In the 38th chapter of Genesis,
God the Holy Ghost gives us an inspired record of Jacob's son
Judah and his family. There's a reason for this record
being given. Our Lord Jesus Christ as a man,
the God-man, our Savior, sprang from the tribe of Judah, the
apostle tells us in Hebrews 7, 14. Let's read Genesis 38 together. Genesis chapter 38, verse one. Excuse me. And it came to pass
at that time that Judah went down from his brethren and turned
into a certain Adolamite, 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 bear
a son, and he called his name Ur. And she conceived again and
bear a son, and she called his name Onan. And she yet again
conceded to bear a son, and called his name Shelah. And he was at
Shezeb when she bare him. And Judah took a wife for Ur,
his firstborn, whose name was Tabar. And Ur, Judah's firstborn,
was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, Go
in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed
to thy brother. And Odin knew that the seed should
not be his. And it came to pass, when he
went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground,
lest 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 Tabar his daughter-in-law, remain a widow at thy father's
house till Shelah my son be grown. For he said, lest peradventure
he die also as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her
father's house. And in the process of time, the
daughter of Shua, Judah's wife, died, and Judah was comforted
and went up unto his sheep shearers 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. When Judah saw her, he thought
her to be in harlot because he had she had covered her face
and he returned 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 wilt thou
give me that thou mayest come in unto me? And he said, I will
send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, wilt thou give
me a pledge till thou send it? And he said, what pledge shall
I give thee? And she said, thy signet, and
thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he
gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him. And she arose and went away,
and laid by her veil from her, and put on the garments of her
widowhood. And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend
the Adolamite to receive his pledge from the woman's hand,
but he found her not. Then he asked the men of that
place saying, where is the harlot that was openly by the wayside?
And they said, there was no harlot in this place. And he returned
to Judah and said, I cannot find her. And also the men of the
place said that there was no harlot in this place. And Judah
said, let her take it to her, lest we be shamed. Behold, I
sent this kid and thou has not found her. 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. And Judah said, bring her forth
and let her be burnt. When she was brought forth, she
sent to her father-in-law saying, by the man whose these are, am
I with child? And she said, discern, I pray
thee, whose are these, the signet and bracelets and staff? And
Judah acknowledged them and said, she hath been more righteous
than I, because that I gave her not to Shelah my son, and he
knew her again no more. And it came to pass in the time
of her travail, that behold, twins were in her womb. And it
came to pass when she travailed, that 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 has thou broken forth? This breach be upon thee, therefore
she called his name Phares, that is the breach. And afterward
came out his brother that had the scarlet thread upon his hand,
and his name was called Zerah, that is the returner. I had planned
and was working yesterday and today to preach to you from Ephesians
chapter six. And I got a call from Brother
Frank Hall earlier this afternoon. He was asking me questions concerning
this passage of scripture. And immediately I recognized
it was needful and I hope needful for you that I try again to deal
with the things taught here. When you read this chapter, You
immediately sense revulsion. You're disgusted, shocked perhaps,
horrified, somewhat embarrassed, dismayed. What's the chapter
here for? It seems altogether out of place. And sometimes when you read the
scriptures, as you read them with attention, you come across
a passage like this that just seems to be haphazardly placed
there with no obvious reason. When that's the case, don't just
glance over it. Don't just ignore it. That which
seems to be out of place to our minds was put there specifically
to get our attention, specifically to teach us something. It's written
by divine inspiration, put here exactly where God, the Spirit
of God, would have it to be put for a purpose. Everything here
looks to be out of joint this passage beginning in chapter
37 going to the rest of the book of Genesis gives us a history
of Joseph and his Betrayal by his brothers and his being sold
in his favor and going down to Egypt then being established
as the as the prime minister of Egypt so that he might save
much people alive, but right in the middle of that is this
history of Judah and his family and Why are these things given? Why did God the Holy Ghost interrupt
this history of Joseph to insert these 30 verses about Judah? Why was Moses directed to do
these things? We know because the Spirit of
God tells us these things were written for our learning that
we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have
hope. In verse 1 we're told that Judah
went down. That's the title of my message.
Judah went down. But before I'm done, I hope you
will see that Judah's degradation, his shameful degradation, sad,
disappointing, dark as it was, was in God's providence a bleak,
black backdrop upon which the Lord God would display the wonders
of His grace and the glory of His grace toward us. Here we
see sin abounding and grace superabounding. What we have in this chapter
is much, much more than the story of Judah's sin and degradation. It is a picture telling us about
God's marvelous, free, sovereign, amazing grace. Let me call your
attention to several things. First, the most obvious thing
set before us in this chapter is Judah's sin. Judah's sin by
which we are reminded again of the utter depravity of our race,
our depravity. Since the fall of our father
Adam, one thing has always characterized the human race. One thing can
always be counted on as a matter of certainty. One thing is seen
in the course of every son of Adam, in the life of every mortal
in this world, and that one thing, that one black, black mark against
humanity is sin. Sin is what we are. Sin is what
we do. Sin is how we are best described. Mark was telling us in the office
just a little bit ago last week while he was waiting to get into
the bathroom, take a bath, take a shower, get ready for services.
He flipped on television, there's a banner behind the fellow, said
grace, and said the only thing you heard him say just over a
minute or less he said, he said, the one thing we don't want to
be called is sinners. The fact is until God makes you
to know your sin, You will not seek the substitute. And only
as we know our need of Christ now as sinners, will we seek
his mercy and grace as sinners on our behalf. The fact that
we are nothing but sin, the whole human race, nothing but sin,
is verified throughout history, verified every day in our own
experience, and verified in every newspaper in the world. The one
thing that can be seen in the course of all men's lives is
sin. This is the plague that's upon
our hearts. Judah went down from his brethren
in direct violation of the revealed will of God. This man, Judah,
abandoned the family of Abraham. the people of God, and he took
for his choice companion an Adolamites by the name of Hira. Now, I don't
have any questions. Judah felt completely justified
in doing so. He no doubt could justify his
actions were we to have him before us and ask him about them right
now. But I assure you, the path of compromise is always a path
of sorrow. The path of compromise is always
a path of sorrow. It is written, whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap. If you take fire to your bosom,
you're going to get burned. I do not suggest by any means
that you and I, as God's people in this world, should live as
hermits, isolating ourselves from others. I told you Doug
and I chatted for a good while this morning. We're talking about
this one aspect of a conversation that we treat other folks kindly
and do what we can to benefit them. But don't embrace as your
companions unless you want trouble. Don't embrace as your bosom friends
unless you want trouble. Trouble for yourself. Don't embrace
and walk with folks who don't know God. You're only asking
for trouble when you do. You will never influence them
for good. They will only influence you
for evil. Judah's history verifies this. He chose a pagan Adolamite for
his friend. He chose a pagan to be his wife. His two oldest sons, Ur and Onan,
following his example, following the example he gave them, were
slain under the wrath of God. We're not told what Ur's wickedness
was, but it was obviously something for which he was manifestly slain
by the hand of God, and it was obvious that God killed him in
wrath. Odin's sin is specifically identified
in verses 7 through 10. And many have looked at this
sin of Odin and found it to be things that they can talk to
folks about and say, this is what happens if you practice
birth control and all that stuff, following the pattern of Papist.
I'm certain that God didn't send Onandel because he practiced
birth control. I'm just sure that's not the
case. That which was later written
in the law of God that was given to the children of Israel in
Deuteronomy 25 was already clearly established as the revealed will
of God to the children of Abraham. That which is the will of God
is the commandment of God. you understand that? Brother
Mark read back in the office, 1 Timothy chapter 1, Paul says,
Paul an apostle by the commandment of God. I'm not certain because
I didn't have time to check it, but I think that's the only place
he uses that phrase in connection with him being an apostle. Everywhere
else he says, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of
God. The will of God revealed the
commandment of God to his people. And the law that God gave in
Deuteronomy 25 requiring that if a brother dies without children
that his brother next to him is to take his wife and raise
up seed to the firstborn son. So that the law of the firstborn
applies to that one that's raised up to his brother. fully aware
of the revealed will of God and he chose not to raise up a son
to the name of his dead brother. This law was given to Israel,
only to Israel. It was given to Israel, Abraham's
children, Because the Lord God promised to send his son, the
Redeemer, the Messiah, the blessing by which God's blessings comes
to men through Abraham's seed. The promised Redeemer, the promised
Savior in whom all blessedness is found, the heritage of grace
in him was the birthright of the firstborn son. When Odin
refused to raise up a child in the name of his brother, He showed
utter contempt for God's covenant, for God's commandment, for God's
will, despising God's son. He said, I won't have that son,
he won't be my son. Just as Esau before him, Onan
snubbed his nose at God's goodness and God's grace in Christ Jesus. And for this, God killed him. I can't say this emphatically
enough, but I'm here to tell you that God Almighty hasn't
changed. God still sends men and women
to hell who turn their noses at the Son of God and snub him,
despising him as a worthless thing. After the death of his
first two sons, Judah promised Tamar that as soon as his third
son, Shelah, was old enough, she would marry him. But in verse
11, we're told that it was a promise he had no intention of keeping.
Judah's incest with Tamar stands as a warning to all. What could
be more terrible than the record given of Judah and his family? Here is a man brought up in the
midst of a favored people. He is one of Abraham's children.
blessed with a godly influences all around him, surrounded by
examples of grace from his youth. Throughout the history of his
family, he has seen God work wonders in behalf of his family. And yet Judah chose the rebel's
path. The consequences of his actions
are glaring. Oh, you who are here, most of
you have raised children. And you try to tell them from
their youth, everything has its consequences. Everything has
its consequences. You're not going to escape the
consequences. Judah's sons were slain under
the wrath of God, but still Judah went on walking after the lust
of his flesh. After his wife died, Judah took
his Adolamite friend Hira with him to see the shearing of his
sheep. And Tamar heard that he was there
in Timnath and she disguised herself as a harlot. And Judah
hired his daughter-in-law, not knowing she was his daughter-in-law,
to be his prostitute. And then he sent his companion
in ungodliness to pay his debt to the harlot and to get back
from her his signet, his bracelets, and his staff. When Hira went
to pay the debt, he couldn't find a harlot in that place.
And Judah thought the matter was over. He thought, well, this
is all behind me. He shrugs his shoulders and says
to Hira, that's that. Let her have that stuff. Let
her have the signet and the bracelets and the staff. Let's forget this
matter. We've done all we could, lest
we'd be ashamed. I read those words and I think,
shocking, shocking. We paid our debt now we got nothing
to be ashamed of. When Judah heard that Tamar was
pregnant, he was enraged. He was full of anger. That's
not right. She shamed me and shamed my family. He said, let her be burnt. You've
had that again in Leviticus 21. It wasn't talking about burning
her at the stake, it was talking about branding her so that everybody
seeing her would know what she is, nothing but a common whore.
Let her be branded. She's shamed us, we'll shame
her. Oh, what hypocrisy, what self-righteousness. And then
at last, Judah acknowledged and confessed his sin. Look at 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? And she said, discern, I pray
thee, whose are these, the signet, the bracelet, and the staff?
And Judah acknowledged them and said, she hath been more righteous
than I. Now that's the key to the text.
She has been more righteous than I, because that I gave her not
to Shelah my son, and he knew her again no more. This appears to me, I wouldn't
say it dogmatically, but it appears to me to be the time of Judah's
conversion. I say that not only because he
acknowledged his sin, he really didn't have much choice in the
matter. He was caught red-handed. But he did more. He stated plainly
that Tamar, though guilty of incest, knowingly so, which is
certainly a worse crime than fornication with a prostitute.
By law, she's to be put to death. He's to be punished, but she's
to be put to death. Yet he says she acted more righteously than
me. How can that be? How can that
be? What is there about Tamar's act
that can be looked at as righteous or even more righteous than what
he had done? Tamar believed God's revelation
concerning his son. She believed God's revelation
concerning the gift of his son through Judah, Abraham's seed,
the promise that up to this point Judah and his sons had despised. Being denied marriage to Sheila,
Tamar said, it's my right, it's my right as the wife of the firstborn
to have seed from Abraham. Maybe this will be the Messiah,
the Redeemer. As did every woman in Israel
who believed God, hopefully she would be the one through whom
Messiah would come. And she said, I will have Christ
no matter what it costs me. When I read this event in the
life of Tamar, I'm reminded of her great, great, great granddaughter,
Ruth. And Naomi, you remember, told
Ruth, she said, now tonight, while Boaz is on the threshing
floor, you slip in there and lay down beside him, and he'll
tell you what you must do. I don't see how on this earth
she could tell her to do that, except that Naomi knew what I would
not have realized. She recognized Boaz representative
of a kinsman redeemer by the law that God had given to Israel.
And she said, Ruth, that man will do you no harm, but you've
got to subject everything to him. even your good name and
reputation. And she did as Naomi said, and
you know the consequences. Boaz married Ruth, and God gave
him a son. And Boaz and Ruth were blessed
of God. You and I must give up all righteousness
and all claim to righteousness. We must give up everything by
which we think to set ourselves apart from other men and cast
ourselves wholly upon the Son of God. That's called faith. Now, there's no justification
for Tamar's incest. God doesn't give it to us. God
the Holy Spirit doesn't give it to us. And I'll not attempt
to justify her work. What she did was horribly evil
in itself. And yet Judah declares that her
actions were more righteous than his. And in doing so, acknowledges
and confesses his sin. Now let me tell you something
about that. That man, that woman, who acknowledges his sin. I'm
talking about acknowledges his sin. Open your heart to God,
David. Acknowledge what you are. Don't
attempt to hide anything. Don't attempt to hide anything.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just. faithful to
his word, faithful to his son, faithful to his promise, faithful
to his covenant, faithful to his people, and just. Just because
Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins. He's faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Brother Scott Richardson, standing
in this pulpit many years ago, was preaching on this matter
of sin. And he said, he said, don't take my sinnerhood away
from me. That's the only thing I had to
claim before God for mercy. Your only ground for coming to
God for mercy is a sinner trusting Christ the Lord, that's all.
Not your feelings, not your goodness, not your works, not your decision,
not your family, your sin. If we confess our sin, he's faithful
and just to forgive us our sin. Second, in this 38th chapter
of Genesis, we have a plain declaration that divine election is a matter
of pure, free grace. Judah was chosen as the object
of God's grace only because God loved him. There was nothing
good or noble or righteous about this man. Every choice he made
was evil. Everything he did recorded in
this book up to this point was self-serving. And yet we see
Judah, the object of God's grace. He wasn't seeking the Lord, but
serving his own lust when God stopped him in the mad path of
destruction. Judah was no better than his
sons. God killed his sons and chose
Judah. Judah was responsible for the
evil behavior of his sons by which they went to hell, but
God chose Judah. Judah was no more upright than
Hira the Adolamite, but God chose Judah. This chapter is written
to teach us forcibly and plainly that salvation is by grace alone,
not by your will, not by your works, not by your worth, but
by grace alone. That which distinguished Judah
from all others around him, and that which distinguishes you
and me from all around us, family, friend, and neighbor, is the
distinguishing grace of God. And that's all. And that's all. You see your calling, brethren.
God has chosen such things as we are that no flesh should glory
in his presence. Here's the third thing displayed
in this chapter. The absolute immutability of
God's purpose. God had purposed from eternity
that his son would come into this world through the line of
Judah. So it must be and so it was. Turn over just a couple of pages
to Genesis 42. Genesis 42. Benjamin is down in Egypt. Joseph
is holding him captive down there to get his family to come down.
And Reuben volunteers in verse 37. Reuben spake unto his father
saying, slay my two sons if I bring him back not to thee deliver
him into my hand and I will bring him to thee and his son said
or he said my son shall not go down with you for his brother
dead, and he is left alone. If mischief befall him by the
way in which you go, then shall you bring down my gray hairs
with sorrow to the grave." That's Reuben speaking. That's Reuben
speaking. And Jacob refused to trust Benjamin
to the hands of Reuben. I had never noticed that until,
oh, many years ago, Brother Bob Pottser read that chapter, and
then got down to chapter 43 of Genesis in verse 9, and he said,
I find this interesting, Genesis 43 and verse 9. Reuben spoke, or Judah spoke,
rather, in verse 8, rather, unto Israel, his father, and he said,
send the lad with me. And we will arise and go, that
we may live and not die, both we and thou, and also our little
ones. I will be surety for him, of
my hand shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee,
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame. That seems like exactly what
Reuben said, doesn't it you? But Jacob said, all right, I'll
do that. How come? Because our Lord sprang by the
purpose of God from the tribe of Judah. He must come not from
Reuben, but from Judah's tribe. The scriptures are very clear.
As surely as this chapter records the faithlessness of men, it
records the immutable faithfulness of God our Savior. Our Lord Jesus
purposed from eternity to come into this world to save sinners
of whom I am chief, the Apostle says, and he abides by his purpose
even from the beginning. Back in the earliest prophecies
and pictures and types concerning his incarnation, our Savior always
identified himself with sinners. He still does. Why does your
master eat with harlots and publicans and sinners? Because he came
to save sinners. He identifies himself with sinners
before he came, he identifies himself with sinners when he
came, and he still identifies himself with sinners. Not only
does our master eat and drink with publicans and sinners, The
12 gates of the New Jerusalem, the city of God, are named for
sinners. In Revelation chapter 21, it's
as though he names the gates of the city, sinner, sinner,
sinner, sinner, sinner, sinner. These doors are open for sinners
to come in from the four corners of the earth. Fourth, we see
here the wondrous mystery of divine providence. Once again,
our God overrules evil for good. God is always behind the scenes. Isn't that wonderful? God is
always behind the scenes. Every evil thing you see, every
evil thing you observe, every evil thing that comes to mind,
even every evil event of your own life by the making of your
own dirty hands. God's behind the scenes, ruling
everything, ruling everything. A preacher, you talk like that,
you take away man's responsibility. No, no. I acknowledge my sin. My God, I acknowledge my sin. But oh, how I thank God that
in his infinite wisdom, goodness, and grace, he overrules all the
evil that's in this world and uses it Whether it is evil of
my doing or that of the devil himself or that of any other
creature, God rules it and overrules it for the everlasting good of
his elect, for our everlasting salvation. The finger of God
controls the universe absolutely. How sweet, how blessedly sweet. How comforting, how delightfully
comforting to the believing heart it is to trace all things back
to God. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, and the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain.
The Apostle Paul, when he concludes All that he has to say in Romans
chapter 11 about Israel, and their unbelief, and their hardness,
and their stumbling over the stumbling stone, and their blindness,
and their being blinded by God, and their wickedness, and their
pursuing their wickedness, and their refusing to submit to the
righteousness of God, and going about to establish their own
righteousness. And he says as he gets close to the end of that,
He said, now that doesn't mean God's forsaken his elect. Oh,
no, no, no, no, no. All Israel shall be saved. God's
gonna save his elect, even among them. Now listen to how he concludes
the whole thing. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who hath known
the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor?
or who hath first given to him, and they shall be recompensed
unto him again. For of him, and through him,
and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Now what
do you say to that? Of him, and through him, and
to him are all things to whom be glory both now and forever. Most people say this, I won't
have a God like that. Believing sinners say this, amen. That's just the way I want it.
That's exactly as it ought to be. Fifth, not only does this
chapter give us a genealogical record of Christ's ancestors,
He shows us that our Savior's glory as a man was native to
himself. It was not a glory derived from
his ancestors. Now let me tell you what I mean
by that. Our president, Donald J. Trump, has got a family. And do you know until about six
months ago, well, make it a year ago, I didn't know any of their
names. I didn't know one of them. If
you had shown me pictures of them by themselves, I couldn't
have identified who they were. But now, I know the names of
his children, even the little one. And I recognize pictures
of them. And I know them because of their
relationship to that famous man, whether you like him or not,
Donald J. Trump, President of the United States. Their glory,
they derived from their father. Our Savior's glory as a man,
he did not derive from his parenthood. He did not derive from his ancestry,
but it is a native glory achieved by himself. The Jews proudly
boasted, they're not born of fornication, but in fact, they
were precisely born as a nation of fornication. Our Savior's
righteousness as a man was the glory of his own sinless nature
and his own perfect obedience as our substitute for which The
God of all grace, the triune Jehovah, has put all his glory
in that man. Listen to the scriptures. Our
Savior said, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self. with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was." Our Lord Jesus, by His obedience
as a man, by His obedience in perfect righteousness, and then
by His obedience unto death as our substitute, made Himself
glorious as a man, and made His people glorious in Him. One last
thing. As God dealt with Judah, So he
deals with all his elect in grace. Only in grace. Always in grace. In free, sovereign, saving grace. So that where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. Why on earth would God choose
me? Why on this earth, Merle Hart,
would God set you apart and reveal His grace in you? I'll tell you
why. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. And graciously does He overrule
and absolutely rule and overrule everything, not just in our lives,
but in the universe. to accomplish the praise of the
glory of His grace in us. Genesis 38 stands before us as
a blessed display of God's amazing, free, sovereign grace in Jesus
Christ to sinners. God's grace is not frustrated
and cannot be frustrated. God's purpose is not frustrated
and cannot be frustrated. And that which appears to human
eyes, that which appears to our thinking, that which appears
to human reason to be certainly a hindrance to grace is by God's
design. Yes, by God's design, an instrument
of grace. These things are written in the
scriptures for our learning, that we, through patience and
comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. The Son of God, the
Lord of glory, not only came down here to save sinners, he
purposed from eternity to identify himself with sinners, even in
his ancestry, through the tribe of Judah. We see Tamar's name
again in the book of Ruth. when the children of Israel are
gathered around and Ruth has given birth to a son by Boaz,
they said, Oh, let the God of Tabar bless you and multiply you. And
when our Lord Jesus came into this world, we're told in Matthew,
there's four women named in his genealogy. There's Mary, his
earthly mother, Joseph's wife. And then there's three others.
There's a woman by the name of Tamar. I'm sorry, two others, and a
woman by the name of Ruth. Through these women, God purposed
to bring his son into this world by whom we have redemption and
life and salvation. And now I see Tamar, Sister Tamar,
seated yonder on the throne. That whore, there she is, a chaste
virgin, spotless, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable. There she is.
How so? Because he who came through her
womb by God's decree, by God's design, by God's doing made her
holy, unblameable, and unreprovable. And he who is the lion of the
tribe of Judah has prevailed to open the book and to fulfill
the things written in the book and at last to present us spotless
before the presence of his glory as chaste virgins. pure, chaste
virgins, holy, unblameable, unreprovable, without spot or wrinkle or any
such thing. Oh God, thank you, thank you,
thank you for your free grace in Christ our mighty Redeemer.
Amen.