There are times when you're reading God's Word, especially I find in preparation for messages, and you really have to pray and ask the Spirit, because when you first read it, you're like, why is this here? Why is this here? Because as we've been going through Genesis and the life of Jacob, we've found the fact that Rachel died. And as she died, she named her son Benoni. son of Sarah, but then he is called Benjamin, the son of my right hand. We can understand those things. People lose children. Mothers and children die in childbirth. Maybe the pain of those things touches us more openly. We read about them in novels. We see them in TV shows and movies. And then we come to this episode. Verse 21, Israel journeyed and spread his tent beyond the cover of Edar, or tower of Edar. He is continuing in obedience moving south. And maybe we can understand as we about to see his father would die, as we read in verse 28, in the days of Isaac were 104 score years. that as Isaac dies, he and his brother meet together, we can understand why there is this rehearsing then of the 12 future tribes. As it says in the end of verse 22, Now the sons of Jacob were 12, and then it goes on and lists the sons according to which wives he had the sons and according to which handmaids he had the sons. So you see the differences in the tribes set on display clearly. You can understand why those parts are all functioning together. We'll see this in more detail, particularly as we're going to be coming to Joseph's history. We're shifting from Jacob to Joseph. But as I wrestled with why is this here? Why is this history of incest here? And it came to pass when Israel dwelt in the land that Reuben went to lay with Bilhah's father's concubine, and Israel heard it. And that's all. It's just dropped in there. Why is it there in the flow of the text? Why is it recorded in the history? We'll consider that textually later, but by way of introduction, It didn't take me long, as the Lord helped, to know why this is here, at least personally. You know, it's a sad thing. I think if we all stopped and thought, or we all stopped and talked, though incest is not nearly, shall we say, as popular and open a struggle as it is to lose a child or to lose a wife, I think every one of us here in some way, to whatever degree, maybe in our own families, or maybe in a friend's family, or a friend of a friend's family, know of a case of incest. It didn't take me long, thinking through my own family and my own friends, to come across certainly more than one case. And I've seen that in three different countries. Something that's very real, even though it's one of those things you hope nobody ever finds out about. just as one line of application. Some sins may seem more shameful than others, and you may hope nobody finds out about it because then people might think something of you. That's an error and a temptation from the devil. The people of God are commanded not to judge. And if they are honest with themselves, they certainly wouldn't look down on anyone, but they put their hand in their own bosom. But further, not only does it isolate you from the very same people God has called you to help, or that's called to help you, it can isolate you from the Lord. You think this sin is so big and so bad, the blood of the Lord Jesus can't cover it? That's an error. Sins can be confessed, sins can be forgiven, and healing and restoration can take place, but without confession. There's no healing, there's no restoration. You can cover it up and pretend it's not there, but that's not healing, that's not restoration. That's waiting for it to come out from where you buried it. And further, as I was preparing for the message, I was listening to a conservative news program on YouTube, and as they're talking about the slide and moral decline of our country in the West, it was just interesting that they said supposedly the most popular form of internet pornography right now is stepmother pornography. And they pointed out that You can go to pornographic websites, and I'm not suggesting you do this, and you type in the word incest, nothing comes up. You type in the word step, and the family relation list of all the immorality you can watch exponentially explodes before you. Now, that ought to cause us to pause. not only as we think about the sin in our own hearts, we think about the sin in our own families and our friends' families, we think about what that point made by that conservative news person highlighting what it is our wicked sins delight in. This tells us where we are as people, tells us where we are as a nation. And it fits that we really aren't a Christian nation anymore. Even the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter five verse one says, it is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, sexual immorality. Sadly, that is often the case, even in the church, though it should not be. And such fornication is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. Now I know Bilhah isn't the wife of Jacob. That will become a particular point in trying to understand why this is here and what's going on in the narrative later. But it's a similar position. She's one of his father's concubines or wives and Rachel's concubine. And here we are, if we think about our own families, if we think about our own friends, if we think about the common state of our wicked culture, and what was heinous and detested is now openly searched for and delighted in. Why is this here? Certainly by the grace of God this is here to warn us, as we'll see. Certainly by the grace of God this is here to show us the consequences of our sin, But further, and by the grace of God, this is here to show us the effects of God's grace. But having moved on from those introductory remarks about why this is here, perhaps for us just practically, in the text, in the text, there's important reasons this is here. Because all too often, liberal commentators will say, well you see, this is just dropped in there by somebody who was editing Genesis later, and it's proof that Moses didn't write the Bible, and that's just not the case. There are good reasons this is here according to the structure of the text itself. First, in the context of Jacob. In the context of Jacob, it's important this is here. We are coming to the end of Jacob's story. Well, maybe you think, but you said Isaac died at the end, not Jacob. That's true. We're not coming to the end of Jacob's life in this text. We're coming to the end of his story. As Genesis 35 concludes with Jacob and Esau burying their father, chapter 36 turns to the generations of Esau, and it goes through the whole history of Edom. And then chapter 37 begins the story of Joseph. Chapter 37, verse one and following, and Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan. And then it says, these are the generations of Joseph. And then what are the generations of Joseph all about through to mostly the end of the book, except for certain exceptions? It says in the next part of verse 2 of Genesis 37, these are the generations of Jacob, Joseph being 17 years old. And now, we will leave Jacob, go through the history of Esau and Edom, and then it's Joseph through to the end. This is here as part of that transition. It's here as part of that transition. Because in the story of Joseph, Jacob has a prophecy to make. Turn with me to Genesis 49. Genesis 49. As Jacob is indeed about to die, we find in Genesis 49, these words he gives to his sons. Jacob called unto his sons and said, gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Now, this is a very striking and amazing passage because in verse eight, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise, thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies, thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's wealth from the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion, who shall rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. that which shall befall you in the last days is particularly this prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. And this prophecy about Shiloh, this prophecy about the rule not departing from Him, all has to do with His glorious work in atoning for our sins and His kingship. And you can trace this text in Genesis 49, verses nine through 12, all the way through scripture to the book of Revelation. That's why it says here in particular, you in the last days. But as he talks more to his sons and gathers them together, he says in verse two, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father, he first deals with Reuben, his firstborn, as he moves through them. And what does he say? Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. What a marvelous beginning. The high place given to the firstborn. But what will come of Reuben? Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel, because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, then defilest thou it, he went up to my couch. He is taken from a high position as the firstborn and entirely set aside. Some people argue that about the whole tribe that will come from him as it being no consequence. But that's another discussion for another time. Without that reference here, when it occurs in the history, not only in the history of Jacob's life, but in the transition of the narrative away from Jacob to Esau to Joseph, those concluding comments wouldn't make any sense. They're put there for a very particular reason by Moses. But they're also put there in a very particular connection, we could say, with Joseph. Not just in the context of Jacob, but in the context of Joseph. Because this is where we see, though here Reuben is a man of great wickedness and sin, and though he indeed is chastised severely, he is a man that is changed by grace. He is a man that is changed by grace, and we see this as part of Joseph's history. But what an amazing thing that is. You see this man who commits incest, for motives we'll consider later, it would seem. But the Lord uses him. The Lord changes him. And there is a demonstration that his character is one that the Lord has redeemed. And that's a powerful thing if you've ever been connected with incest. as a victim or as a perpetrator. There is hope, there is deliverance, there is power in the work of God. And if you've suffered from this sin or been connected to this sin, don't ever forget that. Don't ignore what's happened to you. Don't ignore what you've done. Confess it before God. And as the people of God accept you for who you are in Christ, like they always shouldn't do, whether you are the victim or the perpetrator, makes no difference. Because God works. God works. We'll see that. We'll see that. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 37, verse 29. as we are now, as I pointed out to you, considering Joseph's story. Genesis 37, verse 29. They've done a wicked thing and sold their brother into slavery. Verse 29, Reuben returned unto the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit, and he rent his clothes. He wasn't, just like we saw with the murder, the murder of the people they were living with, with Simeon and Levi as they use the covenant of God's grace in the picture of circumcision as a reason to murder and steal for the sake of their own pride. The same brothers who were gonna get rid of Joseph we see a softening of Reuben. Yeah, they threw him in the pit. Yeah, they were mean to him. Yeah, they were rough to him. He was gonna go get him. He was gonna go get him. And when he's not there, he rends his clothes. Why? Why? Because of what he's done, perhaps. Maybe he realizes what he and his brothers have done by implication, but perhaps as we'll see, because there could be indications of this, because he knows it will do, he knows what it will mean to his father. He knows what it will mean to his father. He understands what it means to grieve his father. Now, isn't that strange? We'll see a bit further why. why he did what he did with Bilhah, or so it would appear. And it clearly did something to his father. All we're told, all we're told in Genesis chapter 35 is that, and Israel heard it, He heard about the sin but did nothing about it. That could very well be one of his failings. We've seen that with Jacob or Israel in the past. But he does do something about it later as he is basically dismissed from being the firstborn. The one who didn't care about his father could very well be rending his clothes now because he knows he'll be breaking his father's heart. Turn with me to Genesis 42, verse 22. Genesis 42, verse 22. Now as the brothers are before Joseph, they said one to another, we are very guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of a soul when He besought us, and we would not hear, therefore this dress has come upon us. And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child, and ye would not hear? Therefore, behold, also his blood is required. Just as they are in Egypt, and they meet Joseph, who they know not as Joseph, and they're talking about why is this all happening? It's because we sold our brother. It's because we did this to him. And Reuben is like, didn't I tell you? Didn't I tell you don't sin against the child? And he would not hear? Therefore, also his blood was required. Verse 23, they knew not that Joseph understood them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter. Then chapter 42, verse 37. Beginning of verse 36, and Jacob their father said unto them, me have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me. He sees the heartbreak of his father. And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee, deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again. Here is a man who is willing to do what needs to be done. Here is a man who is no longer focusing on himself and his own desires and his own position and his own ambition. Here is a man who is honestly concerned about his younger brother, who they think is gone. And here is a man who is honestly concerned about his father, who he is grievously wrong. without those couple verses there are really just part of a verse. In Genesis 35, we probably wouldn't see the tremendous change in Reuben. That's there. Not only like I mentioned in our introduction, because of our own sinful hearts and our own sinful culture, it's there in the context of Jacob, so we understand Jacob's story. And it's there in the context of Joseph, so we understand Joseph's story. It's there on purpose. And we're talking about this today on purpose two. This is one of those passages where as you're going through as a minister, you go, boy, I don't really want to talk about this one, I'll just move on. And then it's doubly worse, but perhaps I hope doubly blessed when you turn over the Heidelberg Catechism and oh, it's the seventh commandment. but this is here for us. Not only according to the structure, not only because of our society, but this is here for our congregation. I don't know how, I don't know why, but it's not by accident. It's not by accident. But we've seen why this is here. Why this is here and why it's significant that it be recorded. But now we have to question not only why is this here, but why does he do it? Why does he do this wicked sin? It's clearly condemned and forbidden later on in the laws of Moses. As we already saw from Corinthians chapter five, it's even wicked among the Gentiles. Why would he do it? This is where there's a lot of different theories. Maybe anyone that has committed incest or been a victim of incest asks themselves that same question. Particularly after the Lord has given them repentance. Why did I do it? Why did this happen? The answer is always because of sin. We don't always know why in the details. But There is more here than just his sin, or so there seems to be evidence. Is it simply he lusted after her or desired her? Probably not. He's a 30-year-old man, she's older than he is, and she is the mother of his brothers. Would seem to not line up with that theory. Maybe it was a rape. Some have proposed that. But there doesn't seem to be any signs or suggestions of that. Other people have said, well, maybe it's not about Reuben, maybe it's about Bilhah. Maybe Bilhah, who was Rachel's handmaiden, was thinking, now, now he will love me like he loved Rachel. But he didn't. See, that was the whole problem from the beginning with all the switcheroo trickery of Laban. Here's Leah for Rachel, but no, now I'll give you Rachel. And then as we'll see further in connection with Reuben of all of the children, in connection with Reuben, there is stuff about the wrong way of thinking about intimacy between husband and wife and wife and concubine and concubine. Maybe they think Bilhah wanted Rachel's place, privilege and position as Jacob's favorite or true wife. And when Jacob rejected her, what does she do? I can't have Jacob, but I want the place of prominence and I want the place of authority, so what will I do? I'll go to the firstborn, I'll go to the heir, but it didn't work out. That wouldn't make sense, but I think there's a solution when commentator proposed that was better. And I think as the text emphasizes clearly, this is the sin of Reuben, primarily. He lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine. And in this case of incest, we are talking about adults. Adults. There are cases in abuse where a woman can force a boy or a young man, but usually not a full grown man. And to be honest, we are so despicable as men, it doesn't take any forcing. Sometimes for men to commit the wickedness of adultery and fornication, it takes a look or a request. No, it seems to be the fault of Reuben. And this commentator, I think, has the best explanation. It seems likely that Reuben's motives were more than sensual, more than just about attraction. By his act, he hoped to prevent Rachel's maid succeeding Rachel as his father's favorite wife. Reuben resented that Jacob did not honor his mother Leah. Also, it was a claim to authority over his father. Compare Abner lying with Saul's concubines in 2 Samuel 3 verses seven and eight. As firstborn, he was asserting a claim to his father's estate. And as we already saw in Genesis 49, that is exactly what was dealt with by Jacob as he removes him from that position. But further, but these motives do not mitigate scripture's condemnation. This kind of incest is categorically condemned in Leviticus 18, eight, and according to Leviticus 20, verse 11, it warrants the death penalty and God's curse, according to Deuteronomy 27, verse 20. Within Genesis, it evokes the sins of Ham in Genesis 9, 22 through 27, and Lot's daughter in chapter 19, 33 through 38. And outside Genesis it foreshadows the ultimate act of hubris in Absalom's rebellion when he went into his father's concubines. This act was the turning point in the rebellion. Thereafter, everything started to go wrong for Absalom. Similarly, the legal texts show that such an act, which is an offense against both filial piety and sexual purity, cannot go unpunished. Yet here, as in chapter 34, Jacob is strangely silent. He just heard about it. It seems that He is over eager. He is, as we sang from Psalm 19, presumptuous. He wants his position. He wants his power as the heir and the firstborn. And one way to do that is to take his father's concubine. Not only does that seem to fit in the place of birth order, not does that only seem to fit what Jacob will say in chapter 49, but perhaps it fits what he witnessed as a boy, turn with me to Genesis 30. Turn with me to Genesis 30, verses 14 through 16. This is one of those passages again that seems strange, but if you put yourself in Reuben's place, as a son, and you watch what your father's wife and your father's other wife are doing, and how they view intimacy in marriage, it's quite striking. Chapter 14, sorry, verse 14 of chapter 30. And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, plants with particular types of effects. Some people felt those plants could help with fertility. He finds these mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? And wouldst thou take away my son's mandrakes also? The tension in their relationship. The tension in their relationship is so strong. Oh, he found those plants that could help me possibly have children. Could I have some of them? Boom! Goes right back to the fact of whose husband is he anyway? And then you do this to me and this, this and this and everything just bubbles up. By the way, remembered when I mentioned about the sin of incest not being dealt with and just being suppressed and swept under? It's amazing how when it comes to all types of sexual sin, if they're not dealt with, what happens? Boom! It's like standing in a gas puddle with a match. That's exactly what happened emotionally. And who was there to witness it? Reuben. She said unto her, is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband, and wouldst thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, therefore, he shall lie with thee tonight for thy son's mandrakes. He normally is with me, because I am his true wife, his favorite wife. But if you give me his mandrakes, I'll let him be with you, and you can have him for a night. It's despicable. It's horrible. Marriage is supposed to be a picture of Christ and the church. Marriage is supposed to be a place where you can have nakedness without shame and total acceptance, and in that total acceptance, some of the greatest joys and delights. But now it's for barter, it's for negotiation. And it's not Christ and his church, it's these ladies shooting off their one husband between themselves as they decide. Not only is it entirely against the biblical picture of what marriage was in the beginning and of what marriage is in the light of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's a flipping of creation order on top of it. And this little boy, however old he may be at this time, this is how he understands intimacy in marriage. He understands intimacy in marriage is a power play. not about love, not about commitment, not about delight, not about redemption. Therefore he shall lie with thee tonight for thy son's man drinks. Jacob came out of the field in the evening and Leah went out to meet him and said, thou must come in unto me for surely I have hired thee with my son's man drinks. And he lay with her that night. certainly seems very plausible out of sympathy for his mother and his twisted understanding of what intimacy is about in marriage, because that's all he ever saw in the dysfunction of this family. But then when it comes to his position as the firstborn, you can see why someone would think that way. It's one of the nasty things about sin. You can take things that are clearly black and white wrong about intimacy and marriage and reason it away into something that makes total sense. Nobody ever sins thinking, this is stupid, I shouldn't do this. They sin thinking, well, this will be fine, this will work out. Even if they know they're rationalizing, at least they try. At least they try. Boys and girls, when you want to do something wicked, break the laws of your house, don't you often stop and think, well, I can get away with it. Well, the punishment won't be that bad. Nobody will know, and you start to rationalize it. You think you can make it make sense, though it goes entirely against God's word, though it goes entirely against your own previous experience, you've come up with a rationalization. You can very much see how the apparent motive of Reuben, in light of the dysfunction he's witnessed, out of care for his mother, decides to take what he sees as rightfully his anyway as the firstborn. And like we sang in Psalm 19, he sins presumptuously, willfully, perhaps self-entitledly, and loses his place. But remember, none of that, none of that has changed the type of man he would become. None of that is the kind of man that understands what is happening to Joseph is wrong and will go get him later. None of that changes the fact the kind of man he is, that when they realize what they've done and what has happened, how sinful it really was. And he tells his brothers that. None of that changes the fact that later on he is willing to say, no, father, please take my two sons. I will do this. It's amazing how this man, who is apparently so presumptuous, selfish, and self-willed, and commits this sin that does have ongoing consequences, as chapter 49 tells us, is still not, by the grace of God, a godly man, a good man, who now cares about others and not himself, perhaps particularly burdened for his father. as it was the loss of Joseph that he thought would break his father's heart, and the loss of Benjamin that would break his father's heart. And as he sees the old man say, all these things are against me, he says, I'll take care of it. In short, he starts out a selfish, prideful son, wanting what's coming to him. And now he has become a true, dutiful, godly man, seeking to be what every son should be. It's an amazing thing what grace can do. And we would miss that if we don't understand why that one little verse is there. Though it be such a big sin in the context of the text, in the context of our lives, in the context of our hearts, in the context of our culture. God has a purpose in everything. Even in the most horrendous and wickedness of sins that has happened to you or perhaps you have done. There's three of them that we know are God's purposes. And we can see them, we can see them very clearly by way of implication in the whole life of Reuben. The first, there is a warning against presumption. If indeed his apparent motive is true, we find him rebuked in the strongest of ways. He wants to take his birthright and assert his position, and that is what exactly is removed from him. Genesis 49, thou art my firstborn by might and the beginning of my strength. The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power, unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, then defiledest thou it. He went up to my couch. He paid the price for his presumption. It's no example, the scriptures are full of passages like, let another man praise thee. Do not choose the highest place for thyself. The Lord Jesus talks about how don't choose the best place in the feast. You're gonna come sit in the place of honor and authority and you're gonna look really stupid, Jesus says, when you have to be moved because space has to be made for somebody else. Don't appoint yourself to things. Don't presume. Rather pray. Seek the Lord. Obey. Reuben is a tremendous example and warning to us of presumptuous sins. Not only in the culture and the place he was in, but like we sang from Psalm 19. Like we sang from Psalm 19. We use different words in different ways, but I hope you saw the same beautiful truth. Verse 11 of Psalm 19, mow over by them as thy servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Now moving from secret sins to those sins that are clear, purposeful. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and I and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. What a marvelous blending that verse is of Reuben and the Lord Jesus. To know the price of presumptuous sins and then looking back, realizing if you had kept God's ways, how you would have been delivered. And what a glorious thing that the Lord does deliver us. Firstly is a warning. That's, I believe, absolutely one of God's purposes in this text, in light of the place it has, and also in his apparent motive. We also see the reality of sin's consequences. Children of God, we do not have to suffer hell. The bad things that happen to us in this life are not punishment from God. Bad things that happen to us in this life are for our sanctification to make it holy, make us holy. Bad things that happen in our lives are to drive us all the more to the Lord Jesus. And those bad things that happen to us in our life are all so we and others would benefit. But that doesn't mean there's not consequences to sin. That doesn't mean there's not consequences for sin. When you have to deal with the consequences of your actions, that's not God's divine punishment that you somehow have to atone for. That would make the cross of Christ nothing. Rather, when you reap what you have sown in regards to your sin, it is God teaching you to live and to walk, as the old Puritans would say and use the King James language, holily. That's what Reuben learned. I sinned against my father. I took a place that was not yet mine, and I did something foolish and wicked in my pride. God humbles him. I will now save the child, try and save the child I know my father loves. I will now rebuke my brothers and rightly confess the foolishness we've done and I will even sacrifice my own sons in light of the distress of my father. He is a man that has changed and he is a man that has learned from his sin and his mistakes. Child of God, be so as well. If you've committed a sin that is horrible and wicked and evil and bad, even incest, even incest of the worst kind, Repent of it. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and by his grace, learn from it. You choosing to do this sin was no accident. Still doesn't make it any less horrible than what it was. But God will certainly use it for good, though in ways you may not understand. Reuben certainly didn't. But Jacob and Joseph certainly found out. And lastly, there's not only a warning against presumption, there's not only the reality of sin's consequences, there is clearly the effects of grace. The effects of grace. Remember, we had to search for it. You had that one part of one verse that said, yes, he committed this sin, and yes, Israel knew it. And then we see it at 49, when he clearly is dealing with it then, when he certainly should have dealt with it before as well. And what do we find in between, moving on from the context of Jacob to the context of Joseph? What do we find? As we've already noted, those glorious effects of God's grace that appear to have powerfully changed this man. No child of God, no sinner, is ever without hope. Not because they can clean themselves up enough to be worthy for God and maybe He'll give them a second chance. That's foolish. What it is, is because God is full of mercy and slow to anger and constantly calling to repentance, there's always hope. For anyone that will come to Him, there is always hope, there is always forgiveness, there is always strengthening, there is always cleansing. The problem is when sinners say, no, I'm gonna stay away, because if I come to God, He'll find out about my sin. This is exactly what the Lord Jesus warns about and explains in John chapter three. The problem is not in God not forgiving, The problem is us in not coming in repentance. After the glorious words about the Lord Jesus, like Moses, needing to be lifted up, in John chapter three, verse 14. And a glorious statement in John chapter three, verse 15, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And then verse 16, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world, rather for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And now this is the problem. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. They don't want to find out about the sin. They don't want other people to find out about the sin. They want to forget about the sin. They don't want God to know about the sin. But God knows about the sin. You already know about the sin. And nine times out of ten, everybody else already knows anyway. Quit deceiving yourself. Quit fleeing. Simply confess it before God. Find that blessed forgiveness. Find that deliverance. Find that strengthening. Don't ever think sin, no matter how bad, is any reason to stay away from God. but rather as the spirit would convict you. It's your reason to come to Him, to find that deliverance. And that is just not for those who have never come to God before, but that is also for those who have already come. Look at Reuben. He's circumcised. He's a member of the covenant people. He's had the gospel preached to him. He was supposed to live a life separate. And how many times don't even people raised in the church, but further, people who are actually born-again Christians turn to sin? You think, well, that never happens. What about King David? He's an adulterer, he's a murderer, who was a man after God's own heart. He was better and greater than all of us. He was a picture of the Christ to come. Are you more holy than David? What about Paul? He's still carnal, sold under sin. He still has all these sinful things that he must fight against. He must mortify it and put it to death. There's the good he wants to do, but he can't, but the wicked he doesn't want to do. That's what he ends up doing. The problem is when even children of God, out of a sense of shame, out of sense of guilt, stay away from God. It's horrible when in reality the Christian life is you always keep coming to the Lord Jesus. Maybe that's in some ways what really defines a Christian. Not all the different types of experiences though, they do have many. Not your supposed holiness or freeness from sin because now even the greatest of us have but a small beginning. Perhaps what defines a child of God first and foremost is they came to the Lord Jesus Christ and they keep coming to the Lord Jesus Christ and they just can't stay away from him. As we'll see, that is really the key. We're looking at Reuben and ourselves this morning. But with the Lord's help, in the afternoon, we'll be looking at Joseph. and the Lord Jesus, as both of them, the one directing us to the other, will show us indeed how to do it. How to look to the Lord Jesus, not only for that forgiveness of sin, but to walk in the way of his commandments, especially from such a sin, as wicked as the sin of Reuben is, which is from our own sinful hearts, and surrounded by sinful culture. But the answer, as we'll see, Lord willing, this afternoon, is always in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen, let us pray. Our Lord and our God, our great heavenly Father, we thank Thee for these little parts of Thy word, who cause us to scratch our heads and say, why is this here? We're thankful for the honesty of Thy word, about how horrible we truly are and the wicked things that even born-again children of God can do. And we pray, Lord, Thou would give us comfort, help, and hope despite our sins. Grant us that comfort and that help and that hope in Jesus Christ and would it be ever and only in Him alone. Lord, cause us to delight in him and so delight in thy word, so we would be kept from such wickedness. And Lord, if there be those who feel they are beyond help and beyond hope, for those who may feel convicted of wickedness because of what they have done or someone has done to them, Lord, overcome them with the power of thy word and the glories of Jesus Christ, and let not their sins shackle them any longer. but let them have peace, let them have rest, let them have strength, let them have comfort, let them have deliverance, let them have joy, all in thy Son for thy glory. Heavenly Father, we pray it in thy name alone, amen.