Sovereign Redemption

Well, good morning. Open up your Bibles to Genesis chapter one.

The title for today is Sovereign Redemption. We're going to accomplish today the goal of understanding how God accomplishes His redemptive purpose, no matter what happens.

Where God accomplishes His redemptive purpose, no matter what happens. And we're going to look at this in three sections. The first section here, we're going to go from Genesis to Judges. We're going to cover that here in the first section. The second section, we're going to go right into Ruth. And then we're going to spend the second half of our time together digging into Ruth. And so that second section is going to go from chapter one through chapter three in Ruth. And then our last section will end in chapter four. And we will break this down and we will understand how God accomplishes His redemptive purpose, no matter what happens. Would you pray with me?

Father, what we know not teach us and what we have not provide us, what we are not make us, we pray these things that you have already promised in your word by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit for your Son's honor and glory. Amen.

So now we're in Genesis chapter one and we are going to start here in verses 26 and 27. This is right after the creation, creation through all the the the week of creation. And here in Genesis chapter one, verse 26 and 27, we see how originally God made Adam and Eve.

In verse Genesis one, 26 and 27, read with me. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, He created him, male and female. He created them." And so here we understand these explicit words here where God created Adam and Eve in His own likeness. He originally created man and woman as His own possession. And as we read through these first two chapters in Genesis, we see how being in God's possession, how He related with them, and it was He was originally part of God's possession acceptable in His presence.

And we see now in Genesis chapter two, look over here in chapter two. Also, this is before the fall that God establishes His law before the fall. In chapter two, read in verse 15 through 17 with me,

says, "Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it."

And we don't really know the details, but he was apparently Adam was somewhere else and God took Adam and he put him into the Garden to cultivate it and to keep it.

And then in verse 16, "The Lord God commanded the man saying, From any tree of the Garden, you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die." And so as we continue along here, God commanded the man. God commanded the man, the first and only law at the time. It was

established that there was, you could eat freely of any tree in the Garden, but it was just the one tree that He was not to eat, that nobody was to eat, Him and His wife. And at the end of chapter two, we read here, "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed."

This is kind of, this is where the status is. You could say, "Before we even need to be redeemed, before redemption is even necessary, before we even need to be brought back, what does that look like to be restored, to be with God? What that looks like? There is going to be law. There is going to be this vulnerability and there is this unashamedness. We see many things here in chapters one and chapter two. I would encourage you to look through that in a little bit more detail and understand what this looks like if redemption wasn't even necessary. It's a wonderful read to be able to concentrate on understanding Genesis chapter one and Genesis chapter two. But we continue reading, don't we? In Genesis chapter three verse one, "Now the serpent

was more crafty than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made."

And we skip down to verse six, which we want to get to, which applies to today. In Genesis chapter three verse six, "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate." And so both the man and the woman committed this sin and violated God's law. It was just the one thing, the one tree that they were not supposed to do, and they did. And so here now the response for God is that we continue reading. And included in the response of God, by God's grace, we skip down to verse 15.

Promise, where in 15 it says, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel."

And so God here makes this first Messianic prophecy. He is, God is, He's calling his shot here. He's making his plan known about what he is getting ready to accomplish as we start unfolding through the scriptures. And now if you continue reading here, I think the applicable verses that I want to concentrate on here is chapter three. In verse 21 through 24, we're in verse 21, chapter three, "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them." This is the first sacrifice. This is the first sign of atonement that Christ would ultimately bring. And God is in essence putting on his indelible mark on both Adam and Eve before he sends them out. He is putting on a mark that he will provide atonement, that he will cover them. And what we know later was to read all the scriptures, cover them in righteousness. So we know when we read scripture that this garment that God made for Adam and Eve, that they are covered. They are, you could say, regenerated as we know now, as far as what this means for Adam and Eve. And it's all because of God. You look at Adam and Eve's response. Do they say any sort of like, "Oh, I'm sorry," or, "I won't do this again," or anything like that? No, this is all a redemptive work of God that we read here and understand. And it's right here in the first few chapters of Genesis where we understand

the grace of God here. So we continue reading here in Genesis three and verse 22 and see how God kind of lays out how the redemptive work is necessary in Christ. In verse 22, "Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. And now he might stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So he drove man out and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword, which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life." So we see here where God places his indelible mark on both Adam and Eve and he sends them out. It's almost just like a marking and sending them out. And you get almost, as we read the rest of scripture, he said, "You know what? I'm going to come and get you. I'm going to come and I'm going to send my son and I'm going to redeem you. And I'm going to show these garments that this is what I mean, that I mean business. There's no one, nothing, no power that can overtake this mark that I put on you." And he has tagged them. He has sent them out. And we read the rest of scripture to understand God says, "I'm going to come get you." And we see that in the person and the work of Christ with the gospel. But we continue reading and shortly after the story of Cain and Abel, we see just the

heinous of sin and the impacts of that. And so sin is prevalent, right? Sin is very, starting to be widespread very quickly in the hearts of the offspring here of Adam and Eve. And so in the context here in Genesis chapter five, this is going to help us understand as we kind of get into Ruth later and for all of us and for all of us today. In Genesis chapter five, verses one through three, read with me as I read along. This is the book of the generations of Adam.

"In the day when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created male and female, and he blessed them and named them man in the day when they were created." When Adam had lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness.

Underline that part, "In his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth." The context of these three verses is in direct contrast to how Adam and Eve were created in the image of God that was acceptable within the presence of God. Here now made in his image, made in Adam's image, it's like a copy of a copy, but these copies now or these images that are being born are from a fallen. And so these are, this is one of the core verses where we understand that those who are born in Adam are in need of redemption. We are in need of being bought back how we are originally created for that we understand how in Genesis chapters one and two show. And so this is leading us into Ruth as we continue to flip through Genesis and we see how God's plans keeps to be unfolding through Noah and through the flood. God preserves Noah and his family. And then we see the promises of Abraham starting in chapter 12 and going forward all the way through Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. And then now with Joseph, right, we see this whole plan being unfolded through being in slavery of Egypt. And so at this particular time we have, this is around 1400 BC. Before I get into that, flip over to the end of Genesis. And this kind of the end of Genesis helps us understand God's plan here as we transition into from the patriarchs into slavery in Egypt. In Genesis chapter 50 in verse 20 and 21,

Joseph is talking here and he says, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive. So therefore do not be afraid. I will provide for you in your little ones." So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. So this verse here just helps us kind of translate that, right? We see where despite all this evil that has happened and that is going on, that God is bringing us through his plan of redemption and that he is doing it for good in order to bring about his purpose and that he will do it. And then so as we now go into in the Exodus and Deuteronomy sections where we understand now where God delivered his people from the Egyptians using Moses, one of the most repeated phrases that we see here in the Pentateuch from Exodus to Deuteronomy is the phrase "brought you out." "Brought you out of slavery." It says a lot of the times it's accompanied with "Remember that I, the Lord your God, brought you out of slavery in Egypt." When I was looking at this in Blue Letter Bible, this phrase "brought you out" is mentioned 36 times within Exodus and Deuteronomy. That's about one every four chapters that remember that I brought you out. Remember that I brought you out. And so the Old Testament redemption is based on the oath that Christ will come. And so you kind of say here, well, what did God pay the cost? Like he brought them out with a mighty hand, but it's also he brought them out based on the promise or the oath that he will send Christ, that he will send himself, that there will become a Savior, that will become a Messiah. And so we go now over to Deuteronomy chapter 24 and we see this phrase

that's accompanied with some other laws that are applicable to today's sermon.

In Deuteronomy chapter 24 verses 17 through 21,

when I was preparing for this, I was blown away by how this connected to Ruth and some of the things that we'll get into here in Deuteronomy chapter 24. We'll get into a little bit later, Deuteronomy as we or Ruth as we come we'll find out was what became an alien and also became a widow. And here it's almost like God had her in mind amongst many others, Gentiles, other people in those days that may be aliens, orphans and widows.

But read with me as I read along here in Deuteronomy 24, 17 through 22.

You shall not pervert the justice due in the alien or an orphan, nor take a widow's and pledge.

From there, therefore I am commanding you to do this thing. When you reap your harvest in your field, I've forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan and for the widow in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan and for the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan and for the widow.

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I am commanding you to do this thing. This is God's sovereign redemption being revealed in scripture.

And so after the Pentateuch, we get into where Joshua and Judges and Ruth, and so this is the time period where you got 1400 BC and the time period between Joshua and Judges. Ruth is kind of inside the period of the Judges. Scholars kind of debate which kind of judge that it would fall under. Some say Jair, but the period between Joshua and Judges is about 1300 to 1100 BC. We know this because at the end of Ruth, it mentions King David, which we'll get into here in a minute, but it's a period of time that kind of helps us understand how this plan of redemption is being unfolded. And so all throughout this record of Joshua and Judges, we see how God's people rebelled and then God delivered. God's people rebelled and then God delivered. And it was not necessarily based on their performance or who they were or what they did, but God still provided deliverance. And at the end of Judges, you might flip over in the last few chapters, the last chapters in verse 21, but in the last few chapters, every now and then you'll see the phrase, "And in those days they had no king. Everyone did as he saw fit. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes." And especially you see that at the very end of Judges. And some would say that Samuel wrote

or collected a lot of the records and authored or authorized the writings and the collection of Joshua and Judges. And so he may have seen the importance of what King David provided. And so he may have made it very clear as far as, wow, this apostasy that was going very clear, there was no king here to be able to establish what right looks like. There was no king in Israel and they did it right in their own eyes. And so here we see here about the moral relativism, right, that has penetrated our culture very deeply where you could see the heart of those, some of us maybe had kind of drift into that before we were in Christ. But this moral relativism is slippery ground, growing in popularity. And what it is, is that it's a shifting of guilt, right? You have this, you have something that happened while with relativism, you can come up with whatever you want to come up with and it kind of helps you shift that guilt to the next. That's very similar to what Adam and Eve did, right? They shifted that guilt, they shifted that to somebody else. And that moral relativism has kind of has penetrated our culture as well. And so when you have no king in your life, meaning like, meaning Christ, you don't have

in your life, in your mind, in your life, your marriage, with your kids, with your future,

you are vulnerable to be drifted to whatever comes along, to whatever comes along on TV, whatever comes along at work, whatever you're scrolling through, that is going to guide you on how you, on what you say, what you do, and that kind of thing. If you're not having that, the King of Christ into your life. And so the main truth for this section is between Genesis and Judges is that I remain lost without God's redeeming work. I remain lost without God's redeeming work. Before redemption, our status is completely separated from God.

We are being held captive in spiritual bondage, right? That's why we need redemption, is to be brought back into his holiness, into his full righteousness, not just half righteousness, not just a little righteousness, but to be brought back to be redeemed back into full righteousness. So I want to understand, when we still understand this concept of redemption, and let alone come around to the idea of sovereign redemption, to understand what we were like before,

and as far as mankind, from Genesis 1 and 2, like where we're going back to, as far as after we're being redeemed, what it's going to look like. But also, in our current state, being born into Adam, into the seat of Adam, we are born in need of redemption. That's why we can confidently evangelize and proclaim, repent, and believe in the gospel, because everybody needs it. Everybody needs to be redeemed. We all need to be redeemed. And so that's utmost important to be able to understand that we need to be redeemed, that I remain lost without God's redeeming work.

And then we know this by Romans 3, 23, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 6, 23, "The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord." These are things that we kind of roll off our tongue, but when we think about it, this is who we are before being redeemed, before being brought back. We have willfully sinned. We have willfully walked out of God's presence and violated His law. And so it's on us. It's our that we need to be redeemed. And so it's in order to be able to do that. And so when we think about these things, what lawless deeds tend to haunt you at times? What lawless deeds tend to haunt you at times? What are some lawless deeds that give you the most guilt? Does the accuser have your ear more than God's redeeming word? Well, being encouraged today as we learn how to rest in Christ. I know we're doing that this month in our PTI. We're learning how and reading and reflecting on how what it means to rest in Christ, where we can be confident in the gospel, where we can be confident in the life of Christ. We can be confident in His crucifixion as we look at the cross, that we can be confident that our sin and our guilt are totally on to Him through faith. And we can we can be confident that the sin is buried with Him. As we see in the in the ordinance of baptism that we're going to learn more about on this Wednesday night, we're going to learn about when you're when you're underneath that you are your sin is buried with you. And then we rejoice. We want to go quick to rejoice in knowing, but understanding the whole process, the whole redemptive process is the process of bringing us back into God's original design on what He He has us in Titus going to the New Testament in Titus to 14. The writer says or Paul says to redeem a people from their every lawless deed for his own possession. And then you might want to write this down because we are in Hebrews and I'm not going to elaborate too much in Hebrews chapter nine verse 15. We're going to get into this a lot more, I'm sure. In Hebrews chapter nine verse 15, make a note of this because when I was reading this and when you may be hearing this,

it may start to click. Hebrews nine chapter 15, I mean all of chapter nine here is is amazing. It helps us connect this redemptive process. In Hebrews chapter nine verse 15, for this reason, He is the mediator of a new covenant so that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

And we keep reading all throughout there in chapter nine and it will bring so much encouragement as you learn who Christ is and the work that He has done.

That guilt that you have, those lawless deeds that you've committed, you know that Christ took them on the cross as He was on there. And through faith, we come to understand that by knowing His resting in Him and what He has done. All right, the second, we're going to get into Ruth now. So now flip back over to if you're in Hebrews, go back over to in Hebrews chapter one.

And this right here kind of gets us kind of zeroed in on this redemptive process even more so. So this first section will be from chapters one all the way through chapter three.

And then for each of these chapters, there's an R word that you might help you to understand and kind of grasp this human drama that has taken place in this historical narrative. Chapter one is the return of Naomi. I'll just give the other two Rs. Chapter two is the rendezvous of Ruth with Boaz. Chapter two is the rendezvous with Ruth with Boaz. And what a wonderful rendezvous that it is that we see here, all glory to God. And then in chapter three, we're going to get into the request, the request of Ruth. Okay, so we have the return of Naomi.

The return is really the return of Naomi and she brings along Ruth that we'll find out. And then the rendezvous of Ruth with Boaz. And then the request of Ruth. This is for this second section here. And the second section is you can put a title if you want, Ruth Before Redemption. Ruth Before Redemption. All right, now read with me as I read along here in Ruth chapter one, verse one. Now it came about in the days when the judges governed and there was a famine in the land and a certain man of Bethlehem and Judah went to Sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons. And so here we kind of start to understand a little bit more about Alemulek and his two sons. And we find out that it was okay for him to kind of visit other lands. But what was wrong with him is that he remained there. And so we kind of learned that as we read along there. And we found out that they were there for more than 10 years there in verse four. And so what had happened is that Alemulek died and his two sons who ended up marrying two Moabite women died as well. And so now you have the wife of Alemulek, Naomi, and you have her two daughters-in-law Ruth and Orpha. All right, and so you have and so what they're kind of dealing with here all throughout chapter one is they're they're responding to now being like a foreigner and three widows. They're being in or you can say an alien or a widow. And so they're being in responsive to that. And so there's a back and forth between Naomi wanting to keep them there. And so but Ruth responds to this invitation to be able to go back to Moab in a way where it's it's so wonderful to be able to read in Ruth chapter one verses 16 through 17. It says, "But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back 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 I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me and worse, if anything but death parts you and me." What loyalty and faithfulness. What a great testimony for Ruth here. Such loyalty and faithfulness to family. She didn't have to, right? I mean, her husband had died and necessarily broke off the family relationship. And Naomi was giving her the excuse to be able to go. But she was loyal and faithful to Naomi. So now let's keep reading along as we learn how the Lord honors this and his sovereign plan of redemption. In verses 19 through 22, we keep reading through how were Naomi returned to the city and the whole town was stirred because of Naomi. She had a high and reverent view of the Lord. She believed in prayer. She had a personal relationship with God. She used the term almighty

there in verse 21 in chapter one, which means El Shaddai, where she knew the Lord. And then chapter one there ends with hope. The last verse in chapter one, it says, "And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest." And so now this harvest period kind of establishes, it starts in the Passover, a Passover time, kind of like a mid April, kind of like right around now, this time

around mid April when Passover happened. And the harvest period would end here at the end of chapter

two, at the end of chapter two, it ends, the harvest period ends. And so there's a, and it ends at Pentecost. So from Passover to Pentecost, there was some other Jewish name for that that I don't have right now, but it was about a 50 day period. So from all of the drama and everything that happens in chapter two, if you think about all these things, it didn't happen just one after the day after the other. And this chapter two, this rendezvous of Ruth and Boaz took a period of 50 days. And so it starts out here in chapter two with a routine and casual manner that Ruth is basically saying, I'm going to go out and get some work. And don't miss here in verse three in chapter two where it says, and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz before she didn't have any information, any idea that that was going to be the kinsmen, redeemer of the, of the family. But we see here and we read through and we understand that she happened to come. We understand that this has got God's sovereignty written all over that. And so in verses one through seven, we see the gleaning of Ruth. And then in verses eight through 16, we see the grace of Boaz where she shows favor to her. And so read with me in verse 12, what Boaz recognizes out of Ruth. And this is also, you know, taken to consideration just what a godly man would look for at a woman. At Ruth chapter two verse 12, "May the Lord reward your work and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge." Boaz acknowledged that even though she was in his field, he recognized that Ruth was seeking, was seeking security under the wings of the Lord, the wings of the Lord. And so what an unselfish response by Boaz not to be, "Oh, you're, you're in my field," you know, but he recognized that Ruth was there to be under the wings of the Lord, the God of Israel. And so what Boaz recognizes here is the, "Our loyal love is a powerful testimony to the presence and power of God in our lives." I think we see that around when we see family, when we see other people in our lives,

where we see loyalty and faithfulness to the same God that we worship, to Christ, that is contagious, that kind of faith. And so it's good to be able to point that out and to be able to, to be able to lift those, lift those people up, especially here within our, within our church. And then as we continue along in chapter two, verses 17 through 23, is the gratitude of Naomi. Ruth comes home and tells Naomi, and Naomi is just overjoyed. She tells Ruth these, this word, she's like, "He is our closest relative." And she uses the word "our." Like, you know, she didn't have to, but she includes our relative with Ruth. What a sign of graciousness from Naomi to be able to, to be able to lift Ruth up and to be able to

have her as family. And you have, you know, two fellow aliens coming back to Naomi's homeland, and they're sticking together. And it's a wonderful thing to be able to see this gratitude of Naomi. You see before in the end of chapter one, where Naomi is bitter. And then you see this transformation at the end of chapter two, where now Naomi is showing gratitude and joy. And so now we get into this chapter three here, the end part of this section two, where now it's the request of Ruth, the request of Ruth. And so as we dive into this a little bit more, just keep in mind, this is God's plan of redemption. Samuel wrote, it is thought to be that judges and Ruth were like one book. You can see it as like a continuous writing. And so when Joshua and judges all over the place, God, or the people were bailed and God delivered, and then now you have this historical narrative about how the author, meaning God, is like showing us this plan of redemption. I've really seen how Ruth is such a key point in Scripture to be able to understand redemption. It's like a link in the chain where God provided Samuel and Hannah's son to be able to have a lifetime of service, to be able to understand the Scriptures and to kind of link this chain between this happened from creation, from Moses, all throughout this time with Joshua and judges. It all comes down to this pivotal moment here in chapter three here with this request of Ruth. Is this going to happen? We'll kind of see what happens. So this keeps kind of building up here. So this request of Ruth, and you can see now here in verses one through five, there are these suggestions of Naomi. Naomi is going through and offering, hey, just kind of guiding her along like, hey, do this and do that. And then in verses six through nine, we see the compliance by Ruth. And so in verse five, you can kind of see here, she says, and she said to her, all that you say I will do. And so Ruth is compliant to her. She knew that she had nothing to offer in this whole redemptive process. And you can kind of see here as you keep reading along that she really had nothing to offer. But Boaz recognizes her, doesn't he? In chapter three, verse 11, in the middle of his response, "Now my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you whatever you ask, for all my people in the city know that you are a woman of excellence."

What a wonderful testimony that Boaz acknowledges Ruth here in this case. There is true love and being joyfully obedient to the will of God. And then in chapter three, as we continue along towards the end of chapter three, Ruth gets back home and Naomi gives her some great advice, even though she's probably overjoyed to the fullest extent. Her advice here says, "Wait, wait my daughter until at the end of chapter three, wait my daughter until you know how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest until he has settled it today."

So this idea of settle, I want to kind of narrow it on because what is going on here is all this drama, all this human drama. And we see God's plan of redemption all throughout. But what makes redemptive, what makes redemption happen is the settling. Is the actual authorization, having the authority to settle. Kind of an idea on that when you look at your bank statement and you look at your transactional activity, you may have scanned a credit card and it takes three days. It says pending. Well, that transaction is not settled. It goes through from the merchant all the way to your bank. It goes through a series of authorized, where all these different third parties have to authorize and approve that transaction for it to settle. And then once happens and that money is exchanged from one institution to the other, maybe even those middle merchants take a little piece, but that's going a little too far. That part is that transaction is settled. So it takes authority. It takes approval for that settlement to occur. And so

Ruth has really has no authorization, no approval in this redemptive process. And so Naomi just says, wait. And it says that for the man will not rest until he has settled it today. What a picture of Christ, right? Where Christ has not settled. You can see the work of Christ and what he did to be able to bring redemption in his 33 years of life and death and burial and resurrection. So that brings us to our main truth for chapters one through three here is that God sovereignly redeems through human drama. God sovereignly redeems through human drama. So are you possibly caught up in drama today? We all are, right? It's something that can very easily discourage us. It can lift us up. We have different drama can be up and down. Life where life doesn't go our way. Sometimes it goes our way. We maybe toss to and fro by different circumstances. It can be tough, but we hold on to these truths and remain steady where God is sovereign. And that despite all and through this human drama that we experience, that God will sovereignly bring redemption to his people. One thing in this in this drama and this redemptive process, you could talk about how it's like it's like before redemption, like with Ruth here, where she established friendships, kind of going back into the text with what kind of took place in this human drama, where she clung to Naomi. And I feel like that's something that we can do here in our church is to be able to initiate continued relationships, especially here, in our families, to be friends with each other, not enemies, to be able to be Christ to each other, which Pastor Casey has gone over many times recently, that we can be able to initiate continued friendship to understand what Christ has done for you and for those within the church. What a glorious thing to be able to be together with a collected group of people who have been you know, wonderful, pure church that we have all thanks and glory to God to be able to bring us together. And so just want to encourage you to be able to initiate those continued relationships, continue making those steps forward into producing solid relationships with here within the church. In John 1513, Jesus said, "Greater has no love, no one than this, that one lays down his life for his friends." In John 1513. Well, this brings us to our last chapter here in Ruth.

And this is redemption. This is the good part where we get into here. And then we get into here 12 verses where the next morning, right after the request of Ruth, the next morning Boaz went to the town gate and sat there. He means business, right? He's right there at the gate. And he talks, he's just getting right in there. And if you're reading through, it's like almost like, it's almost funny, right? You're like, man, this guy is committed. This guy is going all the way. And he is waiting for this, the guy who is the rightful kinsman, redeemer, like Boaz is like next in line. And he knows who has the, who has priority. And he sits there at the gate and he's just watching everyone go by. He waits for the guy who is the kinsman, redeemer in the right. He waits for him to pass by. And he says, "Hey, come here and sit down." He's like, "We're going to do some business." And then he grabs 10 other elders. If you're reading along, he grabs them and tells them, "Hey, sit down. We're getting ready to do some business." Right? And here in these first few chapters in chapter four, he is, he is getting ready to bring the authorization necessary to be able to settle redemption. Okay? Very important to be able to understand that. And so Boaz presents this estate of a limineque and he mentions it without mentioning Ruth and about all of that. And at first the guy says, "Yes, I will redeem that." And then he says, "Oh, no, by the way,

there's this, there's this, there's this woman of Ruth. You're going to have to marry her and take on the name of her husband." And he's like, "Uh, not so much." So he's, and so he rejected, he rejected the redemption. It says here that it would bring conflict within his family's inheritance that he currently had. And so, and so now it was free. It was, it was, well, it, it wasn't free yet. What had settled that, that right to be able to, for Boaz to redeem it, is that the man who had the right, they had the custom to be able to take off a sandal, who the man who had the right, and he handed it over to Boaz who accepted that right. And that transaction of that passing of the sandal, like now Boaz had the man sandal. I don't know what he did with it, but he had the man sandal and at the presence of everyone here, of the witnesses, that settled the transaction that now Boaz will redeem it. And so there in chapter four, verses nine and following, he talks about them being witnesses. And these are almost prophetic, these words here that Boaz says about what this marriage is going to accomplish. He has, he has extreme faith in the Lord God, that this is brought for his, for a purpose that is higher than him. And you, and you see that as you keep reading along here, which is quite amazing.

But, but here in the, the main truth for this, for this, for this last division, is that God promises to redeem his people. God promises to redeem his people.

And actually, I skipped ahead for that a little bit, but we'll go back to the end of chapter four, which is the most important thing for us to be able to understand what this means for us today. We have Boaz talks about this, this, this purpose that is going to happen. And then in verse 14, it says, then the woman said to, to a Naomi, there's actually a woman that, that said to Naomi, blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer today. And may his name become famous in Israel. This is right after we're Ruth and Boaz, they become married and they give birth to a son. And it was this son that we read about who is the grandfather of King David. And that's why most scholars believe that Samuel wrote this is to be able to showcase that this is God's plan of redemption. And we know it even today, even, even, even, even, even better. It helps us canonize the scriptures to build off and give us evidence from what our Lord has said, that how Christ canonized the scriptures, but helps us establish an understanding historical evidences that God has preserved his word over time. But here it's, it is very clear how God promises to redeem his people.

After hitting an all time low, while we touched up on in the first division, about how maybe your guilt may be holding you back to something. Oh, you know, when you go back to Job in Job, 19 verse 25, Job says, I know that my redeemer lives.

And that in the end, he will stand upon the earth. And Job, 19, 25, with the theme of redemption. What good is redeemer if a redeemer is dead? Right. But he says, Job says in 19 verse 25, I know that my redeemer lives and that in the end, he will stand upon the earth. So what does God require of us as men and women today? In response to his redemption, what does this look like? We went in chapter four, where Ruth is, this is a Ruth after redemption. Well, what do what should we do after after redemption? Well, God commands us and requires to repent and to believe in the gospel. We come in here and we worship all the time and we Bible studies prayer, we are reminded of the gospel. And so we need to be able to God requires repentance. And we talked about how justification is not the end game, but having been brought back and declared having been brought back and declared righteous is sufficient for eternal life. But God commands us to own. But God commands his own to live as a holy people. There must be sanctification from God's redeeming justification. The apostle Peter preached in Acts chapter three verse 19.

He said, repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.

That times of refreshing may come from the Lord. And then if you want some more scripture, you can go to first Peter chapter one. But I'm going to end here with John chapter eight.

Right after one of our memory verses in John 8 31, Elder Howe spoke on these

these verses in a wonderful sermon. And I want to remind us here today

in the concept of redemption that in John 8 31, I'm going to read from 34 through 36. But be encouraged of the redemption that has been accomplished. And the words of Christ says it all. And let me read these words.

In John chapter eight verses 34 through 36.

Jesus well before then in verse 33 he says, they answered him, we are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone. How is that you say you will become free? Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son does remain forever. So if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

I know and I hope you know that your Redeemer lives and has brought you from whatever you started at and all the way through the end and where you are today. May we know and we rest in Christ and know that our Redeemer lives. Let me let me pray for us. Lord, we thank you for Beulah Baptist Church and we are so taken back by your word and how you've given us Bibles that we can read and we can download and your inspired words that we have access to them so freely. And may we not take them lightly, but understand that we may know that you have accomplished salvation and that we can put our faith and trust into you. And that when we do that, we can have full confidence that you have redeemed us, that you have brought us back into the acceptable presence of you and that your Holy Spirit would indwell within us and continue working through us in our sanctification, becoming more conformed to Christ. And we are so very grateful in your name. Amen.