Ruth Chapter 4:1-22

Somewhere in our mind, we have it worked out that God is only going to use people that are perfect or better than we are.

He wants to use every one of us. And it's interesting to read commentaries and hear religious people try to explain this family tree away. These are outcasts and rebels and prostitutes and adulterers and murderers, but God used them. Can you understand the message of hope and redemption this offers us all? In Christ, many people think Christianity is a list of do's and don'ts, an impossible standard that beats you down and robs you of joy. But the truth is, God's Word is a lifeline of hope in troubled times. We want to help you rise above the difficulties of life by sending you a copy of Pastor David McGee's four-part teaching series, Living Life by the Book. This empowering resource shows you how to walk with God through everyday life and learn to experience joy, even in hard times. Living Life by the Book is our thanks for your generous gift today to help more people hear God's truth on this station and beyond so they can cross the bridge from death to life. Please visit crossthebridge.com today to give and get your copy of Living Life by the Book.

Now here's David McGee with part three of his teaching, Redeemed. Last few weeks we've been in the book of Ruth. There's four chapters in the book of Ruth. So from a space standpoint, that's a small book in the Hebrew Scriptures, but, boy, without it we would have a lot missing from our New Testament.

And the concept of the Kinsman Redeemer and also with the genealogies, which we'll be looking at tonight. We ought to pick up with chapter 3, verse 18, just for context's sake. When Naomi is speaking to Ruth and talking about the plan of Boaz to mention to this relative that is closer to Ruth, therefore it's his first priority to redeem and he has to actually decline before Boaz comes up to bat, if you will. And here's her advice to Ruth, verse 18. Then she said, sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out, for the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day.

Chapter 4, verse 1. Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there, and behold, the close relative of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, come aside, friend, sit down here. So he came 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 close relative, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, sold a piece of land which belonged to our brother Elimelet. And I thought to inform you, saying, buy it back in the presence of the inhabitants and the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, then tell me that I may know, for there is no one but you to redeem it, and I am next after you. And he said, I will redeem it. Verse 5. Then Boaz said, on the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also buy it from Ruth of Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance.

So now he includes Ruth in the package. And the close relative said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I ruin my own inheritance. You redeem my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging to confirm anything. One man took off a sandal and gave it to the other, and this was a confirmation in Israel.

Therefore the close relative said to Boaz, buy it for yourself, so he took off his sandal. Verse 9. And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was a limilex and all that was chilions and malons from the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth of Moabitess, the widow of Malon, I have acquired as my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from his position at the gate.

You are witnesses this day. And all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. The Lord makes a woman who has come into your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel, and may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar boarded Judah because of the offspring which the Lord will give you from this young woman. So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife, and when he went into her, the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son.

And verse 14. Then the women said to Naomi, blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a close relative, and may his name be famous in Israel. And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him. Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom and became a nurse to him.

This is interesting. The daughter-in-law, speaking of Ruth, says that she is better than seven sons. Now understand, agricultural society, obviously there was an emphasis on having male children so that they could work in these agricultural endeavors.

To be compared even to one son was favorable, but to say that was better than seven sons is an incredible thing. Notice what Naomi does. Naomi takes the child and begins to interact with it, have a relationship with it, and to bless it.

She invested in a younger generation. There's a lot of pictures going on here. We've talked about how Boaz is a picture or a type of Jesus Christ in the book of Ruth.

Now there's certainly some exceptions to that, but overall it's a good picture for us to remember. That would mean that Naomi would be a picture of Israel. And look how Naomi is taken out of the land and she goes and brings back Ruth, who is a Gentile, a non-Jewish person, and introduces Ruth to one of her descendants or her relatives who then in turn blesses her. We owe a debt to Israel.

Why? Because this is a Jewish book. It's a Jewish Messiah. There's only two books like we discussed. There are only two books in here that were written by a Gentile. The rest were written by Jewish authors. The disciples were Jewish men.

We owe a debt. I think when Paul talked about, you know, don't get proud and boastful and boast against the root, I don't think he had any idea how big of a problem that was going to be later on as it is today. And here the offspring of Ruth is blessed by Naomi, who again is a picture of Israel. There is such a huge blessing in digging into our Jewish roots and to exploring the Hebrew Scriptures and seeing the different pictures, seeing, even just isolate the book of Ruth, the blessing that it's been to see the concept of the goel, the kinsmen and the redeemer. It helps you understand more about Jesus Christ.

How do we invest into this younger child? Now, it's also important because I think spiritually we need to understand that kids are important. And yeah, you know, teenagers run around here and almost everybody's mad at them for one reason or another. You know, the music's too loud.

They don't look right. What's up with that T-shirt or the earring or this or that or the other? But you know, God has given us a huge gift and having some kids that are here that love the Lord, that are on fire for the Lord, that are standing up for the Lord. Amen. Yeah. Praise God.

Investing in the next generation. You're listening to Pastor David McKee on Cross the Bridge. He'll be back with more in just a moment. But first, there's so much waiting for you at CrossTheBridge.com. If you haven't visited CrossTheBridge.com yet, come by today and check it out. While you're there, you can sign up for Pastor David's free daily devotional. Listen to more teachings from Pastor David and read about what God's doing through your support to proclaim his word through radio, internet and mobile technologies. Also, you can give online to help encourage more people in their faith on this radio station and beyond. And when you do, please request your copy of Pastor David's four-part teaching series, Living Life by the Book, as our thanks for your generosity.

Visit CrossTheBridge.com today. Now back to today's teaching. Verse 17, Also the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse and the father of David. Obed is the offspring of Ruth and Boaz. Obed means servant. It's the offspring of what happens when we as Gentiles are introduced into Jesus, is service becomes part of that fruitful relationship.

I don't think anybody had any idea how blessed their offspring was at this point. This Obed, this service, this one who part of the fruit of the relationship is service. That's part of our fruit of the relationship with Jesus is service. And we never know how many people our service, our serving, our ministry will impact. If you're around here and you do anything around the church, you're impacting people. It doesn't matter what you do, you are impacting lives. If you do it as unto the Lord, if you're helping clean up the church, let me promise you, there's probably somebody that's watching you do that with joy and being impacted. If you're loving on the kids, there's parents that are watching that and being blessed.

People are being impacted. Why? Because of that fruitful service. You never know what a single act. I don't like random kindness, okay? I don't like, you know, I argue theologically with every bumper sticker I probably have ever seen. That thing of, you know, practice acts of random kindness.

No, no, no, no, no. We are purposeful in our acts of kindness, amen? And you never know what one single act of kindness will do and how many people it will affect. Certainly as we see Obed, the father of Jesse and the father of David, look at this. Famine and heartache and death and poverty lead to the throne of David.

Only God would do something like that. And here's a Moabite woman who's introduced into the lineage or the line of Jesus Christ. This is where it's going. See, I understand that the genealogies in the Bible follow from Adam the lineage of Jesus Christ. And once it gets off that branch from Jesus Christ, what you're going to find is that it just quits talking about him. But it follows that single thread all the way through. Like, you know, once it picks up Esau, it doesn't take that very far, Bob, because that's not the lineage of Jesus Christ. But it keeps cranking down the line and shows us the lineage of Jesus Christ. And this is important.

Why? Because when Jesus was planning out this whole thing and choosing his family tree, he didn't just put people in there that got it right. He put misfits and outcasts and rebels and people who messed up. He put them in there knowing they were going to be that kind of person. And then he doesn't hide it. He puts it in the book of who these people were and what they did. Jesus took these people, beat up, messed up, people who struggled, people who fell, and he used those very people to give the world the best news that it's ever heard, that God came to this earth to die for our sins, that we could be in a fellowship with him.

What an amazing thing. And he's still doing the same thing. God desires a relationship or fellowship with other people. And guess who he's going to use to do it?

He's going to use us. See, our sins were in the way of our relationship with God. God solves that and says, okay, go tell other people. Go tell other people. Well, I don't have everything right yet. It doesn't matter.

Go tell other people. You're not ever going to have everything right. The life lesson here, God uses people who are not perfect to change a world that is not perfect. God uses people who are not perfect to change a world that is not perfect.

Do me a favor. Keep your finger here in Ruth chapter 4. Let's go to Matthew chapter 1, the first book of the New Testament.

And let's look at part of this lineage. Part of it's in Matthew. Part of it's in Luke. For Tom's sake, we're just going to stay in Matthew.

We'll pick it up. Verse 1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zerah, but Tamar. Perez begot Hezron and Hezron begot Ram and Ram begot Amenabab. And Amenabab begot Neshon and Neshon begot Solomon and Solomon begot Boaz by Rahab. Boaz begot Obed by Ruth. Obed begot Jesse and Jesse begot David the king.

David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. Let's just stop there. This is quite the family tree, isn't it? Now, I don't know if you have any...

There's no real good way to say it. I don't know if you have any, like, scary aunts and uncles in your family tree, but it's not the kind of thing that perhaps you promote or advertise that you're related to them. But look at this. Jesus is not hiding this. And in case you're not sure of this list, we have Tamar, who in Genesis, I think, 38, acts like a prostitute. We have Rahab, who Judges 2 tells us was a prostitute. We have Ruth, who was a Moabitess, part of an idolatrous people, who engaged in all kinds of weird sacrifices. We have David, who was a murderer and an adulterer. We have his wife in verse 6, who was an adulterer.

And that's just six verses, guys. And yet, God uses this family tree to bring us a message of hope. And part of what we walk away with is, you know what? God will use any of us. Somewhere in our mind, we have it worked out that God is only going to use people that are perfect or better than we are. And God, He wants to use every one of us. And it's interesting to read commentaries and hear religious people try to explain this family tree away.

There's no explaining it away. These are outcasts and rebels and prostitutes and adulterers and murderers. But God used them. Can you understand the message of hope and forgiveness and redemption this offers us all? As we look at our own lives and see our failings and see our shortcomings and see how messed up some of our pasts have been, God leaves that part of the story in there and says, these are the people that I'll use because I'll use anybody that will surrender their life to me.

It's an amazing thing. Let's go back to Ruth chapter 4 and pick it up. We'll pick it up verse 18. Now, this is the genealogy of Perez. Perez begat Hezron, Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Amenadab, and Amenadab begat Nashon, and Nashon begat Solomon, and Solomon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed. Now, see, we know who Boaz's mother is an interesting thing. We know who Boaz's mother was from Matthew 1.

It was Rahab, the prostitute spoken of in Judges chapter 2, and Matthew chapter 1 gets the genealogical information from this. If we didn't have the Book of Ruth, part of the genealogy would be missing, but we haven't. It's a story of redemption. I mean, this book is a story about redemption. Now, I'm saying that about the Book of Ruth, and I'm also saying about the whole book. This whole book is a book of redemption. It's not a list of dos and don'ts.

It's not a list of rules and regulations. It's summed up in a few short sentences. God created man, man messed up. God won't stop until He wins some back. That's the story of redemption. God is chasing people this evening in this very place, chased them right into the church so that He could remind them how much He loves them and how He's been looking for them. Now, some of you this evening might be thinking, well, yeah, but I found God. You found God. How long did He chase you before you found Him?

I know He chased me for a long time. And still, you know what's amazing? After we come to the Lord, we look around at those who haven't come to the Lord yet, family, friends, relatives, people who aren't doing so well. And we go, you know, God can do a lot of things, but I don't think He can do that. Never underestimate the power of the grace of God. That's the life lesson, the next life lesson. Never underestimate the power of the grace of God.

It's always a pleasant shock to somebody when they find out what I'm doing now. And some of you have come and said, yeah, I was inviting somebody to church and they went to school with you and I told them who the pastor was and they laughed. Praise God. Don't underestimate the power of the grace of God. I went over to the Christian television station to do something one night and I walked in there and I saw a guy that I used to go to school with and he looked at me and he said, what are you doing here? I said, well, sit down, brother, let me tell you a story about the power of the grace of God.

Don't underestimate that. Not in your life, not in the lives of friends and family and relatives. Oh, they may look lost and they may be lost, but no one is beyond the reach of the power of God.

Nobody. Verse 22, Obed begot Jesse and Jesse begot David. Now we'll watch through the entire Hebrew scriptures, the entire Old Testament and after this book going into 1 Samuel, we'll see it take a turn towards King David and what follows the family line of Jesus Christ. And such care was taken in preserving these genealogies for us so that we might know these things. Such care was taken so that we might see these things.

That's interesting. Even in this book of Ruth, three chapters, it starts out with three funerals and famine and death and exile and all these things and then gleaning and poverty and all these things and then ends with a marriage and redemption and a king. 75% of your life might be filled with hardship and famine and all these things, but there's that last chapter where everything turns around. And even if you come to the Lord late in life, don't think, well, I've wasted all this time.

Never think that because God can even redeem those years that were wasted according to your mindset. He will restore what the locust and the canker worm have eaten away. He was even able to take that time that Moses, after 40 years, then he goes out in the desert for another 40 years and we think, well, he was just wandering around aimlessly. He was running from the warrants that Pharaoh had for him. But keep in mind, Moses came back and then led the people of Israel out where into the desert. And because he spent time in the desert, guess what? He knew where the watering holes were.

He knew where the places to feed the flocks were. Why? Because he wasted that time in the desert. Maybe you feel like you've wasted time.

Maybe you have. But God is able to redeem that time and use it for his glory. The story's not finished yet.

It's not over. Your story, your life story's still being written. And God in his redemptive power is able to restore and redeem. And the glorious thing about being a believer is that your past does not accurately predict your future. Your past does not accurately predict your future. God knows what your future is. Let me share a part of your future. Revelation chapter five, verse nine and 10.

It says, but they sang a new song. You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and have made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign on the earth. It doesn't get much better than this. God chose us, chased us, redeemed us. Now he's given us a hope and a future. And now that he's done that, we should turn and look for those who don't yet know, those who feel like they're back to the Red Sea, they're surrounded by mountains and Pharaoh's army and give them this word of hope. Creator of the universe is looking for them to redeem them and even to take the years that were wasted and to use them to encourage others to come into that relationship with Jesus and to come into a growing, deepening relationship with Jesus. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Do you ever feel beaten down or even crushed by the difficulties of life? We all do sometimes, but Jesus offers a life of hope, and we want to help you embrace it. Discover how Christ empowers you to rise above life circumstances with Pastor David's four-part teaching series, Living Life by the Book. This uplifting resource takes you through the Book of Ruth to reveal how the simplicity of living for Jesus can bring you joy even in the darkest times. Living Life by the Book is our thanks for your generous gift today to help more people hear God's truth on this station and beyond so they can cross the bridge from death to life. Please visit crossthebridge.com today to give and get your copy of Living Life by the Book. You know each day comes with its share of stresses, so what better way to wake up than with an encouraging word from the Lord? Visit crossthebridge.com and sign up now for David McKee's email devotionals. Each devotion includes a scripture and a message from the heart of David McKee. It's easy and it's free. Sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks for listening to Cross the Bridge with David McKee. Join us again next time as we continue in the book of Galatians.