SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a Bible with you this morning, I encourage you to open it to the book of Ruth in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: If you do not have a copy of your own, you can find one in the seat back in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: We have just heard of a little boy born in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: The story of Ruth concludes with a different boy born in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: This morning we're going to look at a portion of the last chapter of the book of Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: And I mentioned last week how we don't get a conclusion to this story.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, probably until about 5.15 this afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: So you have to come back to hear the end of the story.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine you had an insurmountable debt.
SPEAKER_01: The Gospels actually record a story like this, where an individual had a debt that would take multiple lifetimes to pay off.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine that is you.
SPEAKER_01: You have an insurmountable debt, and there are two different people who are able to assume your debt or even pay it off entirely.
SPEAKER_01: Would you care about their character if they could rescue you from your debt?
SPEAKER_01: Would you care at all?
SPEAKER_01: Let's say that one of the individuals was selfish and nasty and only thought about himself and what benefited him.
SPEAKER_01: Would you want that person to rescue you and to provide for your future?
SPEAKER_01: Only to be repeatedly reminded how much you cost him, or to be continually berated about your foolishness that got you in that position in the first place, or how much of a burden you are to him?
SPEAKER_01: Would that make your rescue enjoyable?
SPEAKER_01: Let's imagine a kind, gentle, and considerate person who took over your insurmountable debt.
SPEAKER_01: This individual pays your debt from his own resources and then steps in to ensure the future of your children and your entire family.
SPEAKER_01: He never once mentions the cost to himself.
SPEAKER_01: He never reminds you of your foolish mistakes.
SPEAKER_01: He never even mentions himself.
SPEAKER_01: Would you want to be rescued by the first selfish individual?
SPEAKER_01: Or the one who considers others more significant than himself.
SPEAKER_01: On the one hand, being saved is sufficient, especially in the moment that you are released from that burden.
SPEAKER_01: But you might wish to choose differently over time, especially as the unkind, perpetual selfishness displayed by the first individual erodes your spirit just as water washes away soil.
SPEAKER_01: Now consider though, if you have no choice.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine that the choice is not left to you.
SPEAKER_01: Ponder the possibility of being rescued from your insurmountable debt, but having no choice in who saves you.
SPEAKER_01: All you can do is pray that God would give you the right kind of person.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of redeemer would you pray for?
SPEAKER_01: I know it's hard to imagine, but try.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of individual would you pray to redeem you?
SPEAKER_01: A selfish and self-centered redeemer?
SPEAKER_01: Or one who considers others more significant than himself.
SPEAKER_01: This is the setting for the fourth chapter of the account of Ruth and Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: Listen as I read it, if you want to follow along, that would be good.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth chapter 4, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, the Redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by.
SPEAKER_01: So Boaz said, Turn aside, friend, sit down here.
SPEAKER_01: And he turned aside and sat down.
SPEAKER_01: And Boaz took ten men of the elders of the city and said, Sit down here.
SPEAKER_01: And so they sat down.
SPEAKER_01: Then he said to the redeemer, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech.
SPEAKER_01: So I thought it would I would tell you about it and say, Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.
SPEAKER_01: If you will redeem it, redeem it.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I will redeem it.
SPEAKER_01: Then Boaz said, 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.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.
SPEAKER_01: Now this was the custom, in former times in Israel, concerning redeeming and exchanging, in order to confirm a transaction.
SPEAKER_01: The one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other.
SPEAKER_01: And this was the manner of attesting or confirming in Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So when the redeemer said to Boaz, Buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal.
SPEAKER_01: 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 belonged to Elimelech, and all that belonged to Kilon and Mahlon.
SPEAKER_01: Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, so that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place.
SPEAKER_01: You are witnesses this day.
SPEAKER_01: Then all the people who are at the gate and the elders said, We are witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: May Yahweh make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: May you act worthily in Ephra and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that Yahweh will give you by this young woman.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: This morning I hope that we see the Redeemer's glory displayed particularly in his willingness to bear the cost of redeeming the needy.
SPEAKER_01: Last Sunday we learned how our storyteller caused Boaz and Ruth to tower over all others in the days of the judges when everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: We left off mid-story without rest.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi would not rest until Ruth and her future was secure.
SPEAKER_01: And Naomi trusted that Boaz would not rest until he had accomplished Ruth's redemption.
SPEAKER_01: And that may be a literal statement.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz not resting until he had accomplished his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Would you be able to go back to sleep after being awakened in the middle of the night with cold feet, and then you realize there's a woman laying down on the ground at your feet, and she wakes up and proposes that you marry her?
SPEAKER_01: Guys, would you be able to go back to sleep after that?
SPEAKER_01: We're not told.
SPEAKER_01: But it seems probable that Boaz didn't go back to sleep.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, early in the morning, before daybreak, he he left the pile of harvested grain that had accumulated on the threshing floor, and he goes into the village of Bethlehem, into the house of bread, to ensure Ruth and Naomi's redemption.
SPEAKER_01: But who would their redeem with the right of redemption?
SPEAKER_01: So this section of the story before us this morning takes place in an ancient kind of courtroom.
SPEAKER_01: It details the legal proceedings of redemption in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, verse 7 expects readers not to understand the process.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Now this was the way it happened in ancient times, that if if one man gave up his right of redemption, he took off his shoe and gave it to the person who now has the right.
SPEAKER_01: Strange, but that's what they did.
SPEAKER_01: These proceedings, though, are not in a courthouse.
SPEAKER_01: They're outside, near the entrance to the village.
SPEAKER_01: This courtroom has no cameras, there's no internet, no cell phones, but it is fully public as people move in and out of town.
SPEAKER_01: So imagine yourself in Ruth and Naomi's shoes.
SPEAKER_01: Your desperation and your poverty are discussed openly and publicly by community leaders.
SPEAKER_01: Any passers-by can stop and listen in as your future, including your new potential spouse, is decided by others.
SPEAKER_01: If you think about it, this takes the proverbial small town where everyone knows everyone's business to a different level entirely.
SPEAKER_01: And Ruth and Naomi can only endure the process.
SPEAKER_01: So think about that process for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about the legal proceedings themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Breaking down this section into its parts helps clarify what we are reading.
SPEAKER_01: And the storyteller sets the table with this narrative recounting of the courtroom participants.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz leaves the field and arrives at Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: And like most communities in the ancient world of that time, Bethlehem had a gate, an entrance into the community that served as much more than just a doorway into town.
SPEAKER_01: City gates were places of public business, even civic business and legal matters.
SPEAKER_01: We have archaeological ruins today that detail entrances with small chambers on each side of a city gate, where soldiers could be stationed, kings or rulers could issue judgments, or even official business of any kind could be transacted.
SPEAKER_01: Some of these rooms had have benches along the insides.
SPEAKER_01: So it was likely a place like this that Boaz entered and found a seat.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, by chance, it just so happened that the Redeemer, first in line, walked by where Boaz was seated.
SPEAKER_01: We're not told the Redeemer's name.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's translated as friend or Mr.
SPEAKER_01: So-and-so.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps the best way to relate how Boaz calls out to him as he's walking by in our way of speaking today is with, hey you, stop here for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: We want to chat.
SPEAKER_01: So we have two potential redeemers.
SPEAKER_01: Then Boaz grabs ten more men, reputable and upstanding community leaders, and the official proceedings now involve twelve men.
SPEAKER_01: Twelve men decide Naomi's and Ruth's futures.
SPEAKER_01: Once everyone is present, perhaps in one of these little side rooms, all gathered together in close quarters as people are moving back and forth by the little room, Boaz lays out the case to be decided.
SPEAKER_01: And it has to do with the land that belonged to Elimelech.
SPEAKER_01: We haven't heard from Elimelech since the very first chapter when, lacking trust in Yahweh's provision, he left the house of bread to go to Moab, and there he died.
SPEAKER_01: Now it says in at least the English Standard Version that Naomi was selling the land.
SPEAKER_01: Not exactly.
SPEAKER_01: The reality is that Naomi didn't own the land.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't belong to her.
SPEAKER_01: You see, widows didn't inherit property.
SPEAKER_01: Children could, and brothers could, and fathers and uncles, but not widows.
SPEAKER_01: But she still had sort of a say in kind of what happened or what might not happen, but it didn't belong to her.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, the land given to Israelite families by God was a permanent gift.
SPEAKER_01: So if you sold the property to someone else, like Elimelech likely did before leaving Bethlehem, that land eventually returns to the original family in the year of Jubilee.
SPEAKER_01: So what Boaz describes is likely that Elimelech sold the property before leaving for Moab.
SPEAKER_01: And because Elimelech and his sons died there without children, Elimelech's ancestral land would go to someone else in the clan in the year of Jubilee.
SPEAKER_01: Which means Naomi has nothing.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Ruth had to go out and scrounge for barley and wheat in order to have something to eat.
SPEAKER_01: However, a redeemer, a close relative, could purchase that property back into the clan before the year of Jubilee, so that it would remain in Elimelech's family.
SPEAKER_01: So Mr.
SPEAKER_01: So-and-so here was the relative first in line to buy that property so that it would at least stay in the same general family clan.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi is permitting that redeemer to carry out that rite of redemption on her behalf.
SPEAKER_01: That's the case to be decided and witnessed publicly.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz then announces the procedure to be followed.
SPEAKER_01: He says, buy it, by the property, in verse 4, in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.
SPEAKER_01: If you will redeem it, then redeem it.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Pretty simple, right?
SPEAKER_01: Pretty simple.
SPEAKER_01: Signed, sealed, and delivered.
SPEAKER_01: Or is it?
SPEAKER_01: Without assigning any kind of ill will or malice to him, our narrator tells us something else happened.
SPEAKER_01: The Redeemer says immediately, Yeah, I'll buy it.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: No problem.
SPEAKER_01: Let's take care of this right now.
SPEAKER_01: And without a pause, the storyteller records, I will redeem it.
SPEAKER_01: But then Boaz speaks to ensure that the Redeemer, first in line, understood that acquiring this property also meant taking Ruth as his wife.
SPEAKER_01: And that changed everything.
SPEAKER_01: The first Redeemer suddenly backs out of the purchase agreement and says, I can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, I might impair my own inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Now that the famine is over, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: So-and-so was thinking about the financial benefit of possessing the rights and privileges to another field.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Why not add to my landholdings?
SPEAKER_01: I can get more grain, more barley, more wheat.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a great business decision for me.
SPEAKER_01: But that all changes once Ruth enters the picture.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember how the property belongs to the family in perpetuity?
SPEAKER_01: That means it always returns to the original family every 50 years.
SPEAKER_01: No matter what happens to it, it comes back to that family.
SPEAKER_01: The only thing that changes that is if a family has no children.
SPEAKER_01: In that case, the property shifts to the next closest family member.
SPEAKER_01: In that case, it's our redeemer, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: So-and-so.
SPEAKER_01: But he failed to think about Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: Now there was no law that stated Mr.
SPEAKER_01: So-and-so had to marry Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: There's no stated expectation in the culture anywhere that Mr.
SPEAKER_01: So-and-so had to take Ruth as his wife if he bought the property.
SPEAKER_01: That would have been expected if the Redeemer was Elimelech's brother.
SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't seem to be the case.
SPEAKER_01: So Boaz appears to be operating on the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law.
SPEAKER_01: And in Boaz's mind, God cared for the widow so much that the right act in the spirit of the law was for the Redeemer to acquire the land and marry Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: And if he agreed to marry Ruth, then he's also agreeing to care for Naomi all the rest of her life.
SPEAKER_01: How does the businessman deal with that?
SPEAKER_01: As a business decision, he's mentally imagining his overall net worth and cash flow increasing as he has the opportunity to purchase another investment property.
SPEAKER_01: But caring for a wife and a mother-in-law impacts that negatively.
SPEAKER_01: And to top it off, if he and Ruth happened to have a baby, the field would no longer belong to him, but to that child.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning all of the expenses that he poured into that property and into caring for Ruth and into caring for Naomi would not benefit his family, but only that child.
SPEAKER_01: And if that particular redeemer has no other children, then the property that he has inherited would all go to Ruth's family line, leaving nothing for his family to inherit.
SPEAKER_01: So Mr.
SPEAKER_01: So-and-so is now unwilling to bear the cost of redeeming Ruth and Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: He says, no, that is not a wise business decision for me.
SPEAKER_01: He could see no profit in that arrangement.
SPEAKER_01: So following the custom of the times, he confirms his decision to hand over the rite of redemption to Boaz by taking off his sandal and handing it to Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: He said, It's yours now.
SPEAKER_01: You can do this.
SPEAKER_01: That outcome is immediately announced in this small public space.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz said to the elders and all the people Notice, we go from twelve men now to All the people.
SPEAKER_01: People streaming in and out of the gate have now stopped to overhear the proceedings and they're interested in what's going to happen to Ruth and Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: It's like a soap opera.
SPEAKER_01: And now it's announced publicly.
SPEAKER_01: You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belong to Elimelech and all that belong to Mahlon and Kilon.
SPEAKER_01: Also, Ruth the Moabite, the foreigner, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: And so finally, there is a public confirmation of this legal outcome.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 11 and 12.
SPEAKER_01: All the people who were at the gate, and the elders said, We are witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we we see this, we hear it, and now we want to bless you.
SPEAKER_01: But notice that the blessing has absolutely nothing to do with the property.
SPEAKER_01: Did you catch that?
SPEAKER_01: All along we've been talking about the property, the land.
SPEAKER_01: And then Boaz says, Oh, by the way, there's Ruth involved too.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you have to consider her.
SPEAKER_01: And in the end, the blessing is not on the productivity of the property, not on the amount of grain, barley, and wheat that's going to be harvested, not on not having a famine.
SPEAKER_01: The blessing is on the people.
SPEAKER_01: The blessing is all about Ruth and their upcoming marriage.
SPEAKER_01: So Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, you sought a blessing through the property and didn't get it.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz, though, receives a blessing through his redemption of a foreigner.
SPEAKER_01: That's the story.
SPEAKER_01: The family's tragic wanderings and their struggle to survive have a happy ending.
SPEAKER_01: You could turn off the TV right at that point and be good.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth will be married to a good guy.
SPEAKER_01: And Naomi will have a pleasant end of life supported by Boaz and Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: That would be a satisfactory ending to the way the story began.
SPEAKER_01: But friends, we miss our blessing if we only hear a happy ending.
SPEAKER_01: You now know the whole story.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't trust Yahweh to provide, so they left town.
SPEAKER_01: They left the country.
SPEAKER_01: When God began to provide again, they came back, but it was only Miss Bitter and Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: When God began to provide, Ms.
SPEAKER_01: Bitter changed her name back to Naomi, Miss Pleasant.
SPEAKER_01: And everything started to work out.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that wonderful?
SPEAKER_01: You now know the whole story, but what is the storyteller's point?
SPEAKER_01: Following the legal proceedings, we have to observe this literary point.
SPEAKER_01: In the story, only one Redeemer is worthy.
SPEAKER_01: Only one Redeemer is worthy.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: All the people who were at the gate and the elders said, We're witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: May Yahweh make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: May you act worthily.
SPEAKER_01: And who are the only two worthy people in the book of Ruth?
SPEAKER_01: Boaz and Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: There is only one worthy Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz won the rite of redemption and got the girl.
SPEAKER_01: And this section details how that happened in the culture of the time, but in telling the story, he's also weaving in elements that shout to all readers the unworthiness of the first redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: It's not unusual in our day and age to hear that someone marries someone else for their money or for their fame and power.
SPEAKER_01: That's Mr.
SPEAKER_01: So-and-so.
SPEAKER_01: He was in it for the money.
SPEAKER_01: But he would have made a terrible redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't care about the people.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't care about Ruth and Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: He only cared about himself and keeping his property in the family.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't about to endanger that to help a couple of widows, one of them a foreigner.
SPEAKER_01: If you're following along with me, now you begin to understand why the storyteller doesn't tell us his name.
SPEAKER_01: He's not worthy enough to have his name remembered.
SPEAKER_01: His character reveals that he is unworthy of even having a name.
SPEAKER_01: Why put his financial future on the line for them?
SPEAKER_01: Why endanger his family's future to help them?
SPEAKER_01: But Boaz gave no thought to his financial future.
SPEAKER_01: He gave no thought to what might happen if he did the right thing.
SPEAKER_01: He was under no legal obligation either.
SPEAKER_01: But he knew, he knew that in the mind of Yahweh, pure and undefiled religion is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
SPEAKER_01: James chapter 1, verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: So as Yahweh visited his people with bread, Boaz visits the widows with provisions.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh had visited his people with bread, and Boaz visits the widows in their affliction, all while keeping himself unstained from the world.
SPEAKER_01: Only one redeemer was worthy.
SPEAKER_01: Now consider, consider not having a choice of redeemers.
SPEAKER_01: Ponder the possibility of being rescued from your dire position, but having no choice in who saves you.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of redeemer would you pray for?
SPEAKER_01: Would you ask God for a selfish and self-centered redeemer who thinks only of himself?
SPEAKER_01: Or would you ask God for the redeemer who considers others more significant than himself?
SPEAKER_01: Now, beloved, consider Jesus, who endured from sinners such hostility against himself.
SPEAKER_01: Look to him, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame.
SPEAKER_01: For Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham, the blessing of Boaz and Ruth might come to the Gentiles like it came to Ruth the Moabitist, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, on this Christmas Eve, only one Redeemer is worthy of your trust.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the writer to the Hebrews said in Hebrews 3, verse 3, for Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than even Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Two Redeemers met in Ruth four.
SPEAKER_01: And much like Esau with his birthright hundreds of years earlier, the man first in line gives up his place.
SPEAKER_01: But the scriptures also tell us that God chose Jacob over Esau.
SPEAKER_01: By scanning through the storyteller's intent here, we can see that God also chose Boaz over Mr.
SPEAKER_01: So-and-so.
SPEAKER_01: As Esau chose to dispense with his birthright, so too the Redeemer who had no name is not worthy to have his name remembered.
SPEAKER_01: He is Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Heyu, who refused to rescue others when it might cost him.
SPEAKER_01: As so many times in the times of the judges, the first Redeemer did what was right in his own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: But Boaz lives out his faith in Israel's God.
SPEAKER_01: We see that in his unquestioned willingness to do what is right in the Lord's eyes, no matter the cost.
SPEAKER_01: So we see then again and again this lasting principle that the Redeemer, the true Redeemer's glory, is seen by everyone who has eyes to see that his great glory is found in his willingness to bear the cost of redeeming those in need.
unknown: Mr.
SPEAKER_01: So-and-so's identity is long lost to history.
SPEAKER_01: But Boaz is memorialized forever as the redeemer willing to pay the price to secure redemption for Naomi, the widow from Bethlehem, and Ruth, the Moabite, the foreign widow, who took refuge under the wings of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz was not a judge in the days when the judges judged.
SPEAKER_01: Yet his glory towers over even the judges.
SPEAKER_01: For he gave himself to redeem those without hope.
SPEAKER_01: He saved those who could do nothing to save themselves.
SPEAKER_01: He gave himself to redeem those without hope.
SPEAKER_01: If you return this evening, you will see how the divine author of Scripture reveals that Boaz is far more than a good guy occupying a brief moment on the screen of history.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz is a glorious prelude to the real story.
SPEAKER_01: The real story of how a son of Boaz would be born in Bethlehem, who would bear the cost to redeem all who trust in him.
SPEAKER_01: He is the redeemer who is God's own son.
SPEAKER_01: One who did not hold on at all costs to the glory that he had, but set it aside so that he could take on the form of one of his creatures.
SPEAKER_01: One in whom there is no condemnation, who purchased our redemption so that we might be granted the forgiveness of sins and might be fully adopted sons and daughters of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: Observing Boaz's glory as a redeemer, must direct our eyes of faith to see Christ's glory.
SPEAKER_01: That glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_01: And so by faith we trust him now to redeem us.
SPEAKER_01: And by faith, we look ahead to the day when he will return to complete our redemption.
SPEAKER_01: As Naomi and Ruth may be sitting at home somewhere, wondering what will happen?
SPEAKER_01: What will happen this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Will we be redeemed?
SPEAKER_01: We have no thought about that.
SPEAKER_01: For Christ has already died, been buried, and risen again to purchase a redemption if you trust in him.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way, as Ruth and Naomi could anticipate Boaz's return as their redeemer, so God's people today anticipate his return to complete their redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we come and we bow before you, giving you thanks for what you've done.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that we can look at this account in the Old Testament of needy people and see ourselves in Ruth's shoes and Naomi's shoes and desperately needing rescue.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that we can see and receive that rescue.
SPEAKER_01: And the hope of your birth, of your life, of your death, burial, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: May we lift up our eyes this morning to see with eyes of faith and hope your eventual return to make all things right.
SPEAKER_01: We give all of this praise and glory and honor to you, for you are the worthy redeemer of your people.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.