Let us turn in our Bibles once more to the book of Ruth. We've been studying this little book in the Old Testament for quite some time now and we've reached almost the end of the story. As we were reading in chapter 4 and studying the early part of the chapter, we noticed that there was what I called the bargaining that took place. where Boaz was dealing with one who is called the nearer kinsman. And I believe that that nearer kinsman could be representative of the law, but especially of the old man, the flesh, who is not able to keep the law. Romans 8, verse 3 teaches us that. That we cannot be redeemed by keeping the law because of the weakness of our flesh, but Christ has redeemed us. Christ alone is the one who is able to do what needs to be done. We further commented from the 8th verse that in the drawing off of the shoe, there was this thought that the person doing that would only still have one shoe on his foot. And I suppose there's a spiritual message in that as well. A man with one shoe cannot walk aright. The old Adam cannot walk straight. He's unable to redeem and so the Saviour takes upon Him the right to redeem what Adam has lost. That's really what we see in that ceremonial in verse 8 and the words of Boaz in verse 9 and 10. We see here not only the bargaining but the buying. Notice he says in verse 9, "...Ye are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was a limalex," and so on. He says in verse 10, "...Moreover, Ruth, the Moabites, the wife of Malon, have I purchased to be my wife." So, you look at those two terms. I have bought. I have purchased. That's exactly what Christ has done in relation to His bride, the church. In Acts 20, verse 28, it speaks of the Lord who has purchased His church with His own blood. Revelation 19 speaks of the Lamb's wife, the Bride of Christ. Ephesians chapter 5 speaks about it as well in relation to marriage. It's a picture of Christ and His church. And when it comes to the people of God, they are witnesses of the redemption. And when Boaz said, ye are witnesses this day, the people and the elders concurred with that in verse 11, and they said, we are witnesses. They could see what was done, but furthermore, they could testify of it. And we are, as believers, witnesses of the redemption purchased by Christ. From there, we want to notice the blessing. Look with me at verses 11 and 12. And all the people that were in the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. Then there's these words. It's really a prayer. It's a desire for blessing. The LORD make the woman that is come into thine house, that's Ruth, like Rachel and like Leah, which too did build the house of Israel, and do thou worthily in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem." And then look at verse 12. And let thy house be like the house of Phares, whom Tamar bore unto Judah, of this seed which the Lord shall give thee of this young woman." Now notice the blessing here. The mention of Rachel and Leah. Who were they? Well, they were the two who Jacob took to be his wives, who bore the sons of Israel along with their handmaidens. The foundation of the church. The twelve tribes. If you go back in your Bible to Deuteronomy chapter 25 and read verse 9, it mentions there the ceremonial that was to take place that we already noted in the earlier part of this chapter 4 of Ruth. But it says, Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house." The building up of his brother's house. If you were to compare with that earlier words in Genesis chapter 16 and verse 2, You see there that Sarah is speaking to Abram and says, Behold, now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her. And there's a marginal reference there in your authorised version. It is, it may be that I may be builded by her. This is referring to the same thing. You also find it, by the way, in Genesis chapter 30 and verse 3. And she said, this is Rachel, Behold, my maid Bilhah go in unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees that I may also have children by her." And once again, in the margin of the Authorized Version, it is in the Hebrew, that I may also be built by her. So this building of the house of Israel that's referred to by Boaz is certainly true. This is what happened. And the prayer for Ruth that was expressed by these people The blessing that was desired was that she be fruitful. And it is the will of God that His church be fruitful. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. Now Ruth was indeed, like Rachel and like Leah, chosen by the Lord to build up the house of Israel. From her, according to the flesh, would come the very Messiah. And we know that Christ will build His church. It doesn't matter what the devil whispers in your ear, or even if he speaks it loudly. The Lord is building His church. God is having His way. Despite what you see outwardly, it is true. God is building the church. Christ is building the house of Israel, so to speak. And He will use His people in its building. Now notice there was a blessing desired for Boaz. And it was that he, verse 11, might be famous in Bethlehem. We just sang that hymn this morning. Look ye saints, the sight is glorious. And in the closing words of that particular hymn, it speaks about the fame of the Lord. It speaks about the fact that we are to own His title, we are to praise His name. Crown Him, Crown Him, verse 3 says at the end of it, spread abroad the victor's fame. This is what was to happen to Boaz. He was to become famous in Bethlehem. But he would become famous in Bethlehem through his progeny according to the flesh, even Christ Himself. Where was the Saviour born? In Bethlehem of Judea. Micah 5, verse 2 contains the prophecy, And thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah." In other words, it's just a little, small village. "...yet out of thee shall come forth him that is to be ruler in Israel." It's speaking there about the Lord Jesus Christ. Micah chapter 5, the second verse. And notice how it identifies the Lord Jesus as being eternal. whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Oh, He is the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father. Here's the blessing. And in Matthew 14 and verse 1, a verse that we referred to last time, we want to refer to it again. The Bible says, at that time Herod the Tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus. Oh, the Lord Jesus was famous in the right sense. There are people today who live for fame and fortune. They may be movie stars. They may be sports stars, so-called. They may be pop stars, so-called. And they think that people are always going to remember their names, but they'll soon be forgotten. Nobody can remember some of the old movie stars who were very famous in their day. You mention them to young people today, they wouldn't know who you're talking about. The same is true of those in the sports world or any other field that is supposed to be famous. People are soon forgotten. But there's a blessing here. Be thou famous in Bethlehem. That happened through the Lord Jesus Christ in particular. But the blessing continues in verse 12. Notice these words of Ruth 4, the 12th verse. And let thy house be like the house of Phares, whom Tamar bare unto Judah of the seed, which the Lord shall give thee of this young woman. And we can say that certainly the house of Boaz was blessed, But the blessing that's mentioned here is that he might be one whose house would be like the house of Phares. Now, Phares had a house that was blessed. Why? Because it was one of five families to which all the tribe of Judah belonged. Now, I want you to notice the mention of a woman here, Tamar. Go back in your Bible to Genesis chapter 38, because there is a very strong connection between what happened here and what happened in the book of Ruth. And it's a connection that the Holy Spirit Himself makes. Look at Genesis chapter 38, from verse 27. This is in the aftermath of a sinful act that was performed by Judah upon Tamar. It says here in verse 27, obviously she was with child. It came to pass in the time of her travail that, behold, twins were in her womb. And it came to pass when she travailed that the one put out his hand, and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first. So he was the firstborn with a scarlet thread, around his wrist. You go to hospital today, they put a little plastic thing around the wrist instead, or around the little foot. Now, it says in verse 29, And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out. So basically he said, well, I don't want to come out, now you go first. And she said, How hast thou broken forth? This breach be upon thee. Therefore, his name was called Phares, and that's the only breach birth that I read of in the Bible, except it's spelt differently. B-R-E-A-C-H. His name Phares means a breach. It says, and afterward came out his brother that had the scarlet thread upon his hand, and his name was called Zara. What's the significance of all of this? Well, obviously, as we look at this portion of Scripture, we see a reference to a very embarrassing and sad episode in the life of Judah. The link between Genesis 38 and Ruth is noted, as I say, by the Holy Spirit in this verse, Ruth chapter 4, verse 18. These are the generations of Phares. You might have wondered why the book of Ruth finished with a genealogy like that. Well, the interesting part and the interesting fact for us to note here is that Boaz was a direct descendant of Phares or Perez as he is called in the New Testament. So we have to work out the significance of this reference. Back to Genesis 38. Let me just give you a quick rundown of what happened there. In Genesis 38, there's an interruption to the story of Joseph because the story of Joseph begins in chapter 37. Joseph was loved by his father Jacob. He was hated by his brothers. Remember how they conspired to kill him? But who was it that intervened? It was Judith. And Joseph's life was spared and instead of being killed, he was sold into slavery. Now, it was from the descendants of Judah that the Lord Jesus Christ would be born. That's why he's called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. And you can read that, by the way, in Hebrews 7 and verse 14. where it mentions the tribe of Judah in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. Now, when Joseph was in Egypt, what did he do? He kept himself pure. When he was tempted by the wife of Potiphar, he maintained his integrity. He ran away from the temptation. But Judah, in chapter 38 of Genesis, who was at home in Canaan. He had physical relations with a prostitute, a harlot, not realizing that the woman was actually Tamar, the widow of his eldest son Ur. Now, one purpose of that story, I think, is to contrast these two sons of Jacob, Joseph and Judah. Joseph, the pure, man of integrity, and Judah who fell in this matter. But I think it's also to show us why it was that God's judgment came on the family of Jacob that led them to seek for corn in Egypt from Joseph himself. But there are actual echoes of this in the book of Ruth. Because if you think of this, when God judged Er for his sin, Judah said to Oman, his brother, that he should observe the law and act as a kinsman to Tamar and raise up seed unto her. But he refused to do so and God struck him dead. And so for a second time, Tamar was left without hope and without an inheritance, kind of like Ruth. And so the themes of marriage and widowhood and the related theme of the kinsman's duty and so on, All of this undergirds both of these stories, but there's an emphasis as well on the sovereign purpose of Almighty God in it all, the overruling hand of providence. Now, as a result of the sinful liaison between Judah and the woman who was actually his daughter-in-law, and he didn't realize it, Tamar, the result of that was that Tamar bore twins, Phares or Perez and Zerah. We read there that when they were about to be born, Zerah's hand came out first and they tied a scarlet thread to it. That was the midwife that did that. Then Zerah retracted his hand and Phares actually was the firstborn son of Judah and Tamar. And there's really an echo there of the birth of other twins, Jacob and Esau. Remember there, the firstborn and the secondborn. And I want to give you a little pointer when you're studying the scriptures. The blessing is never really upon the firstborn, it's upon the secondborn. That's because salvation is as a result of second birth. The blessing of God is not upon the flesh, it's upon that which is born of the Spirit, the secondborn. But as we move on, we see that The situation of Tamar was therefore a bit like Ruth in the book of Ruth. Who was Tamar? She was a Canaanite. She was a Gentile. She didn't belong to the people of God. But in the event, God overruled the sin of Judah and Tamar was brought into the covenant line. And when you go to Matthew chapter 1, this is a really wonderful thing. Matthew chapter 1, there's a genealogy there. And it's the generation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you'll notice as well something that ties in with the book of Ruth. That the generation of Jesus Christ, Matthew 1, verse 1, is to David. The son of David, the son of Abraham. That's very significant. The book of Matthew is about the King. David is the King. And so it's taking you back, Matthew, to the kingly line and generation of Christ. But let's read on here. Matthew 1 verse 2, Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas, that's Judah, and his brethren. And Judas, or Judah, begat Phares and Zarah of Tamar. Now the reason for the spelling change is because in English it's been translated from Greek So it's a transliteration from the Hebrew names. That's why you have these differences in the names. You might have wondered, well, why does he say in Matthew, Jeremy, the prophet? I didn't think he was Jeremy. I thought he was Jeremiah. Well, it's because of the translation. That's all. So here we have these people. Judah, Begatphares and Zarah of Tamar. Now, we go on and read down in verse 5. And Salmon, begat Boaz, and that's actually Boaz, of Rechab, and that's Rahab. Now we remember Rahab. In the book of Judges it speaks of her. She was a harlot. So we read of Tamar in verse 3, not a very good connotation. We read of Rahab, verse 5. Not a very good connotation. And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth. Again, Ruth of Moabites. Not a very good spiritual connotation. And Obed begat Jesse. And Jesse begat David the king. And David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Who was that? That's Bathsheba. Not a very good connotation. David committed the sin of adultery with her. So what is all this about? Well, I would suggest to you that it illustrates for us how God overrules human sin in the fulfillment of His great eternal purpose. But furthermore, it speaks to me of the grace of God and the mercy of God shown to people like this, Tamar. Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, all of whom were associated with sin. And yet the Lord in His mercy brought them into the line of the Messiah. It's amazing this. Even though she had sinned, Tamar in the book of Genesis was fulfilling God's purpose. She didn't even know it. And Judah actually had to admit that Tamar was more righteous than he himself was. But from their offspring, which was the result of a sinful union, came Perez, who was, we work it out, the great, great, great, great grandfather of Boaz. You see, God's ways are higher than ours. God is sovereign in the affairs of men. He can overrule even the most base and sinful actions for His own glory. And I think we see this right throughout the Scriptures, even from the story of the murder that took place in the garden when Cain killed his brother Abel. God's choice there didn't fall on Cain. It fell on Abel, who was the second born. Think about the sons of Abraham. Ishmael and Isaac. Who was the first born? Ishmael, the child of the flesh. Ordinarily, he would be the symbol of the family line and the heir of Abraham. But he's not the one that God chose. God's choice fell on the child of promise, Isaac. He's the two sons of Isaac. Jacob and Esau. Jacob's the younger one. He's the second born. Esau was the first born. Esau stands to inherit all that is his father's. But he's not God's choice. God chooses Jacob. Someone once said, I think it was to Spurgeon, Mr. Spurgeon, I don't understand this scripture. He says, just one scripture? I don't understand this scripture. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. What don't you understand? Well, I don't understand. Esau have I hated. Oh, the preacher says, that doesn't really bother me at all. What bothers me is God loved Jacob. Jacob have I loved. Because Jacob was a twister. Jacob was a supplanter. Jacob was not a very good, a very nice person. But God chose him. And so here's Jacob and he's married Rachel and Leah. Jacob's firstborn is who? Reuben. But the covenant, promise and purpose of God doesn't focus on Reuben. It focuses on Judah. And on the sons of Judah, the covenant line is going to descend from Perez. We don't understand the ways of God, but the God of the covenant is a sovereign and discriminating God. He acts according to His own will. The Lord is not subject to your will or anybody else's. None can stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest thou? Because God is in control. Now, the prayer of the people, back to Ruth chapter 4, for the house of Boaz was, And let thy house be like the house of Phares, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, and so on. Now, what kind of a house was that? Well, it was a house that was marked out by God, chosen by God, not by men. A house that was going to be blessed of the Lord. And we learn from Scripture that God hasn't chosen the great and the wise, but He has usually chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. He's chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty, the lowly and the despised things. And what is it all for? that no flesh should glory in his presence. God gets the glory. Now, the home of Boaz and Ruth was marked out by God for blessing. Now, way back in that story in Genesis 38, the midwife marked the hand of Zerah with a scarlet cord, but God had not marked that one. God had marked out Phares. And we learn as well And another story, an interesting story about a scarlet thread, you may know of it, you can think of it, in the book of Judges. We read about it actually in the book of Joshua. In the destruction of the city of Jericho, as Joshua was about to conquer that city, there was a home that was marked out for blessing by a scarlet cord in the window. And whose house was that? It was the house of Rahab. And she placed that cord there, hanging from the window, as an act of faith that God would fulfill His promise and deliver those who believed in Him. And I want to tell you that when the walls of Jericho fell, they didn't fall like that. They fell like this. The ground opened up and the walls fell down inside. That's why they didn't have to clamber over boulders and rubble to get in there to take it. They just marched straight in. But there was one house that was left standing. You know why? Because her house was built on top of the wall. So when the walls of Jericho fell, there was only one house left standing, and that was the one with the scarlet thread. There's a tremendous lesson in that, of course, in the Gospel. We're saved by grace through faith in the blood of Jesus, which is that scarlet thread that runs all the way through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It is the message of the blood. Salvation by blood. One old apostate years ago in my home city spoke against the gospel of justification and he said, this gospel that men preach about the blood of Jesus is a gospel of gore. That's what he called it. The gospel of gore. Well, that man died in ignominy and shame. An apostate. I'm glad there's a gospel that saves, and it's the gospel of the blood. But I want you to see a contrast between what happened to the scarlet thread in both cases. Unlike Zarah, whose hand had been marked by the scarlet thread, the home of Rahab marked by the scarlet thread was saved. In the case of Rahab, the external sign and the inward reality were agreed. God's sovereign grace worked in her heart. Faith in the covenant God, and that moved her to place all of her trust and confidence in that God, Rahab the harlot. And there's a connection to her, isn't there, in the story of Ruth. And it's Boaz himself. Because it says in chapter 4 verse 21 that Salmon begat Boaz. But who was Salmon? He was the husband of Rahab. Boaz was the son of a harlot. So here's the son of a harlot who was converted by the grace of God, marrying a Moabiteess who had no right to the covenant promises of God, but by grace she was brought in. What a tremendous work God does in saving souls. And we can say that it's a blessing when we're brought into the communion of the people of God You think about the beginning of the story of Ruth. It starts out with Elimelech taking his family away from the covenant God into Moab. But then we see that Ruth comes back with Naomi. Now Ruth is brought in. What a wonderful thing it is to be in union with the Redeemer. Now look at verse 13. We have to move on very quickly here to get to where I want to go to. It says in verse 13, So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife. And when he went in unto her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son. There's a number of things right on the surface of this. The first one is the sanctity of marriage. That has been lost largely in our society. We have young people now, they get together, the first thing they do is shack up, they move in together. A guy moves in with a girl or a girl moves in with a guy, there's no questions asked, there's no commitment, that's what they do. That has become more common than marriage itself in our society. The Bible teaches that the physical relations that belong to marriage are to be kept within marriage. And so Boaz took Ruth and she was his wife. And when he went in unto her, and that's obviously speaking about the conjugal relations that man and wife have, the Lord gave her conception as a result of what they had done. And she bare a son. That's God's order. That's how it works. Now, does that mean that the blessing of God can never be on some child that was born outside of wedlock? Well, God forbid. There are so many people who have done a tremendous work for God who were born in those circumstances. Think about Boaz. I'm not sure, I don't know, if Salmon was actually married to Rahab at the time when Boaz was born. He may well have been. But certainly his mother was a harlot. And when we look at Phares, we can certainly say that he was born out of wedlock. And yet the blessing of God was on his house. So let us not misunderstand this. Just because we believe in the sanctity of marriage and we believe that there's a natural order and a proper order doesn't mean that God cannot overrule these things. But notice that God gave Ruth a son. And so here we turn from the blessing to the begetting. And that word begat is used a number of times at the end of this particular book. Fares begat Hezron, Hezron begat Ram and so on. There's a begetting. A child that was given by the Lord. What a blessing. The Lord gave her conception. Sometimes there are women and men who spend their entire married life and they're unable to give birth naturally to a child. Let us never extrapolate from that that that's because God is not blessing them. That they haven't got the blessing of God on their lives. That's not true. That is not true. Some of the greatest servants of God have never with their wife been able to have children. That's God's business. That's God's business. But in this case, the son brought blessing to Naomi. The bitter experience that she had in Moab was now reversed. There's a blessing for the returning backslider and we see this here. It's interesting, isn't it, in verse 14 that the women spoke to Naomi, not to Ruth and Boaz, but to Naomi. Blessed be the Lord which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. And in this instance it's talking about Obed, the child. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age. For thy daughter-in-law which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him." That's quite a testimony, isn't it? The people there, the women said, Ruth is better to you, Naomi, than seven sons. She was quite a woman, Ruth. And it says that Naomi took the child and laid it in her bosom and became nurse unto it. The son that was born brought great benediction and blessing to her life. But the book of Ruth reveals to us the seed line through which the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ would be born. And so the genealogy there at the end is all about this. This genealogy is really, really important. The purpose of God was to be fulfilled through this child born to Boaz and Ruth. And folks, we're right here at the close of this book, at the heart of the message of the book of Ruth. I said at the beginning of the book of Ruth that it was set at a particular time It's found in the last verse of Judges, the book before. In those days there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. But look at the last verse of the book of Ruth. And whose name is mentioned there? David. Who was David? He was the king. So there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right. Here we have David. So the book of Ruth is actually a connector between the judges and the days of the kings, and especially the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel that speak about the life of David. The genealogy that's given here is really part of the seed line through which the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, would be born. And so this genealogy gives the key to the meaning of this little book. It's about David. This has been given to help us trace the line of the Messiah, because Christ was to come of King David's line. So that baby, Abed, that was born in Bethlehem, was the forerunner of another baby, the greater David, as he has been called King David's greater son, Jesus Christ. So it's proper and right to say that Ruth was brought from the land of Moab into the line of the Messiah. See here in verse 17 the women quite quaintly gave the child a name. There is a son born to Naomi and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. Now, the name Obed really speaks of service. He was a servant. And doesn't that remind us of the Lord Jesus Christ? Because King David's greater son took to himself the name Obed, if you like. Servant. He took the form of a servant, Philippians 2 verse 7. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Not to be served, but to serve. And the Lord, in speaking of him, said in Isaiah 42, verse 1, Behold, my servant, mine elect, my Obed. Here is the one chosen by the Lord. God's elect one. One who said when he came, not my will, but thine, be done. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And the Lord tells us in his word that he is the root and the offspring of David, the bright and the morning star. It also tells us in Romans 15 that he is the root of Jesse, and in Him the Gentiles would trust. Thank God for King David's greater son. Thank God for the blessing of a Redeemer. And I trust that He is your Redeemer today. I trust that you know Him as your own Lord and Saviour. If you're outside of the fold, if you're outside of the family, just think about Ruth, brought from the land of Moab, into the line of the Messiah. God is a God of mercy and a God of grace. Praise His name.