But the Lord doesn't say, don't
worry, be happy. He says, be careful for nothing, but in everything,
by prayer and supplication, let your requests be known unto God.
And the peace of God, which is better than understanding, will
keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Tom, you come please. We're going
to sing the hymn on the back of our bulletin. Okay. What a polluted world this is,
a veil of sin and woe. The sons of earth complain of
this, but Zion feels it so. The world to creature, objects
fly, their maladies to heal. But Zion cries to God on high,
do thou thy face reveal? Savior divine, reveal thy love,
bright morning star, arise, and lead my thoughts to things above,
into the upper skies. ? This shall create a joy within
? ? Beyond what angels know ? ? And stimulate my powers to sing ?
? The Savior's praise below ? Please be seated. Our call to worship
this morning comes from Daniel chapter nine, Oh my God, incline thine ear, and
hear. Open thine eyes, and behold our
desolations, and the city which is called by thine name. For
we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses,
but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hearken and do. Defer not. For thine own sake,
O my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. Let's pray. Lord, we come before
you this hour. Lord, with nothing to offer you,
Yet Lord, you have told us in your word that we are your people.
Lord, cause us now to look to the captain of our souls, the
Lord Jesus Christ, in whom you are well pleased. And Lord, give
us the hope to look to him for our salvation. Lord, we are pleased
with him. Forgive us our sin, Lord. Save
us. Lord, we ask that you'd send
your spirit now and your word to enlighten our hearts, show
us the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, and we will have peace. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen. Let's stand once again, we'll
sing hymn number eight in your spiral hymn book, number eight.
? O Lord, our hearts and souls
aspire ? ? To lift up from this earthly mire ? ? O may we think
of heavenly things ? ? And know the joy thy presence brings ?
? Lord, let us see the Savior's face ? ? And let us taste of
thy sweet grace ? ? May open ears thy glories hear ? ? And
may we smell thy fragrance near ? ? Be pleased to open heaven's
door ? ? And on our heads thy blessings pour ? ? All wretched,
poor, and needy we ? ? Where can we go if not to thee ? ?
O may this day be blessed the most ? ? That Jesus Christ becomes
the host ? ? To feed our souls with living bread ? ? And with
our souls in joy to wed ? Please be seated. You open your Bibles with me
to Ruth chapter 4. Ruth chapter 4. There are some that would refer to the covenants in the
Bible as if there were many. They say they believe in a covenant
theology, and they have an Adamic covenant, and a Noahic covenant,
and a Mosaic covenant, and an Abrahamic covenant, and they
have covenant children in covenant communities, and their emphasis
on the covenant have not provided them a framework for understanding
the Bible as they say it has, but it has actually confused
the truth of the Bible. Because clearly, clearly the
Bible speaks of but two covenants. Two covenants. Before we look
at our text in Ruth chapter 4, will you turn with me in your
Bibles to Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4. And we'll begin reading in verse
24. Verse 22. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid,
Hagar. She produced a son by the name
of Ishmael, a child of the flesh. Abraham and Sarah's attempt to
help God out. In order for the promise to be
fulfilled that God had made, Abraham and Sarah got the idea
that God needed them to help him. And so they produced a child
through the handmaid by the name of Ishmael. And the other, by a free woman,
Sarah, at 90 years old, is miraculously with child and gives birth to
Isaac. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh. The flesh profiteth nothing.
They that are of the flesh are fleshly. They that mine the things
of the flesh are always after the things of the flesh. But he who was of the free woman
was by promise. Now that's what a covenant is.
It's a promise. It's a promise. It's an agreement
that God has made. Which things are an allegory? Yes, there are allegories, many
of them in the Bible. And all of these allegories,
pictures, shadows, types, ultimately point to the two covenants. These two things are an allegory. For these are the two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai, which
gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. And this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is and
is in bondage with their children." Now, with the time this is being
written, he's talking about that city, Jerusalem, that was made
up of Jews who were trusting in their law-keeping for the
promise of salvation to be realized in their lives. For the covenant
to be experienced, there are certain laws that must be kept,
and so they are of Hagar and Ishmael. They are of Sinai. They are under the law, obligated
to keep the whole law. For he that breaks the law in
one place is guilty of breaking the whole law. So if you're going
to be under the law, then you are required by the law to keep
the law perfectly, not only in your outward behavior, as the
Apostle Paul said, concerning the law, I was blameless before
men. But when the law came, Sin revived
and I died. Paul understood what the meaning
of the law was when the Spirit of God applied the law to his
heart and it said thou shalt not covet. So here now Paul realizes
it's not just the esteem of men that I have to seek after. For
man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. And
God's looking at my heart, and if I'm going to keep God's law
for my salvation, I'm going to have to keep it in thought, and
in motive, and in attitude, and in word, and deed, and everything
is going to be under the scrutiny of the law. I've got to keep
the law. with all my heart and all my
mind and all my soul all the time, if I'm going to be saved
by the law. And these are the two covenants,
two covenants, the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. And the covenant of grace is
infinitely older than the covenant of works. The covenant of grace
was established. And we use these words that have
time attached to them. You know, when we say older,
when we say established, there's a tense to that. And so we're,
we're, we're, It's the language that we have and it's so inadequate. That's why we're not going to
be speaking English or Spanish or anything else in heaven. There's
no language on earth that's adequate to describe the things that we're
going to see in glory when the full glory of Christ is revealed.
God's going to have to give us a heavenly language. but we're
limited with the language that we have. And so we say, the covenant
of grace was established by God in eternity past. And all of
that, all of those words have a time factor to them. But in
fact, there was no time. Eternity of grace has always
been, the covenant of grace has always been, always been. Christ has always been the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. God has always seen
his elect people in Christ forever. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Now there's a word that can be
used to describe without time, everlasting, never
had a beginning, never had an end. That's the covenant of grace. And in order to exalt Christ
in the covenant of grace, God purposed Adam to be put under
the covenant of works, knowing all along that Adam was going
to fail. And so God gave Adam one commandment,
just one, one simple commandment. You got a whole garden here full
of trees and fruits and vegetables and everything that the heart
could desire. There's one tree you're not to eat from, Adam. And he couldn't resist. And he
ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And he died. God clothed him with the skin
of a lamb, shed blood for the remission of his sins, showed
him, showed him the covenant of grace. The Covenant of Works
goes like this, I will, God speaking, if you will, I will save you if, and you just
fill in the blank. And the covenants, the messages
of salvation that we hear in the world today are under the
Covenant of Works, where they say, well, if you'll pray this
prayer, or if you'll do this or do that, or the list goes
on and on. It doesn't, there's no end. The only difference between one
religious persuasion and another is what goes in the blank. This
covenant works. God will do for you if you will
do. The covenant of grace goes like
this. I will and you shall. I'm going to pick up not only
my responsibility in this covenant relationship, but I'm going to
pick up your responsibility. You see, the bank says to you, we will
let you live in our house as long as you continue to make
payments on your mortgage. You do realize that the house
you, that we call these houses our houses, but if you've still
got a mortgage on it, it's not your house. It's a bank's house.
And they're going to let you live in it as long as you're
faithful to make your payments. But as soon as you fail to make
your payments, they're going to take their house back, aren't
they? And the Lord says, I'm going
to take from the infinite resources that I have and I'm gonna pay
off your mortgage. And can never be taken from you. It'll be paid for in full. Paid
in full, it's finished. The covenant of grace. It's not
a, I will, if you will. It is, I will and you shall. I will save you. and you shall
believe. The covenant of work says, if
you will believe, then I'll save you. The covenant of grace says,
I have saved you and you will believe. The covenant of work
says, I'll bless you if you'll serve me. And the covenant of
grace says, I have blessed you and you shall serve me. The covenant of work says, I'll
forgive you if you'll repent. And the covenant of grace says,
I have forgiven you and you shall live your life in a state of
faith and repentance. I will, and you shall. That's the child of the promise.
And those are the only two covenants that there are. and all these
other covenants that men love to talk. I've tried to understand
covenant theology. And the more I read it, the more
confused I get. It's kind of like trying to figure
out dispensationalism. There's so many different branches
to it and contradictions to it. It's complicated. It's contradictory. It's convoluted. You can't get
a handle on it. And they say, well, we have covenant
theology. No, you don't. No, you don't. If you had covenant theology,
you would believe in a God who has established two covenants. A covenant that depends upon
you to do something and a covenant that depends upon God to do it
all. Man by nature comes into this
world in a fallen state, esteeming themselves more highly
than Christ and believing that somehow they can do something
to earn favor with God. And so Isaiah chapter 28 says,
We've made, we've made a covenant with death. And with hell, we're
in agreement. We've done our part. You see,
we fulfilled our requirements. And so we've obligated God to
save us. And God responds to those who've
made the covenant themselves with, I will disannul your covenant. And when the overflowing scourge
comes, you'll be taken over by the wrath of God, because your
covenant is a covenant of works. And it gives man the glory for
his salvation. When God makes you to be a sinner,
When God makes you conscious to some degree of our sinfulness
before Him, and it's only to a very small degree, we could
not handle seeing our sin like God sees it. When God Almighty saw sin on
His Son, He was forced by His holy justice to forsake Him. And we'd just crawl under a rock
and hide if we could see our sin. But God shows us, when He
makes us somewhat conscious of our sinfulness, He shows us at
least this, we have no righteousness before God. There's nothing we
can do to satisfy the demands of God's holy justice. The covenant
of works will not save us. We need a savior. We need a substitute. We need one who is able to stand
in our stead before God and present himself on our behalf as our
righteousness before God. We need an advocate with the
Father. And only then will we cry out
in faith and look to Christ for all of our acceptance before
God. and find ourselves in the covenant of grace. They talk about this covenant
theology as being their framework, but their framework is a faulty
frame. This is the framework. You want
a framework for understanding the Bible? This is the framework.
The two covenants. Every story, every book, every
passage is God laying out a distinction between works and grace. And it's certainly true in our
text this morning. You have your Bibles open to
Ruth chapter 4. And verse nine, and Boaz said
unto the elders and to all the people, you are witnesses this
day. I have bought, I have bought
all that was Alemilex and all that was Chileans and Melons
of the hand of Naomi. Here's the covenant of grace. The Lord Jesus Christ, as our
kinsman redeemer, paid the full price to redeem all that we lost
in our father Adam. And he gets all the glory. Moreover, Ruth, the Moabitess,
the wife of Malon, have I purchased to be my wife. to raise up the name of the dead
upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off
from among the brethren and from the gate of this place, you are
witnesses this day. The Lord's redemptive work has
one objective, to raise up the name of the dead, that the dead
be not erased from the book of life. That's what the Lord Jesus
Christ did. You and I are dead in our trespasses
and sins. And what the Lord Jesus Christ
did was he raised up. He raised up as he raised up
Christ. He raised up us in Christ, raised
up the name of the dead so that those who are by nature dead
in their sins are not erased from the Book of Life. Malon was Ruth's husband. Malon is dead. Malon's name translated
means sick. And that's what we are. We're
sick, the scripture says in the book of Isaiah, with putrefying
sores that have not been bound or mollified from the top of
our head to the soles of our feet. We're sick with sin. We're leprous. We have an issue
of blood. It's all coursing through our
body. And the wages of sin is death.
And, and, and, and, and, Boaz is stepping up before all
the elders saying, you are witnesses this day that I have purchased.
I purchased Ruth. I purchased the descendants of
Malon. Those who were cut off from the
land of the living. And doesn't the scripture say
the Lord Jesus Christ when He went to Calvary's cross was cut
off from the land of the living. And that's why He was cut off. And in Acts chapter 1, When our Lord was with his disciples
on the Mount of Olives about to ascend it back into glory
and take his rightful place at the right hand of the majesty
on high, the disciples said, Lord, is it time now for you
to set up your kingdom? They were still looking for an
earthly kingdom. And the Lord said, it's not for you to know
the time of the season, but the Holy Ghost is gonna come
upon you and you're going to receive power and you're gonna
be my witnesses. in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria
and unto the outermost parts of the earth. And as he spake,
he was caught up into a cloud and ascended into glory." That's what our Lord's saying
here. You're going to be my, you are my witness. You are the
testimony of this that I have purchased unto myself. I have
bought back the dead Isaiah chapter 53, he was cut
off out of the land of the living and for the transgressions of
my people was he stricken. He bought with his precious blood,
he bought by the sacrifice of his own body, of his own life,
they that were dead. Look at verse 11. And all the people that were in the gate, and the
elder said, we are witnesses. Oh, child of God. Trish and I were talking this
morning coming to church, and she said, you know, We wouldn't
trade anything for our salvation. Nothing. Not a single thing. And I was thinking about this
word witness. This word witness is the word marteo, in the Greek
language at least, from which we get our word martyr. And you
ask yourself, you know, would I be willing to lay down my life
for the Gospel? And if it came to that, you would.
Before you would deny Christ, before you would sell your soul,
you would die as a witness for the Gospel. You wouldn't trade
anything for your salvation. Nothing. And here's the whole church saying,
we are witnesses. We are witnesses. Nothing in
this life is comparable. and nothing can be traded, even
my own life. We are witnesses. And here's their blessing back
to Boaz. And this is the church speaking
of Christ. The Lord make the woman that
has come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two
did build the house of Israel. You remember Jacob went down
to Laban's house and saw Rachel and he loved Rachel and Laban
deceived him and gave him Leah. And then he worked seven more
years and got Rachel and now 20 years later, Rachel and Leah
have had children and they've left Laban's house and they've
come back to the land of inheritance. And these are the 12 tribes of
Israel, the 12 sons of Jacob, all from these two women, Leah
and Rachel, and a few from their handmaids, which would have been
considered from them. And so, Let the Lord build thy
house like he built it through Leah and Rachel, the house of
Israel. Oh, it is the Lord that builds
his house, isn't it? And that number 12 is a number
of perfection or completeness. It's the whole House of Israel,
it's all the elect of God. We see it in the 12 apostles,
the foundation of the church being built on the 12 tribes
and the 12 apostles. And we see it in the book of
Revelation, symbolically spoken of as 12 times 12,000, the 144,000,
which is not a literal number, it's a symbolic number. It goes
back to this 12. Not one of my sheep am I going
to lose. I'm going to redeem them all.
I'm going to satisfy the demands of the covenant. And I'm not going to lose a one.
Not a single one. If their salvation was in any
way dependent upon them, they would be lost. But because I
have taken it on me to fulfill the requirements of the covenant,
You are my witnesses. And the witnesses of Christ say,
yes, the Lord Jesus Christ will build his church and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. And he will redeem all 144,000
of them, every single one of them. Not a one of them will
be lost. And we know that number is symbolic
because also in the book of Revelation, it says thousands upon ten thousands
are in glory. So, you know, a whole lot more
than 144,000, but here's the point. The church is built on
this foundation of 12. And when we see the New Jerusalem
coming down in the book, it has 12 foundations, each of a different
stone and 12 gates. All the people of God, it doesn't
matter where they come from, north, east, south, or west,
or what experience they've had, all of the church will be saved.
Why? Because the covenant of salvation
was secure and made sure by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
David said when he spoke his last words in 2 Samuel 24. He said, although my house Be
not so with God. The tabernacle of this flesh,
my home, my children. David was a failure in so many
ways, just like we are. Just like we are. And David said,
if my salvation was dependent or determined in any way about
the condition of this house or the condition of my family, I'd
be lost. Although my house be not so with
God, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things. And what's the next word? Sure,
sure. The surety of this covenant.
Isn't that what Judah said? I will be surety unto him. And if I fail to bring this,
this is Judah speaking to his father Jacob about Benjamin,
who they were gonna take back down to Egypt. If I fail to bring
him back, you charge it to my account. And that's the Lord
Jesus as our surety saying to his father, if I fail in any
way, to satisfy the surety of this covenant. It's ordered in
all things and it is sure. And we are His witnesses. We
are His witnesses. He ordered the covenant. He established
the covenant. He made the covenant sure. And
what did His witnesses say? This is all my salvation. And this is all my desire. I
don't want to look anywhere else. Don't point me to anything else
or anybody else. Don't get me to look at my flesh. You know, I was thinking about
that passage over there. I think it's in 2 Corinthians 13, towards
the end, when Paul says, examine yourselves to see whether you
be in the faith. Know ye not that it is Christ
that is in you? and uh people said well you know
we need to examine our lives and uh look at our behavior to
make sure that we're in the faith that's the opposite of what the
lord's saying what he's saying in that verse is exactly the
same thing he's saying over there in first corinthians chapter
11 when he says uh turn turn with me to that passage i can't
quote it first uh Let's look at the first one. 2 Corinthians chapter 13, verse five. Examine yourselves,
whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Christ is in you, except you
be reprobate? So what is it to examine yourself
to see whether you'd be in the faith? Is it to look at your
life to see if Christ is in you? Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
11, verse 27. 1 Corinthians 11. Verse 27, wherefore? Whosoever shall eat this bread
and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of
the body and blood of the Lord. And let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he
that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. He didn't say, look at your life
to see whether you measure up. He said, look in you. Is Christ in you? Child of God, you know your heart.
You know your heart. You know whether or not you're
trusting the Lord Jesus Christ for all of your righteousness
before God. or whether you have your hope
somewhere else. You know whether or not, that's
what the Lord, you say, examine yourself to see whether you are
able to discern the Lord's body. When Christ died on Calvary's
cross, did he bear all your sins? Did he satisfy the demands of
the everlasting covenant once and for all when he bowed his
mighty head? Did he say when he said it is finished, was it
finished? Or was there something else for
you to do? You see, as soon as you start looking to yourself
to see if there's evidences of salvation, now you're looking
to something. You're going to have to lie to
yourself to find any hope there. And religious people do that.
The self-righteous religious lie to themselves and convince
themselves that well you know I'm not doing what I used to
do and I'm doing things better than I used to do and I'm getting
a little bit better and so yeah I can examine myself and I see
evidences of my salvation and child of God you look at yourself
and you say what David said at the end of that verse I started
this quote with Although my house be not so with
God, yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure. This is all my salvation, all
my desire, though He make it not to grow." I look at my life and I can't see. If I'm growing in grace and in
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's because I'm seeing
more and more of my sinfulness before God and I'm finding myself
more and more dependent upon the Lord Jesus than I ever was
before. It's not because I'm seeing improvement in my life.
You see, this examining yourself to see whether you'd be in the
faith is not, you know, check out your life and see if you're
getting better. No. No, check your heart and see
if you're able to discern the body and blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if your dependence is upon
him alone for all of your acceptance before God and for all the fulfillment
of the covenant, otherwise you're on the covenant of works. Isn't
that glorious? That's glorious, that's our hope. Let your house be like Rachel
and Leah. Lord, this covenant of grace
made sure the salvation of all the sons of Jacob, all the house
of Israel. Hebrews chapter 11 says, and
all Israel shall be saved. And men in the past have looked
at that and thought, well, you know, there's going to be a second,
there's going to be a second blessing of grace towards national
Israel. And the Lord is going to call
out of national Israel, some of his elect towards the end
of the world. No, he's talking about spiritual
Israel. All Israel shall be saved. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
like, like, Boaz satisfied all the demands
of the covenant. Go back with me to our text. He purchased for himself, he
gathers the people together at the gate, and they agree we are
witnesses. We are witnesses. And you know,
I mentioned this dying for the gospel. If you're in Christ,
you've already died. You had to die to yourself to
be made alive in Christ. You had to die to all the hopes
of your salvation in your righteousness in order for you to be made alive
in Christ, didn't you? So that death's already, you
see, that's the witness, that's the martyr. That's the dying. We die, and Paul said, we die
daily. Yeah, every time you find yourself
looking somewhere other than Christ, you have to die to yourself
again and again and again, don't you? And so we say with the witnesses
to our kinsmen redeemer, let your house be like the house
of Leah and Rachel. And look at
the next phrase in verse 11, and do thou worthily in Ephratah. Now the scripture tells us in
Genesis chapter 35 that Rachel was buried in Ephratah, which
the Bible says is Bethlehem. So Ephratah, you know the word
Bethlehem means the house of bread. It's the gathering of
God's people. It's the place where we feast
on the bread of life. And Ephratah means the place
of fruitfulness. What is the fruitfulness of the
believer? Here again, if you start looking
to your life to see if you're being fruitful, you're going
to find yourself in trouble. The fruit is the fruit of our
lips. The calves, the scripture says, of our lips. the offering
praise and worship, and the confession that Christ is all in my salvation. So do thou worthily in Ephratah. And that word, what did he say? Get thee riches and power in
the house of fruitfulness. And we do, we ascribe Him all
riches and all glory and all power and all honor in all of
our salvation. And we rejoice in delighting
in His glorious person and in His redemptive work. My God shall supply all your
needs. according to his riches in grace
by Christ Jesus. And he that was rich became poor,
that by his poverty you might be made rich. So what is it that
the church is witnessing? And I trust that in your heart
you're witnessing that our Boaz, our kinsman redeemer, bought
Ruth and Naomi and all that was Elimelech's and all that was
Malon's to keep the name alive. And he's building his house like
God built the house of Israel. through Rachel and Leah. And he's being ascribed all glory
and all power in the house of fruitfulness in Ephratah. As I mentioned earlier from Job,
he has stripped me of my glory and taken my crown from off of
my head. And we delight in that. We delight in being stripped
of our glory. We delight in being, in being,
you see, Trish and I were talking again
about, you know, someone who came to our church for a while
and they finally heard something and they left offended. And what
did they hear? They heard that they had no righteousness,
the offense of the cross. The offense of the cross leaves
men naked before God. They have nothing to present
to God. This particular person is, you
know, every time we talk to them, they're telling us about all
the good things that they do. And it's very, very sad. trusting
in their goodness for the hope of their salvation. But child
of God, you're not that way. You love being told that you're
a sinner. You love being told that your
righteousnesses are as filthy rags. You love being told because
that's the only hope you have in Christ. That Christ is all
of your salvation. You see the difference? Jeff,
you were right Wednesday night. It is a saver of life and it
is a saver of death. This message of Christ gives
life through faith to God's elect, and it kills those who are trusting
in themselves. Look at the last part of verse
14, and be famous in Bethlehem. I love that word famous. And
you know, it means the same thing that we use it today. If some
person is famous in the world, that means everybody knows their
name, right? You throw out a famous person's name and everybody's
civilized. I suspect that there's people
in this congregation right now, there's someone in this congregation
that you don't know the name of. And this just, But there are
other people who aren't here that if I named their name, everybody
here would know who I'm talking about. Why? Because they're famous.
Famous means that your name has reached a level of fame and that
it is spoken of among all men. Oh, who's more famous in Bethlehem
than the Lord Jesus Christ? And we don't throw His name around
like the world does. Aren't you offended when you
hear religious people just use the first name of our Lord as
if He's, you know, just sort of their pal? It is the Lord. Yes, His name is Jesus because
He shall save His people and He is the Christ, the Son of
the Living God. And we dare not speak His name
vainly, with empty meaning. Let your name be famous in Bethlehem. Oh, God has given him a name
that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee
shall bow and every tongue confess that he's Lord. To the glory
of God the Father, and no other name has been given among men
whereby we must be saved. Oh, what a glorious name he has. Why? Because he has fulfilled
all the requirements of the covenant of grace. Now in closing, I want you to
see this last verse. This last verse, the purpose
of God shall stand in the covenant. It is sure and steadfast. The Lord Jesus Christ met all
the requirements of the covenant, just like Boaz did here. And
the church is saying to him as their kinsman redeemer, look
at verse 12, and let thy house be like the house of Phares,
whom Tamar bear unto Judah of the seed which the Lord shall
give thee of this young woman. Now Genesis chapter 37 introduces
Joseph's life, and he's sold into slavery by his brothers. And then in Genesis chapter 39,
it picks back up with Joseph, and the rest of the book of Genesis
surrounds the life of Joseph. But there's a parenthetical chapter, if you
will, Chapter 38 of Genesis. And it is a very dark and sordid
story about Judah. Judah, who was Benjamin's surety. Judah, through whom came the
lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, this
covenant, in order to be fulfilled, It had to be fulfilled through
the line of Judah. And in this story, Judah has
his eldest son, who's married to a woman by the name of Tamar.
And the scripture says that Judah's eldest son did evil in the sight
of the Lord and God killed him. And so in fulfillment of the
covenant, that the name of the dead be not erased, That's what
the covenant's all about. The bringing in of the Messiah,
the bringing in of the Christ, so that the covenant might be
fulfilled. Judah gave Tamar to his next son in line and he did
evil in the sight of the Lord and God killed him. And so Tamar
now has been married to two of Judah's sons and still has no
children. And so Judah says to Tamar, go
home to your father. And when my next son is of age,
I will call for you. And in order to fulfill the covenant,
so that these names be not erased, but that life be brought in,
we'll call you and I'll give you my youngest son." So Tamar
waits. Judah's youngest son becomes
of age, but Judah doesn't call for Tamar. Tamar hears that Judah
is coming to Timnath to shear his sheep. And so Tamar now,
Judah's daughter-in-law, takes off her clothing of widowhood
and puts on the garments of a harlot and sits on the street corner
in Timnath. And when Judah comes through, Judas sees her and thinks she's
a harlot. He doesn't know that it's his
daughter-in-law. And he asks to be with her. And she says to him, what will
you give me? And he said, I'll give you a
kid out of my flock. And she said, well, what will
you give me as a pledge? because you obviously don't have
any sheep with you right now. You're going to have to send
that. He said, I'll send you a kid from my flock. What will
you give me as a pledge? And he said, well, I'll give
you my staff and my signet ring and my bracelets. She said, okay. And she took those things from
Judah. He goes home. gets the kid, sends one of his
servants with the kid back to Timnath to find this harlot. And the people of Timnath said,
there's no harlot here, never has been. And Judah says, well,
she's got, you know, she's got my token, so we'll let it be.
Well, then word comes back to Judah that Tamar is pregnant
and has played the part of a harlot. And Judah in righteous indignation
says, bring her to me that she might be burned. Now that's not
stone, but burned, eternal judgment. Separation from God for all eternity. And she comes and brings her
tokens with her. And she sends them to Judah and
she says, the man that these tokens belong to, is the father
of these children, of this child. And Judah sees the staff, and
he sees the signet ring, and he sees the bracelet, and he
says, she is more righteous than I. She was committed to fulfill
the covenant of God to bring in the Messiah, and I wasn't. And the only reason that Judah
didn't kill her is because she had these tokens. You and I have a token. We have
the Holy Spirit. And this life in us, given to
us by God, is our hope. But what is the staff? The staff
is a symbol of authority. And we have the right to come
into the very presence of God. What is the signet ring? The
signet ring was used to seal covenants. It's a picture of
our right, our union with Christ. And what is a bracelet? A bracelet
is just for decorations. And so you have the authority
of the covenant, you have the right of the covenant, and you
have the beauty of the covenant in these tokens. And we come
before God with these symbols of our salvation. And the fire
of God is quenched as a result of that. Well, Temnar, Temar,
gives birth to Phares. That's who's in our text, Phares. Okay? And so the church says,
let thy house be like the house of Phares, whom Tamar bear unto
Judah of the seed, which the Lord shall give thee in this
woman. Now, one word of encouragement
I want to give to you brethren is that Though we cannot ever
accuse God for our sin, let no man say when he is tempted, I'm
tempted of God, for God cannot tempt any man with evil. God
is not tempted with evil, neither is he tempted by any evil, but
we are tempted when we are drawn away of our own lust, and when
lust is conceived, we bring it forth sin, and sin bring it forth
death. We're fully responsible. We cannot blame God, we cannot
go back to Adam and say, well, it's the woman that you gave
me. No, my sin is all on me. And here's the good news. Your
sin not only cannot thwart or forbid or hinder the purpose
of God, it is part of the purpose of God. It is part of the God is sovereign
in our sin, just like he was with Tamar and Judah, as dark
and sordid as that story that I just told you from Genesis
38 is. God brings about the Messiah.
Now, I'll tell you another one. Ruth, being a Moabitess, you
know where the tribe of Moab came from? You remember when
Lot was brought out of Sodom? And he gets drunk and he has
an incestuous relationship with his two daughters, and the descendants
of those daughters were the Moabites. And here we have Ruth. A descendant
of that incestuous relationship. Boaz, you know who Boaz is the
son of? Remember Rahab? When all these things are in
the scriptures, Matthew chapter 1 tells us that Boaz was the
son of Salmon who was married to Rahab, the harlot. So we have a Moabitess, we have
a child that was born out of out of out of harlotry, we have
one that was born out of incestuous relationships, all these evils
of man. And the wrath of man shall praise
him and the remainder he shall restrain. Child of God, your
sin as evil and dark, sinful and as You know, the consequences
of which we suffer in our lives. Our God is so glorious and so
powerful and so sovereign. The best example of that is the
cross. What more evil thing has the
hands of man ever done than to take the Son of God and crucify
Him on a cross? And yet the only hope of salvation
that the covenant has is that work of evil. The fall, which
God purposed in Adam, was all purposed of God to bring about
the glory of Christ. Might your house be like the
house of Phares? which Tamar bear unto Judah. Why? Because she was more righteous
than was Judah because she was committed to the covenant and
Judah wasn't. Look at verse 18. Now these are the generations
of Pharaz. Phares begat Hezron, and Hezron
begat Ram, and Ram begat Abinadab, and Abinadab begat Nashon, and
Nashon begat Salmon, who was married to Rahab the harlot,
and Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, and Obed begat Jesse,
and Jesse begat David, and the covenant of grace was made sure. was made sure by God, nothing
could change the covenant of grace. Nothing man can do, nothing
you can do can change what God has purposed in the salvation
of his people. We're either under the law or
we're under grace. Our salvation is either dependent
upon something that we do. If it is, we're in trouble. For
our salvation is determined by the purpose of God in fulfilling
all the requirements of the everlasting covenant of grace. Our heavenly father, thank you
for your word. Bless it to the hearts of your
people. Thank you for the accomplished
work of thy dear son. For it's in His name we pray,
amen. 127, in the heart back to Him,
now let's stand, 127. ? Man of sorrows, what a name ?
For the Son of God who came ? Ruined sinners to reclaim ? Hallelujah,
what a Savior Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned
He stood, Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we,
spotless Lamb of God was He. Full atonement can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! ? Lifted up was he to die ? It
is finished was his cry ? Now in heaven exalted high ? Hallelujah
what a Savior When He comes, our glorious King, All His ransomed
home to bring, Then anew this song we'll sing, Hallelujah,
what a Savior!