Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I'm going to be speaking this
morning from the 38th chapter of Genesis. And it is one of
the more bizarre stories in the Bible. But let me remind you,
the Lord said, you search the scriptures. In them you think
you have life and they are they which testify of me. And this passage in Genesis chapter
38 is given to testify of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in this
chapter there is disobedience, There is remarkable hypocrisy. There is incest. There is prostitution. There is deceit. This is a very
bizarre chapter. And in this, we're given a very
clear picture of how it is that God saves sinners. And let me remind you, while
all of this evil is in this chapter, God does what only God can do. God brings good out of evil. The best example of that is the
cross. What is the most evil thing to
ever take place when Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross? And what
good God brought out of that evil event, the complete salvation
of all of his people. Aren't you thankful that God
brings good out of evil? And we see this in this story. And what gives us the significance
of this story right off the bat is this is part of the genealogy
of Christ. This woman, Tamar, in this story,
who dressed up as a harlot and deceived her father-in-law, the
Christ would come through this event. She is one of five women
mentioned in the genealogy of Christ, and she is the first,
this woman, Tamar. Now, this story has a very odd
setting. It's in the... It's an intermission
in the story of Joseph. Joseph is sent down to Egypt,
and you could read Genesis 37 and 39 seamlessly, and 38 doesn't
even fit in the story. But God the Holy Spirit makes
this bizarre story, and remember, God is the author of this, all
scripture. including Genesis 38, all scripture
is given by inspiration of God. And in this story, we are given
how a sinner can be accepted by God. Now that ought to pique
our interest. Now let's read the story in Genesis
chapter 38. And it came to pass at that time
that Judah went down from his brethren. Now Judah is the one
through whom the Christ would come. He is called, the Lord
Jesus is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Judah was the
fourth son, yet the Christ would come through Judah. Now Judah has just left his brethren. They have just sold Joseph into
Egypt. And perhaps Judah, it was his
idea to sell him. Perhaps he was doing that to
deliver him, deliver his brother Joseph from his bloodthirsty
brethren. Perhaps he was just taken up
by seeing his father mourn. He said his father would mourn
all the way to the grave, but he leaves his brethren and he
goes into the land of Canaan. And it came to pass at that time
that Judah went down from his brethren and turned unto a certain
Adulamite whose name was Hira. And Judah saw there a daughter
of a certain Canaanite." Now, before I go on, the children
of Israel, the children of Abraham, were forbidden to marry Canaanites. And when that happened, there
would be great grief. And it was wrong, but Judah did
it anyway. And Judah saw there a daughter
of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shuah. The father's
name was Shuah. We're not even given the name
of this woman that Judah saw. And the Scripture says, he saw
her, he took her, and he went in unto her, and she became his
wife. And she conceived and bare a
son and called his name Eir. And she conceived again and bare
a son and called his name Onan. And she yet again conceived and
bare a son and called his name Shelah. And he, Judah, was at
Jezeb when she bare him." He wasn't even there for this birth
of the third child. Verse six, And Judah took a wife
for heir, his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. Now Judah selected
a wife for his firstborn son, Tamar. Now remember, it's through
this woman that the Christ would come. And she is the first woman
mentioned in the genealogies of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
then we read in Air, this is the man that Judah selected this
woman Tamar for. And Air, Judah's firstborn, was
wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. Now we're
not told what Air did, but we're told what the Lord did. The Lord
slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, this
was the secondborn, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry
her, and raise up seed to thy brother." Now, this is the way
it was done back then. If you died without an heir,
your brother would come in to the wife and raise up seed so
your property could be preserved. And Onan knew that the seed should
not be his, and it came to pass when he went in unto his brother's
wife that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give
seed to his brother. He did not want to have this
child because he knew it would not be his. Perhaps he thought,
I'll have more inheritance if I don't have this child. So he
did this, and the thing which he did displeased the Lord, wherefore
he flew him also. Now, Judah's first two sons,
in their connection with Tamar, had been put to death. And I
think Jude is thinking, Tamar's with my first born, he's killed.
Tamar's with my second born, he's killed. Tamar is the problem. Then Judah said to Tamar, his
daughter-in-law, remain a widow at thy father's house till Sheila,
my son, be grown. For he said, lest peradventure
he die also as his brethren did." I don't think he had any intention
of giving Tamar to his third son because he's afraid he would
be killed. And Tamar went and dwelt in her
father's house. And in process of time, the daughter
of Shuah, Judah's wife, died. This woman who bore him three
sons, died, and Judah was comforter. The time of mourning was over,
and he went up unto his sheep shears to Timnath, he and his
friend Hira the Adullamite. And it was told Tamar, saying,
Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. And she remembered that she should
be getting his third-born son. It had not happened. So she comes
up with a plan, this plan of deceit. Verse 14, 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 the wife. She saw that Judah
had not been honest with her and had not fulfilled his responsibility
toward her. And she was left without any
children. Now, when Judah saw her, he thought
her to be an harlot. He did not know this was his
daughter-in-law, her face was covered up, and he thought her
to be a harlot because she'd covered her face. And he turned
unto her, by the way, and said, go to, I pray thee, let me come
in unto thee. He's asking her, for her to do
her job as a harlot. For he knew not that she was
his daughter-in-law. And she said, what wilt thou
give me that thou mayest come into me? What are you going to
pay? And he said, verse 17, I'll send thee a kid from the flock.
That's my payment. And she said, what would thou
give me a pledge till thou send it? I'm not going to take this
on face value. You're going to have to give me a pledge that
makes me know I'm going to receive my payment. And he said, Judah
said to her, remember, he still doesn't know this as his daughter-in-law.
He thinks she's a harlot. And he said, what pledge shall
I give thee? And she said, thy signet, thy bracelets and thy
staff that's in thy hand. Now his signet was his seal of
identification. It was his signature. It's who
he was. This could be put and waxed as
his seal. This is Judah. The bracelet was
the rope that tied it around his neck that kept it on him.
His staff was what he walked by. Now what she is asking for
is his identification. I want your signet, I want your
bracelet, your rope that holds it around your neck, and I want
your staff that you walk by. That will be my pledge. Now that would be like getting
someone's social security number, their passport, and their driver's
license. If they have all that, they have
your identity. She asked for his identity. And he gave it to her and came
in into her and she conceived by him. I think that's what she
wanted all along. And he still didn't know this
was his daughter-in-law. She conceived by him and she arose
and went away and laid by her veil from her and put on the
garment of her widowhood. She went back to what she was
and had the garment of her widowhood on. 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. He had the kid, there was
no woman there to be found. And he asked the men of that
place saying, where's 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. Nobody
knows what you're talking about. And Judah said, let her take
it to her. Let her keep them then. Lest
we be shamed. Behold, I sent this kid and thou
has not found her. It came to pass about three months
after this, after this event that took place, three months
later, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar, thy daughter-in-law,
hath played the harlot. It was found out that she was
pregnant. 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." He was
so enraged at the immorality of this woman that he said, bring
her forth, burn her at the stake. She does not deserve to live. Now what hypocrisy on Judah's
part. He's the one who impregnated
her. And when he finds out she's pregnant, he doesn't know he
impregnated her. When he finds out that she is
conceived and was with a child, let her be burnt. I think of
that scripture, Romans chapter two, verse one, therefore thou
art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest, for thou
that judgest doest the same things. Judah was greatly guilty in this
matter, but he's like us. He can justify himself. He sees
the sin clearly in others and that they need to be condemned,
but he's quick to justify himself. But then what does she do? Verse
25, when she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law
saying, by the man whose these are, I am with child. And she said, discern, I pray
thee, whose are these, the signet and bracelets and staff? And
Judah looked at that signet and knew it was his. That was his
identification. That was his bracelet. That was
his staff. And Judah acknowledged them and
said, she has been more righteous than I because that I gave her
not to Sheila, my son. And he knew her again, no more. Now he's saying what she did
was wrong, but what I did was wrong. She is more righteous
than I. Now, as you see from this story,
there is so much sin involved. The disobedience of Judah coming
into a woman from Canaan. And look at the wicked children
that were born from this union. Two of them were so wicked, the
Lord killed them instantly in a miraculous judgment. He didn't
let them go through the course of life. And we have Judah doing
wrong by Tamar. He should have given her his
third son, but he would not do it because he was afraid she
would be killed. Judah can't be justified in his
actions. We have Judah going into a harlot.
At sin now, it was sin then. There wasn't anything righteous
about it. There wasn't anything innocent
about Judah. He was wrong in what he did.
And then he expressed such hypocrisy when he found out that she was
with child, and she said, bring her out and let her be burnt,
when he was the one who was responsible for this. And oh, the deceitfulness
of this woman in this plan, deceiving her father-in-law and acting
like a harlot and conceiving, and this was always her plan
all along. Now, this is a story filled with
sin, deceit, hypocrisy, disobedience, incest, prostitution. It's a bad story. It's a seedy
story. Now, somebody says, where's the
gospel in all this? Well, first of all, the gospel
is in the seed, the promised seed, the seed of Abraham, the
seed of Isaac, the seed of Jacob, the seed of Judah, coming through
this woman, Tamar. And I think it's so interesting
in the genealogy of Christ, you have Tamar, this act of sin,
You have Rahab. She was a harlot. You have Bathsheba. She was the one who committed
adultery with David. You have Ruth, she was the product
of an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters. You have all kinds of really
scandal, and yet the Lord comes through this to let us know that
salvation really is by grace. And through this event, the Lord
Jesus Christ comes. Isn't that beautiful? Oh, he's
so gracious. He brings good out of evil. But here is where we see the
gospel. This woman, Tamar, is a sinful,
deceitful woman. She's caught in her She is with
child by whoredoms, the scripture says, and when she's to be burnt,
what is the one thing that kept her from being burned at the
stake? She had Judah's identification. She had Judah's identification. Now, if I'm going to be saved,
the only way I'll be saved is if I have Christ's identification. When God the Father sees me,
It's only as he sees me in Christ, so that all he sees is Christ
and his identification. This woman had Judah's signet,
his seal, his signature. She had his staff, that by which
he walked. She was saved because she had
the identification of Judah. Now in this, we have a beautiful
picture of how God saves sinners. If I'm saved, it's because not
any goodness in me, not any merit in me, not any worthiness in
me, It's because I am identified with the Lord Jesus Christ so
that all God sees is Jesus Christ. He sees his identity. Now, somebody
says, how can that be? How could it be that I could
have the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ? You can have the
identity of Christ if he took your identity. Now, what is meant
by that? On the cross, Christ took the
identity of his people. He came to save his people from
their sins, and on the cross, Christ took the identity of his
people. Now I want to show you that from
the scripture, from Psalm 69. We read in Psalm 69 verse 21,
they gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave
me vinegar to drink. Now we know that as Christ speaking
from the cross, don't we? This is preeminently a Psalm
of the cross. This is quoted several times
in the New Testament as speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
in this Psalm, David says, speaking prophetically, as Christ from
the cross, save me, oh God, for the waters are coming to my soul.
I sink in deep mire where there's no standing. I'm coming to deep
waters where the floods overflow me. I'm weary of my crying, my
throat is dried, my eyes fail when I wait for my God. This
is Christ speaking from the cross. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of my head. This is quoted in John
chapter 15 regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. They that would
destroy me being my enemies wrongfully are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. This is Christ speaking from
the cross. Now listen to this. Oh God, thou knowest my foolishness. and my sin is not hid from thee." Notice he did not say the foolishness
of Todd Nybert, which is charged to my account. He doesn't say
the sin of Todd Nybert, which is imputed to me. He said, thou
knowest my foolishness. And my sins are not hid from
thee. Now, how can that be? He never sinned. He did no sin. He knew no sin. In him is no
sin. He never sinned even while he
was on the cross. Second Corinthians 521, one of
the most significant verses in all the scripture. For he, God
the Father, hath made him, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be sin. Who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. He took my identity, my sin,
and God poured his wrath out upon him because he was made
sin. He took my identity. He called my foolishness, his
foolishness. He called my sin, his sin. He took my identity. He bore what I deserved on Calvary's
tree. And just as truly as he took
my identity, I'm given his identity. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Here's my identity, the righteousness
of God. My fingerprints aren't on this.
This is not about my anything. This is not about my preaching
or my witnessing or my battle with sin or my understanding
or my faith or my repentance. This is talking about the very
righteousness of God being my personal righteousness, my identity. Now, I want to ask you a question. Are you satisfied? to have no
identity but the identity of Jesus Christ. Are you satisfied for when God
looks at you, all he sees is his son? Are you satisfied with
that? Or would you like to add a little
of yourself to it? Would you like to add a little
bit of your experience and your progress and your growth and
your suffering and your battle with sin and your acceptance
of him, your acceptance of the author? Is your fingerprints
added? Do you want that in any way? I don't. Now let me show you
this from the scripture. Paul said in Philippians chapter
three, verses eight and nine, Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in him. When God comes looking for me,
I don't want him to find me praying or reading the Bible or witnessing
or in self-denial. I don't want him to find me in
anything but in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that all God sees
is Jesus Christ, so that I have the identity of Christ only. Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of
the law. I don't want to stand in my obedience. I don't want to stand with anything
with my fingerprints on it. not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith. Now, what is it that saved Tamar? She had the identity of Judah. What is it that will save any
sinner who is saved? They have the identity of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They have His perfect righteousness,
His law-keeping, His steps, His walk. Everything that Christ
is, is perfect. given to the believer. And that's
why God can look at them and say, well done, thou good and
faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord, because Christ did well. And every believer has his identity. So in this story, As bizarre
as it may be, we have the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is Todd Nyberg, praying that God will be pleased to make Himself
known to you. That's our prayer. Amen. To receive
a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send your request
to todd.nyberg at gmail.com, or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen. Hmm.