If you would please open your Bibles to the book of Ruth, Ruth chapter 4. It's found on page 259 in some of the Pew Bibles, the last chapter in the book of Ruth. Ruth chapter 4. This is the Word of God. Meanwhile, Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the kinsman redeemer he had mentioned came along, Boaz said, come over here, my friend, and sit down. So he went over and sat down. Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, sit here, and they did so. Then he said to the kinsman redeemer, Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it, in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has a right to do it except you. And I am the next in line. I will redeem it, he said. Then Boaz said, On the day that you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man's widow in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property. At this the kinsman redeemer said, Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it. Now, in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel. So the kinsman redeemer said to Boaz, Buy it yourself. And he removed his sandal. Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Killian, and Malon. I have also acquired Ruth, the Moabitess, Malon's widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with the property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records. Today, you are witnesses. Then the elders and all those at the gate said, We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Though the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, or through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah. So Boaz took Ruth and became his wife. Then he went to her and the Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi, praise be to the Lord who this day has not left you without a kinsman redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons has given him birth. Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap, and cared for him. The women living there said, Naomi has a son. And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. This then is the family line of Perez. Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron, the father of Ram. Ram, the father of Aminadab. Aminadab, the father of Nation. Nation, the father of Salmon. Salmon, the father of Boaz. Boaz, the father of Obed. Obed, the father of Jesse. And Jesse, the father of David. So ends the reading of the word of God this evening. Let us pray together. Lord, we thank you for your word. And we thank you for the tale of Ruth. How we see your redemption already working forward in the Old Testament. Pointing forward to the Messiah that was to come. may you open up your word to us this evening and speak to us through your Holy Spirit this we pray in Jesus name Amen now some of you may remember if you've been here in recent months that I'd been saying I wanted to go through 1st Peter so before somebody saw me this evening they saw me in the suit and figured I was preaching and they said are we going to be looking at 1st Peter tonight And I said, no, on Christmas Eve, I was hoping to do something a little more Christmassy. And the response was, yes, because Ruth is much more a Christmas text to look at. So I do not doubt that maybe some of you have looked at the bulletin and thought, no, he could have chosen something that had to do a little more with Christmas. But it is my hope that this is the most Christmassy sermon I have. And I hope that when we look through Ruth and see a picture of what happens in the story of Ruth, that we'll indeed see the relation to the Christmas story. Because briefly, I know we just started at chapter 4 and it's not a very good break necessarily, so we're sort of right in the middle of the story. But Ruth is normally a fairly familiar passage, if for no other reason than most seminarians do their first few sermons on Ruth, because they go through it in Hebrew class. So being near the seminary, maybe you've heard some Ruth sermons before. But what we see in Ruth is a story of abandonment on the part of God's people and a story of faithfulness on the part of God. Because the story, as we know, hopefully remember, begins with Naomi leaving Israel with her husband Elimelech and their sons Kilin and Malon. They leave Bethlehem, which literally means the house of bread because there was a famine. Now, it seemed to me if you were living in the house of bread, you might stay put even if there was a time of famine because there would be the hope that bread would be found there. But they left and they went to the land of Moab. And Elimelech died and Kilian died and Malon died and Naomi was left without anyone. And so she returned to the land of Israel but now she had two daughters Orpah and Ruth and she managed to convince one of them to go back to Moab but Ruth tagged along and their tale was one of woe and Naomi came back and said call me Mara for I am bitter and things looked rough for them they had no hope, no chance of a future and Naomi now had this Moabite that was looked down upon in the land of Israel but then we were introduced to the character Boaz who comes and says he will be the kinsman redeemer. He will care for them and he will lift them up. And in four short chapters, Ruth, it would make a pretty good soap opera because there's a lot of turns, a lot of curves and twists that you're not expecting. And Boaz, you know, at the end of chapter 3, nearing the end of chapter 3, it seems like the happy ending is there. Boaz says, I will be your kinsman redeemer. But, first I've got to ask this guy if he wants to be the kinsman redeemer. And that's where we come into chapter 4. It's an odd twist, because everything seems set for Boaz and Ruth to be together. And then this other kinsman redeemer, who has more of a claim, comes into the picture. And that's where we come into chapter 4. And what we see in this chapter, as I said, the book of Ruth is a tale of abandonment from God's people, but a tale of faithfulness from their God. Because it comes right in the middle of the book of Judges and the book of 1 Samuel. And the book of Judges ends, everybody did what they saw was fit in their own eyes, for there was no king. And the book of 1 Samuel, as we know, begins with the king coming. And so Ruth begins in the time of the Judges. But the very last word of Ruth is the name David. So what we see in this book is a segue from the time of the judges to the time of the kings. A time of doubt and despair to a time of fulfillment and care. And what we see in this final chapter of Ruth is the Lord pointing his people forward to hope. And he shows us how we are to look forward. And we see it in three different ways in this chapter. First, we are to be a people looking forward without fear. Secondly, we are to be a people looking forward with faith. And finally, we are to be a people looking forward to fulfillment. So first we see that we are to be a people looking forward without fear. And we see this by the interaction between Boaz and the unnamed Kinsman Redeemer. we see at the beginning of chapter 4 that Boaz is going to the gate. And we might not think much of that when we first read it, but that's a pretty big deal, that he's going to the gate of the city. Because in the Old Testament, in these cities, the gate was the hub. The gate, even though it was on the outside of the city, for all intents and purposes, was the city's center. It's where all the activity took place. It's where the leaders of the city sat. And so that's where Boaz goes to discuss this deal. To discuss what is to be done with Ruth and Naomi and their land. And that's an encouraging beginning because Boaz is acting uprightly and righteously. He's not going to some back alley to find some unnamed man and strike a slick deal with him. He goes to the city center. And he shows his righteousness once again. In verse 1, he first calls the kinsman redeemer, Come over here, my friend, and sit down. So he went over and sat down. And then in verse 2, he calls the elders together. Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, Sit here. And they did so. And again, we may just pass over this. But he's doing this to set up a jury pool, a pool of witnesses, to show that whatever interaction happens between Boaz and the kinsman redeemer is legitimate, is public, is not hidden. and so then in verse 3 and 4 Boaz presents the case of Naomi and Ruth and how they are in the need of a kinsman redeemer and just like that in verse 4 we get a prompt, quick response I will redeem it from this unknown kinsman redeemer but then in verse 5 we see Boaz sort of say well there's just one little thing when you redeem this woman and her land, you also are to redeem this woman Ruth and bring an inheritance to her and bring offspring to her. And just as quickly and with no other words as a man said, I will redeem it, he immediately flips. I cannot redeem it. I might endanger my own estate. This unnamed kinsman redeemer is responding with fear. Not a godly fear. He's responding with an earthly fear, a worldly fear. and it's pretty funny that he says I'll redeem it just like that and then two seconds later I can't redeem it I think what it goes to show is that as I've heard before it's easy to serve God when it's easy to serve God and when it sounded like a story of just getting more lands and more inheritance to him it sounded like a great plan but then as soon as he realized he would have to take this woman Ruth as his wife all of a sudden the plan didn't sound as good he said I might endanger my own estate and what we really see here is the kinsman redeemer is worried that he won't get any more to his estate there's a greediness factor where if he gives Ruth a child then Ruth's child gets that land and he doesn't get it but really I think what's here more is he's worried about his reputation. What kind of shame this will bring on his inheritance, his name, to marry a Moabite, a woman outside the Israel community. He's looking forward, afraid of what people will think of him. And so often that's our temptation to look forward with an ungodly fear. To commit to do things, and then as soon as any earthly reason appears why that's not a wise thing to do, we back out. We do this with very trivial things. We agree to help with the church function, bring a meal until we find out that the playoff game's that week. And we really wanted to watch the playoff game, so maybe we can't go after all. We're more similar to this example. We're glad to profess the faithfulness of God and do what God asks of us until it may become embarrassing, until it may go against our reputation. We're happy after church to talk about the goodness of God and the truth of the gospel with our brothers and sisters who are in full agreement with us. But sometimes we're very afraid to share it with people to whom they may change their view of us. It may ruin our reputation. And we do this in a number of ways. We're afraid to talk to the destitute. We're afraid to talk to the homeless man on the street. What would it look like if we talked to the homeless guy on the street and share the gospel with him? That's scary. Stay away from homeless people. Stay away from that person who looks like they're up to no good on the street corner. I freely admit that I give in to these same fears. But these are the type of things we need to ask ourselves when we're afraid in a situation of our commitment to the Lord. Is it a godly fear? Or is it an earthly fear? And we don't even need to think of examples that extreme. It's not so much we fear marring our name, but if we faithfully profess the gospel, what will people think of us? We'll be known as those idiots, those freaks, those Christians. we have this in the workplace and we have this at school I had this when I worked at a coffee shop in town that by and large people would give me a hard time in sort of a good natured manner oh you're one of those Christians and often it would turn into a discussion that would actually be quite good but some of them really would look at me with disdain and it would be a temptation to not mention things of God to not mention that I'm a Christian because it was embarrassing to be looked down upon. But what we see in the unnamed kinsman redeemer is what happens to those who turn their back on the Lord, who deviate from looking to the Lord for their comfort, for their strength, for their help, and look to what the world would say and forget the way of the Lord. And what ultimately happens is they are forgotten. You notice in all the names we're given in this tale, Killian, Malon, Naomi, Elimelech, Boaz, Ruth, and Orpah, even the Moabite women, the name we never find is this kinsman redeemer's name. When he's referred to by Boaz, Boaz says, Sit down here, my friend. And literally, the two terms there are friend someone. Two vague terms back to back for referring to this man. Come sit here, friend someone. He looked forward in fear, thinking that the Lord could not preserve him if he took this course of action, though it was the right course of action to take. For he feared that he would lose his estate. And he feared that he would lose his name. And ultimately, he loses his name. We don't even know who he is. And let that remind us, on the converse, that the Lord will not forget those who look to him in times of fear. The logic of the world would excuse the kinsman redeemer. Say, what did you stand to benefit from taking this woman Ruth on? What earthly gain would it have given to you? She's not even really family. Somebody married outside and brought her in and now you're supposed to pick up the trash? The logic of the world would certainly excuse the kinsman redeemer. And even the letter of the Israelite law would excuse him. Why should he have the law of kinsman redeemers that applies to the Israelites, the true Jewish people, to this woman, this outsider? Why should he have to care for her? But we see ultimately that he was without excuse. Because to take the course of action he took, he stopped trusting in the Lord. He looked forward, not in hope, not in trust, not in faith, but in a godless fear. And so by his counterexample, we are encouraged to not be a people that look forward with an earthly fear. that worry about what the world would think of us. But rather, as our second point says, we are to be a people looking forward with faith. And we see this by the example of Boaz, a man looking forward with faith. Because as I said, the story of Ruth is a bit of a soap opera with the twists and the turns. And now that we get this twist that the unnamed kinsman redeemer says, I will not redeem we may start wondering well is Boaz going to redeem? because it's all very possible that Boaz is thinking well I thought he was going to redeem Ruth so I thought I was off the hook but now that he's backed out will Boaz be a man of his word? and we see that indeed Boaz is a man of his word he is a man of deeds and he does redeem this woman Ruth and we see it take place with this very official sandal exchange which I don't know what it means other than it's an official transaction that takes place between two people it was a sign that this was legitimate this was legal this was binding in the sight of the men present and Boaz does it gladly it says in verse 9 today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech Kilian and Malon I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess Malon's widow as my wife in order to maintain the name of the dead. It says that he acquired Ruth but literally it's the sense of he bought Ruth. The word there is today I have bought her. And we with our American history don't usually like to think of the terms of buying and selling of people but it's not at all in that negative sense. He's saying he bought her to restore her to bring her life to fulfillment to bring her back to where she should be. And he does this for no earthly gain. He doesn't do this for any reason that he thinks this will bring him great acclaim and riches and wealth. He does it because he looks forward in faith. He's not worried about the shame that this may bring. He is a true redeemer looking to restore, as it says, her name to property and the name to memory. often we don't have all the answers in life. But we must always look forward in faith. We must trust the Lord that His good purposes will be achieved in the midst of a sinful and harsh world. And it's very easy to say that, but it can be very hard to believe. When you receive the pink slip and you've been laid off and there are no prospects, when a loved one who you've been speaking with whether it's friend or family who you've been talking with constantly shows no inclination to faith when our loved ones are sick or dying or dead and by the earthly reasoning we have there seems no logical explanation why did my loved one die while this sinner who revels in his sin lives on and it is at these times when we must most look forward in faith not because our faith is some magical tool and if we have enough faith it will get us through but because the object of our faith is Jesus Christ and Boaz though he did not know what would be the outcome though he did not know what exactly would happen he looked forward in faith he looked forward to Christ though we did not know him by name as we do he looked forward to a Messiah a Savior a King who would come and bring Israel back and restore it and immediately after he makes this decision And though he makes it not knowing what will happen, he receives blessings. He's given three blessings. In verse 11, he's told, May the Lord make the woman like Leah and Rachel. He's given a blessing for the offspring. May she have children as these women did. He's given a blessing of fame that they may have standing in Ephrathah, famous in Bethlehem. The two things that the unnamed kinsman redeemer feared most, that his estate would be lost and that his name would be lost are the immediate two blessings that come to Boaz. He will have offspring and fame. And the final blessing that Boaz receives leads us to our third and final point. That we are to be a people looking forward not in fear. We are to be a people looking forward in faith. And finally, we are to be a people looking forward for fulfillment. We see this charge to look forward to fulfillment in the very odd blessing given in verse 12. That the child may be like Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah. And if you know your Bible stories well, you realize immediately why that seems such an odd blessing. Because Tamar is an interesting story, where she was actually married to Judah's son. But Judah was a sinful man. Or I'm sorry, Judah's son Ur was a sinful man and he was killed. The Lord took his life because he was a sinful man in unbelief. And so as we have another story of what should be kinsmen redeeming, where the son Onan marries Tamar. But he again is sinful and will not conceive with her. He will not give her a child. And so the Lord takes his life as well. and Tamar goes to Judah for aid saying I need offspring I need a redeemer who will be my redeemer and Judah says you know well wait for my next son who is far too young and sort of thought he put Tamar out of reckoning and wouldn't have to deal with her and Tamar responds to this by dressing up like a harlot and sort of deceiving Judah into giving her offspring to producing a child through her and so what's interesting is this would not seem I wouldn't want someone to give this blessing at my baptism I certainly hope the pastor didn't say may this child be like Perez who was born to Tamar and Judah because it's a seedy, seedy account it's a shocking story but the reason this blessing is given is to remind the people that the Lord's purposes are fulfilled and we live in a sinful world and the Lord uses the sin and the deception and the adultery and corruption of this world to achieve his perfect ends. And much in the same way that this story of Tamar and Judah was surrounded by scandal, this story was surrounded by scandal as well. This Moabitess brought into the community after these sons had gone outside to Moab and married these women and died away from Israel, now this woman comes back. And she wouldn't seem to deserve a kinsman redeemer. But still the Lord fulfills his purpose in her and in Boaz and brings about a child. We see the phrase, God enabled her to conceive. Where literally, Yahweh gave her conception. And we can't help but be reminded of the very similar story of Sarah. Where the Lord enabled her to conceive, to have Isaac. And so we see blessings to Boaz and blessings to Ruth, pointing them forward to the fulfillment of this child. But we also see blessings for Naomi. And what's interesting is Naomi's not a prominent character in chapter 4, but she is a very prominent character throughout the book, to the point where I think you could almost call the book Naomi, because it begins with Naomi and it ends with Naomi. And it's really a tale of Naomi's flight with her husband from Israel and being brought back and feeling that she'd been abandoned by God and that she was bitter and that she was empty and she was restored. She is no longer Mara who is bitter. She is Naomi. And she receives blessings as well in verses 14 and 15. That she has been given a kinsman redeemer and that her daughter Ruth is better than seven sons. And in verse 16 we see that Naomi takes this child and lays him in her lap. and cares for him. This woman Naomi who was empty is now full. It's a beautiful tale of the Lord's fulfillment and care for his people. And if this were indeed a soap opera or a play, the curtain could descend, the screen could fade to black, and it could be the end. And it's a perfectly wonderful tale. But the story doesn't end there. Because we see that this child, Obed, was not just a random child. And this wasn't just a random group of people. But indeed, this child would be the grandfather to David. We see the line that came out of Obed. Obed to Jesse, to David. And then we see the line go back from before Boaz or any of these people. And it begins with Perez, who we've already thought about. So here again we see the Lord putting to the good what man had meant for evil. As I said, when we look at this book, it comes in the middle of Judges and 1 Samuel. The end of Judges, everybody did as they saw fit in their own eyes. Because there was no king. And in the beginning of 1 Samuel, we receive this king. David, the king, comes. But as we sit on the eve of Christmas, even this is not the complete story. Because the line didn't end with David. That wasn't the final ending. And when we turn in our Bibles to Matthew 1, verses 2 through 16, we receive a lengthy genealogy that contains the genealogy we find at the end of Ruth. Because the story of Ruth was still looking forward to fulfillment. Still looking beyond the King David. Looking forward to the Messiah who would come and save his people from their sins. And as we see in this tale, in the tale of Tamar, the Lord's work being done, though riddled by sin and scandal, we see that in the genealogy provided in Matthew as well. You know, there are only five names of women mentioned in that genealogy. Two of them we've already considered, Tamar and Ruth. The third is Rahab, who we remember as the prostitute who harbored the spies when they came into the land. Another woman riddled with scandal, a prostitute brought into the Israelite people. And we see the name Bathsheba. Well, actually, we don't see the name Bathsheba. we see the name Uriah's wife because that's how she is recorded to memory as a marker of that sin of David's to kill the man Uriah that he may have Bathsheba but in the midst of that sin a child was brought forth to continue the line and the final name we receive is Mary Mary who is the mother of Jesus and even she is riddled with scandal everybody said get away from this woman Joseph she has been unfaithful to you divorce her quietly because the world thought she must have committed adultery she must have cheated on Joseph and left him but just as Boaz was a faithful man so too was Joseph staying by his wife's side and the child that was born to them was Jesus Christ. And so what we see in Ruth is pointing us forward to Matthew. And when we look at the Old Testament, that is what it does. The Old Testament looked forward to the fulfillment that we celebrate tomorrow. So it is fitting that on the eve of Christmas, we look at a tale that looked forward to the coming of Christmas. Because without Christmas Day, beloved, without the New Testament, the story of Ruth is nothing more than a nice story of a guy who went above and beyond what he had to do and did a good deed to somebody. But when we look at the genealogy that comes at the end of Ruth, and when we look at the genealogy that comes in Matthew, we see that everything that took place in this story was coming forward, looking to the fulfillment of the Messiah who was to come, who would be born in a manger, who would die on a cross, and who would be raised again to take away the sins of those who would believe on Him. And that too is something we must keep in mind tomorrow, beloved. That Christmas without Easter is nothing. So even as we celebrate our Lord's birth, let us keep in mind that he came into the world to die on the cross, to be raised from the dead and to go into heaven and to intercede for us at this present time at the right hand of the Father. And let us still look forward to fulfillment where he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead whose kingdom shall have no end. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for the tale of Ruth. And we thank you that we see in this genealogy and this preservation of a son, We see you already pointing forward to the son that would come and be born in a manger. We thank you for this truth, Lord, that indeed it is a history of redemption, not a fantasy of redemption. That throughout history we see everything pointing forward to Christ. And that he has come and taken away the sins of all who believe on him. May we never tire of that truth, Lord. May that fill our lives with joy. Bring joy into our hearts whenever there is sinful despair. Let us look to Christ when we are downcast. This we pray in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.