The Ultimate Lineage: Finding Hope in God’s Sovereign History

• Narrative Resolution and Messianic Hope [00:30:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that Ruth provides a 'happily ever after' resolution to its crisis, which serves as a setup for the birth of Jesus Christ.
• Divine Providence and Gift of Life [00:32:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor highlights God's direct intervention in giving food and fertility, establishing that life and conception are gifts from God, not merely biological processes.
• Sanctity of Life and Abortion [00:33:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects the biblical teaching that life begins at conception with modern science to argue against abortion and call for political and cultural defense of the unborn.
• Sanctity of Life and Cultural Impact [00:33:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that life is sacred and given by God, warning that a 'culture of death' results from denying this truth, and calls for prayer regarding Supreme Court cases and the closure of abortion providers.
• Grandparenting and Family Influence [00:40:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using Naomi as a nurse to her grandson Obed as an illustration, the pastor encourages grandparents to spend time with grandchildren to provide a unique spiritual influence and blessing.
• Chesed (Lovingkindness) [00:43:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines 'chesed' as kindness to which one owes no obligation, describing it as a 'circle' or 'domino effect' in the book of Ruth that is contagious and transformative.
• Genealogy and Heritage [00:45:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses the importance of biblical genealogies leading to David, contrasting modern interest in ancestry services with the spiritual significance of God's recorded lineage.
• Genealogy and Messianic Lineage [00:45:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes the genealogy in Ruth 4, connecting it to Matthew 1, highlighting the significance of the number 14 (David's numerical value) and the inclusion of five women to show no barriers to God's kingdom.
• God's Providence and Sovereignty [00:52:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that God orchestrates all events, including sin and tragedy, to fulfill His purpose, using the story of Ruth as a primary example of God working through complex circumstances to bring the Messiah.
• Inclusivity of the Gospel [00:49:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor emphasizes that the genealogy of Jesus includes women, foreigners, and sinners, demonstrating that there are no sex, social, or sin barriers to being part of Jesus' kingdom.
• Hope and Restoration [00:56:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor concludes that the 'happy ending' of Ruth points to the ultimate restoration of history in Jesus, encouraging listeners that God can put their broken lives back together.
• Jesus as the Restorer of Order [00:59:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that just as the boy assembled the world by fixing the picture of Jesus, Jesus is the only one who can put the world back together when He returns.
• The Gospel of Ruth [01:00:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor identifies the book of Ruth as a 'Gospel' that points beyond its characters to Jesus Christ, the ultimate Redeemer and good news.
• Significance and Purpose [01:00:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor asserts that life only has weight, purpose, and meaning if it is tied to Jesus' story; otherwise, one's history is merely their own.
• Grace and Forgiveness [01:01:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor encourages those haunted by sin or past regrets that God is abundant in loving kindness and ready to forgive through trust in Jesus.

• Sermon Illustration [00:27:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts modern movie scripts that lack happy endings with the human desire for redemption, citing David Strain's observation that audiences feel cheated when stories end without resolution.
• Sermon Illustration [00:29:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > A humorous anecdote about a little girl correcting her mother's 'happily ever after' summary of Snow White by insisting, 'They got married.'
• Sermon Illustration [00:40:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about announcing the birth of his grandson and observing a 'doting grandmother,' using this to encourage other grandparents to engage with their grandchildren.
• Sermon Illustration [00:41:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a story about Prince Charles's baptism in 1948, where a popular photo showed the royal family gazing at the baby with the caption 'all eyes on the baby,' to illustrate how the community focused on the birth of Obed.
• Sermon Illustration [00:46:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells a humorous story about a man who paid $500 to find his genealogy and then $5,000 to suppress the results, followed by a Mark Twain quote about politics being a better way to find out about opponents' family trees.
• Sermon Illustration [00:46:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > A man paid $500 for his genealogy and $5,000 to suppress it after finding out unpleasant truths.
• Sermon Illustration [00:47:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > A quote from Mark Twain joking that one should go into politics so opponents will look up your family tree for you.
• Sermon Illustration [00:50:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > An analogy of a family hiring a biographer who euphemistically describes an uncle executed for murder as occupying a 'chair of applied electronics' to whitewash the family history, contrasting this with God's honesty about sinners in Jesus' lineage.
• Sermon Illustration [00:54:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > A story about an old farmer at a men's breakfast who prays that he hates buttermilk, lard, and raw flour, but loves the fresh biscuits when God mixes them together, illustrating how God works bad things together for good.
• Sermon Illustration [00:57:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > A story about a father trying to watch a football game who gives his son a torn-up newspaper picture of the world to assemble; the son quickly finishes it because he saw the picture of Jesus on the back, illustrating that when Jesus is put in His rightful place, the world comes together.
• Sermon Illustration [00:58:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > A father tears up a picture of the world to keep his son busy while he watches a game, telling the boy to assemble it to play. The boy quickly returns with the world assembled because he saw a picture of Jesus on the back and assembled that first.
• Sermon Illustration [01:02:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses a baking analogy where God takes 'buttermilk and lard and raw white flour' (difficulties and struggles) and makes something better, like biscuits, weaving them together for good.

• Pastoral Charge [00:35:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Pray for the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade.
• Pastoral Charge [00:34:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > Pray for the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade.
• Pastoral Charge [00:35:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > Continue praying and advocating for the closure of abortion providers.
• Pastoral Charge [00:40:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Spend as much time as possible with grandchildren.
• Pastoral Charge [01:01:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > Trust in Jesus and accept Him as Savior
• Pastoral Charge [01:02:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > Come forward to receive forgiveness from Jesus Christ

[00:00:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:07] Zero. Well good morning and welcome to Faith Bible Church. My name is Seth Brown and I am one of the pastors here on staff and I am very thankful for your presence as we gather to worship the Lord together this morning. Regardless if you're joining us here in the worship center, if you're in our overflow, or joining us via the live stream, we are thankful for your presence and we are praying for you this morning that after our time together that you would know the Lord better and worship him in a very intimate way. If this is your first time to Faith Bible Church this morning, thank you so much for your presence.
[00:00:37] presence. We are very, very thankful that you're here joining us this morning. We would love to meet you. And so after the service, we invite you to the Welcome Center. It's right out these back
[00:00:45] doors of the worship center here across the foyer, and there'll be some volunteers there to get to know you and give you some information about the church. And so again, if this is your first time
[00:00:53] to Faith Bible, thank you so much for being here. We hope that you're encouraged and just really blessed by your time this morning. There are a few quick announcements that I want to get to before
[00:01:01] we begin worshiping the Lord through song. First and foremost, we are sad to say that tonight we are postponing our faith worship night just due to the potential of inclement weather. And so we'll be rescheduling that to a different date in the coming days. But no faith worship night
[00:01:18] tonight just because of, again, just the potential for bad weather. Secondly, coming up on October the 30th is our Trunk or Treat event that we put on as a church every Halloween. And so we're
[00:01:31] really excited about this event. It's going to be great for families and kids. Lots of stuff to do.
[00:01:35] we need ABFs to sign up to decorate trunks. We need people to sign up to be involved in the chili cook-off and the pie bake-off. There's information in your bulletin in both the insert and a couple of blurbs in there. And so we'd love for you guys to be, for families to be a part of
[00:01:48] that on October the 30th. And then Date Night Comedy is coming up with Ted Cunningham. He's a pastor from Branson, Missouri. That's coming up on November the 7th, a couple Sundays from now.
[00:01:57] And so we'll be telling you more about that as we approach that event. So lots of things going on.
[00:02:02] we encourage you to grab a bulletin this week or this morning and read over that this week of all the things going on. And again, we would love for you to be a part of all these things
[00:02:10] that I've mentioned. So as we turn our hearts to worship this morning through song, I want to call us to worship by reading Psalm 65 verses one through four. There in Psalm 65, the psalmist
[00:02:21] says this, praise is rightfully yours, God. In Zion, vows to you will be fulfilled. All humanity will come to you, the one who hears prayer. Iniquities overwhelm me. Only you can atone for our rebellions. How happy is the one you choose and bring near to live in your courts. We will
[00:02:40] be satisfied with the goodness of your house and the holiness of your temple. Let's pray together this morning. Father, we do thank you for another day to gather in your presence as your people, as your children, as those whom you love first. Yes, Lord, we come to you this morning with
[00:02:57] burdens and worries and anxieties, with nothing to offer you but our praise. But you are worthy of our praise, God. You are deserving of glory. We thank you for being faithful to us and for
[00:03:08] offering us forgiveness and mercy through Christ Jesus our Lord, your only Son. I pray that we would be people who would walk in that forgiveness, that we would rest in your love, that we would
[00:03:19] reflect your grace in all that we do. So we commit our time to you this morning, Father. We commit our lives to you. We commit our praise to you and we lift up your name above all other names, Father.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:03:30] We do thank you for Jesus and we do pray these things in his name. Amen. Stand together, lift

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:09:08] our voices and worship our Lord. He is our hope. Claim that he is above all things. Colossians 1 helps us to do this. Listen to these verses. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
[00:13:07] of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the
[00:13:26] head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to
[00:13:39] reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross let's continue to sing to Christ the one who is above all things and is always faithful to us

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:13:55] daily grace for today is all that i'm comprised by your mercy that's new every month let's bow

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:24:06] our hearts together in prayer before our lord father we come before you today we recognize that you are worthy you're the only worthy one we thank you for jesus and whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge father we thank you for a savior we thank you for a redeemer
[00:24:23] and we thank you for a lover of our souls.
[00:24:28] Father, we draw near to you here this morning.
[00:24:30] We seek you because you alone are our refuge and our strength.
[00:24:34] Father, as we look around in our world today and all that's happening, I pray that you'll help all of us here to be faithful in our generation.
[00:24:42] Father, help us to be faithful as a church, to stand strong for the truth, to be a place of truth and love.
[00:24:48] Father, help us to be faithful in our marriages, in our homes, with our children.
[00:24:52] Help us to be faithful in the work that you've given each one of us to do.
[00:24:55] Father, help us to be faithful as citizens.
[00:24:56] in this world in which we find ourselves.
[00:25:00] Father, give us homes that reflect your grace and give us hearts for a lost world around us.
[00:25:05] Father, help us to never be callous to those around us who need you.
[00:25:10] Now, fathers, we open your book this morning.
[00:25:12] We pray that the voice we hear will be the voice of God, not the voice of a man.
[00:25:17] We submit ourselves to you now and open our hearts and lives to your word.
[00:25:21] We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.
[00:25:26] Amen.
[00:25:26] Well, welcome to Faith Bible Church this morning.
[00:25:28] it's great to have all of you here with us. If you're visiting with us, we're especially glad you're here. Thank you for spending this Lord's Day with us this morning. I pray you'll be encouraged and edified and strengthened through our time together here this morning in God's Word
[00:25:43] and our fellowship and singing together. We're finishing our study of the book of Ruth this morning, so if you are visiting with us, you're getting in on the end of a book study. We've been
[00:25:53] studying the book of Ruth together. This study has been a great blessing to me, and I pray that the Lord has used it in some way in your heart and life as well. I'm always a bit sad to say goodbye
[00:26:03] to a series that I've enjoyed so much. So I just kind of wish we could draw it out a little bit longer. But I'm always excited, too, about what we have ahead. And we're going to begin our new
[00:26:12] series next Sunday. It's a series I've titled Signs of Life. We're going to look at the seven signs that Jesus performed in John's gospel there in John 1 through 11. So it's going to focus on
[00:26:24] on Jesus, get our hearts and minds focused on Him, and it'll take us right up to the end of November, right up to the Christmas season, where obviously we'll be focused on Christ as well and
[00:26:34] on His incarnation. But our text for this morning is Ruth chapter 4, verses 13 to 22, and I've titled this morning's message, Happily Ever After. Let me begin reading here in verse 13. So Boaz took Ruth,
[00:26:49] and she became his wife and he went into her and the Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son. Then the women said to Naomi, blessed is the Lord who has not left you without
[00:27:01] a redeemer today and may his name become famous in Israel. May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you and is better to
[00:27:14] than seven sons has given birth to him. Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap and became his nurse. And the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, A son has been born to Naomi.
[00:27:28] So they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. Now these are the generations of Perez. To Perez was born Hezron. To Hezron was born Ram. To Ram, Amenadab. To
[00:27:41] From Enadam was born Nashon, to Nashon, Salmon, to Salmon was born Boaz, to Boaz, Obed, to Obed was born Jesse, and to Jesse, David.
[00:27:53] May the Lord write His eternal word on our hearts this morning.
[00:27:57] It's become more fashionable, I think, than ever today for movie scripts to not have a happy ending.
[00:28:05] Cheryl and I have noticed, we watch movies, a growing number of movies today don't have a happy ending.
[00:28:10] The hero dies, the wedding never happens, kind of like the problem in the story kind of never seems to get resolved.
[00:28:18] And so more and more in movies today, so much is left unsettled and unsaid at the end of the movie.
[00:28:24] One man I read this week named David Strain, he put it like this.
[00:28:28] The romantic comedy where boy meets girl, they fall for one another and then break up and then, well, it used to be the movie would end with a relationship being restored and they'd live happily ever after.
[00:28:39] but nowadays they break up and the movie just ends.
[00:28:43] I hate that.
[00:28:43] Don't you feel cheated?
[00:28:45] It's like a sneeze that never quite happens.
[00:28:48] There's this big buildup and then nothing.
[00:28:51] Of course, it may be just because we've wasted two perfectly good hours watching a story that goes nowhere, but I think there's a deeper reason we find stories like that so unsatisfying.
[00:29:01] And then he says this.
[00:29:04] I think it's because we're hardwired for redemption.
[00:29:07] We want stories with complete narrative arcs that move from crisis to complete resolution.
[00:29:14] It may not be cool or edgy or postmodern, but we still love a happy ending, don't we?
[00:29:20] We want stories with complete redemptive arcs.
[00:29:23] And I think that's true of all of us here this morning.
[00:29:25] We want to believe that hope wins.
[00:29:29] We want to believe that there's something to look forward to, that it's going to be a happy ending ultimately in the end.
[00:29:36] I like the story of the little girl who'd learned the fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
[00:29:41] And she was telling the story to her mother, and she got to the part where the princess kissed Snow White and awakened her from her sleep.
[00:29:48] The little girl said, Mother, do you know what happened then?
[00:29:51] And the mother, of course, knowing how the story ended, said, They lived happily ever after.
[00:29:56] And the little girl said, Oh, no.
[00:29:58] She says, They got married.
[00:30:00] That's just a joke here this morning, just a joke.
[00:30:02] but not every happy ending is the same, right? But there's no doubt that the book of Ruth has a happy ending. There's a complete resolution to the crisis here at the end of the story.
[00:30:16] All the loose ends of this story get tied off. The story doesn't leave us hanging. Everything in this story comes full circle. And that's why I've titled this series, Making Ends Meet, because in the book of Ruth, the ends meet.
[00:30:31] We go from tragedy to triumph.
[00:30:33] We go from emptiness to fullness.
[00:30:35] All the ends come together, and the ends meet at the end of this book.
[00:30:40] And really, the ending of the book of Ruth is even much happier than we could ever imagine.
[00:30:47] God is weaving this story, this narrative, into the greater story, the epic story, of the coming of the Messiah, who also will be born in Bethlehem.
[00:30:58] He'll be born through Boaz and Ruth and through their descendant David.
[00:31:02] So all of this is a setup for the birth of another baby, ultimately the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ there in Bethlehem.
[00:31:10] So these verses give us much more than we could have ever dreamed of.
[00:31:14] There's never been a happier ending than the ending of the book of Ruth.
[00:31:18] Now, the scene changes in each chapter or section in the book of Ruth.
[00:31:22] We've pointed that out as we've gone along.
[00:31:25] Chapter 1 is on the road.
[00:31:27] Chapter 2 is in the field.
[00:31:29] Chapter 3 is at the threshing floor.
[00:31:32] And then the first 12 verses of chapter 4 are before the court.
[00:31:38] And then this last section we could call beyond the nursery.
[00:31:42] It takes us beyond the nursery here, ultimately to the Lord Jesus.
[00:31:47] Now, I've got two simple points to guide us through our text this morning.
[00:31:50] I want to look at the gift, and then we want to spend a little bit of time on this genealogy.
[00:31:54] but here in verse 13 it says so Boaz took Ruth and he she became his wife he went into her the Lord enabled her to conceive she gave birth to a son now we pointed out that when we started the study of this book there's only two
[00:32:09] texts in the book of Ruth where we see the direct intervention of God God has mentioned 21 times in this book but he only acts directly twice back in chapter 1 verse 6 he ends the famine and gives them food now here at the end of the
[00:32:23] book, He gives a child. So it's like two great issues of life, food and fertility. These are like the bookends here of this book, but God wants us to see that while He works directly at the
[00:32:34] beginning and the end, that He's working in everything in between, even though it's not directly stated. And so the idea of God acting directly to give food and to give fertility tells us that God gifts to us both life, but also the means to sustain life. It's all a gift from
[00:32:52] Him. You and I have to do all we can in life to work and to labor and to provide for ourselves, but in the end, it's God who blesses us with food and with children. God is the source of life,
[00:33:05] and conception is a gift from God. It's more than just biology that's involved.
[00:33:11] The gift of life is pictured here in this book as a blessing of God. Life is a gift from Yahweh.
[00:33:18] Life is His gift, and a child is a gift from God.
[00:33:22] There's the necessity of divine blessing to give us children.
[00:33:28] Now, the Bible teaches here, I think, in this verse, that life begins at conception.
[00:33:32] Notice, the Lord enabled her to conceive.
[00:33:35] She gave birth to a son.
[00:33:37] The Bible teaches clearly here, but other places, that life begins at conception.
[00:33:41] But did you know the predominance of science now agrees with that?
[00:33:47] There's no doubt today that abortion is taking a human life.
[00:33:50] It's science.
[00:33:51] And we hear a lot about science today, but everybody kind of uses the science they like and doesn't use the other science, but it's science.
[00:33:59] And it tells us that life is precious and it's sacred and it's given by God.
[00:34:04] And tragically, it's being cheapened today.
[00:34:07] I like what Al Mohler says.
[00:34:09] The pro-abortion movement has sown a culture of death.
[00:34:12] It attempts to destroy and to deny the sanctity of life and the consequences are now clear to see. This is what happens when a society jettisons the moral code based in the truth that every human is an extension of God's common grace and a bearer of
[00:34:27] God's image. Unless this march to death is reversed, the headlines will only become more horrifying and even deadlier. We've sown the seeds of a culture of death, and now we're reaping the tragic harvest of that. Proverbs 31.9 says, open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the
[00:34:47] rights of the poor and the needy. So you and I need to be defenders of the rights of those who can't defend themselves. And we need to be praying right now for our Supreme Court because there are
[00:34:58] cases that I think are going to come before them this fall or in the near future. And we pray that they'll take into account the advances in science and that they'll reverse Roe versus Wade. We need
[00:35:10] to be praying for that and seeking God for that in our country. I read recently, and I don't know all the ramifications of this. Some of you may know more about it than I do, but that the only
[00:35:20] planned parenthood clinic, I think the only abortion provider in Edmond, has just closed here recently. And a lot of you had a part in that. I know many of you have gone down there and prayed and sought for that to be closed. So that's a cause for celebration really in our city
[00:35:35] here in our culture. Amen. It really is. And I know many of you have been on the front lines of that, and we appreciate that so much. We need to keep that up. We need to defend the rights of
[00:35:46] those who can't defend themselves. But here in this verse, in verse 13, this is beautiful to me. Nine months are condensed in this single sentence. What an exciting nine months it must have been. Think of how long they've waited for this. Think of the anticipation. Naomi must have
[00:36:04] been beside herself that entire nine-month period. And I love in verse 14, all the women of the town now begin to speak. The women said to Naomi, blessed is the Lord who's not left you without
[00:36:16] a Redeemer today. Notice they give God the glory. And may His name become famous in Israel.
[00:36:22] May He also be to you a restorer of life, a sustainer of your old age. Your daughter-in-law who loves you is better than seven sons. This is beautiful here. The women here in the town
[00:36:33] get involved. You know, Bethlehem would have been a small village. Everybody in town would have known about this new baby that was coming, being born to Boaz and to Ruth, and it was Naomi's grandson. And so they just can't contain themselves here. Because remember back at the end of chapter
[00:36:49] one, the two basic needs for Naomi and her family were food and children. And this child is going to solve both of those problems. He's a redeemer. Notice what she says in verse 14, God has not left
[00:37:02] you without a Redeemer. This child is going to save the day. This is the only time in the Old Testament a baby is called a Redeemer, a Goel, a family Redeemer. So they're saying to him,
[00:37:15] you've got a Redeemer. This baby in the nursery is going to redeem your family.
[00:37:20] You think about earlier in this story, and again, it's easy to just read these stories and forget the emotion. But Naomi felt forsaken by God. She was empty. She was bitter. Everything in her life
[00:37:34] seemed like it had fallen apart. Her family had fallen apart. Her husband's died. Both of her sons have died. But here at the end of the story, everything comes full circle. She said, this baby
[00:37:43] will be to you a restorer of life. He's going to bring joy and vitality back to your life and renew your heart. And while every child does that, there's nothing like a grandchild to do that in
[00:37:55] your life as you get older, to bring the joy and the vitality back to life and renew your heart.
[00:38:01] He says you'll be a sustainer in your old age. You know, back in that day, they didn't have social security and a social safety net and all these kinds of things. You needed heirs to help
[00:38:11] to provide for you. He says he's going to sustain you in your old age. He's going to ensure her physical well-being. And I love this. They say to Naomi, Ruth, to you has been better than seven
[00:38:24] sons. Now, the number seven in that day was the number of perfection. The ancient Israelites viewed the ideal family as seven sons. So this was the perfect example of a blessed family, the ideal number. And they say to her, Ruth has been better to you than seven sons. Now, Naomi
[00:38:45] never says a word in this whole section. I wish she would have. I wish she would have it written down. She would love to know what she was saying. She doesn't speak. We can only imagine what's in
[00:38:54] her mind. Look at verse 16. Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap and became his nurse.
[00:39:01] She doesn't say a word here. We can only imagine what she must be thinking as she holds this little baby in her arms. She couldn't believe it. And I bet there was never a more thankful, joyful woman
[00:39:12] on the face of the earth than Naomi. She must have wept many, many times thinking about God's goodness to her and His grace. She holds him there. They bonded. I mean, this is a beautiful scene.
[00:39:25] Remember, she lost her husband Elimelech, and back in chapter 1, her two sons were grown and married, but it says when they died, it says that she lost her two boys as well. It doesn't just say
[00:39:35] sons are boys. It's just empty and impoverished. The end of chapter one, no child, no food, no future, and now her arms are full, holding this little boy. What a scene this is. And she's
[00:39:53] a doting grandmother. She's his nurse or his caregiver. And I know I announced to you the birth of our grandson last Sunday, and so I've watched a doting grandmother the last a few days here, and it's been a beautiful thing to see. But I want to encourage all of us here
[00:40:10] that are grandparents to spend as much time with your grandchildren as you can. I know oftentimes they're far away, but there's a lot of technology today where at least you can see them and talk
[00:40:20] with them. But spend as much time as you can. We all know that have children, how quickly they grow up and how quickly they go away. You can have a different kind of influence in the lives of your
[00:40:31] grandchildren than their parents can. Now, their parents will have the greatest influence, and that's the way God made it. But we can have a different kind of an influence in their life, and it's a great privilege and a great blessing of God and never take it for granted to care for
[00:40:45] them and pray for them and point them and lead them to God and to Jesus Christ as their only Savior from sin. There's nothing better in all of life than that. We can only imagine as this
[00:40:58] little boys growing up, what Naomi must have told him, the story she must have told him, and the blessing she must have been to his life. Well, verse 17, everybody in town is focused on
[00:41:10] this little baby. I mean, he's the talk of the town, this little baby. And it says in verse 17, the neighbor women gave him a name saying, a son has been born to Naomi. So they named him Obed.
[00:41:22] He's the father of Jesse, the father of David. So this means Boaz and Ruth were David's great great-grandparents, or David's great-grandparents. But everybody's looking at this little baby, and he's the focus. Reminds me of a story, I think I told this once before, but back in December of
[00:41:40] 1948, Prince Charles was baptized in Buckingham Palace. And the following day, the first pictures of the royal family and this heir apparent were released to the public. And one of the most popular pictures showed the royal family there, including the parents and the grandparents,
[00:41:58] were all gathered around this little prince gazing at him, and the caption underneath said, all eyes on the baby. And when I read Ruth chapter 4, that's what I think about here. It was all
[00:42:09] eyes on the baby. Everybody was focused on this child. And it's such a community event that even the women in town get in on naming him. They get a part in this. Now, when it says the women in the
[00:42:24] town gave him a name saying his name is Obed. Some think that he was given this name by the women in town, but that Ruth and Boaz maybe gave him another name. But the way I understand this,
[00:42:36] and most scholars take this, is it doesn't mean that neither Ruth nor Boaz had a say in giving the name of the child. What seems more likely is the women in town simply affirmed the name that
[00:42:47] the baby had been given by Ruth and Boaz. Because back in that day, the father and the mother would named the child. So they probably gave him this name, but the women in town come along and affirm
[00:42:58] that his name is Obed. They all want to be part of this celebration. Now, the word Obed is probably a shortened form of Obadiah, the prophet Obadiah. Remember later in the Old Testament, that name
[00:43:13] means servant of Yahweh. So Obed, the shortened form of that just means servant. And I think they give him that name of servant, because he's one who's going to serve Naomi. He's going to serve
[00:43:25] his family. But we know from reading the rest of the story that he's also one who served the whole nation of Israel, because from his line would come the ultimate servant, the greater servant, the Lord Jesus, who said, you know, the Son of Man didn't come to be served, but to serve,
[00:43:43] to give his life as a ransom for many. As this story winds down, we just see this community gathered together, just coming around this family. And it's another picture of a word that we've used
[00:43:57] throughout this book, the word hesed. Three times you find that word in the book, chapter 1, verse 8, chapter 2, verse 20, chapter 3, verse 10. And we said that hesed is kindness towards someone
[00:44:09] to which you owe no obligation. It's a great Old Testament Hebrew word. It's to act for the benefit of somebody else without respect to the advantage that it's going to bring to you. And we've seen
[00:44:21] through this book, there's like a domino effect of chesed. God shows chesed to Naomi and to their family in chapter 1. Ruth shows chesed to Naomi. Naomi shows chesed to Ruth. Ruth shows chesed to
[00:44:34] Boaz. Boaz shows Chesed back towards Ruth. And here at the end of the book, the whole community is showing God's Chesed or His kindness to this family. So you see in the book of Ruth kind of
[00:44:47] what many have called a circle of Chesed, where it's just rippling throughout the entire book.
[00:44:53] And we see that this Chesed and this kindness of God that He shows through in our lives is contagious and it's transformative. And if there's one thing this world needs out there today, it's chesed. This world needs people who show kindness to people to whom they show no obligation.
[00:45:13] And it's my prayer that our homes and our marriages, that this church and on out in this community will become a circle of chesed for us as it ripples out from our lives to those who so
[00:45:25] desperately needed out there in our culture and in our world today. Well, that's the gift. Now, let's look here at the genealogy. The book of Ruth ends with a genealogy. And again, genealogies, you know, a lot of them aren't that important to us, but in the Bible, they play a very key role
[00:45:42] because Ruth closes here with kind of a wide-angle lens view. We have a 10-person genealogy that moves the story forward several generations. Now, this is an all-male genealogy. It's all men that are listed here. It's interesting, if you go back to Genesis, there are several genealogies there,
[00:46:02] and there are also ten men. So it's kind of this number ten. There's probably some missing generations in here because it's doubtful that there are only ten generations from a man named Perez to David. But these are the names that are included here to kind of span this large period
[00:46:18] time. It spans several generations. Now, genealogies are interesting. More and more people today want to know their heritage or their genealogy. There's all kind of ancestry services out there with all the advanced technology we have. Ancestry is a big deal. I mean, Ancestry.com, 23andMe,
[00:46:37] MyHeritage. We want to know who we are and where we came from. Now, sometimes when we find out, we're not so excited, maybe. There's a story of a man who paid $500 to get his family genealogy,
[00:46:50] and then after that paid $5,000 to suppress it. So that may happen with some of us. I like what Mark Twain said about genealogies. He said, why waste money looking up your family tree?
[00:47:01] Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you. And that's probably certainly true.
[00:47:07] But this is a genealogy here that's given by God.
[00:47:12] And the importance of it is, it leads to David.
[00:47:16] The last word in this book, David, or the way in the Hebrew, it's David.
[00:47:20] And David means beloved.
[00:47:23] And of course, ultimately, this genealogy is going to be taken by Matthew in Matthew chapter 1, and he's just going to incorporate it right over into the genealogy of Jesus.
[00:47:33] So ultimately, this leads to David, but then beyond David, it leads to Jesus, to the Messiah.
[00:47:40] So the events of this simple story of Ruth, I mean, think how simple this story is and the events in this story are.
[00:47:46] The events in this simple story are folded into the grand story of redemption.
[00:47:52] They're part of this great story of redemption of the coming of the Messiah.
[00:47:57] This child born to Boaz and Ruth is going to be part of the line that leads to the house of David.
[00:48:04] And then from the line of David, who becomes king, there will come the greater king, the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:48:11] So Matthew, again, incorporates this genealogy into the genealogy of Jesus.
[00:48:17] One of the things that's interesting in Matthew chapter 1, as you read that genealogy, it's divided into three groups of 14.
[00:48:25] It's just 14 generations, then 14 and 14.
[00:48:29] In Hebrew, every letter in the Hebrew alphabet has a numerical value with it.
[00:48:35] And so if you take the name David and you add up the numerical value of the letters, it comes to the number 14.
[00:48:42] So when you read that genealogy of Jesus there, it's 14, 14, 14.
[00:48:47] It's like David, David, David.
[00:48:50] In other words, Jesus is a descendant of David the king.
[00:48:54] and he's the one who's the ultimate king of the Messiah of Israel. And you read in that genealogy in Matthew chapter 1, five women are included. Tamar, who's mentioned down in Ruth chapter 4 and verse 12. Rahab is mentioned, who's also the wife of Solomon, to whom was born Boaz.
[00:49:18] She was a harlot from the city of Jericho.
[00:49:21] Ruth is mentioned, who's a Moabitess.
[00:49:24] Bathsheba is mentioned, and also then Mary, the mother of Jesus.
[00:49:27] So five women, very uncommon, mentioned in that genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1.
[00:49:33] And I think what Jesus, what the author wants us to know in Matthew at the beginning is, by having women and men in the genealogy, there's no sex barrier to being part of Jesus' kingdom.
[00:49:44] There's no social barrier.
[00:49:46] Tamar was a Canaanite.
[00:49:48] Rahab was a Canaanite.
[00:49:49] Ruth is a Moabitess.
[00:49:51] Bathsheba may have been a Hittite.
[00:49:53] So there's no sex barrier.
[00:49:54] There's no social barrier.
[00:49:56] And if you read down through that list, there's a lot of sinners in that list.
[00:49:59] So there's no sin barrier as well.
[00:50:03] So the inclusion of Ruth and these other women in this genealogy is a testimony of God's love for the nations.
[00:50:10] And Ruth is intertwined here into the line of King David and of King Jesus.
[00:50:15] and Matthew in Matthew chapter 1 in Jesus' genealogy makes no attempt to whitewash the black sheep in Jesus' family. They're all presented there as sinful as they are. It's like a family that wanted its history written up, and they hired a professional biographer to write up the history
[00:50:35] of their family, but they were worried about how he would document and handle the black sheep in the family because Uncle George had been executed for murder in the electric chair. And the biographer said, well, it's no problem. I'll just say that Uncle George occupied a chair of applied
[00:50:51] electronics at an important government institution. He was attached to his position by the strongest of ties, and his death came as a real shock. That's one way to put it, right? One way to whitewash it. But God doesn't do that. Outlaws and outcasts are welcome in God's family if
[00:51:09] trust in Christ. I mean, you look at Jesus' lineage, it's made up of wicked kings. I mean, Jesus' line is filled with sinners. We won't go into this in detail. You can read about it in
[00:51:21] Genesis chapter 38. But Tamar, mentioned down here in Ruth chapter 4 verse 12, and her son was Perez, the first one mentioned there in this genealogy in verse 18. Perez was born as a result of Tamar
[00:51:36] seducing her father-in-law, Judah, to get pregnant. I mean, hardly the ideal circumstances.
[00:51:43] Rahab was a prostitute. Bathsheba committed adultery with David, and Ruth was a Moabite.
[00:51:51] And they're all incorporated into the family line of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
[00:51:56] And their inclusion, I think, shows to us the gracious heart of God towards sinners.
[00:52:03] Sinners are included in the family tree of Jesus because Jesus died on another tree at Calvary, where He died in our place so that we can have the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of eternal
[00:52:15] life. As we wrap up this morning, kind of wrap up the book of Ruth, I want to give kind of three practical lessons to kind of culminate this study, kind of three major takeaways from the book of
[00:52:27] Ruth. We've talked a lot in the book of Ruth about God's providence, about how God orchestrates and orders the events of life. And so one of the major takeaways from this book for us is that God
[00:52:38] providentially works everything together in our lives, including the good and the bad and the sad things to bring about His purpose. Even the sin in our lives, God works it all together to those who love Him, ultimately for our good and His glory. I mean, think about all the things in this
[00:52:55] story. There's a famine. There's disobedience. Elimelech leaves his family away to the land of Moab. In the land of Moab, there's three funerals. Elimelech dies, and Malon and Kilion die. There's desperation on the part of Naomi and Ruth. They have to go out, and Ruth has to
[00:53:16] glean in the barley fields just to survive. But God worked all of these complex, complicated circumstances together to bring the Messiah into the world. God could have done it a different way, but He chose to work through all this sadness and all this sin and all this tragedy to bring
[00:53:35] His purposes to pass. And you and I can be confident that God does the very same thing in your life and mine as well. God can take tragedy and sadness and heartache and sin, and God can weave all of that together and ultimately bring it to good for us and to glory
[00:53:57] for Him. There's a story I read this week, this is a great story, about a pastor who was visiting a men's breakfast in a rural area. And he asked one of the old farmers in attendance to say
[00:54:09] grace that morning. And after everybody got seated, the old farmer got up and started his sermon this way, or started his prayer this way, Lord, I hate buttermilk. The pastor opened one eye and wondered
[00:54:21] to himself where this was going. The farmer then loudly proclaimed, Lord, I hate lard. Now the pastor was worried. However, without missing a beat, the farmer prayed on, and Lord, you know I don't care much for raw white flour. Just as the pastor was ready to stand up and stop everything, the
[00:54:39] farmer continued, but Lord, when you mix them all together and bake them up, I do love fresh biscuits.
[00:54:45] So, Lord, when things come up we don't like, when life gets hard, we just don't understand what You're saying to us.
[00:54:52] We need to relax and wait till You're done mixing, and probably it'll be something even better than biscuits.
[00:54:57] Amen." Now, that's a pretty good prayer.
[00:55:00] It was an unorthodox prayer, but it was full of orthodoxy.
[00:55:05] When God is done mixing together all the elements of our lives, they end up working together for our good.
[00:55:11] For we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, those who are called according to His purpose.
[00:55:19] What is broken, God can mend.
[00:55:22] What is crooked, God can make straight.
[00:55:23] What is bad, God can turn to good.
[00:55:26] And the book of Ruth is about a family that fell apart.
[00:55:29] Think about that.
[00:55:30] This family fell apart.
[00:55:32] They were destroyed.
[00:55:34] But God put them back together in His grace.
[00:55:37] And that truth ought to bring great comfort to each one of us here this morning.
[00:55:41] You may feel like your life's falling apart in some aspect of it, or maybe the whole thing.
[00:55:46] And I want to give you encouragement this morning as you read through the book of Ruth and what God did in bringing all those things together.
[00:55:52] He can do the same thing for you.
[00:55:54] You may hate buttermilk, and we hate lard, and we hate raw white flour.
[00:55:59] But God can bring it all together, and He can make something beautiful out of that in our lives if we'll trust Him.
[00:56:06] A second point in this kind of just main takeaway from this book of all of history is moving toward a happy ending. The book of Ruth has a happy ending, but it points us towards the ultimate happy ending in life. You know, I've called this series,
[00:56:20] I mentioned, Making Ends Meet. And we see that in the book of Ruth, the ends meet from tragedy to triumph, from emptiness to fullness. The ends meet in this book. It all comes full circle.
[00:56:30] But I titled this book Making Ends Meet for a second reason, because really in this book, the ends of history ultimately meet. The book of Ruth goes far beyond itself again to the coming Redeemer, the Messiah, who's going to bring all things in subjection to Himself and make this
[00:56:49] world right. So the ends of history meet in Jesus. And in the book of Ruth here, as in the rest of the Old Testament, there's a messianic trajectory. Ruth arches into the future story of God and its
[00:57:06] final culmination in Jesus. And so just as we have this happy ending here, it points to the final ultimate happy ending that will come through David's greater son, the Lord Jesus. And so that means your story and my story are woven into a bigger tapestry of what God is doing in Jesus
[00:57:27] Christ. And this world we see today that seems like it's falling apart and it's coming apart at the seams, God is going to ultimately put that together again as well and make the ends meet
[00:57:40] when Jesus comes. And that's the hope that you and I have in this world in which we live.
[00:57:45] I think I've told this story before, but I love this story about a father who is intently watching the final minutes of a close football game on television. Has anybody watched a game like that
[00:57:54] recently? Oh, well, kind of dramatic at the end. Well, his little boy came in and asked him to play.
[00:58:01] We've all been there, right? You're wanting to finish this game. You've invested three hours then it's right to the end. And the father sent him away with the promise he'd play soon. The boy comes back like in a minute and just keeps coming back about every minute asking the dad
[00:58:13] to play. So searching for anything that would allow him to watch the game in peace, the father saw a picture of the world on the newspaper in front of him. So he tore it up in pieces like a
[00:58:23] jigsaw puzzle, gives the pieces to his son, says, when you put the picture of the world back together here, then it'll be time to play. So he figures that'll keep him busy for a while. Well, the
[00:58:34] The dad sets in to watch, settles in to watch the rest of this game, and no sooner had he settled in than his son comes in with this picture of the world perfectly assembled and taped together.
[00:58:45] And he said, I did it, Daddy. He says, is it time now to play? Well, the father couldn't believe his son had finished the puzzle so quickly, but there it was, the world taped back together. And he said,
[00:58:55] how did you do this so quickly? And the little boy said, it was easy. I saw there was a picture of Jesus on the other side, when I put that picture together, the world came together too.
[00:59:07] And I love that because when Jesus is put together and when Jesus is put in His rightful place, the world comes together. And Jesus is the only one who's going to be able to put this world back
[00:59:18] together. And He's going to do that someday when He returns again to this earth. He is the Alpha and the Omega. And that's the ultimate happy ending that we have in Him. He's the one who's
[00:59:29] going to make the ends meet in life and in destiny. And then one final thought as we close here this morning. This is the final kind of overarching lesson or takeaway. You can be part
[00:59:41] of this ultimate happy ending by trusting in Jesus. The happy ending that the book of Ruth points to is the ultimate happy ending. Their story points to the end of the story in Jesus Christ, the final Redeemer. So those of us who trust Jesus for salvation will live forever
[01:00:00] with Him, and we will experience the ultimate happy ending, the ultimate happily ever after.
[01:00:07] You know, in my reading I was doing this week on the book of Ruth, I read a lot of books every week, there's only one writer in all the people I read that came up with this little phrase and
[01:00:16] just captured my attention when I read it. The author called this book the Gospel of Ruth.
[01:00:21] That's a beautiful thought here at the end of this, the Gospel of Ruth, because it points beyond Boaz and Ruth and Obed and even beyond David to the ultimate Redeemer, to the ultimate good news
[01:00:34] that we have through Jesus Christ. So if your life is going to have weight and purpose and meaning and significance, you have to make sure that your story is tied to Jesus' story.
[01:00:48] Someone put it this way, if you're not part of His story, you're His story. So if you're not part of His story, your history. Our only hope is to tie our story to His story by trusting in Him.
[01:01:02] That is the only life of significance. It's the only life of purpose. It's the only life of hope.
[01:01:08] And it's the only life that's going to have a happy ending. And it may be that you came in here this morning and walked in here, and you're haunted by sin in your life. Maybe you're haunted
[01:01:19] by your past, some failures you have, and some regrets. I want to encourage you this morning, there's no one beyond the grace of God. The story of Ruth tells us that. The genealogy tells us that.
[01:01:32] The genealogy of Jesus tells us that. God is abundant in loving kindness, and He's ready to forgive. And if you will trust in Him this morning and take Jesus to be your Savior, You'll have the ultimate happy ending in this life,
[01:01:48] no matter what happens in your life between now and the end.
[01:01:51] You're gonna live forever and ever with him in glory.
[01:01:55] That's the hope that we have through Jesus Christ and through the gospel of Ruth.
[01:02:00] Let's pray together.
[01:02:05] Father, we thank you for our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus, and that we can have a happy ending of our life in him through trusting in him, through tying our story to his story.
[01:02:16] Father, I pray if there's anyone here this morning again maybe haunted by sin from their past living in regret that they'd come and receive that full final and forever forgiveness that they can find in jesus christ and in him alone father i thank
[01:02:34] you that you take the difficulties in our lives and the struggles that you weave them together for good for us you take the buttermilk and the lard and the raw white flour and you can make
[01:02:46] something a lot better than biscuits for our life father we thank you that you're working for our good and for your glory. Pray if there's someone here today and some part of their life's fallen
[01:02:56] apart, with a great comfort in your working on their behalf, even right now. Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you that the world will ultimately come together in him. We pray that he will come
[01:03:08] quickly. We ask these things in his dear name. Amen. If you'll stand with me for the benediction, we leave here with the Lord's blessing upon us this morning. And again, thank you for being here
[01:03:20] with us. We appreciate your being with us. I'm sad to leave the book of Ruth. I love this book. I love this study, but I'm excited about next week, and so pray you'll come and join us as we begin our
[01:03:30] new study then. If you're visiting with us, out these doors, a little ways down on the right, there's a welcome center. Some folks here would love to greet you and give you some information about our church. I'll be down front here after the service. Our elders and pastors who are present
[01:03:43] in this service will be down front as well, and we'd love the opportunity to meet you this morning, get acquainted maybe you have a prayer need or a burden how that we can we can share with you this morning let's uh bow our heads now
[01:03:56] for the benediction now may the grace of our lord jesus christ the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with you all all god's people said amen amen god bless you