FBC Morning Worship Service

A good morning on this chilly, chilly Lord's Day morning. Glad you made it out today and your car started and all that good stuff. I got up this morning and checked my phone and it said it was 13 below zero outside.

I thought, oh boy, what a good day to get out and gather together and get some warm fellowship. Well, I hope it'll be warm fellowship today, even if the temperatures are not all that warm. And we'll just enjoy being in the house of the Lord together.

Sunday Announcements and Upcoming Church Events

So a few announcements just want to emphasize from your bulletin. After the service this morning, we do have a soup luncheon scheduled and being set up and prepared even now as we speak. And I hope you can stay for that, enjoy a time of fellowship together.

Food will be served so you don't have to worry about picking stuff up and all that kind of thing. It'll be served for you. And we'll do that together. And then at one o 'clock this afternoon, we'll have our annual meeting of our church.

So all who are members, anybody who is interested in the church meetings and what we're doing and so on and so forth are welcome to attend. Members, of course, would want to participate as well. And then these things, I know you can read your bulletin, but I just want to emphasize them because of the timing involved.

Next Sunday evening is the Valentine dinner for adult couples at Michael and Kelly's home. And if you can make that, encourage you to sign up on the signup sheet. That's at six o 'clock next Sunday evening and meeting together there at their place.

And then the following Sunday, we'll get into the routine of our typical Sunday routine during the winter months, which is a Sunday school at 9 .30. Sunday school next week, of course, as well, but Sunday school 9 .30, the morning service, and then bring your own lunch for lunchtime.

And then at one o 'clock, we'll have an afternoon service. And that begins two weeks from today. So please note that on February 21st. And then the following week, if there are those who are interested in being baptized, we'll plan a baptismal service as part of the morning service.

So we'll do that three weeks from today. Do need to hear from you. If you want to be baptized, you have trusted the Lord as your savior, but have not yet followed him in baptism, then I encourage you to do so, go exhort you to do so.

The Lord told you to do that. And so if you want to follow the Lord in obedience and do it on that Sunday, then let us know as soon as possible. Well, again, we've gathered together today to worship the Lord.

And as we begin Psalm 47, verses six and seven, exhort us to sing praises to God. Sing praises, sing praises to our King. Sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with a Psalm or with a song.

And so we're going to begin the service doing just that, singing praises to the Lord. Jim, please come lead us.

That's on page number two in your hymnals. Number two, come Christians join to sing. It's good to be in the house of the Lord. So let's all stand together and sing together all three verses. Number two, come Christians join to sing.

Come join to sing, Alleluia, Amen Loud praises Christ our King, Alleluia, Amen Let voice before His throne rejoice Alleluia, Amen Come lift your hearts on high, Alleluia, Amen Let praises fill the sky, Alleluia, Amen

He is our guiding King, to us He'll climb the sand His love shall never end, Alleluia, Amen Praise yet our Christ again, Alleluia, Amen Life shall not end astray, Alleluia, Amen On heaven's blissful shore, His goodness reigns

We'll adore singing, Alleluia, Amen Remain standing, please. Dan, would you lead us in prayer, please?

Father, again, we thank you. We praise you for your goodness to us, your mercy and your grace this past week with the weather and different conditions, Father. Father, as we look forward to hearing your word, may we open our hearts and our minds, give us clarity as pastor preaches your word.

And Father, as we sing these songs, may we lift our voices to you, giving you the honor and praise. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Today, the first Sunday of the month, we commemorate the Lord's table together and the Lord's supper and to prepare our hearts and keeping in mind, it very nicely dovetails with the theme of the book of Ruth, which focuses on the Redeemer.

Christ is our Redeemer, and He is able to be our Redeemer, and He redeems us on account of His work on the cross, redeems us with His blood on the cross. So as we prepare our hearts for the Lord's table in a few minutes, we want to read on the back of your bulletin, Psalm 22.

It's the first eight verses of that psalm that we want to read together, and then we'll sing a hymn together to also go along with that psalm, and then we'll have the Lord's table. Psalm 22, verses one through eight, the psalmist writes prophetically, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? Oh, my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hear us not, and in the night season, and am not silent, but thou art holy. O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were not confounded. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people.

All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. The Lord add his blessing to the reading of this psalm together, and shall we sing of that great work of our Savior on the cross, no blood, no altar now, Jim.

And he certainly did delight in him, and we do too. Let us sing together number 50, number 50, no blood, no altar now. We'll sing verses one, two, and four. One, two, and four of number 50. God's hand on high to which our peace is made

Our victory is won. Great victory, o 'er hell and sin. Needs no second fight and leaves no second foe. Thank thee for the hope so glad and sure and clear. Holds a drooping spirit up till dawn or dawn appear

Fair hope with what a sunshine does it cheer. The deepest path on earth, our dearest desert

The Cross of Christ in John 19

And to prepare our hearts for the Lord's table also, I want to read John's account of the crucifixion. John chapter 19, verses 17 through 30. Read that they took Jesus and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.

There they crucified him and with him two others, one on either side and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.

Many of the Jews read this inscription for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priest of the Jews said to Pilate, do not write the king of the Jews, but rather this man said, I am the king of the Jews.

Pilate answered, would I have written? I have written. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier, also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

So they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture which says, they divided my garments among them, and for my clothing, they cast lots.

So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and this disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, woman, behold, your son.

Then he said to the disciple, behold, your mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her to his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst.

A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the spirit.

As we partake of these elements today, we rejoice that our Lord Jesus was willing to yield up the spirit, to hang there on that cross and that agonizing scene and even the heart-wrenching scene of his mother before him.

And he did all that willingly. He did all that for you and for me. He did all that for his beloved. He did all that for his church. He did that for us. And we remember that. The Lord told us as often as we take these elements to remember the Lord's death until he comes.

And so if you have your little handy cup thing together, you want to prepare that bread. We want to thank the Lord for these elements that represent his work. Our Father and our God, we are thankful for the body of Christ, our Savior that was broken in our behalf, his blood that was shed.

We thank you for even these elements that we will partake of here in a moment, for gifting these to us as reminders of our Savior's work on the cross. Blessed we pray in Jesus' name, amen. This poem that came across last year related to the work of Christ.

It says, turn thy lustful gaze away from earth's sin and vain display. Turn and look on Calvary where a cross was raised for thee. See the gentle hands are nailed. See the feet by spike impaled. See the brow the thorns have torn.

Twas for thee his anguish born. Our Lord gave his body to be broken. And he said, take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. The poet continues. Look, behold the crimson tide flowing from his pierced side.

Look, and know to cleanse thy guilt was his blood and mercy spilt. Know it was thy soul he sought. Pardon thus for thee he wrought. Look, my heart, amazed to see how he loved and died for thee. And the Lord took the cup, representing his blood on the cross.

And he said, this cup is the new testament in my blood which is shed for you. Drink ye all of it. And we do thank you, our Savior, our Lord, our King. You gave your body to be broken for us. We thank you for the blood that was shed, the blood of the new testament, the new covenant that was shed for us.

You have said, oh Lord Jesus, that whosoever would eat of your flesh and drink of your blood would know eternal life. And we reflect this morning that we have come by grace, through faith, to trust in that work of Christ on the cross.

You're giving your body to be broken. You're pouring out of your blood to be shed for us. Thank you, Father, for providing that gracious and glorious meal for our eternal life. Bless this, we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.

Prayer for Missionaries, the Grieving, and Believers in Afghanistan

We're going to continue in prayer here in just a moment and a few prayer requests to share together as we pray as a church family. Our Missionary of the Week this week are the Hammermeisters, Darren and Elizabeth, serving in New Brunswick, suburb Surrey outside of Vancouver.

I was in communication with Darren earlier this month, well, last month, I guess. This is February, isn't it? And mentioned to him that kind of had a goal that I'd like to come visit him this summer as a missions trip.

And they thought that was great, but they also had some plans or desire to do some furlough ministry within Canada. They're supporting churches in Canada. But he said, it's all going to depend on the COVID stuff and restrictions.

Well, since that time, the Canadian government has become incredibly strict and restrictive on travel. So for example, only essential travel into the country is allowed. And if you were to go into the country of Canada right now, you would have to prove when you got there that you had a negative COVID test, and then you would be quarantined for three days.

You'd have to get another test, be quarantined for three days until the results of those tests. And then if they came back negative, you'd have to quarantine in a home somewhere for 14 days, I think it is, or maybe another 10 days, whatever, before you could even go out and do anything anywhere.

So very, very restrictive. And so I communicated with Darren this week and said, I'm not so sure with the attitude and thinking of the Canadian government that that kind of a trip is even going to be possible, because I'm certainly not going to get a COVID test unless I absolutely have to and have no choice in the matter.

And I'm certainly not going to do that. So he understood, and he said, yeah, I don't blame you. I wouldn't either. And he said, I've already canceled all my furlough plans because of what they're even requiring within the country.

So it's just a very difficult time in Canada. And pray for Darren and Elizabeth as they try to hold their nucleus of a church together with very limited capabilities, so pray for them. Also, I mentioned this morning to pray for, in Sunday school, pray for Bobby Klein.

That's the son of Bob and Jerry. His mother-in-law passed away and family is grieving with that. So I want to pray for them to be, God would be gracious and give them comfort. Also encourage you to pray for our believing brothers and sisters in Christ in Afghanistan.

We don't often think about believers in difficult places, do we? But we should, we should think more of them. I came across something the other day that mentioned that anybody who claims to be a Christian in Afghanistan essentially has to keep it a secret.

It has to be a private, they have to keep it private because otherwise they would be executed. It's a capital offense to publicly proclaim you're a Christian in Afghanistan. And what a challenge for the obedient Christian to be able to live out his Christian life in such a climate because you want to testify of Christ, you want to share the gospel with others.

So they have to be extremely careful in how they do that. So I want to pray for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. Let's look to the Lord in prayer, shall we? So our Father, we are grateful that we can intercede in behalf of others because of our Savior Jesus, our great high priest.

And we can intercede for them because he intercedes for us. And because you have encouraged us and called upon us to pray for one another. And so this morning we do pray for the Hammermeisters, for Darren and Elizabeth and their work in British Columbia.

I pray that in spite of the difficult government restrictions, that that work would prosper. Bless Darren's faithfulness through these years. Keep that nucleus of a church together and eager and hungry to meet together, to grow in Christ together.

I pray that you would prosper that work greatly. Father, we do pray for Bobby Klein and for his family, for his wife and loved ones in the death of his mother-in-law. I pray that you would give them comfort and assurance of his mother-in-law's soul's eternal destiny.

And I pray that you would use whatever funeral service, memorial service is arranged for her, use it as a time to draw people to yourself as they contemplate the harsh reality of the brevity of life and the certainty of death and the prospect of eternity.

Draw people to yourself through that, we pray. And Father, I think of our brothers and sisters in Christ in Afghanistan, countries like this, but of Afghanistan particularly today, as the difficulty of even being a Christian is so great and the danger of being identified as a Christian is great.

I pray that you would protect your people in Afghanistan. And I pray that in spite of the extreme hatred and hostility toward the church, toward Christianity in that country, that like in other places as in China, that the church would grow and it would prosper and that believers would find creative ways to be able to share the faith and to share the gospel and that you would use their courage, their boldness and the gospel to bring people to faith in Christ.

Defeat the work of these who are so filled with hate toward Christ and toward his people, we pray. Overcome their wicked intentions. Our Father, I pray this morning as we continue in this service and we turn our attention to the hope that we have in Christ our Redeemer, that you would bless our service, the remainder of it.

In Jesus' name we pray. All right, Jim's gonna come and lead us in one more hymn. Jim.

That's in your blue books, that is your supplements, number 62. Number 62, there is hope. We'll sing all three verses together. Let's stand together, please. Number 62, there is a hope. There is a strength for every passing day A glimpse of glory now revealed in me Your part yet drives no doubt away I stand on Christ that sins forgiven And Christ in me the hope of heaven my highest calling My deepest joy to make his will my own There the hope that drifts my weary head A consolation strong against despair That when the world hath plunged me in its deepest pit I find the Savior there Through present sufferings, future fear He whispers courage in my ear for I am safe If things serve, they will lead me home There's a hope that stands the test of time That lifts my eyes beyond the looking grave To see the matchless beauty of day divine When I behold his face When suffering cease, sorrows die And every longing satisfied Then joy unspeakable flood my soul for I am truly whole

Please be seated.

Ruth 4 and the Fruit of Hope

If you would take your Bible and turn to Ruth chapter four, Ruth the fourth chapter. There is no good place to stop once you begin the reading of this fourth chapter. So I want to read the chapter together as this incredible story comes to a conclusion.

Again, I'm reading this week from the ESV. There are some key places of translation that are very helpful as it's translated out of this updated version. So I want to read Ruth chapter four. It says, Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there.

And behold, the Redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, Turn aside, friend, sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down. And he took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, Sit down here.

So they sat down. Then he said to the Redeemer, Naomi who has come back from the country of Moab is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it and say, buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.

If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me that I may know for there is no one besides you to redeem it. And I come after you. And he said, I will redeem it. Then Boaz said, The day that you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.

Well, then the Redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging.

To confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other. And this was the manner of attesting in Israel. So when the Redeemer said to Boaz, buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal.

Then Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belong to Elimelech and all that belong to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place.

You are witnesses this day. And all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel.

May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem. And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And he went into her and the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer.

And may his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age. For your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.

Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name saying, a son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Now these are the generations of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Aminadab, Aminadab fathered Nashon, Nashon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.

Bless this text to our hearts this morning, oh Lord, as we consider the fruit of hope that is centered in our redeemer. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Some of you are gardeners and you have already started the process of hoping for the harvest, haven't you?

You've ordered your seeds. I don't know that you've got them in the starter pots yet, but you've at least done that much. And I know that that has happened in our household and there's been these packets of seeds that have arrived and are looking forward to the starting plants and then transplanting them out into the garden and then looking forward with great hope and anticipation for the bountiful harvest to be reaped in the late summer and the early autumn.

We had a friend of ours, and this has happened, I'm sure, to you who are gardeners, who went through that process and stoked the hope and transplanted those starter plants and even some seed in her garden.

This was in Vermont. And the plants came up, they were looking beautiful, and she was hoping with great anticipation for the fruit of the harvest. Ah, but it was not to be. The deer came and found the corn and there was no sweet corn left to be had.

Other critters came into the garden and they ate all the leafy vegetables and they stripped just about everything. There was almost nothing to harvest, almost no fruit that came from that hope. That's a pretty disappointing thing, isn't it, when you're building up, anticipating the fruit of your hope and then it's all dashed?

But it's quite the opposite, isn't it? It's quite an exhilarating thing. It's an exciting thing when you've been anticipating, your hope has been building and growing and you've watched it germinate and you've seen it blossom and then when it finally comes to fruition, the fruit of hope is born, there's a great deal of excitement and joy that comes from that.

Well, here we are at the end of this wonderful book in the Old Testament, this book of Ruth. And it's a book that started out in dark despair, didn't it? Utter hopelessness. The first chapter ends with Naomi being cast into the depths of hopelessness.

Don't call me Naomi anymore, don't call me pleasant anymore, call me bitter. The Lord has dealt bitterly with my soul. But this hope that has died at the beginning of the book, it is restored, it germinates in chapter two and it blossoms in chapter three until finally this hope bears fruit at the end of the story.

And it's all because of a Redeemer. It's all because of a Redeemer. Notice how the fruit of hope is born because of this Redeemer's commitment. Back in chapter three, in verses 11 to 13, remember how Boaz made an unconditional promise.

Look at what he said in verse 11, chapter three. He's speaking to Ruth and he says, now my daughter, do not fear. He's making a promise, an unconditional promise to overcome her fears. Don't fear, you don't need to fear any longer.

Do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. Now it's true that I am a Redeemer, yet there is a Redeemer nearer than I. And then look at what he says.

Remain tonight and in the morning. If he will redeem you, good, let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning. What he's promising here is to secure redemption, to secure her redemption.

He allays her fears and he makes this unconditional promise to secure her redemption and to do so swiftly. He's not gonna let any grass grow under his feet on this one. He says it in verse 13, I'm gonna take care of this in the morning.

Lay down till then, go back to sleep. He makes an unconditional promise. So there's Redeemer's commitment to make this promise is then fulfilled in chapter four, verses one to 10. He is committed to fulfilling the promises that he has made.

And so what does he do? As the chapter opens, he acts swiftly. Now, Boaz had gone up to the gate and he sat down there. This would have been something he did early in the morning because the gate was the passageway through which the people in the village would go out into the fields to take care of their fields, to harvest their crops and so forth.

This was the time of harvest. And so, and they'd go out to the threshing floor and do whatever they do out in the fields. And so anybody who's going out to the field to work would pass through the gate.

What do you need to get there early? And there he is, he's there at the gate. He acted swiftly, just as he said, he promised that he would do. But he also acts prudently, he acts prudently. Because what he does is as he is there at the gate, he sees the nearer Redeemer come by, the nearer kinsmen coming by and he calls him to sit down, have a seat.

And he doesn't tell him why yet. He says, hey, come here, we've got something to deal with. Come, have a seat. He comes and sits down. But before he discloses the purpose of that gathering, that meeting, he also calls for some other witnesses, 10 elders of the village, as they come by one at a time.

Hey, come here, I need your help here, come have a seat. And everybody knew what was going on. I mean, this wasn't like, oh, this is odd, this is weird. No, this is the way things were done, to legalize matters, to gain witnesses to some kind of a transaction.

So he acts prudently. He went to the gate, the place of official meeting, and he gathered witnesses who could attest to the purpose of the meeting. He acted swiftly, he acted prudently, but he also acted shrewdly.

Look at what he does here. Look at what he does. He takes an approach that is more likely to allow him to have this woman that he's grown to love for himself. I didn't say he acts selfishly, no. He's acting shrewdly, wisely, we could say.

Because the other guy, he doesn't love Ruth. If the other guy redeems Ruth, he's gonna redeem Ruth as a business transaction. He's gonna redeem Ruth for some reason other than love. Boaz, on the other hand, he really cares about this woman.

He really has grown to love her and appreciate her for who she is. So he wants to do what he can do wisely and prudently and shrewdly to ensure that he actually gets her for himself. So what he does in the first place he extends an enticing offer to the redeemer in verses three and four.

He tells him, he says, Naomi, who's come back from the country, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to her husband, Elimelech. Now, just to give us an understanding of the nature of how this worked, people would have their house in the village.

And typically the village was somehow walled or fenced in and there was a gate that led out. I mean, the wall was for protection, obviously. So people would have their home in the village, but this was an agricultural area.

So they had their fields outside the village. They didn't live where their field was. So they would have all the field area, the cultivated area for their plants, their harvests, their crops, and so forth.

They'd have that outside of the village itself and it would all be marked. And they'd have these landmarks. And the landmarks would identify whose parcel was whose. It's like earlier in the story, Ruth just happened to go buy the parcel of land that belonged to Boaz.

Boaz's residence wasn't on that land. These parcels would often have maybe shelters for protection from the sun, for taking a break and having lunch and so on and so forth. But they didn't live there.

So Naomi and Ruth were living in the house in Bethlehem that was Elimelech's. But Elimelech had this parcel of land. He owned this parcel of land outside the village that would be his family's land in their inheritance in perpetuity.

Well, Boaz tells this nearer kinsman, he says, Naomi has this land that was Elimelech's and she's wanting to sell it. And he says, I thought I would tell you before I buy it because you're a nearer kinsman.

So if you buy it in the presence of the elders, then fine. If you want to redeem it, redeem it. If you'll not tell me because I'll buy it. Well, the guy says, well, sure. I mean, the land is very desirable.

The land is key to wealth. I mean, if you're a farmer, you need the more land you have, the more opportunity you have for harvest, the more harvest you have, the more opportunity you have to prosper financially.

And so this guy looks at this opportunity and says, oh, you know, I make an investment in this land. This is a great deal. I can buy this parcel and I can have crops grow. I mean, it'd be mine. I never have to worry about, you know, the Old Testament allowance in the year of Jubilee, you know, that the land would revert back to the family of inheritance.

This would now be his. He wouldn't have to ever relinquishing it. Nothing but profit. So Boaz gives him this enticing offer, and he says, great, I'll redeem it. But then Boaz comes back in his shrewdness here.

He comes back and throws in a complicating condition. He says in verse five, well, here's the deal. When you buy the land, you also acquire Ruth, the Moabite. Notice how he emphasized that. You also acquire Ruth, the Moabite.

And when you do that, acquiring Ruth, the Moabite, what you're gonna have to do is you're going to have to have a child by her that will perpetuate the name of Elimelech. Oh, well, now, hold on just a minute.

There is an unwanted entanglement. Ruth, I'm going to acquire Ruth, the Moabite. So this deal isn't just a matter of getting some land that's going to enrich me in perpetuity. I'm gonna also have this Moabite woman come into my household, into my home, into my family.

And I'm going to have to perpetuate the family name through Ruth. By the way, do you understand that? I mean, I don't know that you understand it, but you know about that arrangement, that if a family was gonna die off, then, okay, so going back to Boaz's ancestry, his tribal ancestor, Judah.

Judah was the father of the tribe in which Boaz was a member. You remember how Judah had two sons, Ur and Onan. He had three, actually, but two sons, Ur and Onan. Ur, the firstborn son, married Tamar, and Ur died without having a son.

Well, then Ur's brother was to take Tamar as his wife, and the first son born of that marriage would carry on the name of Ur. You remember that? All right, well, this is a similar situation. Ruth's husband's died.

There is no son in Naomi Ruth's family. There is no son. So there's nobody to carry on the family name of Elimelech. So, Mr. Nerer Kinsman, Boaz says, when you buy that piece of land, you're also going to acquire Ruth the Moabite, and when you have a son from Ruth the Moabite, that son is going to have the name of Elimelech and carry on the name of Elimelech, and that property, by the way, is going to be his inheritance.

That's a complicating factor. And so in verse six, the Nerer Kinsman gives an answer whereby Boaz receives the conclusion that he wanted in the first place. The Kinsman says, I cannot redeem it for myself lest I impair my own inheritance.

Take my right of redemption for yourself for I cannot redeem it. He expressed here an unwillingness to ruin his own inheritance. I can't do this or I'll ruin my own inheritance. And the word he uses is an interesting word.

In other places in the Old Testament, it's translated to corrupt, to cause it to go to ruin. What was it that would corrupt his own inheritance? Now, you think about this. Is he concerned about an economic ruin or is he concerned about a moral ruin?

Here's where I'm going with that. The emphasis on Boaz's part of taking or acquiring Ruth, the Moabite woman, ooh, if I take a Moabite woman, that's going to corrupt my inheritance. Think back of the history of Israel.

It hasn't been all that long ago, really, in its history when the Israelites were on the eastern side of the Jordan River and the Moabite women came and enticed the Israelite men and caused them to sin and to commit idolatry.

And that caused a whole slew of them to die. And there was great consternation. There was this, from then on, sort of you look askance at a Moabite woman because it was the Moabite women that led the Israelite men into sin.

And I'm going to acquire a Moabite woman? Is he concerned about an economic ruin or a moral corruption? You don't really know the answer to that question, but whatever the case, his conclusion is, I don't want the problem.

I don't want the hassle. And he relinquished his claim. That led the Redeemer, Boaz, to act decisively in verses seven to 10. And he says, okay, I will redeem it. I will redeem it. They go through this little custom of the taking off of the shoe, and that symbolized the transfer of rights or ownership or whatever.