Well, as I said in the prayer and as I've referenced a few times in the service, this is a very challenging text, one of the most difficult, I think, to preach for a pastor just because it's awkward in many respects. It wasn't, you're not going to find it in any of your children's story Bibles. I looked this last week. It's not there. Genesis chapter 38. Genesis chapter 38 we're going to consider the entirety of the chapter and I hope you see today tonight we get to come back and 1st Corinthians 6 is the direct treatment of sexual immorality that's what we land on I find it wonderful in God's providence that he did that for us and then we'll get to come to the table and so Genesis chapter 38 let's give our attention this morning let's start with this tonight we'll look at how to fight this but look at what the Lord did in this mess to redeem his people. It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adulamite whose name was Hira. There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went into her. And she conceived and bore a son and called his name Ur. She conceived again and bore a son and she called his name Onan. Yet again she bore a son, and she called his name Shelah. Judah was in Hazib when he bore him. And Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death. Then Judah said to Onan, Go into your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her and raise up offspring for your brother. But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went into his brother's wife, he would waste the semen on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also. Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, remain a widow in your father's house till Shelah, my son, grows up, for he feared that he would die like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father's house. In the course of time, the wife of Judah, Shua's daughter, died. When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheep shearers, he and his friend Hira the Adullamite. And when Tamar was told, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep, she took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up and sat at the entrance of Enayim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shalah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. He turned to her at the roadside and said, Come, let me come into you, for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, What will you give me that you may come into me? He answered, I will send you a young goat from the flock. And she said, If you give me a pledge until you send it. He said, if you give me a pledge until you send it, he said, what pledge shall I give you? She replied, your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand. So he gave them to her and went into her and she conceived by him. Then she arose and went away and taking off her veil, she put it on the garments of her widowhood. When Judah sent the young goat by his friend, the Adulamite, to take back the pledge from the woman's hand, he did not find her. And he asked the men of the place, where is the colt prostitute who was at Anaim at the roadside? And they said, no colt prostitute has been here. He returned to Judah and said, I have not found her. And the men of the place said, no colt prostitute has been here. Judah replied, let her keep the things as her own or we shall be laughed at. You see, I sent this young goat and you did not find her. About three months later, Judah was told, Tamar, your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she's pregnant by immorality. And Judah said, bring her out and let her be burned. As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, by the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant. She said, please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff. Then Judah identified them and said, she is more righteous than I. since I did not give her to my son, Shayla. And he did not know her again. When the time of her labor came, there were twins in her womb. And when she was in labor, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, this one came out first. But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. And she said, what a breach you have made for yourself. Therefore, his name was called Perez. After his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. Well, as I read this text last week, as I was preparing this sermon, I thought to myself, why did the Lord put it here? And you could ask that for a few different reasons. We started one of the most glorious stories in the whole Bible last week. Remember that? We started one of the most glorious stories in the whole Bible. It's a story everyone loves. It leaves everyone on the edge of their seat. It's the story of Joseph. The story of a man who rose to such power in Egypt. You love this story, don't you? He became the great deliverer of Israel and his sons. Who doesn't like the story of Joseph? Everyone likes the story of Joseph. Joseph was cruelly sold into slavery and became through it all exalted to the right hand of the greatest king of the time and became the deliverer of God's people. It's a story we like because of the summary of the whole thing. At the very end, Joseph said, listen, you did this to me for evil, but God worked it all for good. That's Romans 8. That's our Romans 8 passage. God works together everything for good for the elect, to those who love him. He'll turn it all to good for us. But the question I can't get away from is why in the world did Jesus not come from the line of Joseph? It's always baffled me. Hasn't it baffled you? Joseph sort of drops out of the picture. And we don't even have a tribe really named after him, do we? And then I have another question. Why does God start this story and then stop and give us this? You've got to be kidding. Pastor asked to preach that today? Why does he start and then stop? It feels like the intermission that none of us likes, right? Keep the good thing going. We have a passage full of sex, lies, deceit, prostitution. I mean, what other graphic word could I use today that will make you all feel uncomfortable and at coffee time say, I don't know if the pastor should have been using those words. What kind of effect does this have? Honestly, it's uncomfortable. This is the place for us being proper. This is the place for us being sanitized. This is the place for everyone looking really good. Maybe God forgot to do that with Genesis 38. Something missed? What's the message? No one here is going to say, hey, I say, well, what is your favorite passage in the Bible? Judah and Tamar, you know, that's it. No one's ever going to say that. This is not the passage that we would ever go to. We want to gloss over this because the story of Joseph is the story of impact. And I struggled with this question, and then it hit me. Why do I want to follow the story of Joseph? Why do we all love the story of Joseph so much? Well, he's this giant. He goes to Egypt. Potiphar's wife seduces him. He runs the other way. He answers dreams. He rises to power. He's exalted over all. He's the most outstanding figure in the Old Testament. Now that's a story. That's a story. And what is it that draws that out of us, that kind of like for it? Well, there's some potential for us, you know. A little bit of potential for us, if that's the case. You know, that presents some hope and possibility for us, doesn't it? That shows that things maybe aren't that bad. And to be encouraging in the end will prevail. You know, look at the movies today. What man, you know, ever loses in the movies? In other words, it's all about man's achievement and stopping volcanoes from erupting and destroying the earth and overcoming ice ages and riding up and drilling into meteors that are going to come and knock the earth out of whack. I mean, you name it, aliens who are a threat. Man overcomes everything. Humanity can have the ability. That's what we like. We don't mind the story of Joseph being somewhat about Jesus, somewhat, if we're convinced that Jesus came from good men. We'll take that. We'll take that. For a good man like me. And then the Lord takes this giant cement block and just sort of drops it right on us with Genesis 38. And he starts the story and then he stops and he gives us a story to remind you how to read the Bible. to remind you how to read the Bible. It's as if God says, the story of Joseph is not about you rising to your own greatness. If you forget that, I want you to understand what is the truth of your story. I want you to remember through this glorious story what is the truth of your story. Christ didn't come from moral people. He came from spiritually bankrupt people whose lives are exposed and whose lives are are shameful and god is drawing out the issue today to remind you of the wonders of grace that that's i believe the great intention today it's to remind you of the wonders of grace now today i would suggest that you can't even begin to understand this if you don't see that this is the the very thing he's doing by setting up the contrast between judah and joseph judah was the fourth son remember of leah his name meant praise and we were given indication back when he was born that this would be the one and we know this from history from history of redemption that that this would be the one through whom the christ would come the lion of the tribe of judah but remember what happened joseph had been sent to his brothers now imagine the contrast with me just for a minute think about it joseph was sent to his brothers to see how they were doing and they were ready to kill him they were ready to put him out but there was one figure that rose up and really did direct the whole thing it was judah wasn't it judah rose up and judah said listen he became the leader really judah said to his brothers verse 26 of the previous chapter. What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his bread? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him. So Judah devised this plan to deceive his father. Deja vu. All the themes are being repeated. To deceive his father with clothing. and we'll come back to that in a little bit but what happens here then is the text sets up this great contrast and you'll see it in verse 1 of chapter 38 in the way that it begins it says it happened at that time to which we should all stop and say well what time what time is it talking about the time they sold joseph joseph is sold judah takes off two brothers going opposite ways and joseph heads down to egypt judah heads to canaan and notice what happens here judah departs from his brothers went down into the land of the canaanites to the city called adulam now you should know by now red flag all over judah abraham never wanted this abraham got into nightmares outside of the land two lives but judah is running away from the place where and this is the emphasis of last time his fathers dwelled as sojourners pilgrims so two lives are set before us two kinds of brothers with two very different paths and the lives are now contrasted notice how joseph has just been this glaring figure that has stood out from everyone else, stood out from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and now Judah. And he's not like anyone we've met in the scriptures yet. There's no one even close to what Joseph has been like. Think about it. Judah runs, lusts after all these foreign women, marries one of them. Joseph, in contrast, goes down to Egypt. Potiphar's wife throws herself at him and he darts the other way wow what a contrast joseph refuses remember how could i do this great wickedness and sin against god judah does the opposite judah filled with sexual morality unites himself in marriage doing the very thing that the abrahamic covenant absolutely forbid he married a pagan joseph's the abused one in egypt judah's the abuser joseph receives blessing from the lord judah suffers all the consequences of this awful mess joseph is falsely accused by a woman judah is convicted by a woman the contrast through and through is telling you look at these two brothers look at them compare and contrast them and the whole picture tells us that that joseph rejected the path of sin and judah chose it and so then you you you open up psalm one and you say blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the path the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the lord then there's the wicked man of psalm one who does whatever he wants to do boy this this is this is challenging because it really is forcing us to ask the question, who do I identify with? Who do I identify with? It really tests how I read the story of Joseph because we have to be honest here about life. God loves honesty about life. How many of you have struggled with sexual morality? What if I asked you to put up your hand? Let me test you stronger. If you turned over to chapter 39, and you looked at verse 6 and you read this now joseph was handsome in form and appearance and it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast longing eyes on joseph and she said lie with me but it happened about this time when joseph went into the house this is verse 11 now i'm skipping down it happened at that time when Joseph went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was inside, she caught him by his garment saying, lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand and fled and ran outside. He's 17. He's 17. Young man, who has the power and the ability to flee from that? That sin took Abraham down over and over. Mighty Abraham, father Abraham. That sin took Samson down. That sin slays mighty men. Took David down. the greatest king of Old Testament Israel. If you struggle with sexual morality, tonight's sermon is designed to help you think through that and to give you the kind of drive that the Holy Spirit has the power to give you to fight it and overcome it. I believe that. That's tonight. But the question is, who has power in themselves for this one? What man? What if all indecent exposure of our lives God wrote down in a little snapshot and put it in a chapter in the Bible? How would your chapter look? Would it look like Joseph's or would it look like Judah's? What's the reality? Who do I identify with? Martin Luther, commenting on this, said the story of Judah does two things, and I love this. It rebukes presumption. If a man can fall so easily, so quickly, so carelessly into sin, any of us likewise can sin regardless of our background, privileges, and training. To him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. We must repent, confess, and stay close to Christ. What then does Judah's life expose? Well, look at it with me for a moment. Judah departs and he goes down to this Adulamite whose name was Hira. And when he saw there, he saw there a certain daughter of a certain Canaanite woman whose name was Shua, and he married her, and he went into her. So he voluntarily departs. Joseph was, remember, by force taken down to Egypt. Judah voluntarily departs, and the reality of this is just that the pain of this, it's shocking. Everything we've learned in Genesis about leaving the land, about the separation God made, Judah turns from all of it. Judah dumps all of it. And in total disregard of the covenant of grace that God made with Abraham and his descendants, in total disregard, he goes and he marries an accursed daughter of Ham. Remember? Abraham said, you can't do that. God said, you can't do that. Remember what Abraham said? And I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my sons from the daughter of the Canaanites among whom I dwell. You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Translate, a Christian is never to marry a non-believer. And so over and over and over and over, a few generations later, Abraham's family is unraveling. I mean, the family has tanked it. Judah, the promised seed. Now remember, we know this is the chosen one. This is God's chosen one. Judah, the promised seed, rebels and launches himself into this downward spiral. And what should be so moving here is just the hardness of it all. It's so unembellished. There's nothing pretty about this. And you stop and you say, well, how could a covenant child do this? How could a covenant child do this? He looks back to the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life are driving him. All sensual. Being open here. You know, I was trained in a Christian home by parents who were faithful. I was raised in a church that looked a lot like this one. Even the building, it's really strange. When I left home, none of my decisions were consciously made in the fear of God. Think about that. When I went to school, there was no seeking of the Lord where I went, what classes I took, what church I attended. I ended up in false worship for a prolonged period of time, really bad. there was absolutely no spiritual life but I was in church they're in church I was in church but there was no spiritual life whatsoever none thinking about marriage I would have said yeah I should marry a Christian I was so excited to be on my own to get away to live freely without constraint if you're honest were your eyes very open in your younger days to the Lord and His ways? Were they? Meet Judah. Your classic reformed kid. Engaged in false worship in Canaan, marrying and partying with pagan women, a life filled with wicked behavior. He marries one, essentially wrecking God's plan. And the devil's having a field day if you look behind the scenes here. Oh, he is having a field day. The devil is working really hard here. Do you see it? He has three sons, Ur, Onan, and Shelah, born to him in Kazib. The city means, name means, here's a twist, city of lies. Think God's telling us something? He went to the city of lies. What a bad situation. Now we can look back and we say, well, this is God's chosen one to go. He's the Lion of Christ. Everything here, though, in contrast, is totally wrecked. And now, this is a real mess. How's God going to get him out of this one? He doesn't even care. Outside the land, joined to a pagan, three illegitimate sons. Three illegitimate sons. This is a mess. And the consequences. sons who were not of the faith of Father Abraham. Lo and behold, Abraham didn't get this low. Isaac didn't get this low. Jacob didn't get this low. This guy's rock bottom. Do you have sons and daughters here who have made choices that grieve you and that pain you and it overwhelms you? Well, I've got a really powerful message for you. God goes after him. Isn't this beautiful what's about to happen? Well, not what he does, but what God does. Severe chastisement starts. Did you see it? Judah thinks, I've got to propagate my line. And so he takes this woman, Tamar, and gives her to Ur. And in verse 7, all we read is that Ur was, Judah's firstborn son was wicked in the sight of the Lord. The Lord killed him. First one ever in Scripture we read like this. Took him out. You know, the devil, seed from Genesis 3 is what's happened. It's all mingled up at this point. And the Lord's intervening. Remember, seed of the woman, seed of the serpent. Devils just joined it. This is the first person the Lord takes out and unleashes his wrath. Immediately, the Lord eliminates the firstborn from Judah. So Judah says to Onan, go marry Tamar and raise up an heir. Onan uses this woman for pure pleasure. And he doesn't do as the law stated at the time. The younger brother was to perform this duty to raise up his brother's heir. Onan wants to be the firstborn, the right of the firstborn. So he doesn't do it. Tamar is a sex object and he refuses and the Lord kills him. Takes him out. You've got one left. Satan has mingled this up so terribly and so trashed the covenant line and Judah choosing this. It seems he's winning. Judah's living in the city of lies, married to a Canaanite woman, has the consequence of children who don't believe. And I stop and I say, do you see the warfare we're in? I mean, do you see the warfare you're in with you and your children? Do you support what they're doing? It's warfare. Judah knows he has a responsibility to Tamar to tell her, and he tells her now, we'll wait for my youngest son. But Judah's lying. We read in his intention in verse 11, He has no intent to let Shayla die like his brothers. In other words, this woman's cursed. He'll die too. Damaged goods. I will not give my last son to her. So it's over. And he's blaming Tamar for the mess. And I suppose as I think about all the consequences here and all that's going on in this tragic mess, the consequences of rebellion, do you stop and see what it looks like? I don't know if we've seen this pattern over and over in Genesis and that it's set into us, but you know what I'm really overwhelmed with today again in Genesis 38, as I've been in the entire study of Genesis, is the Lord's relentless pursuit and His chastening love. Notice here, as Judah is on this path of descent, that in verse 12, his wife dies, Shua. Two sons and a wife. It's overwhelming. He is being hit. No more opportunity to bear a seed. He has one son left. He believes it's all Tamar's fault that his children have died. Judah's line is faced with being put out. The one whom God chose. Whom Christ would come. The scene turns now and Tamar sees an opportunity. She knows that Judah still wants a woman in his mourning. She hears that he's heading down to Timnah and as Judah runs with his buddy here from Canaan down to Timnah to share sheep, she takes clothing and covers herself as a prostitute. Stands out alongside of the road. And you really see the moral degeneracy here of this man that this was accepted as normal for him she knew that judah had never intended to give her to shayla his son so she does this and we read in verse 15 when judah saw her he thought she was a prostitute for she had covered her face he turned to her at the roadside and said come Let me come in to you, for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. You know, what is one of the really powerful things here is you know this place? Did you notice the place name there? Anaim? Do you know what that means? Opening of the eyes. Ponder this. Jacob deceived Isaac with clothing and went in and deceived with clothing. In the very last chapter, Judah deceives Jacob with clothing, Joseph's clothing. And now Judah is deceived with Tamar covering in the garments of a prostitute to which the Lord is telling us you never escape the consequences of sin. You reap what you sow. Now, pause. All of this is going on, one end. while on the other end is Joseph down in Egypt, forcefully taken down there, overcoming, fleeing from Potiphar's wife who is throwing herself before him, dropping garments, and he won't sin against God. It's remarkable. The favorite son of the father who was sold, and now in contrast, here's this immoral son. And it's as if the Lord is probing again. which son? Which son are you? He asks Tamar, the prostitute, may I come in? She says, what do you give me? He says, I'll give you my staff, a young goat, a young goat from the flock. Well, I need a pledge until I receive it. What pledge will you? Your signet cord and your staff. That was like your social security number. So Judah gives it to him. It identified you. well judah performs this does this she conceives judah goes to get back the signet court and the staff lo and behold there's no prostitute she's gone comes around about three months later that tamar is pregnant she's committed an immoral sin did you catch that that woman is immoral and judas says bring her out it's burn time we're burning her i can get rid of this curse forever he would have eliminated any possibility for his line to continue notice that he would have put an end to it there's the son in the womb that the line is going to continue judas saying burn burn burn him as she's being brought out she sent word to her father-in-law by the man to whom these belong. I am pregnant. She said, please identify who these are, the signet and the cord and the staff. Can you imagine the opening of the eyes? Then Judah identified them and said, she is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son, Shayla, and he did not know her again. It's sad when I reflect upon all this, the aftermath in the family of Abraham of how much abuse of women we've seen it's really a tragedy isn't it in the wake of all of this sin you have seen hagar and you've studied unloved leah and you've studied tamar and that's what sin does it just leaves casualties it leaves them in the wake tramples women and at this point i believe And Judah's eyes are open. And I believe this is his conversion. Because after this, he's going to be the one to care for his father. He's going to be the one to offer his life for Benjamin's freedom in Egypt, remember? He's going to be a true child who turns around and demonstrates what it is when grace gets a hold of someone. We'll get there. What does the Lord want from us this morning? Well, the question comes then for us, are your eyes open? Are your eyes open? Are you listening to what God is telling us about you? You need a righteous life to cover you. I don't know how else to say it. I don't know how else to depict it. You need a righteous life to cover you, and your life can never cover it, cut it. And you're running around, and we're running around, and by nature we do what we want. We're making choices and we have no sense of Him. But then He opens our eyes. And only then do we understand grace. Why do I say this? Well, the greatest mess of Genesis, Judah and Tamar, from this came your Savior. God loved sinners like this. And here's what I want you to see in closing this morning. Tamar bears two sons. Did you notice what happens here? Very similar to Esau and Jacob's situation. One pops out first. They have twins, and they put a scarlet thread on him. He pulls back in, and the other pops out, and it's Perez. You see God's choice happening. Perez, who is Perez? Perez begins the genealogy of Ruth. Two generations, right? Ten generations from Perez to David, who is the forefather. Now ponder this. Boaz. Boaz. Who did Boaz marry? Ruth. Ruth the Moabitess. Well, wait a minute. So from Lot's daughters in the cave, drunk and incestuous, and now this mess comes together and that's the line through whom your Savior will come. you're all awake, aren't you? Through the incestuous mess in the cave, and this, comes your Savior. And that's really powerful this morning. Two sons are presented here. Who's the righteous one? Well, it's not us. It's the one down in Egypt who foreshadows the obedient one to come. But the wonder here is that Jesus chose not to come from the line of Joseph. And you say, well, why didn't Jesus come from the line of Joseph? Because he wants to tell all of you today that he chose to come from the line of Judah to tell you that he identifies with you. He was in every way like his brothers except for sin, but he came from sinners. Joseph foreshadows a Savior who comes from us. Rotten, filthy sinners he would identify with us and his promises of his love are never, ever, ever in view to your morality because you see, it's bankrupt. God threw this mess before you today. All the filth of this passage chose Judah to be the one and then wants you to know that he reconciled and fixed this kind of mess so that your Savior would come. And if he could do that, look what he could do for you. Look at the hope He gives you and your children. God's perfect design was worked out despite Judah absolutely destroying it. And that's such a wonderful encouragement to failures that ultimately God will accomplish His salvation. God will fulfill His purposes. And are you overwhelmed then yet? Have you thought about yet? Have you really deeply pondered yet that from the genealogy of Christ comes Tamar, Ruth, Rahab, and Bathsheba? tamar who is one of the mothers in the genealogy of jesus perez was born through prostitution understand that you feel that god didn't sanitize your bibles god doesn't want you to be dishonest about your life oh we need to be so proper in the house of god problem your life's not proper my life's not proper and when your eyes are open then you bow in humility today that Jesus would come to identify with broken messed up sinners like us and now you understand why the Pharisees were so mad he was sitting out with who? the prostitutes the tax collectors the pimps that's who he was sitting with because that's who His line came from. Jesus would become mixed up with our sorrow, become sin for us even though He was purely righteous and let me state that, no sin. Truly God, who became a friend of publicans and tax collectors calling not the righteous but sinners to repentance. He Himself came into contact with our guilt and bore it all on His back, taking it to the cross. So then we have to learn that today. And we have to accept that. He'll go to the bottom of the barrel to pull you out. Guess what? You have to see you're at the bottom of the barrel. With a long line of prostitutes and harlots and sinners. That's how great your sins and your misery are. That's how great Pastor Gordon's sins and misery That's how great it is. And that's how great his love is for us. What a marvel. That's your gospel. And that's the kind of heart he wants you to come with tonight to his table. Amen. Heavenly Father, give us the faith to believe how drastic a measure you had to go to to send your son to this fallen realm to deliver us. And that when we look at these messes in the Bible, let us not be self-righteous and over-pious and think, we don't do those things. Sins of omission alone render us guilty. And so forgive us for all of our sins and thank you for answering us in our deepest distress. And oh Lord Jesus, thank you for coming to identify with us messes that we are. And since you have pulled out so many in the past and you're continuing to say to this day, many brothers and sisters here have loved ones who've run. Children, pull them out, we humbly pray. Demonstrate your grace and your mercy. And let us all come and return to the shepherd and overseer of our souls as we live in praise. Judah's name means praise. Praise to our God who has redeemed us and given us life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.