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Let His Name be Renowned

December 1, 2024 Preacher: Kevin Godin Series: Ruth

Scripture: Ruth 4:13–22

Sermon Transcript:

This week we come to the end of Naomi’s story and to our look at how God was working throughout the time of the Judges to keep His promise to redeem not only those in Israel who were faithful, but all people everywhere who put their faith in God as their savior. The book is named after Ruth, but in human terms, it is the story of Naomi. In fact, we haven’t seen Ruth since Naomi told her to wait and see what Boaz would do. The story begins with Naomi, empty and discouraged and it ends with Naomi filled and full of joy.

As we finish the book, we are reminded once again that it is God who is the hero of the story. It is God who is the redeemer, and it is God who is at work to keep His promises. Like Naomi, we often get distracted by our circumstances and that leads to discouragement. Rather than trusting God’s word, we try to interpret every detail of our lives as if we can read God’s mind. It is no wonder that when we do this we get discouraged, because by doing this we magnify our immediate circumstances and God’s plans shrink in our thinking.

Believers, God never forgets His people and He never forgets His promises. He chooses to work in us all sorts of ways, but it is all working toward triumph, because it is all working toward us being raised with Jesus in glory. As we look at this final passage together, the main thing I want you to see is

Believers can trust God is always working toward our redemption in Jesus Christ.

This was the case for Naomi and Ruth and it is the case for us. Your life, my life, Naomi’s life… these are all part of a much larger glorious story of redemption and salvation stretching across thousands of years and around the world until Jesus returns and the kingdom of Satan is cast down. We begin in verse 13,

13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife.

I don’t usually cry at weddings, but reading this line fills me with joy. Think about how amazing this is. There is a beautiful progression in this book that is completed in this verse. When Ruth first meets Boaz in chapter two, she calls herself a "foreigner". When he is kind to her, she replies she is lower than one of his servants. In chapter 3, at night, when he asks her who she is, she says she is his “maidservant”. Now she is his wife.

What a beautiful picture of gracious love. Brothers and sisters, we were strangers and foreigners wandering far from God, we were not worthy to be called servants God. Yet by His grace He has called us through the gospel to serve Him and Ephesians 5:25–27 says,

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

This is a command for husbands, but do you see the basis for it. Marriage is not just a convenient social construct. It is a gift from God that is intended as an illustration of something beyond this world. It is an illustration of Jesus Christ and the church. Jesus gave Himself for His church. Jesus died to make His church holy, and I shudder when I think about the day when false teachers and preachers stand before Christ and give an account for how they have treated the bride whom Jesus loves.

Ruth helps us to realize what an amazing thing it is to consider that Jesus gave His life that we who were far off would be presented to him in splendor, a radiant pure bride. Boaz made Ruth his wife, 

And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son.

The author wants to be sure we don’t lose sight of the real hero of the story. The Lord gave her conception, and she had a son. It is God who opens and closes the womb and it was God at work through Boaz and Ruth to continue the line. I don’t know how long Ruth was married the first time, but she was previously married and did not have any children. Now, God gives her a son and Naomi a grandson.

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! 15 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.”

Back in chapter 1 Naomi tells the women of the town not to call her Naomi, which means pleasant, but to call her bitter. The women now praise God and encourage Naomi, reminding her of all the Lord has done. Under the law, Boaz is the redeemer, but the women see the child as the one who brings redemption for her. It is the child that speaks to Naomi’s pain. Remember she lost her husband and two sons. They tell her that Ruth is more to her than seven sons because Ruth was able to give her a heritage, something her sons were unable to do.

They pronounce this blessing upon the child saying “may his name be renowned.” It will be through this child that the line of King David will come and through the line of David, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, it is our desire that the name of Jesus be renowned not only in Israel, but in all the world. It is our mission to make Jesus famous not only as a name people have heard, but as the Savior of their souls. Naomi has received more than she could imagine. In fact, she doesn’t even know how much she has been blessed with, but we do. We see in her the goodness and faithfulness of God.

16 Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. 17 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.

Naomi and the child have a special bond. The word the ESV translates as nurse doesn’t refer to a wet-nurse, but to what we might call a nanny. She becomes his caretaker. This relationship is such that the women say that Obed is a son born to Naomi. Interestingly, it is the women who suggest the name, a fact repeated in these verses. Naomi has been greatly blessed by God and everyone knows it.

These events take place during the time of the judges, and you may recall that the key theological summary of the book of Judges was that there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. The book of Ruth shows us how God was at work even in that dark time to redeem His people. This child Obed is the father of Jesse, who is the father of the boy who will become King David. A man after God’s heart. A king whose line God promises will rule forever.

The book ends with a brief genealogy. Beginning at verse 18 it says,

18 Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, 19 Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, 20 Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, 21 Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, 22 Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.  

I know a lot of people get bogged down when they come to these lists of names. We are tempted to skip ahead. When we hit these, our eyes glance down the page to see how long it is going to be before we get back to narrative. That is common, but brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you not to underestimate the genealogies. You might never be one who works through all the details of every one of them but they are useful. Every time you see one of these lists of names you have a record of God keeping His promises.

If you ever doubt whether God keeps His word you can look to Amminadab, Nahshon, and Salmon. Is there any greater thing in all the universe than to have your name recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life? What a glorious thing it is that God knows His people and He keeps track of them. How does that old song go? When the saints go marching in, I want to be in that number.

Obed's birth is significant not just because of how God used him to bless Naomi and Ruth or because of any heroic actions he took, in fact the Bible never tells any stories about him. His significance comes from his place in the unfolding promise of God. His importance comes through his relationship to king David and ultimately to Jesus Christ. We are often distracted by our individual concerns and forget that each of our lives are knit together with the lives of all of God’s people.

We never know what impact for the kingdom we may have. It could come from people we have never met, or people born generations later. Have you ever wondered how many of the blessings God has brought us here relied upon the faithful prayers of men and women we don’t know? There were brothers and sisters praying for God’s blessing on ministry in Southgate long before we were born. Think of those who sacrificed and gave to build this building and to train the men who trained those who teach us. You and I may not know anything about the names in some of these lists, but God knows each one intimately and if they are his, they belong to us and we to them.

But there is even more we can often learn from genealogies if we dig into them a bit. In fact, there is something interesting about this one that I believe points us to our main idea, that Believers can trust God is always working toward our redemption in Jesus Christ.

There are basically two kinds of genealogies found in the Bible. One kind shows ethnic relationships between different tribes, clans, and nations by showing their common ancestor and how they diverged. The second type, like this one, traces the line of descent from one person to another. These are like what you find on ancestry.com except that in the Bible, they are intended to establish the claims or legitimacy of the final person listed. In this case, the key person David.

There is no question that this list is intended to show that David is the legitimate king. It may also have served to answer other questions such as his connections to Moab, but it is clearly designed to be a royal lineage. Many historical scholars, even those who are not believers, argue that Judges and Ruth were written to support David’s claims to the throne but I think there is more going on here.

If the goal was to establish a very strong claim to the throne then it would likely make more sense for the first person in the genealogy to be Judah. It was promised that God’s king would come from Judah. When Israel is blessing his sons way back in Genesis 49:10, he says,

10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

If your only goal was to establish David’s claim to the throne, it would make sense to begin the list with Judah, to whom the royal line was promised, but this list doesn’t begin with Judah. It begins with a man named Perez. Perez is one of the sons of Judah, and so that line is established, but there is something else about Perez that is interesting.

Perez is Judah’s son by a woman named Tamar. She was mentioned in our passage last week. Verse 12 says,

12 and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.”

Tamar was married to one of Judah’s sons, but he was wicked, and God put him to death before he and Tamar could have children. Judah then instructed his second son, Onan, to fulfill the duty of providing an heir for his brother with Tamar. But Onan used Tamar for his own pleasure while ensuring she would not get pregnant since he knew the child wouldn’t be his and God put him to death as well.

Judah had another son, but he was young and Judah, fearing for his life, sent Tamar back to her father’s house. Basically, he abandons her and forgets about her. The young man grows older, but Judah never calls for Tamar so when she hears that Judah will be traveling to a specific place, she disguises herself as a prostitute and goes to where he is. Judah uses her, not knowing it is his daughter-in-law, and she becomes pregnant.

A few months later, when Judah learns that Tamar is pregnant, he is going to have her killed for her immorality but when she is brought before him, she is able to prove to him that he is the father. Judah repents of neglecting her and says that Tamar is more righteous than he is because he did not give her to his other son and he lets her go. The child is Perez.

Boaz and Ruth are so wonderful that it would be tempting to think God chooses to bless them because of their amazing faithfulness. I have no doubt that God blesses faithfulness, but it is not the faithfulness of His people that leads God to include them in the promise of redemption. God's grace has always unfolded against the backdrop of human failure, it must do so because the only kind of people there are, are those who have fallen short. Romans 3:23–24 says,

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

The only way we can receive forgiveness and salvation is by receiving it as a gift of grace. This is offensive to those who think they are good, but it is the best thing ever for those who know they are not. If salvation is a gift offered not to those who perform great works, but to those who simply trust Jesus to save them, then that means salvation is available to anyone who will humble themselves, repent and believe.

It means that we should never stop praying for others we desire to see come to Christ because no matter what their life looks like, if they have breath in them, there is hope. The gospel offers hope for all who will believe and that is good news because it means you and I can be saved. Old people cannot do many things they used to do, but they can believe. Young children can’t do too much, but they can believe. Even if you have lost everything so that you have no resources, you can believe. If you find yourself in prison, with no freedom, you can believe. It is not difficulty that keeps people out of heaven. Nothing difficult is required because Jesus Christ has already accomplished everything necessary to accomplish it. What makes it impossible is not difficulty, but pride. It is self-sufficiency that prevents us from believing.

Our sinful hearts resist submitting to God because it means we must admit that we are no longer the center of our universe. It means we must admit that we are not in control of our lives. We must abandon the idol of our free will and submit ourselves to God, trusting Him for all we need.

Years ago, I worked with a man who was struggling but was offended if anyone tried to help him. He would say “I don’t need your charity.” “I can manage it on my own.” It was a tough job and most people struggled with it until they learned a few tricks to keep up. There was help available, but this guy ended up losing his job because he couldn’t make production and refused to get the help he needed.

It troubles me when I think of how many people will not go to heaven simply because they refused to admit their own inability and come to Jesus for help. Brothers and sisters, there really are no great men or women of faith, only a great God who is merciful to men and women with faith. It has been that way from the beginning. Think of Abraham, the father of faith. He was a coward who lied about his wife, endangering her to save his own skin—not once, but twice. Yet God called him, blessed him, and made him the father of many nations.

Then there’s Jacob, the schemer and swindler, who deceived his own father and stole his brother’s birthright. Still, God blessed him and chose him to be the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. One of the most upstanding men in the Bible was Joseph who God sent to Egypt to save his people, but the promise did not come down through Joseph, but through his brother Judah.

We just saw a glimpse of Judah. He was far from a model of faithfulness. He abandoned his family, married a Canaanite woman, and sinned grievously against Tamar. Moses was a murderer, fleeing justice in Egypt when God called him to deliver His people. We could be here for hours recounting the failings of the judges. Even David himself, was an adulterer who had one of his most loyal men murdered to cover up his affair.

Even the nation of Israel, chosen as God's covenant people, was not chosen because they were mighty or righteous. As Moses reminded them in Deuteronomy 7:7–8,

7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

It is God’s love and faithfulness to His promise that resulted in Israel being redeemed and that same promise and that same love brought Jesus into the world and saves us as well. We cannot earn it. Every one of us knows that we have fallen short of God’s standard. We don’t even live up to our own standards, let alone His perfect law. Who among us can say they have never told a lie or ever stolen anything, even something small? Who can say they have never looked upon another with lust or believed we should have been the one to get what someone else has?

If we are honest, we know we are all lying, thieving, adulterous, covetous sinners. Maybe someone is here who thinks they have avoided some of these things. I doubt that is the case using the biblical standards for them, but even so, would that make them righteous? It wouldn’t. Even one sin is enough to condemn us. James 2:10–11 says,

10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

If we decide which laws we want to follow and which we will keep, we have put ourselves in the place of God. Sin is not just making a mistake; it is challenging God for the right to rule over His creation. Because there is one lawgiver breaking even one commandment is a rejection of God Himself. Imagine you are hanging over a cliff by a chain with ten links. How many links need to break for you to fall? Just one! In the same way, breaking even one of God’s laws results in death.

But in an incredible act of grace and mercy, Jesus came from heaven to earth to rescue us. He became truly human and lived a perfect human life. He kept every law. Not just the ten commandments, but He fulfilled all righteousness. He lived the life we were created to live and then because of His great love and faithfulness, he died the death we deserved to die. Jesus died as a substitute for sinners so that God could show mercy without compromising His holiness or justice.

He was hung on a cross with nails, where He satisfied the demands of Justice in the place of all who would ever put their faith in Him. He died and was buried, and then three days later, He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. His death pays the penalty for our sin and his resurrection secures the promises of God for our redemption. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for the saints. Our redemption is complete in Jesus. He is the fulfillment of all the great promises of redemption we find in the Bible. In John 5:39 Jesus says,

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me

Beloved, if God's promises depended on our flawed faithfulness to bring them to fruition, we would all be lost. I once heard a well-known preacher say that God does 99% of the work, and all we need to do is that last 1%. But let me tell you, brothers and sisters, if any part of our salvation depends on our efforts to complete them, we are left entirely without hope, because left to ourselves, we are incapable of even the smallest fraction of righteousness. Praise God, our salvation is not something we must complete because Jesus has already accomplished it. He has paid the ultimate price and finished the work, leaving nothing for us to add or take away. This is the profound truth of the gospel—our redemption is entirely accomplished by Him, and it is offered to us as a gift of grace to be received by faith alone.

Martin Luther expressed it well when he said,

“God has assuredly promised His grace to the humbled, that is, to those who mourn over and despair of themselves. But no man can be thoroughly humbled until he knows that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will, and works, and depends entirely on the choice, will, and work of another—that is, of God alone.”

Time and again, Scripture reminds us that God does not choose His people based on their righteousness but on His sovereign grace. This is the beauty of God’s redemptive plan: He includes sinners not because of their merit but because of His mercy. This truth is vividly illustrated in the story of Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite, a foreigner, and an outsider to God’s covenant people. Yet she was brought into God’s family, not by her own righteousness but by God’s providence and grace.

Brothers and sisters, we stand in this same grace. We are reminded when we see the names of Perez and David that salvation is God’s work from Adam and Eve until the second coming of Jesus Christ, it is all to the praise of the glory of His grace. I love this book of Ruth. Every part of the Bible points us in one way or another to Jesus, but for me, the glory of Jesus just shines forth from the book of Ruth. This list of names is no different. It reminds me that salvation is of the Lord. He keeps His promises and truly works all things together for His glory and the good of His people.

Everything in our life and in all of human history is a preparation for the coming of God’s kingdom on Earth as it is in heaven and the revelation of the glory of God in His church. Every believer has a part to play in this, but it is all to the glory of God alone. What amazing love is the eternal, unchanging, love of God for His children. I would like us to finish by reflecting on the words of that apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:3–11

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will…



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November 17, 2024

The Plan of Redemption

November 10, 2024

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