Genesis chapter 38. Genesis chapter 38. And it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren and turned into a certain Adulamite, whose name was Herah, And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah, and he took her and went in unto her. And she conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Ur. And she conceived again and bare a son, and called his name Onan. And she yet again conceived and bare a son, and called his name Shelah. And he was at Kezib when she bare him. And Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. And Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his. And it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord, wherefore he slew him also. Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, remain a widow at thy father's house till Shelah my son be grown. For he said, lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. And in process of time, the daughter of Shua, Judah's wife, died. And Judah was comforted and went up into his sheep shears to Timnath, he and his friend Hira the Edulamite. And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. And she put her widow's garments off from her, and covered her with a veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath. For she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife. When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot because she had covered her face. And he turned unto her by the way and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee. For he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law. And he said, what wilt thou give me that thou mayest come in unto me? And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, wilt thou give me a pledge till thou send it? And he said, what pledge shall I give thee? And she said, thy signet and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thy hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him. And she arose and went away, and laid by her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend, the Adulamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand, but he found her not. Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot that was openly by the wayside? And they said, There was no harlot in this place. And he returned to Judah and said, I cannot find her. And also the men of the place said that there was no harlot in this place. And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be ashamed. Behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her. And it came to pass about three months after that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar, thy daughter-in-law, has played the harlot. And also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, bring her forth, and let her be burnt. When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, By the man whose these are, am I with child. And she said to Sirn, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, the bracelets, and staff? And Judah acknowledged them and said, she hath been more righteous than I, because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more, and it came to pass in the time of her travail, that behold, twins were in her womb. And it came to pass when she travailed that the one put out his hand, and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, this came out first. It came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out, and she said, How hast thou broken forth? This breach be upon thee. Therefore his name was called Phares, breach. And afterward came out his brother that had the scarlet thread upon his hand, and his name was called Zerah. Let's pray together. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor? We praise you that your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We praise you for the glory of Christ and of your grace and mercy to us revealed in these lines. Give us wisdom to see wondrous things out of your word. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen. So for some weeks now, I've been praying, can we skip chapter 38? Lord, will it really make that much of a difference if we just miss this one? But there is gold here and a lot of it. First thing we ought to see, of course, is that the history is honest and it's shocking. It is shocking how compromised the church can sometimes be with the world. I think we see sometimes little snatches of that in our own lives. It's shocking how sinful we can be, how bad our attitudes can be, the things that can come out of our mouths. The second thing I think we see in these lines is that it's shocking, in a good way, how long-suffering the Lord is with sinners. I could not help but be reminded in this chapter of what Paul said in 1 Timothy. Remember how he talked about that I was a persecutor, I was a blasphemer? I took delight in injuring God's people. That's what's meant by thereby injurious. But he says, God saved me to show a pattern of long-suffering. We see this in Judah. I mean, it's hard to believe that Judah is the main ancestor of the kings of Israel and even more of our Lord Jesus Christ. This man, he's a filthy, reckless, godless, Canaanite-loving apostate. And yet even, he's not fully apostate because God's not finished with him. It's amazing how God saves the vilest of sinners. It's shocking, I think, thirdly, just by way of introduction, that our Savior would come from this family. Now, we take a certain degree of pride, I guess, in our family, and there's a place for that. You know, when the Jews thought on their history, what should they have thought? Bury it. Hide it. Cover it up. But the Holy Spirit says, blow a trumpet. Tell everybody, don't forget any of it, not even the sordid, ugly, brutal side of your history, because I want everybody to know that when I sent my son into the world, he didn't come from worthy stock. He didn't come to save good men. He came to hold up a mirror. By bearing our sin on the cross and bearing our reproach, he came to hold up a mirror to show us our true condition. And he humbled himself to save our human, wretched family. Now one last point by way of introduction. This chapter, one of the reasons I think it's probably unwise to skip it, even though I know I may be creating some problem for some of you parents, but I promise you I'll skim certain parts of it. It's not shocking when we remember that the Lord was intending to get his people out of Canaan. Joseph chapter 37, let's just go right to 39. But in 38, the Lord says, I want you to understand why, I'm giving you some background here, this is why I'm sending Joseph to Egypt. because the church is so compromised and her main family and her main man from whom the Christ is going to come is so compromised and perverse, I've got to get my people out of here. And so I want to give you an expose of Judah, his charade, his life, his shenanigans for these 20 something years between the time Joseph is sold into slavery to the time they go down to Egypt. I want to tell you how bad his family was. so that you'll understand why God got his people out of Canaan, took them to Egypt, into the crucible of affliction to refine them. I think this chapter makes three main points. The first one is in verses 1 through 11, and that is we see Christ's church almost completely overcome by the Canaanites. Not a lot of commentary is needed. You can see how bad it is just as I can. Judah, Now remember who Judah was. Judah was the one who back in 37 said, hey, let's don't kill our brother. Let's make some money off of him. Let's sell him in slavery. So right after this, Judah leaves his father's house and basically moves in with a Canaanite friend. He marries a Canaanite wife, an unbeliever. By the way, her name's not even given. We don't even know her name. We know her father's name. His name was Shua, but we don't even know her name, at least not here. And he has a child. Judah doesn't consult his parents. His father, Judah, does what he wants to do. He's not a lover of God at this point in his life. He doesn't fear God. As a matter of fact, this chapter in one respect, I think, anticipates the parable of the prodigal son. And I think also it shows us in very vivid colors why we must not intermarry with unbelievers. Because nothing undermines piety in the family, piety and holiness in the church has mixed religious marriages. And so as Paul said, there is no fellowship between light and darkness that Christians should marry only in the Lord, not Judah. He is compromised. And his sons, is it any surprise that his sons would be evil? He has two sons, Ur and Onan. When they were probably in their late teens, which may have been part of the problem as well, Ur takes a wife, Tamar. Now we don't know what Ur did, we're not told, but he was so evil God killed him. Now God doesn't normally do this. Maybe you've known sudden death of somebody who was known to be evil. God doesn't normally work this way, but that He does it at all should remind us how seriously He takes our lives before Him and that we need to walk in His fear. Onan, Judah then gives. Tamar, remember the later law, the brother raises up a seed for his family called Leveret Marriage. It was already being practiced even before God's law. Judah says, I want you to take Tamar and I want you to raise up a seed for your brother. Odin says, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to go through the motions. By the way, the verbiage, this is repetitive. He was always doing this, or regularly doing this with Tamar, pretending that he was going to father a child with her, but then preventing conception. So, vile. Intense selfishness, intense hatred. The specific sin here is not simply self-gratification. The Holy Spirit says at the end of verse 9, lest he should give seed to his brother. This is an intensely hate-filled, loveless individual. He would not. He would go through the motions. He was also intensely deceptive, raising Tamar's expectations, dashing them to the ground every time. And so God killed him too. And this is the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now you tell me that this is not intentional. That our Lord came from such stock. He came into His own. Why did the Jews reject Him? They didn't want to look in the mirror. Why do sometimes Protestant churches become Mutual admiration societies are go to sleep and are not zealous for the gospel. Because we don't remember what we were before Christ and how much He condescended to bear our curse. We're not broken by His sufferings and His humiliation for our sake. I don't think Onan's sin can be used just as an offhand, as a warrant to say there's never a time for family planning. Family planning was not what Onan was doing. Onan was filled with hate. He was filled with selfishness. He intentionally disregarded the duties of love with respect to his brother. And God, the Lord was extremely displeased with him. Notice the covenant name used in verse 10. So the church here, Judah's married a Canaanite woman, he's born these two, his wife is born these two evil sons. The church is overcome by the Canaanites, or in danger of. Verses 12 through 23, Judah himself, I mean it gets worse. I know everybody hates the first part of the chapter, but the middle part I think is worse than the first part, because here we're giving, so what does Judah do? So Judah's wife dies. Now Judah can't be more than 40 by this point. He's still a young man. But after his wife dies, verse 12, he goes up to his sheep shears and he goes back to his friend Hira the Edulamite. Now he didn't know Tamar was his daughter-in-law, so it wasn't intentional on his part, but he says, hey, my wife's dead. I'm in mourning. I need some comfort. Let me go solicit a prostitute. I mean, there's a callousness to Judah's character here. I mean, this is casual fornication that he commits, and there's no way to justify it. It's brazen at one level, too. He brings his friend in with him, hiring at the end when he's gotta go pay the bills, so to speak. He sends his friend to do it, whose friend obviously knew what was going on. What about Judah's witness and all? He didn't care about a witness. Judah doesn't have a witness. Judah is completely given over at this point in his life to wickedness. Now, behind the scenes, Tamar, interesting character in the scripture. This won't be the last time we'll run into her. Tamar says, hey, your father-in-law, somebody tells her your father-in-law's coming up the way here, so she dresses up and plays this part. Because in her mind, Judah has broken his promise. Judah's promised her, you can have my third son. Now, was this poverty relief for Tamar? Was it honor? Hey, I need a husband because I need a son. Was it? As some have speculated, maybe she heard the promise of the gospel and at some level believed it. Now granted, she's extremely manipulative and her actions are godless, We find her again in Matthew 1. Look there, Matthew 1. Of course, you know, Matthew 1 in the genealogy, verse 3, in Judah, begat Phares and Zerah of Tamar. So I don't know what her motives were. I don't know whether she believed the gospel or not, and her means were certainly despicable and sinful. And yet at one level, God honored her to be one of the mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ. Incestuous trickery to just show you the moral decline of this age. So our Savior's line here is stained with what? Incredible impurity. And yet God's working behind the scenes in all of this to glorify His name. Now, in verses 24 through 30, talk about the hypocrisy of Judah. You know the story. It doesn't need a lot of commentary. Judah tries to go and pay her price. Hira can't find her, and he just says, well, hopefully nothing will come of it. We'll just let it go and keep it quiet. Three months later, verse 24, somebody tells Judah, hey, did you know your daughter-in-law's pregnant? What? So what's Judah's verdict? Chauvinist, hypocrite that he was? Bring her out and let her be burnt. By the way, it is interesting, isn't it, that Judah had a sensitivity, and apparently at least some of the surrounding Canaanites, what he says here doesn't appear to be extreme to them, that yeah, I mean, adultery should be punished with death. It's amazing in our culture, isn't it? We think we're sophisticated. I increasingly think we're subhuman. I mean, it's not that we can completely obliterate the image of God, but when we celebrate adultery and perversity and fornication, and there's no stigma to 13, 14, 16-year-old unmarried girls being pregnant, and no stigma or social punishment for the boys, but this is rather celebrated, you have to realize, as bad as this was on Judah's part, it still shows more of a consciousness of the law of God written upon their hearts than what we see in the United States of America. And yet, in the church, and those historically like the Puritans and the Reformers who encouraged, you know, that we need to follow God's law, you know, the death penalty for adultery, properly, you know, applied in these things, because this is a reflection of God's eternal character. Remember, this is pre-law, pre-Sinai. You know, are decried as barbarians. You tell me who's the barbarian. The barbarians, those who say, you know, God has wisdom here and his law was given as a model for all the nations, or no, no, no, we need to just let men be themselves. How's that working out for the United States of America? But Judah here, I mean, his verdict, I mean, what a hypocrite. Now he does make a pathetic confession here because Tamar, Tamar, she had a plan, didn't she? I'm gonna protect myself because at the right moment, here it is, I'm gonna bring out, now whose ring is this? And how about this bracelet? And by the way, whose staff is this? Judah. Turns white, maybe. I don't even know if he has a conscience. Too much of one. Oh, well, she's been more righteous than I've been. And that's all you can say? Shouldn't you have maybe said something like, neither one of us has been very righteous, have we? And then the child. We won't, doesn't need a lot of commentary. Why is this here? Because this is the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather of our Lord Jesus Christ. From Tamar. From this. From Judah. And what do we... What are we supposed to take from this chapter? I mean, it's not one we're going to devotionally read twice a week, I get it. And it's not the preacher trying to artificially elevate the importance of everything he ever preaches on. But can I just mention two or three things? One, in the bleakest, most bankrupt times, be persuaded that God is working. I mean, basically chapter 38 covers about 20 years, 22 years. But wait a minute, there's something else going on behind the scenes during those 22 years too, isn't it? Yep, God's setting up His people, this family, to be delivered. And so Joseph, while this is going on, is going through what? He's going through first the whole Potiphar mess, then he's going through the dungeon mess, There's been seven years of plenty, and now they're getting into the two, there's about two years of famine before his brothers come down, and then we know the story that comes up after this. So God's doing all this behind the scenes. If all we looked at was chapter 38, oh! And in our lives, don't we do this, this misery we're going through, this trouble that we're going through, this country that we live in, this wickedness, the pains that we experience, the losses that we go through, this is so hard for me to bear, I can't deal with this, and we forget behind this, The Lord is working, and like Job said, we only see the shadow of His ways, and yet we need to be persuaded. And this chapter reminds us of this, that the Lord is working in the bleakest times, in the most painful times, and we can always trust, as we sang twice tonight, that His will is right, His will is good, and our wisdom is to yield ourselves to Him. You might say, well, I don't like what he's doing in my life. Did Joseph? No. See, we have so much more light than our brothers and sisters during this time of history had. And so we need to be confident that our God is causing all things to work together for good. And that the pain and the sorrow and the difficulty and the upheaval and in some places persecution that's going on in the church, this is part of God's overarching plan. Again, we need to get big views of God, big views of His sovereignty, because these are the true views. so that we see our lives and we see what's happening in the world, not that we're fearful, but that we trust that our God is working. Second, there is a clear warning in these lines against entanglement with Canaanites. And again, the church is gonna have to learn this in our day and age. I realize there's no such thing as Canaanites. Everybody's American. If you got an iPhone, you're on the team. And moral differences are artificial. They don't really matter anymore. You do know this, don't you? Because really the cardinal virtue is that you be universally accepting of everyone, no matter how upside down, perverse, sickening, destructive that their practice and ideas may be. That kind of Canaanite thinking explains a lot of the compromise and the weakness. of the church today on issues of sexuality, gender, the Sabbath, doctrinal issues, creation. I mean, we're warned here, don't be close to the Canaanites. And again, you know these verses, but we'll read them. We have to. 2 Corinthians chapter 6. This is very much a New Testament theme. 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14, and I encourage you in your friendships and in your male-female relations when you're young to take this seriously. The tragedy, the misery of Judah was because he left his father's house, married Canaanites, stopped walking in obedience to God. 2 Corinthians 6 14 be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship is righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion is light with darkness and what concord as Christ with Belial what part is he that believes with an unbeliever and what agreement has the temple of God with idols for you are the temple of the living God as God has said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they will be my people Wherefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. And I will be a father unto you, and you will be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us therefore cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Very much a New Testament theme. And we haven't been guarded enough Are you guarded? Jesus said, if any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. What is the love of the world? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. These things are at our fingertips now. You know, sometimes I think, did you know movies are only 100 years old? And again, this is an anti-movie and don't go see movies per se. But you ever wonder what was life like before? There was constant distraction. What was life like before everybody was constantly sharing every feeling and whim that they had on mediums and these things were kept in some invisible mega God memory bank somewhere to be brought out against you when you want to go get a job sometime? What was life? There was still sin and there was still Judah and Tamar. But we have made sin and compromise convenient, local, pocket-sized. And in some respect, I think Satan's had a hand in it. And I would warn you, stay away from anything, listen to me, that blurs your sense of the holy. Isn't that Paul's argument there in 2 Corinthians 6? Listen, Paul's argument is not stay away from the world and touch not the unclean thing because you might get dirty. That's not his main argument. His main argument is not come out from among them and touch not the unclean thing and touch not the unholy ideas. His argument is not because, well, you know, those people are always bad and Christians are always nice. No, because some of you will say, no, I know some unbelievers who are actually nicer and friendlier to me than some Christians are in my own church. That's not the argument. The argument from separation is not so that we can go live in caves and use candles and only eat broccoli that we've grown in our own dirt. That's not the argument. The argument is what? Because God is in our midst. Because God is in our midst. He says there, what agreement, verse 16, has the temple of God with idols? You are the temple, the dwelling place of God, and then he quotes from Leviticus, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. That's the argument. The argument for separation, the argument for mental clarity on sexuality and gender and male-female relationships and how you use your money and what you look at, the argument for purity in these things is the presence of God with His people in fulfillment of His covenant. And the last thing that we should want to do is to provoke Him to His face. By the way, that's why piety in the church goes down. That's why you go to Christian things and you hear Christian people OMGing this, and there's no sense of the holy anymore. That's why. That's why we hear Christians fornicating and pastors falling and all. That's why. It's because we forget. Judah forgot, he had far more excuse than we do, we have none, because Christ has come, that God is in our midst, and He dwells with us, and He says, I'll be a father to you, you will be my sons and my daughters, I love you, I'm gonna dwell with you, I'm gonna talk with you, but put away, put away sin. Put away worldly associations and friendships, because I don't have fellowship with those, and I'm the holy one. By the way, that's the whole argument of Hebrews as well. Look in Hebrews chapter 10. This is something we need to recover. I urge, I beg you young people to take seriously this. Hebrews chapter 10. Again, we can't get into all this, and I've looked at some of this with you many times, but he says there in verse 30, Hebrews 10 for we know him that is said Vengeance belongs to me. I will repay says the Lord and again. The Lord will judge his people It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. I Believe he said it says over in chapter 20 chapter 12 verse 28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved Let us have grace Whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our gods are consuming fire." I mean, is this Old or New Testament? It's New Testament. Kind of harkens back to Isaiah 34, doesn't it? Who among us can dwell with the everlasting burnings? God is holy. He is exalted. To dwell with us and to save us, He doesn't put aside His holiness. He brings it to bear in our lives. And so our words and our attitudes and what we look at, who our associations are, these things need to be dominated by God dwells with me, His holiness, His righteousness. And really that's what it takes to overcome the world. That's what it takes for you and your family and me and my family and our children, our hearts, not to be compromised by the Canaanites that surround us in our day. God is in our midst. God is holy. God dwells with me. I need to come out from among them because of Him. I don't want to provoke Him. Read Jeremiah, the constant theme. And even there in Hebrews 12, don't provoke the Holy One. He's jealous. Now what happens when the church does become compromised with the world. Well, this chapter reminds us that the Lord has got various, shall we say, instruments that he can use to preserve the church. One of them is isolation, because God's people are about to go to Egypt, where they're going to be looked down on because the Egyptians didn't like shepherds. And so, one thing God sometimes does is isolate His people. Sometimes to awaken us, He brings persecution. Sometimes He, personally in our individual lives, He'll bring death or some personal circumstance, some providence. It's just gut-wrenching to say, Hey, I'm right here. I want you to turn to me with all your heart. I want you to turn to me with all your heart. I want you to turn to me with all your heart. But the point here is, from this chapter, when God's people are compromised, when we love the world more than we love Him, He will work to get our attention back. It could be persecution, it could be other personal hardships, it could be going here to a place where you're isolated. But understand, God is working. But there's one other lesson here in this chapter that just dwarfs, I think, Everything else. Turn with me to Philippians 2. Bob read it. Some of it this morning. Philippians 2, verse 1. Philippians 2, verse 1. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, If any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye may be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Why did our Savior Not come, this was a Jews issue wasn't it, in this big shiny chariot. Why did he not come and set up this big middle earth type kingdom with palaces and marble pillars and everything, beauty and light. Why did he come and have nowhere to lay his head? Why was he despised and rejected of men? Why, as he said of himself, but I am a worm and no man. A reproach of men, despised of the people. Why did he come like this? Well, he came like this because, as we see in Judah and Tamar, who were his direct, his direct line, you and I are filthy. And we are dead in sin. And as David confessed, I was born in sin and in sin did my mother conceive me. And there's no understanding of the gospel, listen to me, and there's no real lasting love for Christ in your life. And we wonder sometimes while we're up and down like the Goliath at Six Flags, it's because we forget. the amazing condescension of Jesus Christ to enter into the swamp of our filth, your filth, my filth, all of our filth, in order to redeem us. And when we think of Him humbling Himself and becoming obedient. Now why? Who did He do this for? Judah? Tamar? Me? There was nothing good. There was nothing that He would look at and say, Oh, they're worthy of it. I think they ought to be on my team. I'll do this. I mean, remember, all we like sheep had gone astray. Each one of us had gone to his own way, and the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all. So a chapter like this is designed to lead us to a little bit of honest self-reflection. I know it's Sunday night. We're a little bit weary. Haul your conscience up before God. Don't go to sleep. See His holiness. Remember, there's another reality than what you can see with your eyes in this room. There's the Holy, Holy, Holy God, before whom at this very moment the angels are singing, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is filled with your glory, and heaven is your throne, and the earth is your footstool, and they're covering their faces, and covering their feet, and flying through the universe, and some are here, I'm sure, because the name of Jesus is being discussed in His gospel, and they love to look into these things. That's the reality. And each one of us brought before Him can only beat our breasts and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Thank you, Son of God. for humbling yourself and sinking so low. I'm sure that's one of the things that got Peter as Jesus looked at him across the courtyard. Peter was not an unbeliever. Peter knew who Jesus was. He had confessed that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And yet here's Peter saying, no, I don't know Him. No, I don't know Him. No, I don't know Him. And he looks across, wait a minute, there He is. He's being condemned and accused and he's about to die for these very sins that I'm committing right now because of my pride, because of my arrogance, because of my, I'm going to do it my way. Peter's heart was broken. Every one of you has got to go there. Your words. Every one of you has got to go there. Your thoughts, the impurities, these things crucified the Son of God. And He took upon Himself our flesh. And we wonder sometimes, why did the church a hundred years ago just send out missionaries galore? Why did they go to China? Why did they go to Japan? Why did they go to Korea? You know, it wasn't because they all sat around here on a Sunday night and said, hey, some of us ought to go. It was because at one level there was an intense love for Christ born of what? Born of a sense of guilt over our own sins and honest confession of it and then at the same time looking to, because it's not enough to see yourself as a sinner, that won't do you any good, you'll just leave here depressed. That's the truth. But if you see Christ then, wait a minute, Christ entered into my filth. Christ condescended the Son of God to come from Judah and Tamar, an incestuous relationship, to come into the world in order to save me. I can't love Him enough. I can't praise Him enough. I can't rejoice in Him and want to obey Him enough. And of course, since we're all so weak, We go to Him and say, Lord Jesus, just please help me to love You. I want to walk with You. I want to adore You. This is why Paul, at the end of his life, who had done more than Paul, and yet Paul said, I want to know Him. I want to know the power of His resurrection. I want to be found in Him, forgetting what's behind, looking to what's ahead. I want to know Christ. Beloved, the truer you see your sinfulness, the truer you see the humiliation of the Son of God in order to redeem you, the more love will grow, the more Piedi's flames will be fanned so that you'll want to obey the Savior. Remember what He said? If you love Me, keep My commandments. Why would you love Him? Oh, I would love Him because He condescended to come from Judah and Tamar. Because He entered into our filth, because all the words that I've said that put Him on the cross, and the thoughts that I've had that put Him on the cross, the things that I've looked at, the sinfulness of my own wretched heart, my disobedience, my dishonor to my parents, that I hadn't loved my wife, that I hadn't obeyed and reverenced my husband. These things put Him on the cross, and He didn't come in pomp and circumstance. If we had seen Him that day, hanging on the cross, He would have reminded us more of the filth and the sordidness of Judah and Tamar than a king. This? He's naked. He's bleeding. He's being mocked. The skies are dark. It looks like he's a condemned criminal. And yet, it's you and me. And he took all of that upon himself because our sins had brought us so low. So don't read Judah and Tamar as you come across in the future and think, I'm glad I'm not that bad. I mean, be glad for God's grace, no doubt. And for the like that we've had, they think, now why is this in Scripture? What does God want me to see about myself? What does he want me to see about his son? What does he want me to see about his grace? And then, am I boasting in Christ? Daddies, I wanna leave you with something tonight. Everybody can profit from it, but I'm thinking here of the dads in particular. Make sure that your children, and I'm gonna do the same thing. You pray for me and I'll pray for you. They hear you this week boast in Jesus. Maybe your son looks up to you and says, Dad, you're really strong. I remember my grandfather, he worked on the railroad as a mechanic for many years. I remember as a kid, he had these big ol' biceps from using these huge wrenches on these big locomotive heads that he would have to take off. At that time, they were still doing it by hand. I remember that, man. And you know, your kids may look up to you. Maybe it's your muscles. Maybe it's your smarts. Maybe it's something else you've got. What they need to hear from you is, you know what? I appreciate you saying that. I've been working on my muscles. But let me tell you something. The only thing that makes me get up in the morning, the only thing that I have to boast of is that Jesus Christ lived and died and was raised for my sins. And let me tell you why. For your children to hear that from you, That's what this generation needs. Daddies who are honest, who face, in some respects, their own shocking sin, and who point their children to the Savior. I hope you're doing that. I hope we're all doing it. Because there's nothing any better about this congregation and nothing better about any of us that will keep us from becoming, I know, like my grandmother's church was, and I remember going there growing up, and everybody loved each other. It was a little Methodist church, and they all, you know, they played Canastum Friday nights, and, you know, had good cover dish lunches, but it was basically a dead church. And I know now why, it's because when I was there, I never heard much about Christ, and His humiliation, and His sufferings, and being directed to look at Him as the living, glorious Lord. If that's not you, your faith is always gonna be, stay weak and small. Where do you go to get, you have to go to Christ, and why are you led to go to Christ? Because you see something of your own filth. And that you don't stop there, though, and just beat yourself up. You say, you know what, doesn't do any good to beat myself up. I need to go to Him and love Him who humbled Himself and became obedient unto death for my salvation. Let's pray together. Father, we praise You for this passage of Your Word, and that it brings us back to some very central truths of Your sovereign working, of Your providence, even among, and even in very evil times, to prepare deliverance for Your people. We thank You that You're working now. We sing tonight, You see the Gideon, who will arise to save us in Your Word, and granted those It may or may not be the best way of expressing it, but we thank you that you're working not only for now, but that you're thinking about what you want your church to be in the future, and how she's going to get there, and the leaders that she needs, and the families that she needs to accomplish your will. We bless you and pray that your will will be done. Your kingdom come. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you descended from such stock. Thank you for your humbling of yourself and becoming obedient unto death and bearing our judgment and our curse. Lord, help us to be consecrated to you this week, to adore you, to boast in you, to praise your holy name. We pray that the whole world, our country, would be filled with those who profess the name of Christ. No cameras on them, nothing dramatic, just an army of humbled men and women who are constrained by the love of Christ. Do that here and everywhere. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.