The King Has Come Pt. 13 | Matthew 1:1-17

November 2nd, 2025

Today, as we continue our way through the genealogy of Jesus Christ, as detailed in Matthew, we shift our focus to the book of Ruth.  Let us remember that in this genealogy of names, we are looking at shadows of our own salvation that come through each name.  From eternity past, God determined a very specific way for Christ to come.  Every name listed tells a story and in them we see reflections of God’s character and of our salvation.  The first few names give us a doxological look at the cosmic reality of our salvation: what God is doing from eternity past to eternity future.  As we continue through this list, we begin to see in real time what happens with salvation.  With the progression through these names we are seeing in them the reflection of the “order salutis”, God’s order of His saving grace at work in our lives.

Today, in moving from Boaz to Obed, we shift from the courtroom, the legal understanding, to the home, a familial understanding, the relational aspect of our salvation.  It is in this place, this relational aspect, that most people pick up in their experience and in their salvation testimony.  We will see the precious doctrine of adoption, a term with which we are very familiar and have some relative understanding.  To the church in Galatia, Paul says, “... God sent forth his Son … so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).  To the church at Ephesus, “In love, (God) predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ ….” (Ephesians 1:4-5).

When we think about adoption, we know that the divine mind of God designed and created marriage and the family…the man, the woman, the children.  In them, God teaches and illustrates His love for us.  He does the same through adoption.  In our minds, we have sentimental notions regarding our understanding of adoption.  We picture a child, left abandoned and alone, rescued and finding a home.  We think of warm embraces and of family photos including a new person who had once been without a family.  We think of belonging and second chances.  In some sense, we feel compassion for the one who was left alone, that needed to be brought into someone’s care.

The story of adoption is not simply one of rescue, but more so a declaration of a changed identity.  It is the Father’s sovereign act of love where He unites us with Christ in every way.  It is God’s love that motivates His adoption of us, and it is that adoption that motivates our worship and our service to Him.  “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God ….” (1 John 3:1).  This truth should resonate a heart of worship within the soul of the believer.  Our attention should be captured.  Pause and think who you were.  Think about the love of God in where you were and, as time unfolds, seeing all the inheritance God has for you and better understanding God’s grace and all that His redemption has added to you.  This increased, yet very limited, understanding of your adoption, of God’s great love for you, should enlarge and explode our hearts.

Last week, we ended with Boaz and Ruth, where we found the divine reality of adoption come to fruition through Obed, their son.  Through Obed, Naomi’s line is secured and her inheritance restored.  Relationally, adoption is signaled and illustrated, both Naomi and Obed being included into a new family.  The child of a Moabite woman becomes the heir of promise, the shadow of our adoption.

In Obed’s taking on flesh, an outcast now becomes an heir.  Today, in looking at adoption in Obed’s life, we will encounter the four aspects of the doctrine of adoption: Promise, Grace, Spirit and Assurance.  From these, we are able to define “adoption” as, “the gracious act of God the Father, promised in eternity and accomplished through the redemptive work of Christ, whereby those once alienated are received into His family by grace, sealed by the Spirit as sons and daughters, and assured of their eternal inheritance.”

Today’s sermon has thus been summarized in this definition.  We will focus our attention on Ruth 4:13-22, and these four aspects of adoption.  As we do, may we be thankful as adopted sons and daughters.  May the Holy Spirit have His way to teach us according to God’s truth, that we might better understand His adoption of us.  May our Father grant us a reflection of His character and of His glory that motivates us in worship.                                 

I. Promise

The intriguing story of Ruth does not culminate in her marriage to Boaz, but in the birth of a son.  It is in his birth that we have the embodiment of promise.  God, in His sovereign initiative, working behind what is taking place, brings life from death.  “And Yahweh granted her conception, and she bore a son” (Ruth 4:13).  God has an active role in opening and closing the womb.  Ruth’s conception is directly attributed to Yahweh’s personal action, not by biology or coincidence.  This is a divine movement of God.

In Scripture, we see that conception is consistently communicated as the sovereign work of God.  In Genesis 20:18, we see God in closing the wombs of the household of Abimelech.  In Genesis 29:31, we see God in His compassion opening the womb of Leah.  In Genesis 30:22, we see God giving heed to and opening the womb of Rachel.  In these passages, we see a theological pattern: God bringing forth His people according to His promise.  Life begins in the divine mind and will of God who grants conception before the foundation of the world.  He grants life according to His purpose.  God actively works in the lives of people through the wombs of the mothers.

Ruth, the Moabitess, stands in the same grace as the matriarchs, Yahweh giving her conception.  God, who opens and closes the wombs, preserving the line of the Messiah, strategically working in human history to bring things about, in opening the womb of a Gentile woman, expands His redemptive promise beyond Israel to the nations of the world.  We see God working in the same way in Romans 9:8-13, where God produces for himself a people, bringing forth a line of the promised seed.  He carefully, intentionally, strategically worked to bring about the Messiah.

By His good pleasure, God determined who would father His Son.  From mother to mother, God continued to create His chosen line.  For what reason?  Because He said He would!  He is bringing forth His promise to Abraham, making His way to David.  Therefore, Jacob and Isaac, like Obed, were brought forth by God.  They, too, “... were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of (the will of) God” (John 1:13).   Until this point, Ruth’s womb was barren, and God opened her womb to conceive and bring forth Obed.  In this, we see Ruth’s womb become a physical echo of a spiritual reality: a typological glimpse of the incarnation.  Also, note that Bethlehem is the geographical location where the conception is given to Ruth, which anticipates the greater divine conception yet to come.  “The promise that began in Bethlehem finds its perfection in another Son born there” (John MacArthur).

Think about the way God moved in the lives of these people - Naomi, Ruth, Boaz - bringing forth the Messiah.  The book of Ruth begins in sorrow, death and brokenness.  Naomi is outside the covenant, outside the people, destitute.  It finishes with Yahweh giving Ruth conception and bearing a son.  “Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed is Yahweh who has not left you without a kinsman redeemer today, and may his name be proclaimed in Israel!’” (Ruth 4:14).  It is critical to note the kinsman redeemer is Obed, not Boaz, which is significant in understanding what God has done by opening Ruth’s womb.  Yahweh redeems, grants peace and fills what was once empty.  This is the heartbeat of the Gospel: from God’s mercy flow streams of His grace, that He continues to add to His love.  Brokenness gives way to worship.

The book of Ruth ends with emphasis on Naomi and Obed.  Naomi’s emptiness (1:5) becomes abundance (4:17) as Yahweh intervenes and grants Ruth’s conception.  Naomi’s bitterness is replaced by joy as the Lord gives her life.  In our own lives, we see the same thing happen.   “God…gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist” (Romans 4:17).  God’s promise to bring forth the Messiah always carries with it life.  For Naomi, new life came forth from the son that was named “Obed”, whose name means, “one who serves, a worshiper”.  Obed stands in a line of people whose names carry immense meaning: Naomi meaning “pleasant”, yet Mara meaning “bitterness” and Boaz meaning “in him strength”.  Now, with Obed, we have this servant of God and the idea of worship to God.  We see that the kinsman redeemer, Boaz, gives way to a worshiper, this servant of the Lord, Obed, the link in the chain to the Messiah, from whom God will bring “the ultimate Servant” of the Lord.  “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).  From the Old Testament, we find in Isaiah 42-53, the “Servant Songs”, reach their climax in the Suffering Servant who bears the sins of many (Isaiah 53:11-12).  In Christ’s own sacrifice do we see that the servant service finds its resolve.

To purchase our adoption, the Promised One to come had to be a suffering servant.  Christ’s perfect obedience in service and worship unto the Lord made way for us to be adopted as sons and daughters.  From Ruth’s womb comes the seed of adoption.  Obed is living proof that the promise of God does not stop at restoration: the grace of God moves restoration to relationship.  In the life of every believer, there is a moment when justification becomes reality, where grace is seen as a gift.  It is seen in the context of adoption.               

II. Grace

An expressed gift of God.  Adoption is wholly of grace, not merit (Ephesians 1:5).  Grace is given and it has to be received.  Although Ruth’s lineage disqualified her (Deuteronomy 23:3), God redeemed her by grace (Ruth 4:13-14), legally overturning her disqualification through Boaz.  What was far off was brought near (Ephesians 2:13).  “Adoption is not something earned but something conferred – grace taking the initiative where none deserved it” (Joel Beeke).  What was excluded is now included.  Obed’s birth demonstrates this grace, which legally writes us as heirs into the family of God where sin and the law writes us out.  Were we not sinners cut off from grace, condemned by God?  Everyone who sins against God is accursed and separate from God; but, we are adopted in Christ, which is the Father’s gracious reversal of condemnation (Romans 8:1-4).  Not only has the condemnation ceased, also are we brought into a family.

Naomi’s house receives a son.  Boaz legally redeems Ruth, but God, through Obed, raises up a man who is going to inherit what Mahlon, Ruth’s deceased husband and son of Naomi, should have received.  The child reconciles the deceased husband’s line.  The name and the claim remain within the clan.  Like Christ, Boaz has a legal aim in redemption – the restoration to a family.  “A son has been born to Naomi” (Ruth 4:17) is legal terminology, publicly acknowledged by the townspeople.  Naomi’s house has received a legal heir.  Biologically, Obed is the son of Boaz, but legally and covenantally, he is Mahlon’s heir.  Naomi’s line is restored.  The grace of God has given Naomi what blood could not.  Just as blood could not give Naomi an heir, a name or a future, neither can blood give to us.  Blood only yields death.  Yet, through our Kinsman Redeemer, the legal restoration places us into the family of God with all of the legal rights and privileges granted as a member of the family (Ephesians 1:5, Romans 8:15, 17).

Naomi receives a son by redemption’s provision, not by her own womb.  As believers, we receive sonship by the Father’s grace in Christ, not by natural descent.  “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but born of God” (John 1:12-13).  By God’s grace, Naomi receives a legal heir.  Adoption is a gracious gift of God restoring the relationship with Him that we could not restore.  It is a promise of a beautiful gift tangibly experienced by the Spirit.            

III. Spirit

“Then Naomi took the child and put him on her bosom, and became his nurse” (Ruth 4:16).  In Hebraic terminology, the bosom is the seat of affection.  We see similar terminology in 2 Samuel 12:3, where we see the poor man’s lamb “lay in his bosom”, symbolizing affection and belonging within the household,  and in Isaiah 40:11, where God “gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them in His bosom”.  Naomi’s action is more than just maternal care; it is a very specific, covenantal, ceremonial gesture in receiving Obed.  She is legally receiving the child as her own.  She is adopting the child of another as her own.  As Naomi embraces the child of redemption, so does the Father receive those whom the Son redeems.  “To all who received Him…He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12-13).  “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you” (Isaiah 66:13).

Obed’s life embodies adoption.  Naomi’s lap becomes the symbol of the place where redemption finds its rest, its peace.  Her story began in famine and death and moved into this feeling of fullness.  We are reminded that peace is being full of something.  This feeling of fullness Naomi felt with Obed when he was placed into her lap is the same feeling we have as the Spirit ministers and confirms to us the inward fullness of peace we have in our own salvation (Romans 8:16).  “It is the Spirit’s witness that transforms legal sonship into living fellowship” (Joel Beeke).  

There is a legal aspect in moving from justification to adoption, but now there is the relational, experiential aspect in our salvation.  As Naomi takes Obed into her arms, the women of Bethlehem cry out that a son has been born to her.  Everyone is celebrating with her.  This cry of the women mirrors the cry of the heart when we experience the moment of our adoption.  The new, living fellowship is first experienced by a cry.  “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15).  Just as Obed would have cried in the lap of Naomi, and the women cried because what has been separated is now legally reconciled, so do we cry out as adoption is applied to us by the Spirit, who internally assures us, confirming in us of our adoption.

The Spirit seals us as God’s children with God’s guarantee of inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14).  God’s Spirit personalizes our adoption.  No longer are we identified by who we were in Adam, but who we now are in Christ.  No longer are we slaves to fear…separation anxiety known by every man…but now sons filled with affection, reconciled to love the One we were designed to love, sealed with a new identity and a confirmation that comes through in an intimate and tender cry, “Abba! Father!”.  In the Garden at Gethsemane, Jesus addressed God with this same cry, “And he said, ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.  Remove this cup from me.  Yet now what I will, but what you will’” (Mark 14:36).

When we realize our new position, we burst forth in prayer and praise, with this loving adoration for Him.  Essentially, our soul sings to Him in this “Abba, Father” moment.  Through Christ we cannot help but cry out to the Father.  When you understand the peace given through your reconciliation, the heart must cry out.  Creator God is now also your “Abba, Father”.  The cry is supernatural, a cry that you cannot be persuaded to say or to convince yourself to feel.  It is subjective and highly emotional.  God produces within you this cry, because of His love for you.  This deep, internal manifestation of the newfound love for God because you know you have been sealed by the Spirit and adopted into the family of God.  The women of Bethlehem around Naomi could not help but cry out in the same way.

We are washed and indwelt by the Spirit, reborn into a new nature.  Adoption is not simply a legal transaction: we are adopted into an intimate relationship with God who grants to us an initial installment of what is to come.  We feel our new relationship; we feel love.  This is exactly  the prayer of Jesus: “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:23).  This is such an extraordinary truth not because you believe it to be true, but rather because you are assured it to be true, fully conscious of this reality.

The redeemed heart says, “Abba! Father! I am yours and You are mine.”  The practical result is joyful worship, which is the worship we see happening around Naomi.  It is the gladness of heart that we experience when we feel the love of God.  It is settled because our position is settled and secure!  The Spirit of God testifies to our adoption.  It is this joy that becomes the strength we have in this life (Nehemiah 8:10).  This is why the newborn son held in the bosom of Naomi received the name, “Obed”, meaning “worshipper, servant of God”.  Our newfound, joyful worship remains full through assurance.       

IV. Assurance

God, through adoption, ushers in assurance.  “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,” (Romans 8:16).  The Spirit…does so now, does so continually, does so for the remainder of your life…testify within you.  He continually brings to mind a steadfast, ever-increasing confidence that we are children of God.  The Spirit testifies to us about our adoption as we read God’s word (2 Corinthians 3:18), as we pray (Philippians 1:19), as we worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24) and as we participate in the ordinary means of grace, exercising Christian disciplines and growing in our salvation.

If you are in Christ, you not only accept these testimonies of the Spirit, you delight in them.  If you are not in Christ, the Spirit of God is not within you, and you will be driven by religious legalism.  Your service will be absent of God’s love, which you cannot generate, and frustration will result. Love of the Father cannot be drummed up by man because it is a gift He gives that must be received.  So, as this gift is given to us, we experience the Spirit bearing witness within our spirit that we are in fact God’s children.  We stand secure of a future, coming consummation.

The end of Ruth is the genealogy of Perez to David.  Obed is brought forth and in him we see the shadow of adoption, the coming of Christ, the security of the line coming through, the promise that is coming, the grace of God that has been given to us.  It is assured in this genealogy.  As we look at Obed, “servant, worshiper of God”, we understand that there is a future reality that continually and constantly comes to the mind of the child of God.  This understanding encourages us to continue to walk by faith, which we will explore next time through the life of Jesse.

May the truths gleaned from such a seemingly insignificant book (Ruth) take root within our hearts, so that as we live, the fruit of our justification being that we walk by faith.                                   

Selah

• With regards to your adoption into the family of God, was your heart enlarged?  Did it increase your love, your adoration, your worship for the Lord?

• Was your understanding of the sovereignty of God in any way challenged?  If so, in what way? Has your understanding been resolved with God’s divine truth?

• Did any passage of Scripture, whether used in the sermon or one the Holy Spirit placed on your heart, take on new, special meaning for you, as you considered your adoption into God’s family?

• In Ruth, we see that Obed is the redeemer of Naomi.  Why is this significant?

• Did the “seemingly insignificant” book of Ruth become significant to you?

• Did truth from the word of God reveal to you with certainty that your adoption has not yet taken place, that you have never cried out, “Abba!  Father!”?  If so, how will you respond?