in song if you have your Bibles there turn with me to the book of Genesis please the book of Genesis and chapter 38 if you're just joining us this morning we have for some time now been going through the book of Genesis on Sunday mornings and it's very important to study and to understand the very first book of the Bible to get the foundations laid down and one thing you find as a preacher when you preach through a book you can't skip difficult chapters and So if you've joined us this morning you come in on a difficult chapter Genesis 38 but we're going to trust the Holy Spirit who authored the book that we are reading and authored these words to give us wisdom and to help us to learn all that we would have to learn this morning. So Genesis chapter 38, you remember our last message, we were in Genesis 37 and we commenced the study of the life of Joseph but now the life of Joseph is abruptly interrupted with this account of Judah. and then chapter 39 returns to the life of Joseph. So you have the life of Joseph being discussed in chapter 37, then you have this story about Judah in 38 and then it resumes with the story of Joseph in 39. So quite intriguing as you look at how the Spirit of God structures the book and how these things take place but we know that it's not there by accident. It can almost seem like it shouldn't be there, it seems almost an abrupt, there's an abruptness about it. We just dive into this sordid story about Judah and yet God has a purpose in it and I hope that'll become apparent as we go through the chapter. So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to read the chapter to you and then we'll pray. As we look at the subject this morning, Judah versus Joseph, what a contrast, what a contrast. Verse 1, And it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned into a certain Adulamite, whose name was Hira. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shewa, 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 she called his name Onan. And she yet again conceived, and bare a son, and called his name Shelah. And he was at Chezeb, when she bare him. Judah took a wife for Ur his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. She's a key figure in this story. 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. owner knew that the seed should not be his and it came to pass when he went in under his brother's wife that he spilled it on the ground lest that 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. Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. And in the process of time, the daughter of Shuah, Judah's wife, died, and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheep, Shiraz, to Timnath, he and his friend, Hira the Adulamite. 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. Judas saw her he thought her to be in 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 she said what would 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 will 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 thine hand. And he gave it to her, and came in under her, and she conceived by him. And she arose, and went away, and lay 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. Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed. Behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her. It came to pass about three months after, it was told Judah saying Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath played the harlot and also behold she is with child by Horeb. And Judah said bring her forth and let her be burnt. What about you buddy? Are you going to be burned as well? When she was brought forth she said sent to her father-in-law saying by the man whose these are am I with child and she said to Zern I pray thee whose are these the signet and bracelets and staff. 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, the twins were in her womb. And it came to pass, when she travailed, that one put out his hand, and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first. And 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. And afterward came out his brother that had the scarlet thread upon his hand, and his name was called Zarah. Let's pray. Father in heaven, how we need your help this morning as we open the Word of God. We acknowledge that every word is placed here by the Spirit of God for our learning, for our admonition. And Lord, I pray now for wisdom to give a faithful exposition of this passage, Lord, but to do it in an appropriate way, Father, that would be suited to our audience this morning. Lord, to that end, I pray for the filling, for the direction and for the help of the Holy Spirit of God. Lord, if there's anything in my notes you want me to skip over, leave out, if there's something I have missed, Lord, that you want me to add in, just guide me by the Spirit of God this morning and we pray that you would meet every need as Your Word is open, Father. We know this is Your Word and so we just pray, Lord, for that necessary help for both the preacher and for the hearer that we might hear what You would have us to hear this morning, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. What a sordid story we have before us in the life of Judah. the Holy Spirit includes it here for a reason and I believe that one of the reasons is to provide a contrast to the life of Joseph and we'll see that as we get into chapter 39. Here we have Judah succumbing to seductive temptation, you come to chapter 39 and you find Joseph saying no to seductive temptation. But beyond that it was very important for the Holy Spirit to include this because Judah would be the one, the tribe, through which the Lord Jesus Christ would eventually come and we'll talk a little more about that towards the end of the message. so the account before us serves as a warning against the sins of the flesh but it is also a testament to the triumph of God's grace, what God's grace can do with the wreckage of man's sin and depravity. And so we want to consider this account before us under five sections. I've divided the chapter into five sections for our study and I'll give you those points and we'll endeavour to go through the passage together and learn what the law would have us to learn about Judah. So the life of Judah here is in the spotlight by the Spirit of God as we study the book of Genesis. So notice firstly what I would call number one, the separation of Judah in verse one to five. The separation of Judah in verse one to five, and it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren and turned into a certain Adulamite whose name was Hira. So at this particular time, Judah moves from his family. The separation of Judah, firstly he's moving. and it tells us here that this moving of Judah took place at that time. What time is being referred to here? Well, it's referring clearly to the events we've just studied in chapter 37. What has happened in chapter 37? Well, Joseph has been sold into slavery and at that time, around when all these things were happening, Judah decides to separate for a time, to move away from the rest of his family and he moves to a place called Adullam. which was about 12 kilometers northwest of where they were in Hebron. So not too far away, about 12 kilometers away from where the rest of the family were living. So we don't know what it was exactly that motivated Judah to move at this time but the Bible connects it to the events that were taking place in the family at that time. So it's quite probable that Judah moved away because of the strife over Joseph. After all, he had had a direct part in selling Joseph. He was the one who came up with that idea and then they saw their father go through that terrible time of grief. So Judah decides just to get away from it all, it would seem, for a time and moves up to Adullam and the Bible says here that he went down from his brethren. And I don't want to read too much into that but I do find sometimes the directional terms in the Bible interesting because Judah was going down spiritually or did go down very low spiritually at this time in his life and I just see constantly in the Bible this principle that we need to think about our spiritual direction. Which direction are you going spiritually? Are you going up spiritually or are you on your way down spiritually? So for whatever reason Judah is moving in a downwards direction, probably that's a geographical reference, he was going down there according to the geography, but I also see a picture there that Judah was about to go down spiritually in a very terrible way. So we have his moving, then we notice his marriage in verse 2 to 5. So Judah moves to this place at Julem, he meets a man there by the name of Hira and Hira becomes a key figure in this story, he becomes a friend of Judah's and is willing to help Judah out in his sin. So he sees a daughter there of a certain Canaanite, the Bible says in verse 2, whose name was Shua. Now that's not the name of the woman, that's the name of the father of the woman. So the woman is unnamed in this passage, this woman that he marries, but she's simply noted as a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua and so Judah marries her, it would appear and it goes in under her and three sons are born to Judah in fairly close succession it would seem. First he has Ur and that name means watcher and he was named by his father. Then Onan was born and his name means strong and he was named by his mother. Then Sheila was born, the meaning of the name is uncertain, but he again was named by his mother and it's noted that he was born at a place called Chezeb, believed to be a small town near Adullam. And so here we have the scene being set for what is going to follow in this record. So Judah moves away from the family to Adullam. He becomes friends with this man by the name of Hira, and while he is there, he marries this Canaanite woman, and from her, three children are born, Ern, Onan, and Shelah, who would all feature in this story. That brings us to our next section, number two, the sons of Judah, verse six to 10. The sons of Judah, verse six to 10, and Judah took a wife for her, his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. So we're getting a picture of the various characters in this story as we go through here. So Judah's sons were noted in scripture, at least the first two, for their wickedness. And so we look at Ur's wickedness and judgment and then Onan's wickedness and judgment. conceived by her son and called his name Ur, verse 6, and Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. So as the custom of the day was very often, the parents were involved in seeking to find a wife for Ur and so Judah does that and they're married. whatever Ur did, we don't know. The Bible does not give us the specifics of his sin, the Bible simply tells us that Ur was wicked in the sight of the Lord and as a result of that, God slew him. So if God slew Ur, whatever his sin was, it must have been pretty serious. Very wicked man. And we don't know the specifics of that sin, but God's dealing with Ur reminds us of at least two truths in relation to sin. Number one, we're reminded of the seriousness of sin to God. Whatever his sin may have been, we do not know, but we can say this on the basis of what we see here, sin is exceedingly sinful to God, sin is serious with God. The Bible says that he was wicked in the sight of the Lord and so we're reminded here that God saw our sin. We're reminded that sin does not escape the all-seeing eye of God. God sees our sin and God knows our sin as the perfect judge. Now aren't you thankful that we have a Saviour in the Lord Jesus Christ who bore our sin, who took our sin upon himself so that you and I could receive forgiveness, so that you and I could be pardoned. But we have to see that sin is serious to God. You say, how serious is sin? Let me take you a moment to the cross and at the cross you will see just how serious sin is to God. God needed, if it was God's plan and God's design to crucify His own Son because of our sin, that just tells you how serious sin is to God. Sin could not be dealt with any other way, not through human works, not through efforts, not through your own your own plans. Sin could only be dealt with by the death of the Son of God, His burial and His resurrection. That's how serious sin is to God. But we're also reminded, not only of the seriousness of sin to God, as we see Ur's judgment here, but the sentence against sin by God. God slew Ur because of his wickedness. Ur's sin brought a death sentence upon him. And we're reminded that the wages of sin is death. Romans 6.23 says, for the wages of sin is death. That's the bad news, isn't it? The wages of our sin is death. Eternal separation from God. The Bible speaks of the second death. You must understand in the Bible that there are two deaths. The first death is when my body dies, but the second death is where I am separated from God for all eternity, a place the Bible calls hell. If I die under the death sentence of God, if I do not receive God's free gift of forgiveness which he offers me, then God has no choice but to execute a death sentence upon me. For the wages of sin is death, that's the bad news. Here's the good news, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we have all sinned against God. That's very clear. You read the Bible, you read the Ten Commandments, you realize very quickly you're not a good person. I'm not a good person. We've lied, we've stolen, we've broken God's laws in multiple ways. We're all sinners against God and because of our sin we deserve the wages of sin, which is death. We deserve eternity in hell for our sins, but the gift of God, aren't you grateful this morning that God has made a way for you and I to receive a free forgiveness? That's why it's called a gift. A gift is not something you can earn, a gift is something you must receive by faith. Jesus Christ paid the sin debt on our behalf, he took that death penalty upon himself, he had never sinned and he was absolutely pure and perfect and yet in love he took that death sentence upon himself and he hung on the cross and died bearing our sins so that we could be forgiven. Have you received that gift this morning? Because if not, you are under the death sentence of God. We see that God's response to Ur's sin was a death sentence upon him. Romans 5.8 says, but God commendeth his love. The word commendeth there means to show or to demonstrate. God showed us his love. He demonstrated his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. so we have Ur's wickedness and judgment. Then we have Onan's wickedness and judgment and Onan's sin is given in more specific detail and some suggest well maybe that was the same sin that Ur had and again we can suggest things but if the Bible doesn't tell us then we don't need to know. Judah said unto Onan, go in unto thy brother's wife and marry her and raise up seed to thy brother and the story goes on there. So let's look at Onan's wickedness and judgment here and let me give you a few pointers about this. Number one, the custom of Onan's time. you may be a little confused, well why was it that Judah then told Onan after Ur's death to go into Tamar and to marry her? Well, this was a duty in the ancient world at that time known as Leveret marriage and by that we mean a brother-in-law marriage. and clearly it was a custom of these times and eventually it was codified in the Mosaic law, you can read about it in Deuteronomy 25 verses 5 to 10, it became a part of the law for the Jewish people. Now we're not under that law today, we don't have to fulfill this duty, praise God for that, okay, it's bad enough, yeah, you don't want to marry your brother-in-law probably. But in that time, you've got to understand within the context of Israel, the family lineage was very important, And so, if you had a scenario where a man married a woman and they weren't able to have children and he died prematurely, then the brother would take on the duty of marrying that woman to raise up a child, the first child of that union would then carry on the deceased father's name. That was the custom of the day. right? And that's why that ties into owning sin. He did not want a child to be born who would carry on his deceased brother's lineage. that clear? Okay, so that was the custom of Onan's time. Judah commanded him to go in to marry Tamar, it wasn't just an immoral situation, he was to marry her and then they were together to seek to raise a child for the deceased And that, of course, feeds into the whole story as it develops with Shelah who was then supposed to take that duty but Judah didn't allow that to happen. So the custom of Onan's time, now the character of Onan's sin, verse 9 tells us, So he was conscious that he was going to basically father a child on behalf of his deceased older brother. Now what was the motivation of this sin? Well I believe that it was selfishness. Onan did not want to help beget a child for his deceased brother, this is clearly stated twice. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his and then it says, lest he should give seed to his brother. Now notice, he did not refuse outright to marry Tamar, he was quite happy to enter into the one flesh union and the benefits of the one flesh union with Tamar, but he also made sure that he deliberately prevented his wife from conceiving. clearly this was an act that displeased Almighty God because in verse 10 it says, and the thing which he did displeased the Lord, therefore he slew him also. So God was displeased at Onan's sin, that he was corrupting the natural order of the one flesh union. God was displeased with his act of spilling the seed on the ground and God therefore slew him. So, the motivation of his sin was selfishness, the perversion of his sin we see Onan departing here from the natural order of the one-fleshed union and engaging in coitus interruptus, spilling the seed on the ground to prevent conception and childbirth. Now, the seed carries life potential and Onan was willfully seeking to thwart the possibility here of conception. Now, my understanding from reading some of the Hebrew experts is that the grammar indicates that this was not a once-off occurrence. kind of think, wow this seems a bit harsh, he goes into his wife for the first time and then God smites him for his actions. No, it just says when he went into under her and the idea is that whenever he went in under her and engaged in that, that he would follow this practice. So it was not just a once-off act here, this was a deliberate and ongoing practice of seeking to the natural order that God had ordained for the one flesh union and thereby prevent the conception of children. Now, what I found is that modern commentators often try to downplay Onan's act here as not being overly serious and that includes Henry Morrison, I love his commentary, he's very, very good on the creation science side of things but I scratch my head a little bit when we come to passages like this, he seems to go a bit soft all of a sudden on some of these things. And you know, they try and just downplay this act of spilling the seed as not really being the primary sin but I think the plain sense of the passage says, otherwise the thing which he did displeased the Lord. It clearly displeased the Lord and if it displeased the Lord then we have something to learn about this. This is not God's order for the marriage union, it is not God's order for the seed. Very important passage, by the way, for single men to understand God's mind on this. That God is not for the practice of self-gratification in this, and obviously this is in a marriage context, but it gives you God's mind on the seed and the misappropriation and the misuse of the seed. So, the modern commentators go a little bit light on this but I found, as you read, you go back in time because our opinions tend to be shaped more by the culture of the day than we would like to realise. You go back a few hundred years to some of the older commentators and I, even I, was taken aback by the fiery language they used to denounce Onan Sin here. They did not have this idea that this practice was okay, not at all. certainly didn't understand it like a lot of the modern commendators did. Let me just give you a few examples. Martin Luther, lived 1483 to 1546 and he's not infallible of course but listen to what he says about this, he says, "'Onan must have been a malicious and incorrigible scoundrel. This is a most disgraceful sin. It is far more atrocious than incest and adultery. We call it unchastity, yes, a sodomitic sin. For owning goes into her, that is, he lies with her and copulates, and when it comes to the point of insemination, spills the semen lest the woman conceives. Surely at such a time, the order of nature established by God in procreation should be followed. Accordingly, it was a most disgraceful crime to produce semen, excite the woman, and to frustrate her at the very moment. He preferred polluting himself with a most disgraceful sin to raising up offspring for his brother. pretty strong language, calling it a sodomitic sin. Matthew Poole, great commentator, 1624 to 1679, he says, two things are here noted, number one, the sin itself, which is here particularly described by the Holy Ghost that men might be instructed concerning the nature and the great evil of this sin of self-pollution. which is such that it brought upon the actor of it the extraordinary vengeance of God, and which is condemned not only by Scripture, but even by the light of nature and the judgment of the heathens, who have expressly censured it as a great sin and as a kind of murder." Interesting, a lot of them use that talk of it in terms of a homicidal act because he was deliberately preventing life. from being conceived. Whereby we may sufficiently understand how wicked and abominable a practice this is amongst Christians and the light of the gospel which lays greater and stricter obligations upon us to purity and severely forbids all pollution both of flesh and spirit. Kylon Delic, commentary first published 1861, this act not only betrayed a wand of affection to his brother, combined with a despicable covetousness for his possession and inheritance, but was also a sin against the divine institution of marriage and its object and was therefore punished by Jehovah with sudden death. One more. commentator who lived between 1802-1884, Johan Peter Lang, owns in sin a deadly wickedness, an example to be held in abhorrence as condemnatory not only of secret sins of self-pollution but also of similar offenses in sexual relations and even in marriage itself. Unchastity, in general, is a homicidal waste of the generative powers, a demonic bestiality, an outrage to ancestors, to posterity and to one's own life. It is a crime against the image of God and a degradation below the animal. Onan's offence, moreover, as committed in marriage, was a most unnatural wickedness and a grievous wrong.' It's pretty hard-hitting stuff, isn't it? we need to remind ourselves this morning of the three primary purposes established by God for the one flesh union. They are, number one, procreation, that was one of the main reasons God established the marriage union, for conception and childbearing and the scriptures I've got listed here for each of these. Number two, pleasure, for the mutual enjoyment, and bonding of husband and wife, that certainly is a part of God's plan. And then number three, protection. 1 Corinthians 7.1.5 says, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife and every woman have her own husband. And so those are the three primary purposes that I can see in the scriptures of the one flesh union between a man and his wife, number one, for procreation, number two, pleasure and three, protection from sin. But what modern society has done is exactly what Onan was doing, was seeking to what modern society does, which Onan did, was to try and disconnect responsibility and duty from the act of procreation. And you have to understand that, that when you divorce the one flesh union from one of its primary purposes, which in the Bible is clearly conception and childbearing, it loses meaning. So we need to think carefully about these things. Is that not the society we live in today that just wants pleasure without responsibility? That's absolutely the kind of society we're living in today. because of that kind of environment, that's why it's so hard to even preach something like this, it sounds so shocking and so foreign to us because we've been just conditioned by a sensual society where morals have just broken down to not see things anymore from God's perspective. But these older men of God, as they read this passage, saw the implication very clearly that this was a sin of self pollution and a deviation from God's natural order. And we should be reminded, therefore, that not anything just goes in the marriage union. Praise God, there's a lot of liberty for the marriage union. The marriage is honourable in all, Hebrews says, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. But we see from passages like this that God does have a perspective on these things and to deliberately interrupt the natural order there to try and thwart God's plan is serious business. so God slew him for this. The condemnation of Onan's sin. Man's perspective on the seriousness of Onan's sin is of no consequence. The only perspective that matters is God's and if God slew Onan for what he did then his sin was serious in the eyes of God and clearly his sin went beyond just his refusal to provide his deceased brother and heir later in the Mosaic law, a refusal to fulfill this duty did not carry the death penalty, rather the individual would be publicly shamed, read Deuteronomy 25, 5 to 10. So that blows apart the argument some of the modern commentators say, well no, no, his sin was not spilling it on the ground, his sin was just the fact that he refused to give seed for his brother. No, no, no, no, that's not what the Bible says, you go to Deuteronomy 25, a refusal to fulfill this duty did not carry the death penalty but a public shaming, And so it's very clear that his unclean act of spilling the sea was also offensive to a holy God. So we have the sons of Judah. Number three now, the sin of Judah, verse 11 to 26. 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. The sin of Judah. Consider firstly the season of his sin. Look at what's going on in Judah's life at this time. What was happening in Judah's life at this time? Well I would say it was firstly a time of uncertainty. A time of uncertainty. Judah had just lost his two sons and he now promises his daughter-in-law that he will give her to his third son once he is old enough. while he said that outwardly, inwardly he had no plan at all of giving her to his son Shelah because he was fearful that he would also die. Now Judah got it wrong here, he thought that the problem was Tamar but in actual fact the reason his two first sons died was not because of Tamar, it was because of their own sin. then Judah loses his wife. So Judah's living in an uncertain time, he's lost two sons, God has smitten them and now Judah loses his wife. I think you'll agree with me, this puts Judah in a vulnerable position. We're seeing the scene set up here for Judah's fall Judah was going through this uncertain time, this vulnerable time and we need to remember that, that times of sorrow, times of trial, do make us more vulnerable to temptation to the sins of the flesh. To be very careful in times of trial, you can just blow your Christian testimony and just go out into some sort of sin against God. So it was a time of uncertainty. But it's also a time of festivity because we find Judah going to join his friend Hiram the Adulamite for the sheep shearing season. And in the ancient world, the sheep shearing season was usually a time of festivity, time of celebration, as was harvest as well. And so, we have to be mindful of that in the various seasons of life we find ourselves in, with their joys and sorrows, we have certain challenges and temptations and it's important for us to walk closely with God, isn't it? So that we don't fall in times of joy or times of sorrow. So that's the season we find Judah in. Now notice the seduction of his sin, in verse 13 to 23, the seduction of his sin. 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. so Tamar hears that her father-in-law, I don't know how she heard, but she hears that he's on his way to Timnath to take part in the shearing with his friend Hira and so she concocts an evil plan to seduce her father-in-law and hopefully conceive by him. Let's look at four aspects to Tamar's seduction of Judy here. Number one, the apparel of the seduction. apparel of the seduction and it was told Tamar verse 13 saying behold our 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. Verse 15 when Judas saw her he thought her to be in harlot because she had covered her face. And so Tamar dresses according to the manner of dressing that was followed by the harlots of her day. It's very clear, she changes here out of her widow's garments, there were certain clothes she wore that identified her as a widow in mourning, but now she puts on another set of clothes that would send a clear message to Judah that she was a harlot or professing to be a harlot. the devil loves to use apparel to seduce. That's just a clear lesson right there. Whatever she was wearing, I do not know. Probably she was better covered than most Christian ladies today, to be honest with you, in the ancient world but whatever the case may be, she was wearing clothes that would send a message. Did you know that clothing is a language? Did you know that your clothing communicates? That is a biblical principle you will find throughout the Bible because guess what? Clothing was not invented by man, it was invented by God. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and became conscious of their nakedness, God made the first set of clothes because God knew in a sin-cursed world, on a basic level, it would be very important for you and I to be covered. But here we have, as a part of the seduction of Judah, a certain kind of clothing that would communicate a message, would send a message. We need to think about that. I understand there are people out there who say we're legalistic for saying anything about the Christian's dress, and they say, well, it doesn't matter what I wear, God just knows my heart. I just encourage you, God is concerned about your heart, He's also concerned about how you dress for Him as a holy God. He absolutely is. Imagine if I came in here this morning with a singlet and a pair of shorts and bare feet and said, don't get offended, I'm here to preach God's Word, God knows my heart. You'd say, well if you have a heart right with God, could you get dressed properly preacher? Absolutely. No, no, no, don't buy into some of these arguments out there that are not scriptural. Study it out from God's Word and understand this principle that clothing is a language. That's very clear. She was dressed to begin with as a widow, that communicated a certain message. Now she dresses as a harlot, that communicated a certain message. as Christians we do have to think about these things. Am I dressing like the world? Am I looking like a harlot in the world? Or am I looking like a blood-washed, born-again child of God? That is not legalism to consider those things. That's right, that's appropriate. To think about, Lord, what would please you? It's not about pleasing men, it's not about going into some sort of cultish, minute control of what a woman wears or a man wears. We're talking about taking the principles of God's Word and seeking to apply them in our lives and thinking about these kinds of truths the Bible presents. You know, the Bible warns in Proverbs 7, 10 about the attire of an harlot. And behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot. It's not legalism to say this. Harlot attire has no place in a Christian woman's life. The attire of a harlot has no place in the house of God. God's Word does have something to say about the Christian's apparel and it's important that our clothing does not communicate a contradictory message to our Christian profession. Very important, you claim to be a blood-washed, born-again, child of God, citizen of heaven, that should affect the way you carry yourself, that should affect things like where you go and what you wear, all those things, absolutely. The appeal of the seduction, number two, it was in an open place. This was the practice of harlots in those days, it's often the practice in the street industries of today as well but she was sat sitting in an open place by the way and it's a reminder isn't it that Satan is very good at putting temptation right before our eyes. Judah had no idea as he set out that day that he was going to be confronted with this temptation. You don't have to go looking for temptation. Temptation will find you. How many of you have found that? You're simply out going about life's duties and life's business and Satan has something sitting for you by the way, at the bus stop. Satan has something sitting for you by the way, plastered across the buses of today. You've got to watch yourself today. You have to be aware of these things, that Satan is out to get you. Satan is out to destroy you and this is what he uses. Satan puts temptation right in front of us. There it is. Number three, the arrangements in the seduction. Negotiations are now entered into between Judah and Tamar as to what the price would be for the encounter. Judah promises to give her a kid from the flock in exchange for her sorry, Tamar promises to give, Judah promises to give her a kid from the flock in exchange for her services. She asks for a pledge, some sort of guarantee that he would follow through and she requests, he says, well what do you want me to give you? And she says, well give me your signet, which is like a, probably a signet ring, in those days it was very common for, if you were the leader of a clan or an important person, you would have a ring with a special pattern or stamp on it to, you know, maybe sign an official document or stamp things And so she says, basically she's asking for his personal effects, for his identification. Give me your seal, give me the bracelet which is probably the cord that the seal was hanging on, maybe around the wrist or the neck, and give me your staff. And these three personal effects would feature later in the story and in the providence of God, God was allowing this so that Judah would not get away with his sin. Now, a kid from the flock probably seemed to Judah like a small price to pay to indulge his lust in this way. Doesn't sound like a very heavy price to pay, does it? But be reminded that sin always comes with a heavier price tag than what appears at the beginning. I said sin always comes with a heavier price tag than you anticipated. Satan is so good at making sin look cheap, free even, free love. Satan never gives you anything for free. Whatever Satan gives you comes with a heavy price tag, bear that in mind. Nothing, small price to pay. No, sin is never free. It'll cost you dearly but knowing Christ and living for Him, there's real blessing there, isn't there? Number four, the acceptance of the seduction. Do you see Judah here? No resistance to the temptation, he can't say yes quick enough. Barnhouse says he would commit fornication as casually as a man today would buy a cup of coffee. Now no doubt I believe that one of the reasons the Spirit of God includes this chapter here is to give us a contrast to the life of Joseph because you finish reading about Judah in Genesis 38 and what a breath of fresh air to come to Genesis 39 and to read about Joseph and his purity resisting the temptations from Potiphar, Potiphar's wife, remember that? Here you have Judas saying yes to temptation, let me just have it as quick as I can. Then you have Joseph in chapter 39 saying no to temptation and living a pure life as a young man, praise God. Number five, the abomination of the seduction. I just want to pause here and say that God's word is crystal clear on the sin of harlotry, prostitution. passages like this make it very clear God's mind on this. To monetize God's sacred gift that is designed to be enjoyed between a husband and his wife is evil, wicked and depraved and you better keep that in mind because there are multiple pushes in our state right now to legalize this. There are three states in Australia that have legalized it already, South Australia not yet, it's not legal, but there are constant, I believe there's been 20 attempts in the parliament, if I'm not wrong, over however many decades to try and weaken the laws on this, but let's just be reminded that a society that promotes harlotry as some kind of legitimate trade is a society that is as pagan as the Canaanite nations of old. these adult shops all over town. Wicked, sinful, evil, making money out of God's sacred gift that is designed to be enjoyed only between a husband and his wife. How the devil has taken that and corrupted it and let's just keep our thinking clear from the Word of God here. Fornication is a sin, harlotry is a sin. I'll tell you what, where are the feminists by the way when it comes to this sin of of harlotry and prostitution, it's amazing isn't it, how you've got so many feminists out there that want to raise a voice for women's rights but at the same time kind of support an industry like that, that is all about the abuse of women. There are some feminists, unsaved feminists, that speak out about it but they're in a very small minority. it's all fuelled today, it's largely fuelled by the way by the pornography industry. The prostitution issue is in the swamp at the bottom but it starts with the pornography up the top. That is the reality. I don't even like having to address things like this from the pulpit but we're living in a polluted and an evil and a wicked society and we're going to have to emphasise at times these things so that our thinking stays straight. it's not just women now, it's the child trafficking. There are somewhere in the order of two million children in the world today that are in this industry and guess what? It's fuelled by the pornography industry. It's wicked, it's evil, it's wrong, it's satanic. Canaanites had elevated the harlotry to the level of something sacred. In fact, it's interesting, when Hira, his friend, comes looking for this harlot and he says to the men of the place, where is the harlot? He uses a different Hebrew word and it's the word devoted one. Where's the devoted one? He was asking, where's the temple prostitute? Where's the temple harlot? That's what he was asking. because the Canaanites had elevated harlotry as something spiritual, it was seen as an act of devotion to the pagan gods. I say again, when society promotes prostitution as an honourable profession, you know it's sinking fast into paganism. living in a very pagan, we're not, it's nothing new but people talk about, I hate the word progressive, we need to be progressive. All we're doing is going back down the same sinkhole of the nations of old, there's nothing new under the sun, these nations that became so wicked, vile and depraved that God said to Israel, go in and wipe them out completely. You say, oh what a harsh and horrible God. No, those nations had degenerated into such a state they were unsavable, God said wipe them out! That's where our nation's going, just straight down that same pathway. The scary thing is that Christians just don't seem to have a sharp mind, broadly speaking, that Christians don't seem to have a sharp perspective on sexuality from the Bible anymore. In fact can't you see why God had to uproot Jacob and his family and get them out of Canaan? take them to Egypt and what was interesting, in Egypt they wanted nothing to do with shepherds, they didn't want anything, the Egyptians would deliberately keep themselves separate from the Hebrews, they didn't like the Hebrews. And you can see God's wisdom there, he had to take them to a place where the world as it were would just stay separate from them and exclude them so that they could maintain some sort of purity because Jacob's family was degenerating down to the level of the Canaanites! the world doesn't want to have anything to do with us, won't let us on its programs and its media. Praise God, if the world wants nothing to do with the Church, it might help keep us safe. Number four, the sequel for Judah. Look at how things begin to unravel here. Verse 19, And she arose and went away, and laid by her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judas sent the kid by the hand of his friend, the Adulamite. Good friend, eh? Let me pause there and emphasize that point. Choose your friends carefully. Any friend who is happy to support and encourage you in this kind of sin is no real friend. Did you hear me? Be very careful what kind of friend you have in your life. This man is a key person in this whole story and he was more than happy to help support Judah in his sordid behavior and he's there acting on his behalf and helping out, that is not a good friend. True friend will say, hang on, don't go down that road, don't do that, it's going to destroy you. Oh, I'm just, you know, I can't speak into that person's life, I'm their friend. No, if they're going to destroy their morals and destroy their life, a true friend will say, stop, don't do it. so he sends this friend to try and pay this woman who he thinks is a harlot, he's got no idea, it's his daughter-in-law, what a scandal this is. I mean, it's kind of almost, you almost get shocked at what the Lord actually includes in His Word but it's there for a reason. So what's the difference between this and a Hollywood scandal? Well a Hollywood scandal will encourage you to follow the same thing and to sin. God's Word written by the Holy Spirit will warn you not to engage in that behavior. It's amazing to me actually how you can actually study a passage like this and go away as a believer even spiritually edified. I'm not saying in a flippant way but sobered and warned and spiritually edified because it's the sanctified Word of God dealing with a very difficult subject but you read about it in some sappy novel you're going to get ruined. very different. The Word of God has a way of dealing with the sordid sins of the flesh in a sanitized manner so that you're not tempted to sin, rather you're warned against sin. So he goes looking for this harlot, and the men say there was no harlot in this place. He returned to Judah, verse 22, and said, I cannot find her. And also the men of the place said, there was no harlot in this place. And Judah said, let her take it to her. So OK, well, we weren't able to find her. We'll just leave it. Let her come and get it if she wants the payment, lest we be shamed. So Judah, even in that culture, realized that this was a shameful thing, and hopes it just will go away. Behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her. OK. We're absolved, I said I would follow through, we tried to give her the kid, let her come and get it if she wants it, we'll just take her hands off it and hopefully the law will just go away. You know, God does not... it just seems all through the Bible that God just doesn't let his children get away with sin and especially sin of this nature. I've seen it even in my life, maybe Christian men or women who get involved in this sin, try and cover it over, you can only hide it for so long, God seems to just have a way of making it known. You will not get away with it long term. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, proverb says, but whosoever confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Don't cover your sin, confess your sin. Verse 24, and it came to pass about three months after that it was told Judah saying Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath played the harlot and also behold she is with child by whoredom. Judah said bring her forth and let her be burnt. sequel for Judah. We see Judah's helper, we've talked about him, the heir of the Adulamite, the wrong kind of friend. Judah's hypocrisy here, verse 24, three months pass and Judah receives word that his daughter-in-law Tamar is pregnant by playing the harlot and he pronounces a swift and severe death penalty upon her. Do you see any hypocrisy here? Bring her forth and let her be burned. Hang on, are you going to submit to the same punishment Judah? Are you prepared to be burnt for your sin? He's probably guilty. Sometimes people who are guilty pronounce very harsh punishments on others because they are guilty themselves. Sometimes, it's not always the case. Not saying we shouldn't deal with things firmly and biblically, but I'm just saying sometimes that's the case. What rank and wicked hypocrisy from one who is guilty of the same sin. In fact, he was the very man who had been involved with Tamar. Verse 25, when she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, by the man whose these are, am I with child? Boom! Caught! And she said to Zern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet and bracelets and stuff? Before you light the torch there Judah, get too carried away, whose do these belong to? 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. Judah's hypocrisy, Judah's humility, we see the exposure of his sin here. Tamar sends Judah's signet, bracelets and staff, with that message the Tamar trap is sprung, Judah is caught and exposed. I just get a little bit of hope from Judah's response here though. his attitude. I think there does appear to be an attitude of repentance, at least in the measure here in Judah's response. He accepted, firstly, the greatest share of responsibility for what had happened, she hath been more righteous than I. That's a good start, isn't it? Not to blame others for your sin but to accept your responsibility. I think this is a good response on behalf of Judah, he said, she hath been more righteous than I, I am more to blame. admitted his wrong in not giving Tamar his son Shelah as promised and then he acted differently towards Tamar after this and did not repeat the sin with her, he knew her again no more. So I think there's some evidence there that Judah may have come to repentance, he took the greater responsibility upon himself, he acknowledged clearly his wrong and he did not repeat the sin with this woman again. That brings us to our fifth and final heading this morning, the seed of Judah, verse 27 to 30. The seed of Judah. Look at the birth of Judah's seed, verse 27 to 30. And it came to pass in the time of her travail that behold, twins were in her womb. Twins seem to run in Jacob's family, don't they? 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. So in the process of birth here, a little hand emerges and the midwife, because it's very important in those days that the firstborn be identified because it came with all those responsibilities and privileges. So the midwife takes the scarlet cord, quickly puts it around the little baby's hand and then the baby's hand disappears again. And the other twin somehow muscles his way in and comes out first and the midwife, sorry for Tamar there, came to pass as he drew back his hand that behold his brother came out and she said, how hast thou broken forth? This is the midwife speaking, it's a great profession that by the way, this breach be upon thee therefore his name was called Fares, meaning bursting forth, breaking forth. Then, and afterward came out his brother that had the scarlet thread upon his hand, and his name was called Zarah, meaning, what does it mean here? Rising. Phares means breaking through. Now, we read a sordid scandal like this and ask, what good could God possibly bring out of a mess like this? Does that question come to your mind? What good could God possibly bring out of a mess like this? What a story. Turn over to Matthew chapter 1, let me show you something that may startle you. Because we're going to look at the grace towards Judah's seed here, Judah's seed, the grace of God is all over this account. In fact, the reason why it's included is very important, otherwise Matthew 1 would not make sense to us in certain details. In Matthew chapter 1 we have the lineage, the family tree of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded. Let's read down and just be aware of some names here. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat Judas, that's the New Testament form of Judah, Judas and his brethren. And Judas begat who? Faraz, who's Faraz? Faraz and Zerah of who? Tamar. And Faraz beget Estrom and Estrom beget Aram and so on. Don't miss that. Tamar from Genesis 38, the story we've just studied, she's mentioned in Christ's family tree. Phares, the son of this sordid relationship, was in the lineage of Jesus Christ. I see the grace of God all over that. How could God use something like this? How could God bring any good out of this kind of brokenness? Here we have Tamar, this woman who seduced Judah, actually mentioned in Christ's genealogy. And Phares, this little boy, wasn't his fault, but here he is born in this terrible situation and he becomes a part of the Lord Jesus Christ family tree. I think that's the marvel of God's grace, don't you? In fact, there are four women mentioned by name in Matthew 1 in Christ's genealogy. There's Tamar, there's Rahab the harlot, Rahab the harlot. She was from Jericho, she was a harlot by trade and yet she became a believer in the one true God. She was the one woman, wasn't she, along with her family who was rescued from the overthrow of Jericho and she married a Jewish man named Salmon and gave birth to Boaz. You've heard of him in the book of Ruth. In fact, Rahab is even given the high honor of being included by the Holy Spirit in the great catalog of the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11. The third woman in Christ's genealogy is Ruth, she was a godly woman of more upright character but she was a Moabite, she was a Gentile, you see three of the women in Christ's genealogy were Gentiles and then Bathsheba, you remember her? The wife of Uriah, she committed adultery with King David and eventually gave birth to Solomon who then became a part of the seed line that led all the way to Christ. Now, in no way are we suggesting here that God's Word is glorifying sin or encouraging sin, but we are seeing here a demonstration of the truth of Romans 5 20, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. God's Word never encourages sin. God's Word always shows sin for what it is, but in a sin-cursed world full of brokenness, we see a God who by His grace can bring good out of evil. Only the grace of God can take broken lives, damaged lives, and make something out of that mess for His glory. Maybe you're here this morning and like Genesis 38, it may not be the exact same details, but you have some sort of brokenness in your history. We live in a broken world, a world full of brokenness, especially in this area of human sexuality. The amount of stories I hear as a pastor of just terrible things and extramarital affairs and this going up and this marriage breakdown and this breakage here. We live in a world that is so full of brokenness. You say, what can God do with me? What can God do with someone like a Tamar or a Rahab the harlot? What can God do with me? When you consider, Pastor, what is in my history? Let me just say the grace of God in salvation can take you as a broken person, as a damaged person, whatever it might be in your history, and by his precious blood, he can wash that sin record clean. He can wash the impurity and the defilement out of your life, and God's grace can make something out of the mess of your life. That's what we see as far as the grace of God. There is grace here in this chapter when you come to Matthew 1 and consider that Christ was not ashamed to put Tamar in his own record as being, as it were, one of the great grandmothers of Messiah. We wonder at the grace of God that Jesus Christ could be called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. I love what Griffith Thomas writes about this, he says, It is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, Hebrews 7.14, and Judah begat Phares and Zerah of Tamar, Matthew 1.3. He says, no man could have done such a thing. Only divine grace could dare to take up these sorry elements of human life and use them for its own blessed purpose. He says, there is nothing more marvelous than the power and possibilities of grace. Grace forgives, uplifts, transmutes, transforms, and then uses for its own glory. He says, while it is eternally true that what is done can never be undone, it is equally true that what has been broken can be mended. And the glory of grace is its power to heal broken hearts and mend broken lives. Is that you this morning? Broken heart? Broken life? What possibly could God do with me? Will you give him a chance? Would you bring your life to him with all of its brokenness and sin and say, God, take me. God, cleanse me. It's amazing what God can do with broken lives. How sin breaks and leaves wreckage, but God's grace and God's power can take the Tamars of this world, the Judas of this world, and he can do a work to bring blessing out of brokenness. Let's bow for prayer, shall we, as we close. Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes. A difficult chapter. Hard-hitting, confronting chapter. Dealing with some fairly heavy truths. but God's grace is clear and God's grace is evident. I wonder this morning, would there be anyone here who would say, Pastor, if I'm honest, if I was to die today, I don't know for sure that I would go to heaven. I'm not sure I've ever received that free gift of eternal life that you spoke about early in your message, forgiveness of sins, But I would like to receive Christ as my Savior today. I'd like to receive that free gift of eternal life, that cleansing from sin. I'm willing for Christ to take my brokenness, my sin, my life, and to change it, to transform it. that would be your desire would you just raise your hand so I can pray for you no one's looking around I'm not going to call you out by name I'm not going to embarrass you I'm not asking you to join our church I just want to pray for you as I close And then after service, I could show you from the Bible, if you've got the time, how you can settle that matter and have your sins forgiven and know for sure that you're on your way to heaven. Yes, praise the Lord. Thank you for that hand raise. You may put it back down. Is there anyone else who would just raise their hand and say, Pastor, please pray for me. If I was to die right now, I'm not sure that I would go to heaven. I'm not sure that my sins have been forgiven, but I'm willing for God to save me and I'd like to know how I can have eternal life, would you pray for me? Anyone else would you like to raise your hand? One hand raised, would there be anyone else? Father, I thank you for the one hand that has been raised and I just pray, Lord, for this individual, for the workings of your grace in this life and for direction, Father. We thank you for your grace in the life of Judah, your grace in the life of Tamar, Father, and how you were able to bring blessing out of this broken situation. So Lord we ask for your blessing now that you'd seal these lessons to our hearts in Jesus name, Amen.