Good evening, we're back again. Before we get into, I guess, this passage of Ruth chapter four, verses 13 to the end of the passage, one of the questions that I want to ask you guys, the few of us that's here is, why exactly are we here? There's just so few of us, but is it just because we have responsibilities? But I just want to encourage all of us who are here, We congregate, we come because this is the means that the Lord uses to give grace and to build us up on our faith, to strengthen us in our sincere salvation. So that's why we're here tonight. It's not because this is a routine Sunday type deal that we do, but truly we have conviction that hey, this is how God has said for me to live. And if I'm going to grow in Christ and continue in him and be strengthened and built up in him, I must do what he says. And us congregating even this evening, that's why we're here. Or at least hopefully, I hope that you guys understand that is why we congregate. But, beginning the text, between the first service and this service, I went to my grandmother's house, my grandparents' house, on my mom's side, and every time I go there my grandmother she's that type of a woman who loves to talk she'll tell you about everything about everybody and one of the things that we talk about is we always talk about family and it wouldn't be strange for us to break out a family album and start looking at old pictures of things pictures taken from the past, maybe like 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. Yeah, she's explaining, okay, now this is your cousin on your dad's side, the one that went to jail. She's explaining, hey, here's who this person is, and you need to know about this person because this is the one from, he had a child here. She's going on and on about, hey, this is basically, this is where you come from. And it's a beautiful thing. I really enjoy it, honestly. But in this passage, that is kind of where we begin. The Jewish people, Israel, they had their own way of, I guess, family albums, and they're actually in genealogies. And it's where there'll be little children who have just been born and they really don't know about who's who in the family. The genealogy in scripture is often or can be used to teach the younger people, hey, this is where you come from. These are your family. These are your people. And it's also for all of those who are looking into the genealogy to say, hey, These are our people. This is your cousin. This is who's who within the family. And that's one thing that I want us to maintain as we go through this text, because Ruth can be said to have, I guess, two different endings. or at least in my own studies, that's kind of what I see in the text. You have the climax of the narrative that ends in the redeeming of Naomi and the marrying of Ruth and Boaz and them even having a child. But then the story kind of keeps going. It's like that happens and then there's still more story that kind of seems disconnected. But today we're going to, or I guess this evening, look at the latter half. And in itself, it has its own ending and its own crescendo that kind of leaves as a to be continued type crescendo. But let's look at verse 13. It says, 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. This is kind of the last sentence, the last point to our narrative. And from here on, Boaz and Ruth, they kind of fade into the background of the story. And then we get spotlight right back on Naomi, where we begin the entire book with, okay, we're in the time of the judges, and then there's a limo leg, there's Naomi, and then what happens to her family. That's where it begins, and it seems to start back there at the end as well. And what it says about Naomi is similar to us just looking at a family album. And in fact, we can say each person that is mentioned in this text is as if they're an arrow. When we look at pictures from long ago, What comes to mind are good times and memories, and, oh yeah, I remember that. I remember when they broke their leg. There's good memories that rise up in our mind, but those point to good memories. Yet, what's coming from our text is to point us to, ultimately, to King David. for the Jewish author here, King David is the pinnacle of Israel because in him, there's great rest. He's the greatest king of Israel. In him, there was, the land was united in a sense. He had full reigns on Israel. all of his enemies. And everyone understood, hey, this is a man of God. God speaks to this man. God is with this man. We can trust in him. When he reigns over us as king, we can relax and rest and go about our business because we know, hey, King David is in control. So all of the people and characters are pointing to King David. And for us today, we understand, well, King David actually points, he's a shadow to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the king of the universe, of all things. The king of kings, Lord of lords, right? And it's him, in him we can find rest and comfort, hope, joy. but I don't have much of a outline, but I just want to walk through the text a little bit and give commentary to different things that are here. So if you have your notepad, just understand, it's not gonna be point by point, but rather, I guess some gleanings from the text. Verse 14. 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. This is talking about the baby. 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. And then there's the genealogy that we just read in Matthew, actually. It's set here. Now, these are the generations of Perez. Perez, father of Hezron. Hezron, father of Ram. Ram, father of Aminadab. Aminadab, father of Naishun. Naishun, sorry. Naishun, father of Solomon. Solomon, father of Boaz. And Boaz, father of Obed. Obed, father of Jesse. And Jesse, father of David. Something that, in looking at this text, I thought was pretty beautiful was in verse 14, the women of the land of Jerusalem, of Bethlehem, are calling Naomi, blessed, blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer. And I kind of thought of a parallel of this is Naomi at the end of all things. But Naomi at the beginning of all things is a woman who, it's 121, chapter one, verse 21. She went away full. She left this land full. But when she got to where she was going, she was depleted. There was no hope. She didn't have any resources. And really, her salvation was dimly, dwindling in the sense of, man, I just need some help. Lord, I need faith. Would you help me out? And chapter 1 verse 21 says, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? something to understand about God and scripture, just a hard truth. Though this ends with Naomi being redeemed and actually having a child and the family name being continued, it ends on a high good note. But Not every story, and we would know this from our own lives, not every chapter of our life ends well. It doesn't end on a good note. And that's just reality. However, when we look at this text, we can see something a little different. There was a chapter in Naomi's life where, man, things aren't ending well. she moved and thought she would have a life in Moab, it didn't end well there. Then she moved back and now she's saying it doesn't look pretty. However, for this chapter of Naomi's life and ultimately for the rest of her life, there was a good ending. And for all of us who have chapters of our life that are just really terrible, they don't end well, it doesn't look good. What the book of Ruth has for us to cling to, to glean from and hold on to is, hey, there is a redeemer and his name is Jesus Christ. He's our Lord. And Though life may not end well for us, for the Christian, we live twice. We die, or I guess there's one saying, hopefully I say this right, die twice, live once. Live once, die twice. And that's to say, we die to our old self. And we live, we've been born again. Maybe it's die twice, live once. Okay, we died in our sin, yet we're born again and we continue to live. When we die again physically, well, that's just eternity. So hopefully I said that right. You guys can fact check me on that. But the ideas for the Christian, we do have a glorious ending. Well, we really do have hope for our life. And it's not just some hoping in the sky, or I just really wish this would happen, but it's actually tangible. And the genealogy here is fleshing that out. It's pointing like an arrow towards that. So these women, they're blessing Naomi. their singing of the praises of this child, what this child is gonna do for her, and in fact is already doing for her. She's gleeful, she's enjoying really the blessings of being redeemed. Verse 15 says, he shall be to you a restorer of life, a nourisher in your old age. This is what Jesus Christ is for us. He restores the joy of our salvation. And he continually nourishes us. When we feast on Christ, when we eat of Christ, that's to say, what that means is, when we read the Bible, we're actually spiritually nourished. When we think and meditate and ponder and sit and meditate on scripture, that It's what strengthens us. That is how we are filled spiritually, how we feed on Christ. When we meditate, when we memorize scripture, or study scripture, or listen to a priest, or talk about scripture among brethren, these are the means in which the Lord uses to nourish us, even into our old age. Now, there's just a few more points that I really have here. But one of the things I do want to see or show you, I guess, not just in Ruth, but in the Psalms and a little bit of, I guess, another passage, is that God is good. Like, that's something that may be very simple, yet we should remember that God, He is good. And it's not just that He's good, but He gives us good things. There's a psalm that was mentioned earlier today in a sermon. It was Psalm 103. It says, speaking of God, The Lord who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you. God crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. But this is what it says, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. Naomi's, her life has been one of treachery, one of tragedy, yet the Lord satisfies her at the end. And we ought to remember satisfaction comes from the Lord. It's Him who satisfies us, not in movie watching, not in just entertainment, but it's actually the Lord who satisfies that thing within us that we're really needing, and we don't know where to go. It's God. Go to God to be satisfied. There's another verse, Psalm 34. It's Psalm 34, eight through 10. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Taste and see. He is good. Taste and see it. Experience this. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. And in fact, this is what Naomi does. She takes refuge in her Redeemer, and ultimately, she takes refuge in God, that God will provide for her. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. How can this be true? We know scripture says this, but how can this be true? The real question is, do you believe it? Do you believe? that the Lord is good. Do you believe that those who seek the Lord lack no good thing? Believe it. Believe it. Trust it. Give yourself to it because that is what God himself tells to me, tells to you. There's no good thing that you lack. The last verse from the Psalms is Psalm 84, verses 10 through 12. For a day in your courts, speaking of God, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield The Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he rehold from those who walk uprightly. The Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you. When we look at the text, in her old age, Naomi, it is, is blessed. We see it in how verse 16, Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. She began to take care of this child. And this was a satisfaction given from the Lord. We see in verse 13 that The Lord gave conception to Ruth. Yet, this is Naomi's, it's worth to say, this is Naomi's child. She takes care of this child. This child has sustained her family name, the name of Elimelech. And she loves it. She finds satisfaction in what the Lord has given. A beautiful thing in the book of Ruth, names are always important. This has been said throughout the sermons for the past couple of weeks on Sunday. But the name Obed, it actually means servant. So though Naomi is holding this child in her own lap, And nursing this child is this child that would actually be serving her. In fact, this child is already serving her and she's getting satisfaction from this child. And it's this child when Naomi passes, when she dies, this child will continue her legacy and her name. And ultimately, this child will continue to the pinnacle of Jewish history, to go further and be the grandfather of King David. Just a last couple of things. With the genealogy in verses 18 and through 21, The way Jewish history organizes genealogies is from Abraham to, let me see, Abraham to David is kind of 14 generations. And then from David to the deportation of Babylon, that's another 14. And then from the deportation to Jesus, it's another 14 generations. But it's grouped in a way where those who are learning of their history can remember, okay, these people are here, these people kind of a timeline. A very, very corny way of thinking about history. I love saying it, but it's just so corny. One thing we ought to understand about history is that all of history is his story. And truthfully, that is the case. All the things that happen under the sun, God orchestrates and ordains them to occur. And he has ordered and orchestrated these men to be born at a particular time in a particular to a particular family, particular parents for his own glory. It's as if God is standing before creation with a baton and orchestrating nations to rise and fall and kings to rise and fall and babies to be born, babies to die, destruction and salvation to occur. God is orchestrating it all. But to finish all of this, how could we not end with the baby that is given from God? And in fact, it's God himself as a baby, Jesus Christ, who has the entire world on his shoulders. He is to bear righteousness. He is to bring salvation to many. Because we are enemies of God, Jesus Christ comes to reconcile us to the Father. How can wicked man actually be in relationship to a holy God and not be destroyed? It's through this child, Jesus Christ, where David, everything in Ruth points to David. David himself points to Jesus Christ and says, hey, there is one that's better than me. My Lord said to me, hey, sit at my right hand. Everything points to Jesus Christ. And the way wicked man can dwell with a holy God is if there's one who is human and represents us. He lives a perfect life and is able to obey all of the commandments that God has required and deemed and commanded man to obey. We need one who can do that, who can represent us before God, but a perfect representative. But not just a perfect representative, but one who actually will and is capable of bearing the wrath of God. Because that is what we deserve. We deserve God's wrath, his hatred. The punishment of sin is death, is actually hell. Yet Jesus Christ, he goes to hell on the cross and takes all of the father's wrath upon himself to save many. And through Jesus Christ, all of us who put our faith and trust in him and him alone, that is how we can be reconciled to God through the Son, by the work, by the wooing and drawing of the Holy Spirit. Yet, Those are just some small gleanings that I have from this small section of Ruth. Lord willing, you guys have learned a handful from Ruth, and I have learned a handful as well. It's a beautiful book. But let us end in prayer and be about our day. Let us pray, brothers and sisters. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much.