 1.4. These took Moabite wives. The name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. Chapter 1, verse 22. So Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, with her. Chapter 2, verse 2. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi. Chapter 2, verse 6. And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, she is the young Moabite woman. Chapter 2, verse 21. And Ruth the Moabite Chapter 4, verse 5. Then Boaz said, the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite. And then, chapter 4, verse 10, right before our text. Also, Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Malchon. Her identity, as you can see throughout the book of Ruth, is intricately connected to the Moabite being a Moabite, okay? What's the big deal about that? Well, there is a huge deal, actually, in the Old Testament. In fact, an argument why the whole book of Ruth was written, but we're gonna dive into the history of the Moabites for just a moment. Number one, and we're going to go to Genesis here. Number one, I want us to consider their origin. So just turn over real quick to Genesis 19, and this is definitely entering PG-13, if not rated R level, from the pulpit. But this is, the Bible doesn't pull punches about how things Go down and so this is what happens in Genesis 19. So just listen carefully follow along Genesis 19 I'll just start in verse 30. Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar, so he lived in a cave with his two daughters. He's left now. He's left Sodom. God's destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And remember, his wife turns to salt, a pillar of salt, because she looks back. So now it's Lot and his two daughters. Well, what's going to happen? Verse 31. And the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is old, and there's not a man on earth to come into us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.' So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose. The next day the firstborn said to the younger, Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and you lie with him. that we may preserve offspring from our father. So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. Do you understand that it's not a light moniker to call Ruth the Moabite? Oh yeah, that's Ruth the Moabite. Ruth the Moabite. Ruth the Moabite. Every time that that name, Moabite, is said, it brings to memory the origin of the Moabite people, which is one of heinous and wicked sin. That's the origin. Secondly, their condition. We won't go to this passage, but you could go later to Deuteronomy 23, and you could note that the Moabites were barred from the assembly of the Lord. So the Moabites had this wicked origin story that we read. Secondly, their condition is they're barred from the assembly of the Lord. Thirdly, they're standing. And if you read the book of Judges, which this is the time that Ruth was written, it's the time period that Ruth happened, I should say. Ruth happened during the time period of the judges. In the book of Judges, it's very clear when you read that the Moabites were enemies of God, and they were enemies of the people of God. So this is Ruth's past. She comes from a people with an origin of sin, a condition of separation, and a standing of opposition and hostility. So, you and I, we hear the term Moabite, it's no big deal. We don't think much about it. But now that you know a little more about the Moabites, think back through the story of the book of Ruth. Every single time that she is referred to as the Moabite, all of these connotations and probably more, I'm sure, are present. It makes Elimelech's choice to go to Moab all the more puzzling, doesn't it? He flees the Promised Land. goes to Moab. Why? Well, I don't have all the answers, but I know that God has done something beautiful with it. So this is Ruth's reality. She's unable to separate herself from her past. She's Ruth the Moabite. But secondly, Something changes. So Ruth's present. So now we're back to our text. So there is all the times we've referred to as Ruth and she's referred to as the Moabite woman, but now we get to verse 13 and something is so interesting here. All these other times, seven other times referred to as a Moabite, but now in verse 13, so Boaz took Ruth. It's not there anymore. And she became his wife. We see Ruth's first expression of faith in chapter 1. You can turn there, that's not far, Ruth 1. I'll read it in verse 14 through 18. Then they lifted up their voices and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, see, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her God's return after your sister-in-law. I want to preach a sermon called Why Mother-in-Laws Give Bad Advice, but I'm not going to. Verse 16, but Ruth said, I ain't listening to that. Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you, for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death, parse me from you. And then when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said, no more. So Ruth has already expressed faith in Naomi's God, Yahweh, the one true God. The God revealed to us most fully, beautifully in Christ. Triune God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. But the fullness of her faith, it's not realized or it's not publicly realized until she's joined to the Redeemer in chapter 4. Even though she had followed Naomi back to Bethlehem, she was still seen as a foreigner. She is Ruth the Moabite. But now that has changed. The moniker has dropped off. She's not Ruth anything. She's just plain Ruth. Her ethnicity doesn't change. God didn't change the molecules or her DNA or whatever. But her identity changes. She's no longer identified as a foreigner. She's no longer identified as someone outside the people of God. She is just Ruth, part of the people of God, part of true Israel, part of the church, we would say. Her origin of sin, her condition of separation, her status of hostility, they're all wiped away as she's united to Boaz as his wife. She's no longer a Moabite. That's her past and her present. Thirdly, I'll mention this, her future. So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went into her, and the Lord gave her a conception, and she bore a son. Now, we don't have the name Ruth mentioned again until the New Testament. But note, the whole reason Ruth is going to be mentioned in the New Testament is because she is in the lineage of David. The son that she gives birth to is Obed, who is David's grandfather. She is David's great-grandmother. Right? So Obed, to Jesse, to David, and then we know our Bibles well, all the way down to Christ. And so Ruth's future is this. She is forever in the covenant family of God. From Ruth 4.13 onward, never again in her life, ever, is she known as Ruth the Mulbi. You've probably not even thought, probably in all your Sunday school classes and times that you've discussed Ruth, you've probably never referred to her unless you were just reading from the text. You've probably always and only referred to her as Ruth. Why? Because that's who she is, and that's who she forever will be. Ruth and Boaz. Goes together like Arkansas summers and humidity, right? You don't talk about one without the other. They're united. Her identity is forever changed, and this is a permanent status for her. She is no longer a Moabite. Now, you know already, it's not gonna be a surprise, a little shift here in the sermon, that this is a beautiful typology, an analogy. for the precious doctrines of justification by faith alone and union with Christ. Consider a few things with me, if you will. Let's just walk through our timeline like we did Ruth, the Christian's past. Now we can look back at Ruth's past and we can say, what a wicked origin story that is. How despicable it is that a father impregnated a daughter and that is the birth of this entire people group. How terrible it is. But the Bible actually says this about our past, doesn't it? That all people since Adam and Eve are born into sin. Her origin was sin, but guess what? So is ours. And because we're sinners, we're separated from God. The Moabites were separated from God, but all those caught in their sin, remaining in their sin, are separated from God. They're barred from the assembly, but the reality is all mankind is barred from the assembly of God because of our sin, the presence of God. We have an origin of sin, we have a condition of separation. Furthermore, our status is one of hostility with God. When you go over to Romans 8, in fact, let's just do it real quick. Let's go to Romans 8. Because I just want you to know, there's no such thing as neutrality. in the world today. We think about, you know, there's good people, there's bad people, and there's people just kind of maybe in the middle or whatever. But listen to what Romans 8 says. Romans 8, 7 and 8 puts it this way. Romans 8, verse 7, For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Okay, so Paul's argument there in Romans 8 is you're either in the flesh or in the Spirit, right? You're either born again and you're in Christ, meaning you're walking in the Spirit, and your mind is set on the things of God. Or, you're unconverted, you're unregenerate, and your mind is set on the things of flesh, and there's no in-between. There's only two categories of people. Those who are born again and those who are not. And those who are not born again are not neutral. Their mind is hostile to the things of God. They cannot please God. This is the reality of our past. Every single person in this room, supposing that you are a Christian, but every Christian that is in this room, this is your past. You were at once at a precarious situation, at enmity with God, separated from God, not having the ability or the willpower to do anything about it. Maybe there is even someone in here that this is not your past, this is your present condition. What must be done? Well, let's consider, secondly, the Christian's present. That's the Christian's past, the Christian's present. Our text says, Ruth 4.13, so Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When Ruth was united with Boaz, hear me very clearly here, her past became, in terms of salvation, in terms of her standing with God, her past became irrelevant. all the things that her people were associated with, all the things, even personally, growing up, her idol worship, her worship of false gods, all the things that had happened in her life, all the ways that she had sinned against God, all the crimes that she had committed against a holy and good God, all the breaking of His commandments, all the doing what God said not to do, and all the not doing what God said to do, all of it, all of it, redeemed. Irrelevant now, because it's redeemed in her husband. But more gloriously, this is pointing to the picture of a believer when we are united to Christ by faith alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. This is what is true for us. No longer a Moabite. How is it that a wretched man or wretched woman can enter into the favor of God? It's only by marrying Christ, union with Him, trusting Him. It only happens by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone. Sola Fide. Faith alone. God has brought His people out of a foreign land and into His presence. There's nothing Ruth brought to Boaz. In fact, if you read the story of Ruth and you read Ruth 4, it was actually the opposite. She had a lot of baggage. You understand, there's another Redeemer that was closer than Boaz. He brings her up to him, and at first he's going to do it, but then when he realized he has to take Ruth on too, it's too much for him. It's too much. She's too much baggage for me. She's gonna mess up my own inheritance. I can't do that. But Boaz steps in and says, no, I want you. I want you. Jesus Christ looks upon his people and says, I see the baggage. I know the deal I'm getting. I understand it all, and I want you. I've redeemed you. No works we can bring to Him, no dowry we can pay, because Jesus Christ has paid it all. He is the righteous one. We must lay down all that we are, and all that we've done, and trust Him, sola fide, by faith alone. He is the great kinsman redeemer. He is the one that has completed all the work, and then He is the one that took our baggage, and that's just a euphemism, took our sin, and wickedness, and rebellion in His body, upon the tree, God's wrath falling upon Him, and Him dying for His bride. and rising again from the dead. And then, it's interesting here, the way the wording is in verse 13. So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife and he went into her and then it says this, and the Lord gave her conception. She bore a son. I want to be careful, I want you to make sure you understand this. This is not allegory. You understand the difference between allegory and typology? Let me just lay that down. An allegory is a story like Pilgrim's Progress. So I'm not trying to ruin anybody's day, but Pilgrim's Progress is not a true story. That man never existed. It's an allegory. It's a fictitious story to bring about a point. The book of Ruth is not an allegory. It's true. This is historically true. Ruth really existed, and Boaz really existed, and all of this really existed, and it really happened the exact way that the Bible tells us it happened. It's not allegory. It's history. It's true. But it is full of what we call typology. Okay? Not allegory. Not, oh, the liberals will start out this way, you know, allegory. No, no. Not allegory. It's history. But it's full of typology. It's pointing us forward to something greater, to the gospel, to what Christ has accomplished for His people. And even in this thought here at the second part of this verse where it says, the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son. How did Obed's birth come about? His first birth came about by the Lord's power. So too does our second. It's in our hymn book, and at some point we'll learn it and sing it. I think it's called Sovereign Rulers of the Sky, but it has this great line. His decree before the earth fixed my first and second birth. This is the sovereignty and the power and the grace of God. This is the Christians present. When we're born again and we look to Christ, our origin of sin is forgiven, our condition of separation is remedied, and our status before God is forever changed. This is just, this is the same sermon, the same sermon, we pretty much preach one sermon here a lot, but this is the same sermon you heard last Sunday night, just from a different text. And that is Gunnar Priest from 2 Corinthians 5.21 on the imputed righteousness of Christ to the believer. Well, this is what we're having here. This is what we're talking about here. All of this has changed because of our union with Christ. We're justified. We're declared righteous. We go away from being foreigners and enemies to God, but now being friends, and more than just friends, more than just a peace treaty, we are now adopted into the family of God. And how can all this be? The same sermon you heard this morning, Christ alone. We're declared righteous based on Christ's work. We're justified by grace, imputed with the righteousness of Jesus, adopted into God's family, the active obedience of Christ to the whole law. That's just why our confession is so important. What do we mean by that? Well, let's tease it out. The active obedience of Christ to the whole law and passive obedience in His death is imputed to us. Meaning, you've never perfectly kept the law of God in your life. Not even one commandment could you stand before God and say, I kept this perfectly in heart, soul, mind, and deed perfectly without any sin. You couldn't stand before God and do that. But Jesus Christ has done that for you. That's what's imputed to you. The fact that Jesus has actively obeyed the law of God, now God treats you in His favor. How do you enter into His presence? How does He hear your prayers? Why doesn't He just strike us all dead right now? Because Christ. We're clothed in the righteousness of Christ. We are, in a very real sense, married to Christ. He's our kinsman redeemer. This is the larger picture of the book of Ruth. I know it has some important connections with David's kingship and all of that. But by faith, we're united with Christ in such a way that our identity is changed. Who we are is not who we were. Drop the monikers. We are new. We are washed. We are changed. We are forgiven. We're no longer a Moabite. Take all the adjectives that you want to put in front of the word Christian and cast them into the lake of fire. There are no such things as a homosexual Christian, a drunkard Christian, a wife-beating Christian. We're just in Christ. Our past is washed away. That's not who we are anymore. We've been redeemed. We've been changed. We're no longer a Moabite. We're clothed in the King's righteousness. This is our only hope. You heard this morning, anything else that you're placing your hope in for forgiveness and right standing with God is fruitless. We need union with the kinsman redeemer. Also, we should mention the Christian's future. Just like we mentioned, Bruce, listen to this. The only way a true believer can lose his or her standing with God is if Christ can become uncrucified, unresurrected, unrighteous. It can't happen. We celebrate the Lord's Supper tonight. His body was broken for us. His blood was shed for us. His life was given for us. And no power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck us from His hand. Our future is secure in Him. Just like Ruth can never be taken out, there's nothing that could ever happen to remove Ruth from the genealogy of Jesus. And there's nothing that can ever happen to remove the Christian, the true Christian, from the inheritance of Jesus. Boaz took Ruth to be his wife, our text says. The New Testament tells us that the church is Christ's bride. And Jesus will never, ever divorce her. Those who are in Christ can never be removed from Him. We can only lose our standing with God. If Christ can lose His righteousness, it's not happening. So the Christian is so tied to Christ that you can't talk about one without mentioning the other. Christ is forever connected to His people as their great Redeemer. and Christ's people are forever connected to Him as His loyal subjects, living under His glorious reign. Ruth's identity transferred from Moabitess to Bride of Boaz, and our identity has moved from sinner to what's the New Testament call us? Saint. Saint. And this is a permanent transaction. It is forever. Because on the cross, Jesus bore our sins in His body, He's our sacrifice, He's our propitiation, He resurrected in victory. You wanna know the heart of the Reformation? I told you this morning, this is it. Hey, look, man, you wanna buy me, and some of you guys have done stuff like this, you wanna buy me a soulless T-shirt? People have done that, and I'm thankful, amen. You wanna buy me a Soully Day of Glory mug? People have done that, I'm grateful. You wanna get me a Five Solas tattoo? Just joking, not doing that. But just listen for just a second. The cool kid club that we've made Reform Theology, well I'm cool man, you know, like I'm a Reform and all that. Like be careful. Like that's not the heart of Reform Theology. Do you want to know what the very heart, the heartbeat, the very centrality and focus and beauty of Reformed theology is? It's Christ. You understand? I've given you this analogy before. I'll give it again to you tonight. I love these glasses. I do. I love my glasses. I love them. Never once have I been tempted to tattoo these glasses on my shoulder. Never once have I been tempted to buy a t-shirt with these glasses on them. Just like, oh, look at these glasses. Never once have I thought, you know what I'm gonna do today? I'm gonna set these glasses up in my, oh, better not drop them. I'm gonna set these glasses up on my bookshelf and just look at them. Never once, Stephanie can attest to this, never once have I gotten up in the morning and Stephanie's just found me weeping and I'm holding the glasses and she says, well, why are you weeping? I just love these glasses so much. I don't do that. A lot of times she has to help me find my glasses. I can't see. You're just a big blob right now. You're a big blurb. I'll tell you one thing I do with my glasses. I put them on. So I can see. That's Reformed theology. You understand the analogy? That's Reformed theology. Hey, I love it. I love the, in a sense, I do. I love the culture, the t-shirts and all that. It can be fun and I get it and I love to encourage each other with that. That's great. But listen, you better not take the glasses, sit them off and worship the glasses. Put the glasses on and what do you do? You see Christ all the more beautifully. That's the heart of the Reformation. That's the heart of Reformed theology. That's what we do here. Christ is all. We take his name as our name as we sing, maybe we didn't sing it this morning, but we've sang it recently, Christ is mine forevermore. Surely I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. Let us celebrate these great truths in humble gratitude and in marvelous adoration. As we celebrate the Lord's Supper tonight, think of this grand story. of Ruth and Boaz, and the even greater story of Christ and His church. Let's pray. Father, would you help us tonight to understand these great and glorious truths and what you've done in Christ? Let us marvel at this gospel, even as it's contained and pointed to in the Old Testament. And we pray, O God, that we would be A worthy people, as we partake of the Lord's Supper, and we know that worthiness only comes to you. It's not about picking ourselves up by our own bootstraps, but resting in your worthiness. I pray that as we come to the Lord's table, there's no division tonight in this body. I pray that there is no secret sin. Lord, that if there's someone here tonight harboring secret sin, not repenting of it, they can come. But if they're just harboring secret sin and they're refusing to repent, I pray they wouldn't come to the Lord's table. They only eat and drink condemnation on themselves. So I pray, O God, that now would be the time that we would take an opportunity. We would repent. We'd turn from sin. We'd trust Christ. We'd rest in this gospel again. No, it's not just for believers, but we need to be reminded of it too. And so I pray, oh God, that you'd bless as we continue this service in Jesus name. Amen. Would you stand as we sing the communion hymn?