This morning, beloved, we continue with that which we started last week with Genesis chapter 38. Genesis chapter 38, as we'll read that again in a moment, but let's first turn to 1 Corinthians 1 and read together verses 18 through 31. 1 Corinthians 1, beginning at verse 18. Beloved, this is the word of the Lord. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God that is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. Genesis chapter 38. As we read the chapter. At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hira. There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and lay with her. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son who was named Ur. She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him. Judah got a wife for Ur, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the Lord's sight, so the Lord put him to death. Then Judah said to Onan, Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother. But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord's sight, so he put him to death also. Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up, for he thought he may die too, just like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father's house. After a long time, Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah to meet the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hira the Adulamite went with him. When Tamar was told, Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep, she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Aniam, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, Come now, let me sleep with you. And what will you give me to sleep with you? she asked. I'll send you a young goat from my flock, he said. Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it, she asked. He said, What pledge should I give you? Your seal and its cord and the staff in your hand, she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow's clothes again. Meanwhile, Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adulamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. he asked the men who lived there where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Aniam there hasn't been any shrine prostitute here they said so he went back to Judah and said I didn't find her besides the men who lived there said there hasn't been any shrine prostitute here then Judah said let her keep what she has or we will become a laughing stock after all I did send her this young goat but you didn't find her about three months later Judah was told, your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution and as a result she is now pregnant. Judah said, bring her out and have her burned to death. As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law, I am pregnant by the man who owns these, she said. And she added, see if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are. Judah recognized them and said, she is more righteous than I. since I wouldn't give her to my son, Sheila. And he did not sleep with her again. When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand, so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, This one came out first. But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, So this is how you have broken out. And he was named Perez. Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. and he was given the name Zerah. Shall we bow together in prayer? Father, as we come to your word this morning, we know, Lord, that we are blind in and of ourselves. We need the power of your Holy Spirit to open our eyes, the eyes of our hearts, to understand, to see, to believe. And Father, as hard as it may be sometimes to understand these things and what You have recorded for us in Your Word. Yet we thank You for Your Word and the truth of Your Word and indeed what You have to teach us through it. We pray, Lord, that You would open our eyes, that You might make our hearts receptive, that we might respond, empowered by Your Holy Spirit, to believe and to obey. And may You receive all the praise and the honor and the glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, dear people of God, last week we said that Genesis chapter 38 is a passage about which it can be tough for us to figure out why it's in the Bible. What is God's purpose for having it included in His holy, infallible, inerrant, inspired Word? And why here in this particular place? You see, it seems to interrupt that great Joseph story. Yet this portion of God's Word is amazing too. As it is like a giant spotlight illuminating the wonderful grace of God. As we also said last week, as we inspect this particular snapshot of redemptive history, God reveals the unlikely line of the Messiah. And we have already considered that this unlikely line demonstrates the need for God's redemption. How? Through the sin and the wickedness of Judah and his family. Again, just a reminder, as we have read, Judah leaves his brothers. He moves outside of the covenant community. He becomes yoked with the unbelieving world, including through marriage. The wickedness of his first two sons is such that God sees fit to put them to death. Judah himself engages in adultery with one that he thought was a prostitute, and then he judges his daughter-in-law for a sin which he also was guilty of. The sin and the wickedness found in this chapter, we might say, is kind of like that snowball effect. As it rolls, it keeps growing and growing, layer upon layer upon layer. But the truth is, each one of us is called upon to examine the same sins in ourselves. And recognize that on the one hand, each one of us deserves what Ur and Onan got. But on the other hand, we must also recognize the great love of God that will not allow our sin to separate us from Him. Because Christ has already dealt with that sin. The truth is, each and every one of us is an unlikely heir of God. We are not a fit in and of ourselves for the family of God. But the truth is, by God's grace, we are joint heirs with Jesus. Because of this unlikely line through which God also then, in the second place, reveals the advancement of His plan. Actually, the entire human line of Christ that we find recorded in Scripture is an unlikely line. If you were to go to Matthew chapter 1 and read the first part of that chapter, the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ, you would see that over and over and over again. We read about Judah and Tamar there. And what does that bring back to mind? Genesis chapter 38. We read about Rahab there from Jericho. Remember her? The prostitute in the line of Christ. We read also about David's son by the wife of Uriah. That reminds us of that episode in redemptive history. We read about Ruth. Now what can we say bad about Ruth? Nothing really, but she was a Gentile brought in from the outside. We read about the kings in the line of David, the kings of Judah. And if you go back to the book of Kings and read about them, with so many of them, it says he did evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not do what was right, as his father David had done. Over and over and over again, the unlikely line. But here in Genesis chapter 38, in a particular way, we see how close the line of the Messiah had come to extinction. Now, beloved, if you think about it, as terrible as it may be to read about Ur and Onan dying at what was really a young age, we must see in their deaths the mercy of God. That sounds strange, doesn't it? We must see in their deaths the mercy of God. You see, where mercy is needed, misery already exists, and mercy serves, the mercy of God serves to relieve of that misery. And in this case, that misery was Ur and Onan. These guys were miserably wicked. Actually, if you think about it, they are what this family deserved. As the sins of their father Judah were passed on down to them. But God's mercy, you see, is not giving what is deserved. Not giving this family what it deserves. God's mercy upon this family included striking down Ur and Onan, those whom Satan would use to try to wipe out the seed of the woman and stop the line leading to the Messiah. Beloved, praise God that He is merciful. Praise God that He does not give to you and me what we truly deserve. Instead, He advances His plan, and here He keeps the line leading to the Messiah alive, but in a most unlikely way, in a foolish way in the eyes of the world. You see, mankind would look for some spectacular way. The scribes and Pharisees in Jesus' day wanted Him to do some marvelous sign, some wonderful, awe-inspiring sign to prove that He was the Son of God. He said, remember Jonah. Remember Jonah. And how foolish that might have seemed. And here, in a most unlikely way, here again when we think about, especially verses 12 through 30, in what happened between Tamar and Judah and the result of that, we cannot help but to shake our heads. You see, it doesn't make sense. This kind of a situation is simply unthinkable to you and me. And we're tempted to ask, how could it be that Judah didn't even know he was with Tamar, his own daughter-in-law, even though she had her face covered? But of course, we have to set aside, our ideas, and our experiences, don't we? I want to jump ahead a second to verse 26. When Judah realizes the truth of the situation, he says of Tamar, she is more righteous than I. Now, on the one hand, that's not saying much, is it? He's not saying that she was righteous or that she acted in a righteous way, but in a sense, her motives were right, although she went about achieving her goals in a way that would later be condemned by the law of Moses. In Leviticus 20, verse 12, we read, If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. What they have done is a perversion. Their blood will be on their own heads. But love at the end does not justify the means. The goal, the desire to be achieved, does not justify the way to get there. Boys and girls, what this means is, let's say that you want to give some money to the poor. That's a good idea. It's a good goal. It's a wonderful desire or end, but you are not allowed to steal money from the bank or from your mother's purse in order to then give it to the poor. Or it's wrong to steal food from the grocery store in order to give it to a hungry homeless person. Just because you have a good goal, a good idea, a good end, doesn't mean that you are allowed to sin in order to achieve that end, to get to that goal. Tamar's sinful actions are not to serve as an example that we may follow. But now having said that, she was righteous in her goal, according to the custom of the day. We're not talking about salvation righteousness here, But she was within her right to bear children for the line of Judah. Last week we talked a little bit about the custom of liberate marriage. No children was considered to be a sign of judgment. But having children and continuing the family line was a good and it was a desirable thing. And when Judah gave Tamar to his oldest son Ur, she was then given the right to bear children and continue the right and inheritance of the firstborn. And when Ur died, Onan had the responsibility to continue that rite with Tamar, but he was selfish, and he didn't want to have a son, which would be considered then the son of his older brother Ur. And of course, it didn't take long for Tamar to figure out that Judah was not going to give to her, his youngest, his third son. Of course, we know what happened. We've got it clearly explained here. Sheep-shearing time was a time of partying and much drinking, which may explain why Judah didn't know that he was with Tamar. Apparently, he didn't even recognize her voice. Reminds us of Lot, doesn't it? And his two daughters, after Sodom and Gomorrah, were wiped out. The daughters, how are we going to, there's no men up here, how are we going to have children? So they made their father Lot drunk on two consecutive nights, and each became pregnant by him. But Tamar devises a plan with the obvious goal of becoming pregnant and of course her plan worked. She was successful. Judah assumed what Tamar wanted him to assume and he asked for her services. And it's clear that Tamar premeditated this whole scheme even down to the proof that she would need later on to identify the Father. The deal is made. But since Judah could not make payment at the time services were given, Tamar asked for a pledge. Now, wealthy men had their own seal. Maybe it was like some sort of a family crest in the form of a medallion of some sort that was worn on a cord around his neck. But very simply, beloved, to put it in our terms today, Judah gave Tamar his driver's license. His passport. something that was undeniable proof that he was the man. And of course, it's no surprise that Judah's friend couldn't find the one he was looking for in order to swap the goat for Judah's identification. And like so many, Judah wants to secretly forget about all of this. He wants to sweep his sin under the rug. He doesn't want to face the result of his sin. Does that sound familiar? It does for me. How many of us want the temporary sinful pleasure without having to face the results of our actions? I'm not necessarily talking about sexual sin now, but it could be many vices in life that hold us captive and we know are not pleasing to God. But we figure that if no one knows, it'll be okay. But God knows. Boys and girls, God knows everything. When you're having fun playing with something that your parents said, don't touch that, and you break it. You want to hide it. You want to throw it in the trash and hope that it gets picked up by the trash truck long before mom or dad notices. God knows. King David in Psalm 139 says, God knows our thoughts even before we think them. He knows our words even before we say them. He knows when we're going to sin even before we do it. That's a mystery, isn't it? And we can't fully understand that, yet it ought to make us sit up and take notice. We often foolishly think that we can hide our sin and that we can never worry about it again, but as Judah found out, sin always comes back to haunt us one way or the other. We will come face to face with our sin, whether in this life or on Judgment Day when the books are opened and every idle thought and every idle word will be made plain. But the question is, beloved, will you face your sin without a threat because Christ has already disarmed the curse of sin against you? Will you face your sin with confidence as one who is justified in Christ Jesus? Therefore, you are sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that your sins have been removed from you as far as the east is from the west. Or will you face your sin alone and the judge alone with the full burden of your sin resting upon you? Some generations later, on down Judah's line, there was another man who found out the hard way the same thing as Judah. His name was, we said it already this morning, David. Beloved sin, especially unrepented sin, leads to more sin. It's like a nasty web that one gets more and more tangled up in. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 12 says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, pointing back to the saints of the Old Testament, the saints who have gone before, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And we might add, would trip us up and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Judah and David both got caught up in self-righteousness and hypocrisy. They thought their sin couldn't touch them. But they got so tangled up in their sin, adding sin upon sin upon sin, that finally their sinful pride itself accused them. Remember, David failed to see himself in the prophet Nathan's story about the rich man who took the one sheep of the poor man. And little did he know that as he hypocritically sentenced that man to death, he was condemning himself. Little did he know that until Nathan looked David in the eye and said, You are the man. Here, Judah was content to let Tamar suffer as a childless widow. But he was not content to put off his own sexual appetite. and only three short months later three months when he was told that Tamar was guilty of prostitution he never even thought about the fact that he himself had gone in to lay with one that he thought was a prostitute until the very sight of his staff and his cord and his seal shouted out loud to him you are the man beloved there is a lesson here about casting judgment on others we know that our lord jesus christ said in matthew chapter 7 do not judge or you too will be judged for in the same way you judge others you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured to you why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye how can you say to your brother let me take the speck out of your eye when all the time there is a plank in your own eye you hypocrite first take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye now we know that this does not mean that as brothers and sisters in christ we never challenge or question each other's conduct in life if that's what jesus was saying the elders probably wouldn't have a whole lot to do. We are called to exercise mutual discipline in love. We are to care for each other's lives, including spiritually. But before we confront another with a sin or a sinful habit that we ourselves struggle with, we must deal with it properly in our own lives. I believe that we are also shown here, we are given a lesson through Judah of how we are to deal with our own sin. We said last week that all of this, chapter 38, all the activities, the things that took place in chapter 38 took place in the span of about 22 years from the time that the brothers sold Joseph to the time that Jacob moved his family to Egypt. And therefore, now by the time these twins are born, we're getting to the end of that 22-year period. So it wasn't long after Tamar gave birth that the brothers made their first trip to Egypt. And we know that Judah, by his actions later on with regard to Benjamin, being willing to take Benjamin's place, being willing to sacrifice himself in the place of Benjamin, that he had a changed heart. I believe it began here. We read in Genesis 38 that Judah did not sleep with her, with Tamar, again. And I believe this points to the fact that Judah To recognize his sin, he took responsibility for his actions, and by God's grace, he became a changed man, as his sacrificial heart shows later on. As well, no doubt, the unusual births of Perez and Zerah, with Perez breaking out of the womb after the scarlet thread was tied onto Zerah's wrist, that this was a reminder to Judah, once again, of God's plan, that the older would serve the younger. It was a reminder to Judah that no matter what he may have tried, he could not stop, he could not change, he could not redirect God's sovereign plan and let that be comforting to you and me. Oh, that's got to be comforting that you and I can't change God's plan. Because we would mess it all up. Again, this entire episode, beloved, convicts us or ought to convict us of our own sin and the truth that we too absolutely do not deserve to live. But in this very same episode, filled with all of this sin and wickedness, there's hope. And we are to see our hope. That's the blessing of the truth that all of Scripture is united and that Scripture interprets Scripture. Tamar desired to bear children to continue Judah's family line, which, if left up to Judah and his sons, would have become extinct. Little did Tamar know that though that one of those twins would continue the line leading to the seed of the woman, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. But we know, don't we? Because God has seen fit to tell us again in Christ's genealogy recorded by both Matthew and Luke. Again, with Judah's immediate family as well as the entire family genealogy listed, we are reminded over and over and over again of the need for God's redemption. Judah's family, just like my family and just like your family, could not boast that there was something so wonderful about them that God would choose their family from which the Savior would come. If that were the case, if it were to be considered according to the way you and I would think, well, then we would think that Joseph... Now, we don't see any sin of Joseph recorded. Joseph, certainly, he would have been the right man for the job. But this is a harsh reminder to all of us that this world and every person in it, you and I included, needs a Savior from sin. But what comfort, beloved, that not only is God free to use whatever means He chooses to carry out His own will, but that He would even use the sinfulness of His chosen people. to carry out His will for our salvation. Again, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God, that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. And Paul reminded them, as it were, looking them in the eye, he says, you guys weren't wise. You guys weren't all that intelligent. You guys weren't the cream of the crop that the people of the world would have chosen. And look what God has done. And God still uses the foolish things today to carry out His will. If you don't believe me, look into the mirror. Every time I look into the mirror, beloved, I must be amazed that God has chosen me. How foolish! And each seminary student here must be the same. How foolish that God has chosen me to preach the Gospel. Something so powerful. Such proof that it is God who is working. Where is your reason for boasting and mine? There's only one place it can be, and that is in the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of our salvation. We too, because of our sin and our misery and our shame, we would be spiritually extinct. We would be lost forever if not for the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We have a beautiful picture of God's forgiving grace here in that Jesus Christ came forth from the lowest line, humanly speaking, to save each and every one of us who must confess, I am the worst of sinners. Well, how then do we know that we're secure? Because even Judah, even Judah's great sin did not cancel out his election by God to be the unlikely line of the Messiah. Judah was not more deserving than Ur and Onan to live. Make no mistake about that. there again, that's God's grace and God's mercy. And we too must be comforted, beloved, that the sin that we commit daily will not cancel out our election by God, our salvation already accomplished by Christ. We sometimes sing in truth, not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul. Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Not what I think or feel can give me peace with God. Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load. That's quite a confession. It's a true confession for each of us, but at the very same time, we can also sing amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind. but now I see. And we can go beyond that. When we've been there 10,000 years, bright, shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Such a contradiction, huh? Not what my hands have done. Yet, when we've been there 10,000 years, beloved, our confidence is in the foolishness of the cross of Jesus. Because of Christ's finished and perfect work on the cross, we who believe by His grace, we are not eternally destroyed because of our sins, but we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. As we've said before, beloved, each one of us gives evidence every single day by our sin of why God's mercy and grace is so desperately needed. We deserve to be forsaken by God, which will be the case for those who continue to reject Him, but for all those, only those, yet for every single one who looks to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith as we recognize what we truly deserve and as we humbly realize then the contradiction of what is ours in Christ, that makes God's grace all the more amazing. Our beloved praise God that He did not abandon His plan for our salvation but instead carried it out perfectly even in the midst of the most unlikely of situations accomplished by the unlikely cross. Again, not what man would have chosen for salvation. Man would have chosen something great, something spectacular, not something that is a curse. Praise God, He chose the curse as a way to save you and me. And may that be a comfort, may that be a comfort for you and me as we look back at what God has done and therefore we may be assured of what He will still do. He will bring us to Himself in glory. That truth, that assurance is to brighten even our darkest of days. And may we live in that joy day by day, beloved, for His glory, for His honor. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, we must confess that there are times when we think we know better than You. There are times, Lord, when we think that we are so wise, but yet You show us needfully, You show us just how foolish we are and that You alone are the all-wise God. Father, we thank You. We praise You that You did not abandon Your plan, that you carried it out perfectly for our sake, for the sake of all those that you have called from before the foundation of the world. We thank you, Lord, for the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, Father, that indeed you would prepare us for that day when we can sing, even though we've been here for 10,000 years, we've got no less days, O Lord, to sing your praise forever and ever. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.