Redemption, Accomplished & Applied

Ruth chapter 4, for the sake of time, I'm not going to read the entire scripture first and then read the verses again as we go through them, but I will read all the verses as we go through it.

For preparing ourselves to hear the message of Ruth chapter 4, we'll just pick up a couple of key verses from each of the main parts of it.

We find here, this is the morning after Boaz had committed himself to Ruth to provide the redemption that she and Naomi so desperately need.

Remember, he said, in the morning, I will take care of this. I will redeem the land, as the

Lord lives, I will redeem it, he said. At the end of chapter 3, Naomi said, the man will not rest until the matter is settled.

And here we come to the matter being settled by Boaz. In verse 4, and again

I said I'm just going to pick up a couple of verses to get you the context of what's happening here, and then we'll read it verse by verse as we go through.

In verse 4, he says to the Redeemer ahead of him, I thought I would tell you of it and say by it, meaning the land, by 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 not, tell me that I may know, for there is no one beside you to redeem it, and I have come after you.

Later on when he calls upon the witnesses to certify the transaction that took place, which we'll come to in the preaching, they say, he says, you are witnesses this day, that he has sold this land to me, and they say, we are witnesses.

And as the redemption comes to fruition, towards the end of the book, we will find that Boaz does indeed marry

Ruth, I've given away the end of the story, and as she has children by Boaz, they have

Obed, Obed the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of King David. This book has been written to those who needed them to know where their king,

David, had come from. And so this is a story of redemption. This is

Boaz keeping his word to Ruth, and by proxy to Naomi, but just as importantly to Naomi.

This is a story of redemption, this is a story of how God's people are to, because of redemption, that they have experienced from God himself, be themselves redemptive.

This history is to you, and to me, and to the entire church of God in Christ Jesus, to be a redemptive people.

It's about redemption here. So Ruth chapter four. As we think about this, I wove together just a few very short parables to set our minds on the scripture that we have before us.

Think of a young woman, a young woman destitute after her husband's misadventures, his death. As things had deteriorated, they had been forced to sell more and more of their possessions to get by, and she has one last item of any value at all.

A family heirloom, let's call it a pearl necklace. A piece of jewelry, whatever you want to put in your mind.

The last thing she has of any value, so she brings it where? To a pawn shop. And gets some fraction of the value in return for which she gets a ticket.

A ticket of redemption. A ticket that corresponds to that piece of merchandise that she has first rights to buy back.

She desperately wants it back. Of course she has no money with which to redeem it from the pawn shop.

Think of a young Roman soldier, for example, who might fight with reckless abandon in order to redeem the family's name and honor after his father, now dead, also a warrior, had been wrongly accused of cowardice.

He wants to redeem the family name, so he fights with abandon in order to prove the valor he inherited from his father, in order to prove his father had valor.

He wants to redeem the family's name. Think of a man wrongfully accused and convicted of murder, sent to a notorious prison.

And after 20 horrible years there, he escapes to a country that has no extradition with the United States. And he is redeemed from prison, if not the stigma of murder.

Now these short parables, and I just wove them together myself, they didn't come from anywhere, they don't relate to anybody who exists, really,

I just made them up. But they have a couple of things in common that I want you to have on your mind as we go through Ruth chapter 4.

And the first thing they have is something most of us deal with at some time in our lives, that you have dealt with in your life.

And that is the need to have, or to accomplish something, which you are completely helpless to attain, or to accomplish.

You are helpless to get it, this helplessness. We've all felt that helplessness in one way or another.

Helpless to help someone else, helpless to help ourselves, we've all felt that. We're just completely inadequate.

We cannot get what we so desperately need. The widow that I wove together there, if she can find the money, she's going to pay more than she got for the necklace.

The young Roman, if he does prove the valor he inherited from his father, can never see his father vindicated. The wrongfully accused convict has freedom of person, but can never return home to show his face.

So the second thing these things have in common is those redemptions are incomplete. They're incomplete.

So they have in common the helplessness that we've all felt in one way or another at different times in our lives.

Helplessness that people we love have felt or are feeling. And they have in common that incompleteness.

It's just not quite all there. Even if she can redeem her necklace, or whatever that piece of jewelry would be, she's going to get back so much less than it was worth.

And she was paid less than it was worth in the first place. And so the whole transaction is against her.

Have you ever been helpless like this? In this desperate state that I'm trying to weave together here for you, have you ever known someone who's been in a situation where they're completely helpless?

I mean, everyone either is or has been in that situation. As helpless as a beached whale or a capsized tortoise, dependent on someone, on anyone, to happen by and help you off the beach or to roll you onto your back, someone to help you in your helplessness.

Someone to come along and be your good Samaritan. What we speak of here is redemption. Redemption, God's merciful action whereby helpless sinners are given what they most need.

Redemption is what Ruth has been about from the beginning. We're in chapter 4.

It's the last chapter. Chapters 1 through 3 have been sort of standing on their tiptoes, longing to know how

Ruth and Naomi's dilemma is ever going to resolve. What was their problem? Well, most recently their problem was food.

Something so simple, so basic as food. And God managed their food,

God provided that through worthy Boaz. Now the harvest season, as we mentioned last week, is about to come to an end.

And with the end of the harvest season, the chance to glean. And when the gleaning goes, their food goes with it.

If they came to Judah empty and desperate, remembering Naomi changed her name to Marah to bitterness because she went there full to Moab and she says she returned empty.

The Lord has taken everything from her. If they came back to Judah empty, now they are completely helpless.

Completely helpless. As hard as Ruth was willing to work for her and for her mother -in -law's needs. There will soon be no more to be done by even the most industrious.

They are, in a word, helpless. And this is what redemption is about.

God's merciful act towards helpless sinners. You often hear that God helps those who help themselves.

Have you heard that little proverbial saying? It's my excuse for going ahead in my own direction because you know what?

If I help myself, God's going to help me because God helps those who help themselves. Have you heard that? Well, it's not true.

It's not true at all. God helps the helpless. At least he helps those who admit that they are helpless.

He helps them, how? By means of redemption. Redemption is a gift of God's grace and is the means by which he saves helpless sinners.

We need to speak about and think about redemption and this helpless state that Naomi and Ruth were in.

The helpless state that, for example, Israel was in when God redeemed them from Egypt. They were helpless against the

Egyptians when God redeemed them. When they entered the land, they were given laws about how they were to imitate the Lord by being redeemers themselves.

Just as the Apostle Paul tells us in the name of Christ. Therefore, as dearly beloved children, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you.

In other words, being redemptive in your behavior towards everyone because you yourself have been redeemed, not just you.

This came from old times. Israel was told to be redemptive because of the redemption which they had known through God.

They were to redeem their kinsmen who had sold themselves into servanthood. They were to redeem land that had been sold outside of its original plan.

Redemption, this mighty work of God whereby he does for sinners, he does for you what they and what you cannot do for yourself.

Redemption translates a person from one state to another. If our widow could redeem her necklace, she would translate it from belonging to the shop to belonging back to herself.

This is redemption. A merciful act of God to you, the helpless sinner. The mercy he expects you, the helpless sinner who was helped by his redemption, to be towards others.

The redeemed of the Lord must act and live redemptively in imitation of him who redeemed you, which is the

Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Ruth has been about. If Ruth Ford is the climax, and it is, of this great story, this wonderful piece of literature and history, this is the climax.

Redemption. This is the burden for you, the Christian, to be redemptive because of the redemption that God worked in your behalf.

And you, like Naomi, like Ruth, were completely helpless. Redemptive people are on the lookout for the helpless.

They're on the lookout for the helpless. You yourselves were once helpless. You've been in that situation so many times, mostly helpless to save yourself.

And we'll come to the cross as we go through the message. You yourselves were helpless, and the Bible says, you therefore be helpful to the helpless.

Be redemptive. Redemptive people are on the lookout for the helpless. Now, verse 1 of Ruth 4.

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 and sat, turned aside and sat down.

And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, Sit down there. So they sat down.

Now the gate is the place in those ancient cities where important transactions occurred, where judgments were made, where cases were heard.

It was like Lot when he was in Sodom, and he sat as a judge in the gate. It's the important place.

And as we have here, this nearer Redeemer, remember Boaz said there's a

Redeemer nearer than me. This nearer Redeemer comes by. It comes by right on time. And Boaz stops him.

He says, Sit down here. Finds the ten witnesses. And he says, Sit down over there. And the civil court is now in session.

Everybody's in place. Now we've already met Boaz. We know him to be described as a worthy man, and everything in this history proves he was indeed worthy of that appellation.

He was a worthy man. I have several times called him worthy Boaz. But we've already met him, and I want to spend just a few moments, very quick moments on this nearer

Redeemer. This nearer Redeemer, the one who stands ahead of him, the one he calls friend.

He says, Sit down here, friend. Well, he is a

Redeemer. He's in line to be a Redeemer, but he doesn't actually become a Redeemer until he agrees to be the

Redeemer. He's just first in line. Stands ahead. He has first right of refusal, or first right of acceptance.

You know, when you buy or you sell a house, the title company researches the title. What they're doing is making sure that anyone who's loaned money and recorded that loan against your house gets paid in order.

So the bank is usually the first mortgage, and they get paid first. And you might have taken a loan for construction and gone to your credit union, and they line up behind the bank.

They're the second mortgage, and on it goes. And if you have a third mortgage and a fourth mortgage, well, you're in prison.

Get out of it. Talk to me after services. But the title company makes sure that things are lined up and that the first gets paid first, and so forth.

Very simple. You buy a car on Craigslist. You see used cars. You just peruse the ads. You often see clean or clear title.

What do they mean? There's no lien. There's no mortgage. There's nobody who loaned money on the car. They still do.

The witnesses here in Ruth chapter 4 are there to be sure that he, being the nearest kinsman, is giving first dibs.

He's got the first mortgage. He's got first right of refusal to redeem this land that Elimelech and Naomi's dead husband had sold when they went to Moab, presumably to finance the trip and to sustain them while they were in Moab.

Moab calls him friend. He calls him friend, and there's two Hebrew words behind it. I'm not going to tell you what they are, but the first word means a certain man, and the second one means a certain man or just someone.

So a certain man, like Jesus in his parables. A certain man was going on his way to Jericho or whatever.

A certain man had a barn full of goods, that sort of thing. He's a certain man. He's just a someone.

The NET Bible calls him John Doe. And I've read one translator, and I'm going to pick up on his name and use it throughout.

He calls him Mr. So -and -so. Mr. So -and -so. We'll come back to this later. But this friend, he's called in the

Hebrew simply a certain guy. Just a someone. In verse 3, then he said to the

Redeemer, he said to Mr. So -and -so, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling a parcel of land that belonged to her relative,

Elimelech. So what's happening here? Well, Deuteronomy chapter 25 requires the kinsman to be a husband to a widow.

And then Leviticus... Excuse me, that's Deuteronomy 5. Leviticus 25, then, requires him to redeem the land.

For the sake of what? I mean, exactly what? What is going on here?

Other than I flipped too many pages. I'm so sorry. Let me try verse 3 again.

My apologies. They said to the Redeemer, to Mr. So -and -so, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to her brother,

Elimelech. She's not really selling it. She needs it to be bought back.

What she is selling is her title to it. If that is, a clan member would redeem it.

She has no other resources, just the land, which is now in someone's pawn shop. We don't know who it got sold to, but Elimelech sold it outside of the clan, maybe not even to an

Israelite. She is helpless. She is so helpless that she's not even there.

Her only hope is the land that's mortgaged to the hilt would be redeemed. Her only hope is that someone will buy it back, and with her, and with the land, her and Ruth.

What is she here? She's a passive bystander in this redemptive transaction that's taking place.

Whoever has the land is not from the clan. Therefore, the law of redemption says that a clansman, a relative, has to redeem it.

So if Mr. So -and -so is the nearest, it is not just that he has first dibs, he has first responsibility for it.

Now, he's got to take some risks if he's going to stand in and be this redeemer, this first -in -line redeemer.

He's got to take some risks because redemptive people are willing to take risks in how they imitate God. It's like the redemptive laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy are there.

Why did He be redeemer? It's because God redeemed them from the land of Egypt. He redeemed them from slavery.

Therefore, be redeemers yourselves. Redemptive people are willing to take some risks in how they imitate

God in this. The last goes on to Mr. So -and -so. He says, 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. I will take upon myself the duty that God gives the kinsmen, the nearer redeemer, to buy the land back, to keep it in the clan.

I will take upon myself the duties that come with the land. I will buy it.

I will redeem it. Now we know from the previous chapter that Boaz wants to be the redeemer.

He wants the land. He wants Ruth to be his bride. He wants to care for Naomi. But Mr.

So -and -so, who's got first right of refusal, he says, I will. I will.

But there is a glitch here. And the glitch comes up right away. This doesn't go along very smoothly.

Then Boaz said, verse 5, The day 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.

And you see, redemption has a cost. Redemption doesn't come free and easy, does it?

You've got to put something at risk in order to be a redeemer. It costs

God something to redeem Israel from Egypt. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the prophet

Ezekiel. Redeeming land and restoring it to the right clan costs something. It would cost the money to buy the rights.

It would cost money in caring for the widow. And it would cost him sharing his own son's inheritances.

So Boaz tells him that, okay, you said you will, but the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, she surrendered her rights, you're going to buy it from the pawn shop that she delivered it to, really.

That's really what's happening there. You acquire some other things along with it. Not just Naomi, but Ruth the

Moabite. Some people think

Boaz was leading Mr. So -and -so down a path, sort of even manipulative. I don't think so.

Boaz was a worthy man. He was a man of integrity. He's giving full disclosure. Boaz wasn't going to have him come back and complain that when he went to check out his new purchase, he found he was stuck with a couple of widows.

Hey, worthy Boaz, why didn't you tell me about that when I said I will redeem it?

So Boaz is giving him full disclosure. You know, way back in the day, and it might even happen today.

But you know there's an old trick that people use when they sell the cart? If the differential is going bad, do you know what a differential is?

You see between the rear tires on a pickup truck, that round thing between the wheels?

Well, there's a gear in there, a very important gear, because it differentiates this motion, so your wheels take this motion.

It's a differential. Very important, very large gear in there. And if it was going bad because people never gave it oil, never changed it, never cleaned it, you know what they would do?

They'd fill it with sawdust. So sawdust would mix with the oil and keep the sound muffled so you wouldn't know.

Our dad was once going to buy a used car. My brother quickly dove under it, and sure enough he found that sliver of sawdust coming out where the gasket is.

Well, gaskets weren't as good then as they are now. He saw the sawdust coming out just a little bit, said, okay, we ran away.

Well, Boaz is not going to have this old so -and -so come back and say, you sold me a car with a differential and you filled it with sawdust in order to hide the problems.

So Boaz, as a man of integrity, as a worthy man, makes sure it's full disclosure. See, redemption is not easy.

Redemption does not come cheap. It requires commitment. It requires faith. It requires commitment of time.

It requires resources that are God's. Faith that God will work, will honor the work of your hands.

And so what's in question here is not where the land is, how big or how small it is, nor where the available water is, or what crops are going to grow on it.

The question is, to Mr. So -and -so, whether he's going to accept his

God -given responsibility to redeem a little ex -mortgage property, and with it

Naomi, and with her, her widowed daughter -in -law, Ruth. This is why he gives full disclosure here.

This is why he tells him everything. Because redemption is not meant to be easy. It never is easy.

It costs something. And here the Redeemer hears this cost.

If you look at verse 6, he says right away, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance.

Take my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it. It's like a car with a leaking differential gasket.

I know it's full of sawdust. I've got these widows coming with it. No, I can't take the risk.

So Mr. So -and -so, also known as I -will, it all sounded so good. He's going to redeem the land.

He's going to increase his holdings. He stands with his chest puffed out. He said, I will. I'm going to do it.

His chest is puffed out, and all the town of Bethlehem is giving him laud and honor. The Pharisee praying on the street to be seen by men, and an eyesense of fire, generous only so long as the cheers are still being heard.

So what is happening here? Well, Deuteronomy requires the kinsman to be a husband to the widow.

Leviticus 25 requires him to redeem the land. For the sake of what? Exactly what? Why does he renege?

Well, he reneges for the money. For fear of losing too much or gaining too little. For fear that any sons he had with Ruth who would come as a result of his leperate duty would take from his sons what they already had coming.

This practically defines what Jesus meant when he spoke of filthy mammon.

Nothing more than money itself. It's the love of money that is the root of all evil. When this man hears what it's going to take to be a redeemer to helpless

Naomi and helpless Ruth, well, the risk is too much. It's only a risk that's projected.

It's only a probable risk. It's only something that he's going to have to consider, but he doesn't know how it's all going to turn out.

He's just saying, I'm not even going to take the risk. He's projecting into tomorrow. Again, we think of what

Jesus says about why do you worry about tomorrow? Tomorrow has enough trouble for itself. This man looks at the dollars and cents.

He put together a spreadsheet. He's saying, okay, here's all the pluses. Here's all the minuses. The pluses outweigh the minuses.

I'll take a chance. But he goes the other way. He says, no, I'm seeing a lot of minuses here, and I'm not going to take a chance, even at the risk of disobeying

God himself, even at the risk of not being redemptive as God requires.

You see, redemption carries a cost. There's a price. It does not come easy.

The price of redemption is what we call ransom. It's not a word we find in the book of Ruth.

But redemption itself needs to be transacted. It's sort of hanging out here, waiting.

God says, redemption is how I help the helpless. But to enter into that requires the payment of a price.

The redemptive price is called the ransom. There's a couple of places we can go to work this out so you can get this in your mind.

First, in the Old Testament, a man who has an ox that was known to gore people.

Well, imagine if that ox went and killed someone and he knew it was a problem. It's like the attractive nuisance.

If you knew that your pool was a danger to children in the neighborhood and you didn't put a fence around it or do something to protect them from this attractive nuisance, well, you're responsible.

The same way in Old Testament times, you'd be responsible if you had an ox who you knew gored and could kill.

So imagine it kills someone. In Exodus 21, we read, if a ransom is imposed upon him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed on him.

So redemption is out there as a possibility. How does he enter into that possibility and make it a reality? He pays the ransom.

He pays the ransom. We go very far forward into the New Testament.

Mark 10, verse 45, Jesus Christ said, For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

In him we have redemption. The forgiveness of sins. So God says,

You will be redeemed by my Son, Jesus Christ, when you repent of your sins. And there's redemption.

Did he just grab onto it? Did he just say, Okay, I'll take a slice of that? No. The ransom price has to be paid.

And Jesus Christ, Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom.

The ransom pays the price of the redemption. The ransom for the widow pays the price to redeem the necklace.

She has a ticket. The corresponding ticket is on the merchandise. She shows the ticket.

The shopkeeper lines it up and he receives the money from her to redeem it.

And she loses and loses because she gets less than it's worth in the first place and she pays more and it just gets into a terrible mess there.

But that's the way pawn shops work. But the correspondence works. Psalm 49 .7

which we read at the beginning says, Truly no man can ransom another or give to God the price of his life for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice.

They should live on forever and never see the pit. Ransom is costly.

Redemption costs something. This man, this Mr. So -and -so, needs to take risks.

We can stop and ask ourselves right now, if I'm to behave redemptively because of the redemption I know in Jesus Christ, who redeemed me when

I too was helpless, not even there when the transaction took place, what am

I willing to put at risk for him? What am I willing to put at risk in order to obey the

Lord God, in order to be like Jesus Christ who tells us everywhere in the New Testament to behave redemptively because the forgiveness you have in Christ Jesus to be forgiven to others is something you and I can't do.

We forget those helpless times that we had ourselves so quickly. We look at someone else and see a Naomi and a

Ruth and say, well, they cooked their goose, let them have it for dinner. Boy, they got themselves into that mess.

And whoa, wouldn't that be just grand if God treated me that way. And so when here's redemption,

Jesus Christ has paid the ransom price. Your sins can be forgiven. But you sinned on your own.

You got yourself into that mess. Why should I help you even though you're helpless?

Well, because God is merciful. According to His mercy, He saved us. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy.

This is Mr. Sosa and Ruth 4 looking at helpless Naomi and Ruth who, now that the gleaning season is over, haven't a penny to buy any food with.

He looks at His duty as the leverage, as the close redeemer, who should really marry Naomi and take over His brothers or His clan's members,

His close relatives' duties with her. He looks at Deuteronomy, excuse me,

Leviticus and His duty to redeem the land and keep it in the clan. And says, no, too much risk, too much bother, too much trouble.

They got themselves into this problem. Let them get out of it themselves. I'm not the guy, even though God says, you are the guy.

This is disgraceful. It's disgraceful behavior. It's disgraceful behavior that we can only ourselves avoid.

How? By the mercies of God, by the working of His Spirit, by obedience to His Word, by reading over and over and over how we're to behave like Jesus Christ did forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you.

In Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, forgiveness, redemption, ransom. They're all bound together.

To be otherwise is disgraceful. You need to live redemptively because it's disgraceful not to. Look at verse 7.

Oh, verse 7 and 8, please. 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 testing in Israel.

So when the Redeemer said to Boaz, buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal. Now these two verses are parenthetical.

They are informative to the people who first read this. We don't know quite whom that was, but they were ancient.

They were the people who needed to know where King David came from, which was at the end of the book. They didn't know anymore what this custom was.

As odd as it seems to us by taking off a shoe, remember, the people who first read this book of Ruth wanted to know the lineage of King David.

They didn't know either. And that's why I said, now this was the custom in former times, knowing that the people didn't know that that had been the custom.

They would have read it and said, what's this all about? I don't get it. So he explained it here. That's not to say these verses are not important.

Deuteronomy 25 says, the rejected widow, if the man says, I will not marry my brother's widow,

I will not obey God, what does the rejected widow do? She removes Mr. So -and -so's sandal, who had declined his

God -given duty, and then what does she do? She spits in his face, in front of the elders of the people.

If he won't marry her, if he won't do his duty, for his dead brother's widow, as God's word demands of him, she takes off his shoe, and then she spits in his face and curses him.

And already, the curse there, she's saying something like, I was willing to marry the likes of you in order to do my duty to God.

You're not rejecting me, you're rejecting God. Look at yourself. You think you're some wonderful Christ? She said,

I was willing to marry you, not because you're worth marrying, or these ain't wonderful about you, but because God tells me to.

She takes off his sandals, or his one sandal. The sandals were removed after two men walked off and agreed about the size of a tract.

And what it meant was, no more walking, we've agreed on where this is, the size of it, what it's worth, and all these other things. You would take off a sandal then, not in disgrace, but to say, we've measured it out, the surveying party is complete.

So when she takes off the shoe of men and refuses to do the duty, it's like saying, may you never mark off another field, may you have no prosperity or opportunities to grow your inheritance, a sign sealed and delivered with the most insulting slap that there was, even today.

Can you imagine if somebody went up and said, you disgust me so bad, I can't even express it. They did that great thing that people do when it comes up and they, in the face.

How insulting is that to us even today, all these thousands of years later. A man who refuses his duty as a rebel, so anchored in his own needs that he can't see others, so material in his outlook that he can't put at risk his financial well -being, even if it means disobeying

God. So he gets his face spat upon, he gets his shoe taken off, may you never mark off another field, may you live with that in your face and the sting of that disgrace forever.

Good land at a good price? Sure, but do I have to take

Naomi? Do I have to get this Ruth, this Moabite, who brings with her obligations to a mother -in -law?

No thanks, I'll stick with my own security. He declines a virtuous wife, which was Ruth, he declines a good land, he declines to trust

God to bless him as he faithfully obeys. As beautiful as the picture is of a redeemer, one who comes and helps the helpless,

God with a mighty arm and with signs and wonders redeems his people out of Egypt because of his mercy.

As beautiful as that picture is, this picture of the man who won't do his duty is equally ugly and disgraceful.

And when I thought of the man having his face spat upon, because that doesn't happen to Mr.

So -and -so here with Boaz and Ruth Ford, we're going back before that, but all these laws are interrelated to this situation.

I thought of our Lord Jesus Christ. I thought of our Lord Jesus Christ who came as the ultimate redeemer, who came to redeem himself from all his iniquities, as it says at the end of the psalm, whose name is

Jesus because, as it says in Matthew, he will save his people from their sins, who lived a perfect life and followed

God at every step. How did they treat him? They treated him as if he was

Mr. So -and -so, as if he was the one who said, I will, and when the going got rough, he said, well,

I'm done with this, I won't anymore. They treated him as if he was that one. Was he ever?

No. It says in Luke's Gospel, chapter 9, verse 51, that when he set his face to go to Jerusalem, knowing that his time had come, knowing that the cross lay ahead, he went there and he would not turn back, he would not be distracted.

It says he was tempted in all ways as we are, yet without sin, following God at every step, coming to redeem

Israel, to be a perfect redeemer, and yet treated as though he was the worst of all who reneged on what he said he would do.

His face spat upon him. His face received the blows from the rods. Jesus, who refused not to redeem, is being treated as if he was the ultimate non -redeeming

Israelite. The deed has to be recorded.

You know, just like at home, or in homes, what does the title company look for? They go to county records, and there they find all the mortgages that have been lined up on this piece of property.

And that's how they're able to tell the buyer or the seller who needs to be paid off. It has to be recorded somehow.

These things have to be paid off in order. And this is verse 9, Then Boaz said to the elders and 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 Chilean and Malam.

Also Ruth Moabite, the widow of Malam, 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. Now don't worry about him buying

Naomi or Ruth. It doesn't mean he bought them like they were chattel. He's saying he's taking the

God -given, grace -filled responsibility to take the land and all the duties that come with it, all the blessed duties.

Where Mr. So -and -so said, I will, and he hears the price. He said, well, I can't. Boaz, who fully knows the price and had fully revealed it to the other man, full disclosure, he says he will.

So they weren't purchased in that awful way that your mind might think. It comes with the land to take the responsibility for those whose fate is attached to the land.

So that's what's happening here. But he says he bought it from Naomi. She surrendered her rights to him.

We've already discussed that. But did you notice something about Naomi? She's not there.

Naomi isn't even there. Neither was Ruth there. The old slave spiritual asks us, were you there when they crucified my

Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when he redeemed you from the pit?

Were you there when he suffered on the cross? It's only by God's grace, Ephesians 1, verse 4, only by His grace, that you or anyone else derives any benefit for redemption.

Thus be the God of our Lord Jesus Christ who chose us to be in Him before the foundation of the world.

Were you there when He redeemed you? Were you there when He chose you to be redeemed? Of course not.

Naomi's not there when her situation is redeemed, when her helpless state is being rectified by worthy

Boaz. You see, redemption is completely for the helpless. Israel, helpless against Egypt, redeemed by God's mighty hand.

We've come up with so many examples. But you, Christian, helpless to save yourself the ransom of your soul is costly.

We've said before, it costs something. There's a ransom to be paid. Naomi would know that she and Lad were redeemed because the ten witnesses would confirm it.

I ask you, have you been redeemed? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you repented of your sins?

Have I faith in Him? Have I repentance toward God? Have I known

His forgiveness? His redemption? That He paid the ransom price to bring you out of this world, out of the life of sin, and into His glory?

How did Naomi know? There are witnesses. I mean, she could very soon have heard from one of the witnesses' wives, hey, guess what my husband told me?

Boaz redeemed you. You're going to be okay. Ruth is going to be okay. It all worked out.

God was good. How do we know that? Well, there are witnesses. My husband was one of ten. He saw a sign sealed and delivered.

Do you know that there are witnesses to your redemption? The Apostle Paul says in 1

Corinthians 15 that 500 people saw the Lord Jesus Christ after His suffering, after His resurrection.

Do you know that the resurrection corresponds to these witnesses?

That they saw Him alive, that God raised Him up for our justification. That the resurrection of the

Lord Jesus Christ confirms the redemption that He won. That the ransom price had been paid in full.

Were you there when He crucified? My Lord, you were not. Was Naomi there when she was redeemed? She was not.

Did she receive the full benefit of that redemption? You by faith. We don't have a witness, one of the 500 to come and say, hey,

I did see Him myself with my own eyes. But we have those eyes in 1 Corinthians 15.

The Apostle Paul says there are 500 witnesses who saw Him. God gives you evidence like He gave

Naomi and Ruth evidence. He gave that assurance. He knows how weak and how frail we can be.

He knows how hard it is to believe something as magnificent as the ransom price being paid for your redemption.

And so He assures it to you. He gives you witness by the historical veracity and proofs and documentation of Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead after He suffered for your sins.

Paid the ransom price so that He could be redeemed. Verse 11,

And all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, We are witnesses. And may your house be like the house of Perez when we came aboard to Judah.

Because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman. I had to force myself not to go back to Genesis chapter 38 and speak about Perez and Tamar and Judah.

Because Tamar was a Canaanite who Judah met and gave to his son. And that son died because of his wickedness.

And then he gave her to the second son. And that son died because of his wickedness. And then he said, Well wait, I'll have another son.

And when you have little enough, you can have him. And you can marry that one. And then he reneged.

She dressed like a prostitute. She had a son through Judah. And that son is Perez. And boy, we could spend a lot of Sundays on that alone.

What we need to do is just say that the reason this is here is because it's

Genesis 49 when Jacob blesses Judah. It says, The sepulchre shall not depart until a hymn for whom it is meant comes, meaning

Jesus Christ. This is so that the people who first read Ruth know that the line of Judah is consistent through to David.

That he belongs to that prophecy. And we're going to have to leave it at that because as I said, we'll never come out of it again.

We would have to spend Sunday after Sunday on that. But they're blessed. There's a certification to the redemption that has been transacted.

So Boaz took Ruth, that she became his wife, and he went into her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son.

Then the woman 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.

The redemption has a cost. Redemption requires us to commit ourselves to something or to someone.

Redemption requires faith. But it is transformative. We don't know, we can't look at the scripture and say, well

God will free you this way or that way when you obey him by being redemptive towards others.

But we can notice here that Naomi, who had said, don't call me Naomi, which means pleasure in Yahweh, don't call me

Naomi, call me Marah, for the Lord has made me bitter. And now under the redemption that God has mercy effected through Boaz for her, well she's

Naomi again. And do you notice that she's given credit for the child who's born?

Naomi has had a son. That's verse 17. A son has been born to Naomi. Think of the transformative power of God's redemption.

I alluded to it before. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done. Not by your own effort.

You weren't there when you were redeemed. You had nothing to do with the cross. If you had, you would have probably been with me with those who taunted him while he was there.

If you had been there when he was on trial, you would have with me maybe, just to not be different and not to anger the authorities, helped to spit in his face.

Here is Naomi, whose name would be bitter. Back to Naomi. Being transformed.

That son has been born to Naomi. She didn't have anything to do with it. And yet the blessings of redemption are so manifold and so varied.

It is every good and perfect gift is from above, from the Father of light, in whom there is no variation or shadow of eternity.

We can't promise what blessing you will receive when you obey God by being redemptive.

But we can, on God's word, say you will be blessed. That God will be pleased.

He shall be 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, 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. A son has been born to bitter? No. She's transformed.

She's new. She is now, once again, pleasure in Yahweh, born to Naomi. They named him

Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Naomi?

No. According to Scripture, he was born to Boaz and to Ruth. Naomi was Obed's grandmother.

She was allowed to adopt him, even without having had any family in him, really. And you,

Christian, are you of the clan of Olivelek, the tribe of Judah, the people of Israel?

No, you're none of that. And neither am I. Yet Jesus is not ashamed to call you brethren.

By the transformation, by the faith you have in his sacrifice on your behalf, his ransom paid for your redemption, he's not ashamed to call you brethren.

As Naomi goes from the wrath and bitterness back to Naomi, as she is now blessed as the mother of Obed, even though we know she wasn't, and the

Scripture makes clear she wasn't, and yet blessed by being given this appellation, this restoration that she has from having gone from helplessness, her faith in God, God sending worthy

Boaz. What a wonderful Savior we serve. What a wonderful God to send such a

Savior as a Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, not ashamed to call you brethren by the redemption that he worked on your behalf.

And we're in it now. The book ends with the genealogy.

Now these are the generations of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered

Amidadab, Amidadab fathered Nishan, Nishan fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered

Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David. So Ruth foretells with Naomi and with Ruth, with the land, heaven and earth being redeemed, the ransom price by Boaz being paid, the transforming power of the

Gospel of Jesus Christ, so beautifully pictured here, as bitterness becomes pleasure in Jehovah once again.

As we see David's line, which ultimately flows through to Jesus Christ himself, who would love to be called the son of David.

Now what did we learn here for ourselves? What did we learn about what it means to behave redemptively as Boaz did?

To resist the temptation to show off like Mr. So -and -so, and then hear the price.

Jesus says clearly, count the cost. Look at the differential. Well, God wouldn't send a used jalopy car with tricks in there to hide the problems.

He tells you the cost. What is the cost for your redemption? What is Jesus Christ's life?

It costs something. It costs God his son. It costs Christ, the eternal son of God, becoming flesh, entering into this sin -trodden world and trotting along these paths with the rest of us.

It costs him Philippians 2, setting aside his glory and being like us.

It costs Jesus Christ his life to pay the ransom for your life and for mine.

He tells you, as the Old Testament saints were told, therefore be redemptive.

Act redemptively. Look for the helpless. Be a helper to the helpless as God is a helper to the widow and to the orphan.

If God has woven you together with a strong faith, if you are graced with a steady spirit, you can be redemptive.

You can be that steady hand for the helpless. There are people who are in the midst of emergencies like Naomi and Ruth were.

They could be so bewildered that they lose their sight of God. Are you one who God has redeemed and in his grace given you that strong, steady spirit?

What we call a prayer warrior. Brethren, this is what it means to be redemptive. To take that helpless one and put their eyes back on Christ Jesus, our

Lord. People who are in the midst of such emergencies, they can be so bewildered that they lose their vision.

They forget where God is. You know the old Boy Scout adage, when you're lost, you've heard this before from me, you stop.

S means stop. T means think. O means observe. P means pray. Well, no. P means plan.

But we're going to call it pray. Help people stop. Bring them to prayer.

Brethren, that's redemptive. You might be the kinsman who redeems them from their helplessness. You might be that brother or sister that Christ sends to help them back on track.

You may be the one who's in need of being redeemed. I mean redeemed as a believer, redeemed from the quagmire of your troubles.

Naomi isn't there, but she had to have called for help somehow. Only she could have started the process of redemption.

Perhaps you're helpless from job loss. It's something that happens more and more. You feel helpless because of some kind of abandonment.

A husband has left. A wife has gone astray. A friend has turned away from the Lord. Or gone to eternity without Him.

I mean you're helpless to do anything about it. Naomi cried out in her helplessness.

We don't know how she communicated this to Boaz through Ruth. There had to be other means of it. Crap! Are you in the church?

You're surrounded by brothers and sisters. They're redeemed of the Lord. Who will help you redeem this situation through prayer?

Who helps? I will say, redemption does cost.

The price is heavy. We need to prepare what we have to put forth.

What we need to have at risk. When we join with Mr. So -and -so and say, I will.

But then when we say, I will, let us be Boaz who does what we say, I will. But who we're willing to put at risk.

Often times, we find our checkbooks are easier to open up than our day planners. Like, well,

I've got more money than I have time, so here's a checkbook. Checks, money, often help out hugely.

If Naomi or Ruth had just some cash on hand, they could have gotten by for a few months.

So I don't want to negate the money, the resources that God has given us in this way, but I would suggest that too often, it's easier to do in our time than actually opening our door, setting an extra table, having to wash more dishes, spend more time getting to know someone, praying with them, doing the hard work of opening the scripture, and finding

God's redemptive answer to whatever situation they might be in. Many look at the

Naomis of the world, and they might say, well, you know, they made their troubles, let them find a way out of it, they did something silly,

I would have told them otherwise, so they're on their own. God's word demands something different, something better of us.

His people then and now are to be redemptive, especially redemptive towards the helpless. The whole idea of redemption is a prophecy of Jesus Christ.

Think of the redemption of the land. The land had been sold, it had been surrendered to someone to whom it didn't otherwise belong.

Well, men are of the flesh, Romans 7 .14 says, sold under sin. The land was helpless to restore itself to its rightful owner.

Someone had to step in and do that. You were born dead in trespass and sin, no more able to help yourself than a corpse is able to stand up and get dressed.

Again, Mark 10 .45, Jesus Christ, the ransom for many, redeeming the people to be his own.

Do you see how redemption in Luke chapter 4, even going back to the Levitical law, the

Deuteronomic law, prophesied of Jesus Christ, prophesied of your helplessness, prophesied of how you need to come only in faith and trust in God that Jesus Christ indeed paid the ransom so that he's the one who had that ticket and walked into the pawn shop.

And there on display is all the jewelry, except it's not jewelry, it's you and me, the ones God gave to him before the foundation of the world, and he redeemed us all.

It says in John chapter 10, all who the Father has given me will surely come to me, and I will by no means cast them out.

I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep, as Christ Jesus did, even as we were helpless, helpless to save ourselves, not even there when our redemption was transacted, even there before them, before the foundation of the world, when our redemption was determined.

The hymn says, though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and has shed his own blood for my soul.

Can we say, church, has shed his own blood for my redemption? It doesn't rhyme, but that's what the song's about.

That's what the hymn's about, our redemption. And redemption costs something. It costs

God his Son, it costs his Son his life. What does it cost you? To confess that you are helpless, to call out to God for the only remedy, which is redemption, salvation by faith in the

Son of Jesus Christ. Amen? Heavenly Father, for the redemption that we have in our

Lord Jesus Christ, we give you the thanks for this prophecy of that, this beautiful picture of what it means to be redeemed, even when we weren't there, weren't even calling out for redemption.

Father, you before the foundation of the world determined that we would indeed be redeemed by the work of your

Son, Jesus Christ, his perfect life, his obedience even to the cross, even the death of the cross.

Father, that we might be translated from this world to the next, that we might know you through faith in him, know the forgiveness of our sins, the redemption that we have because of the ransom that he paid on our behalf.

And may we give you all the praise and the glory of the thanksgiving for this. We ask in Jesus' name.