Too Far Gone? Never!- Genesis 38

Well, this week we're looking at Genesis 38,

so you can go ahead and turn back to Genesis

38. But I wanted to start off by reading the

genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1. Because

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

Genesis 38 is kind of a hard passage, if we're

honest. It's kind of the type of a passage that

we see come up in our Bible reading plan in January,

right around January 19th, January 20th. And

you kind of think, do I have to read that chapter?

What happens if I just skip over that chapter?

Or maybe we think, why is that chapter even in

the Bible? Like, why did we need to hear this?

But as hard as some of the events of Genesis

38 can be, and we're just going to take those

head on today, as hard as that can be, I want

us to remember where this is all pointing towards.

And it's all pointing towards Matthew chapter

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

1. It's all pointing towards what happens after

Genesis 38. Because Genesis 38 is a hard chapter.

It's not a good chapter. It's not a chapter where

we're going to leave and be like, wow, what we

saw today was a lot of righteousness. But it

does point us to our need for a Savior and then

ultimately to the fulfillment of who our Savior

will be. And so as we look at Genesis chapter

Genesis 38 · chapter mention

38, I want us to keep that in mind, that we need

to understand this passage. We need to study

this passage. We need to look at this passage

because, A, it is God's Word. And we know from

2 Timothy that all of God's Word is useful. All

of God's Word matters. All of it teaches us,

corrects us, rebukes us, and trains us. But secondly,

it matters because it shows us some really important

lessons about how God works in our own lives.

One of the biggest things we're going to see

throughout this passage today is kind of a cycle

of shame. I want to start off by just addressing

shame head -on. See, shame is what happens when

we take guilt that the Holy Spirit gives us,

and instead of going to God in repentance, we

let that guilt push us away from God. Because

what shame does is three things. Shame drives

us away from God. It drives us away from a Christian

community that can care for us and support us.

And most importantly, I'd argue, it drives us

away from the gospel or the truth that Jesus

has paid the price. And all of shame starts with

sin and us not handling sin well. And as shame

or sin starts to turn to shame, we lose sight

of the truth. We lose sight of what God is, who

God is, God's love for us, God's forgiveness

for us. We lose sight of the fact that we are

not the only sinners in the world. I don't know

if you've ever felt that way, that you sit and

you're like, I am the only person to ever do

that. If you're a husband, you probably understand

this. When I first got married, I remember being

really upset about kind of a disagreement that

I'd started with my wife, and it was my fault,

and I have no shame in saying that. I remember

being really defeated, and I went in to one of

the elders in my church. I was like, I'm the

worst husband out there. He goes, well, he said

last night was hard. He goes, Friday night, my

wife and I got in a huge fight. Oh. oh, I'm not

the only one that does this. But see, what shame

does is it tells us we are the only people who

do this, so it drives us away from God, away

from other people, away from community, and drives

us away from the gospel, the fact that we are

forgiven. And today what we see is the effects

of shame when it's left unchecked, because all

of the events of Genesis 38 all really start

with the fact that Judah makes some terrible

decisions in Genesis chapter 37. And we're going

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

to see that in Genesis 38 .1 and why I say that

it all starts in Genesis 37. But it starts with

Judah's terrible decision that he makes. And

instead of it just stopping there, it continues

on with more and more terrible decisions he makes

that are far away from God. And so yeah, the

passage today, I'm just going to be honest, is

kind of a hard passage. It's not a passage that

in seminary you sit there and you're like, I

cannot wait until I get to preach Genesis 38

to my church. But it's an important passage.

It's a passage that we need to understand because

it shows us the greatness of God. And that's

really what our main point is today. Our main

point this morning is that God can use our greatest

mistakes for His glory. God can use our greatest

mistakes for His glory. We've all made those

mistakes. We've all had those mistakes that might

be popping in our head right now where we think,

that is really a bad decision that I made. That

was a bad choice that I made. I don't know if

maybe that put me a little too far away from

God. Let me encourage you, this passage is going

to show you that God can use our greatest mistakes

that we make for His glory. God doesn't abandon

us when we make those mistakes. God uses them

for His glory and for His kingdom. So as you

jump into Genesis 38, let me invite you to look

along as I read verses 1 through 5 for us. It

says this, There you go. That's why I think this

all comes out of shame, because right after they

sell his brother into slavery, he gets up and

he leaves. At that time, Judah left his brothers,

and he settled near an Adolamite named Hira.

And there Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite

named Shua, and he took her as his wife and slept

with her. And she conceived and gave birth to

a son, and he named him Ur. And she conceived

again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan.

And then some time passes, and she gave birth

to another son and named him Shelah. And it was

at Kezeb that she gave birth to him. So those

five verses kind of give us the context of today's

passage. In verse 1, we see that Judah leaves

his brothers behind. Now the timing can be a

little confusing. Some people want to turn this

into Judah leaves before the events of Genesis

37. Listen, the simple reading is the best reading.

The simple reading is as this whole thing is

going on, right after they sell their brother,

Judah goes and leaves his family. Here's two

parts to this. One, he is an older brother. He's

not the oldest brother. So he wants to go try

and build a life for himself, build a reputation

for himself, build his own wealth. Here's the

second reason. If you think back to Genesis 37,

what we saw last week, the brothers are going

to throw Joseph into a pit, maybe kill him, maybe

just leave him there for a while. And Judah's

the one who comes up with this idea to sell him

into slavery. He says, hold on, there's some

guys coming, let's sell them. And then they all

walk out of there about $27 richer. And I'm not

making that number up. And I think there's a

certain level of guilt that Judah has, and we

see that again in Genesis 45, that this comes

up again, that Judah carries this event from

Genesis 37 with him. This event gives him shame.

It makes him feel embarrassed. He regrets his

decision. So he moves off to Canaan, the land

around where his family lives, and he starts

to live with the Canaanites, or in other words,

people who do not follow God. He finds a wife

named Shua. They have three sons. And understand

this, this really matters in Genesis 38, 1 through

5. Even though the Mosaic or the Old Testament

law has not been established yet, Abraham and

his descendants did not intermarry with the Canaanites,

because the Canaanite people worshipped a pantheon

of idols rather than Yahweh. They did not worship

God, and so Abraham and his descendants did not

intermarry with these people. It had terrible

consequences when they tried, like Genesis 34,

which we don't have time to look at today. But

this decision to intermarry rather than going

back to his father's homeland and his grandparents'

homeland, really shows us where Judah is. I'd

say there's three things that we will learn about

Judah today in this passage. First, at the time

of the events of Genesis 38, Judah does not walk

with God. Judah does not know God. Judah does

not care to follow God. Judah does not walk with

God. Secondly, Judah, like his other brothers,

falls short over and over. If you've been with

us the last couple of weeks, we've used the phrase

sin snowball. Sin snowballs. It grows and grows

and grows. That happens again in this passage.

Sin will continue to snowball in this passage.

Here's the third thing I'll say. Judah has no

idea who he is. Judah has no idea of the identity

that God has given to him. Judah sees himself

as somebody who's just trying to figure out what

comes next in life. You know, I just sold my

brother into slavery. What comes next? Well,

see, that's a pretty wild thing to say that out

loud, but it's also what's just happened. And

Judah has no idea of what comes next. He has

no idea what it means to be a follower of God

or to be made in God's image. That's not something

that he's grasped. So we're going to see those

three things all at work today. Essentially,

what it looks like when we live a life that does

not follow God. Secondly, what happens when we

sin and we let sin grow and grow and grow. And

finally, what happens and what happens to us

when our identity is not found rooted in God.

And so in those first five verses, we see that

Judah is left behind everything that points him

to God. Everything that would point him towards

God and help him to walk in a way that is honoring

to God has been left behind. But redemption can

only come after failure. And Judah is a great

and powerful example of God's redemptive nature

that no one is ever too far gone for God to save.

Let's look at Genesis 38, 6 -10. We're going

to see the sins of Judah's son. So it says, Judah

got a wife for Ur, his firstborn, and her name

was Tamar. So now we're a little bit in the future.

Ur's grown up a little bit. He's probably 18

to 20. It says, Now Ur, Judah's firstborn, was

evil in the Lord's sight, and so the Lord put

him to death. And then Judah said to Onan, Sleep

with your brother's wife. This is cultural, okay?

Perform your duty as her brother -in -law and

produce offspring for your brother. But Onan

knew that the offspring would not be his, so

whenever he slept with his brother's wife, he

released his semen on the ground so that he would

not produce offspring for his brother. What he

did was evil in the Lord's sight, so he put him

to death also. I told you, this is not the most

comfortable passage out there. But it matters

that we just take it head on. We see the sin

that goes on in this chapter. So you see that

Ur grows up to be old enough to marry. Judah

finds him a wife, a Canaanite, just like his

own wife. This Canaanite's named Tamar, and Tamar

marries Ur. But God sees Ur, and God declares

that Ur is evil. The consequence for Ur's sin

is death. Now listen, let's be just very blunt

on this. We have no context for what Ur does.

There's not like seven missing verses that lay

out a list of things he does wrong. Here's what

we need to understand. Ur is evil, and our perfect,

holy, and just God kills him over his sin. That's

really enough of an explanation for us. That's

the consequence for his sin. But if we zoom out

from that consequence for a second, we will continue

to see how sin has consequences on a much larger

scale. Let's put ourselves in Judah's shoes for

a second. Judah, father of Ur, has just lost

his firstborn child. obviously he's going to

be mourning. That's hard. It's hard to lose a

child. I've never experienced that. And Lord,

I never will experience that, but I've heard

it's very hard. But at the same time, we also

see this snowball of sin from Judah's decisions.

Because Judah has removed himself from everyone

around his family that could point them towards

God and could help be a good influence on her

and help him to grow up to honor God and follow

God. He sinned by not raising his family to follow

God. That's why God has Moses emphasize this

Canaanite wife in Genesis 38. It shows how far

Judah is slipping away from God. So Judah is

absolutely justified to be sad. It's absolutely

a tragic situation, but we also cannot ignore

what Proverbs 22, 6 says, where it says, Now,

of course, at the end of the day, Ur bears his

own responsibility for sin, but we also have

to admit that Judah does not train him up in

obedience. Sin snowballs, and sin has consequences.

One of the consequences of Judah's sin is Ur

not growing up knowing God. One of the consequences

of Ur's sin is Judah losing his son. And after

Ur dies, Judah sends Onan in to go have a child

with Tamar. Now, this was a culturally normal

thing to do, okay? This was a practice designed

to make sure that Tamar would receive the inheritance

that Ur was supposed to have. Ur was the firstborn

son. It was important that the line carried on.

It's weird to us. I know it sounds uncomfortable

to us. That was cultural. It was normal for them.

But Onan doesn't do that. Instead, Onan does

everything he can do to avoid giving Tamar a

son. We could simplify it down like this. Onan

uses her and leaves her in a vulnerable position.

See, at the end of the day, the biggest issue

going on here is that Onan is being very selfish.

There's jealousy at play because the child that

would be born by Tamar is not his own child in

the view of the law. But if Tamar never has a

son, Then Onan gets the entire inheritance of

his father, who at this point is wealthy. Onan

wants to keep his position as the oldest son,

while also getting to use Tamar selfishly. And

God sees this going on, and it says that it is

evil in the Lord's sight, so God punishes Onan

by killing him. Again, what do we see? We see

sin start to snowball. Sin's spreading. It's

contagious. It's like a disease. Now, at this

point, we're left with a situation. It's a little

unique. It's a little different. Tamar still

needs to have a son, and Shelah should be responsible

for this once he's old enough. And culturally,

Judah should keep Tamar in his house and provide

for her until Shelah is ready for this role,

the situation he's going to take on as a brother.

But look at verses 11 through 13 with me, and

we're going to see what Judah does instead. It

says, then Judah said to his daughter -in -law

Tamar, remain a widow in your father's house

until my son Shelah grows up. For he thought,

he might die too, like his brothers. So Tamar

went to live in her father's house. After a long

time, Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died.

When Judah had finished mourning, he and his

friend Hira the Adolamite went up to Timnah to

his sheep shearers. And Tamar was told, your

father -in -law is going up to Timnah to shear

his sheep. Let's stop right there. So Judah,

instead of providing for his daughter -in -law,

as he should do, as he should do as supposedly

a man of God, a man who loves God, at least grew

up supposedly loving God, should provide for

her. But he doesn't. Instead, he has no plans

to provide for Tamar. He sends her back to her

father's house, and he goes one step further

there in verse 11. For he thought he, being Shelah,

might die too like his brothers. He wants Tamar

gone. He wants her out of the picture. He's publicly

humiliating her and making it so that she will

not be provided for. Friends, I want you to see

how deep of a sin this is. I know in culture

that might sound a little bit strange. If something

were to happen to me in American culture, my

father is not expected to provide for my wife.

That's not how that works. That's why we have

life insurance. But in this culture, that was

the expectation. It wasn't a choice. It wasn't

optional. It wasn't, if you're a really good

guy, this is what you'll do. That was the expectation

of everybody, whether you were a follower of

God or if you were a Canaanite worshiping all

the idols and sacrificing your children like

they did. The expectation was you would provide

for your daughter -in -law if she was a widow.

And Judah doesn't do it. He wants her gone. It's

humiliating for everyone, really. So then in

verse 12, we see the passage of time. Judah's

wife dies. Judah mourns this, and then he goes

up to take care of his sheep in Timnah. Now,

he's hired people for this. Obviously, he's built

wealth again. God's been with him and provided

this wealth. But don't miss this part of verse

12. A long time's gone on. Shelah's grown up

at this point. But has Judah called Tamar back?

No. No. It doesn't say, well, then Judah's wife

died, but then Judah decided to have Tamar come

back and marry Shelah and provide for her. No.

No, instead Judah's actions in verse 12 show

that he cares more about himself than anybody

else in this entire passage. The fact that he's

hired sheep shearers means that he absolutely

could have provided for her. If he can pay salary

for other men, he can absolutely provide for

his daughter -in -law. But he doesn't want to.

He wants his wealth and his reputation to be

big. And I want you to see that Judah's digging

himself quite the problem through this series

of poor decisions. But it's not just Judah that

does this. We do this too. We tell that first

lie, and then that second lie, and the third

one. We get mad that one day, and we yell at

that person. And the next day comes out a little

bit easier, and a little easier. By the end of

the month, we've dug ourselves a pit of a broken

relationship. Sin snowballs into more sin, and

like we've seen over the last two weeks, sin

also becomes bigger and bigger over time. Friends,

I can't help but with this passage think about

something like sexual sin that we do encounter

in our world. I won't go into graphic detail,

but so often when you talk to people who commit

truly heinous crimes in that area, and you ask

them what was kind of the starting place for

this whole thing, it starts with something small.

It starts with one sin. It starts with I went

to that website one time. I watched this one

thing that one time. I had this one conversation.

I did this one thing. And then it begins to snowball

over and over and over, and it becomes bigger

and bigger and bigger. And that's what's going

on in Judah's life right now. He sinned once,

he sins again, he sinned again, and it's becoming

bigger and bigger and bigger. The stakes are

getting higher and higher and higher. And in

verses 14 through 19, we're going to see his

sin build even more. So Tamar has been told her

father -in -law is going up to go shear his sheep.

Listen to what Tamar decides to do. It says,

so she took off her widow's clothes, veiled her

face, covered herself, and sat at the entrance

to Enim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she

saw that though Sheila had grown up, she had

not been given to him as a wife. When Judah saw

her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she

had covered her face. Let me give you a guess

as to what comes next. He went over to her and

said, come, let me sleep with you. For he did

not know that she was his daughter -in -law.

And she said, what will you give me for sleeping

with me? I'll send you a young goat for my flock,

he replied. But she said, only if you leave something

with me until you send it. What should I give

you, he asked. And she answered, your signet

ring. That's your way of identifying yourself

if you're wealthy and influential. So give me

your, essentially, driver's license and passport,

your cord, and your staff. Give me everything

that defines you as Judah. Give it to me. So

he gave them to her and slept with her and she

became pregnant by him. And she got up and left

and then removed her veil and put her widow's

clothes back on. Sexual morality rips people

apart. Please hear that in Genesis 38. Tamar

sees that she's been abandoned so she takes matters

into her own hands. It's a pretty humiliating

thing for Judah, as we'll see later on in this

passage. And if I'm honest with you, this is

the hardest part of the chapter for me because

Judah descends even further away from God. Judah,

who would have been taught that marriage is between

a man and a woman, but that sex should stay inside

of marriage, goes to a pagan prostitute on the

side of the road. and sleeps with, as it turns

out, his daughter -in -law in exchange for one

single goat. Now there's something that's really

important to Tamar. See, Tamar wants to be paid

with something that he doesn't have with him.

Because she knows what the plan is with this.

And so he gets the signet ring, cord, and staff

in his hand to ensure payment. Like I said, a

signet ring was the most significant identifier

that someone could have. But the cord and the

staff are really close behind. The cord goes

around his garments and shows that he's Judah.

The staff is what he walks with. It's a sign

of his wealth. And she's taken all of that in

this situation and gives these to her. They do

what they do. She leaves. She changes back into

her widow's clothes and goes back to her father's

house. But the situation isn't over yet. Remember,

Judah still hasn't actually paid her with this

one young goat. So look at verses 20 through

23. It says, when Judah sent the young goat by

his friend the Adalamite, so Judah can't even

be troubled to go with this goat, mind you. Judah

sent somebody else's friend to go pay this prostitute.

In order to get back the items he had left with

the woman, he could not find her. Why? Because

Tamar's not hanging out there. He asked the men

of the place, where is the cult prostitute who's

beside the road at Enam? There has been no called

prostitute here, they answered. So the Adalamite

returned to Judah saying, I couldn't find her.

And besides, the men of the place said, there

has been no called prostitute here. Listen to

Judah's response to this. Judah replied, let

her keep the items for herself. Otherwise, we,

now he's roping his friend into this whole situation,

we will become a laughingstock. What's Judah's

concern in this? It's not, am I following God?

Am I living a holy life? His concern is, I don't

want to become a laughingstock. He says this,

after all, I did send her this young goat. After

all, I tried to pay. You, the Adulamite, just

couldn't find her. Friends, this is another example

of sin snowballing. That now Judah has this mindset

of trying to blame all of this on somebody else.

It's not his fault that he can't find Tamar.

No, no, it's the Adelamites' fault. It's not

his fault that he can't pay what he owes. It's

the Adelamites' fault. It's the men of the town's

fault. They couldn't give him the instructions

and the location. And he does all of this. He

wants her to keep the ring, keep the identifiers,

keep him, essentially, so that he doesn't become

a laughingstock to the community. That's his

only concern in this whole thing. It's self -preservation

at its core. Sin has grown, sin's taken root,

it's caused major issues, and there is a consequence

to all of this sin, and we're about to see it

in verses 24 through 26. So let's look at those

together to see this consequence. About three

months later, Judah was told, notice this, who

we're about to talk about, Tamar, Judah was told,

he hasn't seen Tamar ever, Judah was told, your

daughter -in -law Tamar has been acting like

a prostitute, and now she's pregnant. Bring her

out, Judah said, and let her be burned to death.

And as she was being brought out, she sent her

father -in -law this message. I am pregnant by

the man to whom these items belong. And she had

to examine them. Whose signet ring, cord, and

staff are these? So Judah recognized them and

said, she is more in the right than I, since

I did not give her to my son, Shelah. I did not

know her intimately again. So Judah hears that

Tamar is pregnant. Notice that again. Hears it.

Doesn't see it. He hears it because he's not

providing. He's not taking on the role he's supposed

to have. Okay, he's sinning in this point. So

he hears this through the rumor mill, essentially.

He hears that she's been acting like a prostitute,

and he wants her burned to death. He wants her

killed over this. And in his selfishness, he

refuses to believe that he has any part to play

in this, even though he knows full well that

he did not give Sheila to her, nor did he choose

to provide for her. In this culture, he has doomed

her to a life of two choices, as a widow with

no offspring. She can be a beggar or she can

be a prostitute. So friends, understand how ridiculous

this is that then Judah's immediate response

is, bring her out, let's burn her. Not, hey,

this is really bad. This is a really bad situation,

but let me take a step back and see, hey, actually,

I messed up too. You know, I fell short in this.

I didn't provide for, okay, this is a messed

up world we live in. No, no. So she's brought

out to die. She's brought to be killed by her

father -in -law, who's left her out to die quite

literally before. She pulls out a signet ring,

cord, and the staff of Judah and says, listen,

the man who owns these things, that's the father.

Judah takes a look at them. He recognizes them.

They're his. And at that moment, at that exact

moment, something starts to click in Judah. See,

for the first time in his life, the first time

recorded in Scripture, Judah doesn't try to outrun

his sin. He doesn't try to cover this up. He

doesn't get angry and say, well, somebody stole

those from me. He doesn't try to sell her into

slavery to the Egyptians like he did with his

brother. For the first time in Scripture, Judah

stops, and he owns it. He owns up. He says, she

is more in the right, or literally, she is more

righteous than I am. It's also the first time

you ever see Judah use the word righteous. Something

clicks in his head in that exact moment. Hey,

this is on me. This is my fault. And Judah starts

to take responsibility. I really hate the phrase

man up, but that's what Judah starts to do here.

He mans up. He owns it. His actions have consequences.

He accepts the consequences. He owns that he

withheld Sheila from her. And then Judah proceeds

to make this as right as he can. Now, the Bible

is not just giving us details. but for lack of

a more delicate term, Judah's sex life in verse

26. It's showing us that Judah provides for her

and takes care of her. When it says, and he did

not know her intimately again, it's also saying

that Judah's providing for her and her son. Judah

has, in essence, filled the role that his son

Ur and then Onan should have provided for. Guys,

this is a low point for Judah. You know, Judah

just a couple verses earlier said, I don't want

to be a laughingstock in the town. That would

be bad if I was the laughingstock of our town.

I can promise you Judah is now the laughingstock

of his town because he's the guy who tried to

kill his daughter -in -law for being a prostitute

just to find out that he was the guy that she

slept with. But it's not over yet. We've seen

a lot of the negative effects of sin today. And

the first 26 verses of this chapter are heartbreaking.

and they are hard. There's a reason that I made

that comment, January 19th being the day that

you're like, can I just skip that and move on

to chapter 39? But last week we talked about

how one thing, one thing in the entire world

can stop the sin snowball and the negative effects

of sin. And that something is God. And in verses

27 through 30, we're going to see how God's going

to take all of this, all of this evil, all of

this sin, and He's going to use it for His purposes,

for His glory. We're going to see how God can

take our greatest mistakes and use it for His

glory. Let's look at verses 27 through 30. It

says, When the time came for her to give birth,

there were twins in her womb. And as she was

giving birth, one of them put out his hand, and

the midwife took it and tied a scarlet thread

around it, announcing, This one came out first.

But then he pulled his hand back and out came

his brother. And she said, what a breakout you

have made for yourself. So he was named Perez.

Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread

tied to his hand, came out and was named Zerah.

So in verses 27 through 30, we see that Tamar

gives birth to twins, Perez and Zerah, and we

will not get into the weeds of how they're born.

But that's because I want us to go right back

to where we started off. Right back to where

we started. Because at the end of the day, verses

27 and 30 are showing us how God takes all of

this sin and is going to use it for his glory

and for his purpose. And we see that in Matthew

Matthew 1:3

1, verse 3. It says, Judah fathered Perez and

Zerah by Tamar. Perez fathered Hezron. Hezron

fathered Aram. And so on and so forth. And the

genealogy of Jesus, the most important genealogy

that we could ever have. We see that God uses

Judah and Tamar despite everything that has gone

on. Despite the depths of Judah's sin, despite

his humiliation of his daughter -in -law, despite

his sin over and over and over again, God still

uses him. God doesn't abandon them. Instead,

God overcomes the preconceived notions that this

world would have put on both of them and includes

both of them in the genealogy of Jesus. Because

I don't know about you, but if it was me, I probably

would have picked a different brother at this

point. Ben, like Judah, you were going to be

in the line of the Savior of the world. Not anymore,

dude. Like, try being a little more normal. That's

not what God does. God overcomes that preconceived

notion that we have and includes both of them

in the genealogy of Jesus. Listen, it is really

easy for us to look at our lives. to look at

the mistakes that we've made, at the sins we've

committed, and to think, how could God ever use

me? Why would God ever use me? Let this be a

passage that reminds you that God can and still

will use you. Or maybe on the other hand, you're

not sitting here today struck by your own sin.

Maybe you're thinking, I've been hurt so much.

People have abandoned me. They've taken advantage

of me. Life has been really hard and honestly

pretty miserable. And I've been hurt really badly

by other people's sin. then let me encourage

you to let this passage be a passage that reminds

you that Jesus is not finished yet. God is not

done with you yet. The story is not over. For

Tamar, when we leave her on that verse 10 part,

when she gets sent over in verse 11 to live with

her father, her life seems over. Sin has hurt

her in serious ways. It's had a huge effect on

her. God's not done yet. And if you're here today

and you are hurting, if you feel like you've

been abandoned in this world, then I want you

to hear that too. God's not finished with your

story yet. I want us to transition and spend

a few minutes on just some very practical ways

that we can apply this passage to our lives.

Let's start off with our first one today. You

are never too far gone. You are never too far

gone. If we just stopped our understanding of

Judah's life in Genesis 38, pretending the New

Testament didn't exist, we think, well, that's

cool that he had a couple sons and carried on

the family line for his daughter -in -law. That's

great. But, you know, whatever. But God's not

done with Judah yet. There's a couple things,

a little bit of foreshadowing that I'll give

us. In Genesis 45, Judah becomes one of the first

people to just offer themselves as a sacrifice.

to take the place of somebody else, to be a substitutionary

lamb, so to speak, for somebody else's life,

foreshadowing one of his later descendants. Then

if you go to Genesis 49, I've referenced this

passage before, but in Genesis 49, verses 10

Genesis 49:10–12

through 12, we read this promise made by God

to Judah. It says, the scepter will not depart

from Judah or the staff from between his feet

until he whose right it is comes and the obedience

of the peoples belongs to him. He ties his donkey

to a vine and the colt of his donkey to the choice

vine. He washes his clothes in wine and his robes

and the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker

than wine and his teeth are whiter than milk.

Friends, that is the promise of a Savior who

will come. That is the promise from God to Judah.

Judah, the same man who does all of this. That

that promised Savior we all need is going to

come through his family line. That despite all

of the failures of Judah, and there's been many.

I mean, let's just even back up to Genesis 37

for a second. The failure of choosing to sell

your own brother into slavery. It's a pretty

big one. Despite all of that, that God is still

going to use Judah. Now, how is that Genesis

49 passage fulfilled? You see that in 1 Peter

2. It says, For you are called to this because

Christ also suffered for you, leaving you examples

that you should follow in his footsteps. He did

not commit sin, and no deceit was found in his

mouth. And when he was insulted, he did not insult

in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten,

but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.

1 Peter 2 .24, he himself bore our sins in his

body on the tree, so that having died to sins,

we might live for righteousness. Jesus took our

sin, bore our sin on himself when he was crucified,

and he died to sin, paid the price. Why? So that

we might live for righteousness. And I love this

last part of verse 24. By his wounds, you have

been healed. Jesus had to pay that price. And

verse 25 tells us why. For you were like sheep

going astray, but you have now returned to the

shepherd and the overseer of your souls. Let's

start with this understanding. Just like Judah,

we have all sinned. I am not saying that everyone

here has or will commit the same sins as Judah,

but we have all sinned. Romans 3 .23 is very

direct on this. And sin leads us to brokenness.

We needed a Savior who can save us from brokenness,

from the pain that the world has. You know, why

does Judah leave in the first place? Because

of sin and brokenness in his family. Why does

Judah find himself in this situation? Because

of brokenness. Because he's brokenhearted. And

we needed a Savior to save us from that. And

so Jesus, who we just read about in Genesis 49

and 1 Peter 2, was fully God and fully man, came

to earth, lived a perfect life, did not sin,

did not fight back. Even his false accusations

were made. Instead, he went to the cross, he

bore our sins, he took our sins upon him. Every

sin that we will ever commit, like just think

about that for a second. Every sin that every

person in the world would ever commit, he took

on himself. And he hung on that cross and he

died so that we can be saved. I love how Peter

says that. By his wounds, by Jesus' wounds, by

his blood, we are healed. We're healed. We're

brought back into a relationship with God. Like

sheep who have gone astray, we're brought back

from wandering totally lost. Friends, let me

encourage you today, if you are here and you

have never placed your faith in Jesus, if you

have not made a decision, Let me encourage you

today to accept this gift from Jesus, to accept

this gift that Jesus purchased for you by bearing

the weight of your sin and everything wrong that

you've ever done on himself. Here's another part

of it. If you're here and you already know Jesus,

understand that you have been set free. You do

not need to live in shame. Like I said at the

beginning of our time together, the difference

between guilt and shame is pretty simple. Guilt

points us to God and tells us that we need to

repent and we need to change. Guilt says, hey,

that was the wrong choice and the wrong thing

to do. Do that differently next time. Shame tells

us that we're not worth it anymore. We're not

good enough anymore. We're not good enough for

God. We're not good enough to be in that community.

We're not good enough for the gospel. We're too

far gone. We're just not worth it anymore. If

you are struggling with shame today, let me encourage

you to go to God. Learn from this passage of

Genesis 38 that God can use you despite any mistakes

you have ever made. We have all made mistakes.

And then walk in the freedom that's talked about

in Romans 8, 1 and 2. I spent a semester of seminary

just wrestling through the end of Romans 7 and

the start of Romans 8. And I don't know how many

mornings I would wake up and read Romans 8, 1

and 2. But I will say this, I was teaching at

the time, and I honestly can say this, that my

students preferred it when I woke up and read

Romans 8, 1 through 2 in the morning. Because

it was such a powerful reminder. Remember what

it is that Jesus has done for you. It says this

in Romans 8, 1, Therefore there is now no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus, because the

law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has

set you free from the law of sin and death. There

is now no condemnation. Not some condemnation.

There is no condemnation. There is absolutely

zero condemnation. Why can God use Judah? Because

there is no condemnation found in God's forgiveness.

I mentioned being a teacher, and sometimes when

I was teaching, a student would really act out

on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday, they'd be

like, Mr. Good, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done

that. I'm like, you're right. You shouldn't have.

I would forgive them enough that, okay, you can

go back to your normal seat. I won't make you

sit in that other seat today. But then there'd

be that part of my heart that's like, I'm going

to keep my eye on that kid today. He's trouble.

Friends, that is not how God approaches it. There

is no condemnation. There is no judgment. Nothing

is held against you. Hear that today. Second

application point. Your decisions shape the life

that you live. Your decisions shape the life

you live. Let's be blunt about this. Judah made

some very unwise and very sinful decisions about

things such as abandoning God. Judah's life was

absolutely not what we would call a holy life.

The decisions that we make will shape the life

that we live. The situations we put ourselves

in will shape the decisions that we make, and

then will shape the life that we look back on.

So knowing that, we need to make sure that we

are making good decisions. And so how do we do

that? Well, it starts with what we value in the

world. Off of Genesis 37 and 38, let me tell

you a few things that Judah values. Some of his

core values as a person in the world. First,

he values comfort. What makes Judah comfortable?

What makes Judah happiest? Secondly, he values

position. How do other people view Judah? Why

is it so important to him that he gets rid of

his brother? It's not just because he dislikes

Joseph, it's because Joseph is the favorite.

Joseph hurts his position. Third, he values wealth.

You know, his wife dies, he finishes mourning,

what does he do? He goes right back to work.

He goes right back to check on the flock. He

doesn't take care of his daughter -in -law. He

goes back to make sure that his wealth is preserved.

And fourth, I think we see this when he makes

this comment about being a laughingstock. Judah

values his popularity. He wants to be popular.

He wants everyone to think, Judah, that's a great

guy. I love Judah. And those things bring him

straight downhill to the point of dishonor, discomfort,

losing his reputation, and losing his popularity.

Those values will every single time fail him,

and they will fail us. So what should we build

our lives on? What value should we have instead?

Let me give you something the Bible gives to

us. First, we should build our life on a foundation

of salvation, of knowing Jesus. Secondly, we

should build our life on a value of sanctification

or becoming more like Jesus, growing to be more

like our Savior. Third, we should build our life

on the basis of reaching other people with the

gospel, of bringing the Word of God to the world

around us, of evangelism, to say it succinctly.

Fourth, we should build our lives on a value

of discipleship or helping other people grow

to be more like Jesus. It's Matthew 28, 18 through

20 right there. I made you a fifth one here.

We should value kingdom living, which is what

we see in the Sermon on the Mount. We're living

differently than the world, living in a way that

is honoring to God, making our choices through

a lens of following God and obeying God. So let

me challenge you with this question today. I

just gave you kind of five broad values, but

let me encourage you to look internally today.

What is a value in your life that needs to change

to be more like Christ? What's something that

you're putting your hope in? What's something

that you're putting your firm security in that

needs to change, that needs to adjust to be more

like God? Maybe you're more concerned about being

popular with your friends, not seeing them in

heaven. That's a value that needs to change.

I will never forget being a junior in college.

We were at this conference and the speaker was

talking about evangelism and he asked us at this

breakout session, he said, so how many of you

guys have friends? We're like, yeah, we got friends.

Come on now, of course we got friends. He goes,

how many of you guys really care about your friends?

Yeah, of course I care about my friends. I care

about my friends a ton. He goes, so do you care

about your friends enough to tell them that Jesus

loves them? Like, do you care about your friends

enough to make sure they go to heaven? To do

what you can to help them go to heaven? And I

remember sitting there being like, um, yeah,

maybe I don't care about my friends that much,

actually. Like, man, that's really convicting.

You know, you think about that person from, for

me as a history education major, we had a lot

of our classes together, and I would think about

my friend then from, say, U .S. history. Like,

man, are they really my friend? Hmm. Friends,

we all have values and we need to be constantly

working to conform them to be more like what

Christ wants. That's Romans 12, 1 and 2 right

there. We need to be constantly conforming and

transforming to be more like Christ. So let me

challenge you, what is a value today that you

need to change to be more like Christ? Use this

passage as a reminder that our values direct

our lives and change your value today. Here's

the final point. Sometimes an application It

kind of looks like, hey, listen, go do this because

God said this. So for instance, in the Sermon

on the Mount, when we talked about that, it would

be like, Jesus says, I said, don't steal. The

application is simple. Don't steal. That's great,

right? That's a pretty practical thing. You're

like, hey, go to lunch and pay for lunch today.

Don't steal it from the restaurant. Good job.

Sometimes an application is a little different.

Sometimes it's more of a principle application.

Sometimes it's like, here's something you need

to hear and remember, something you're going

to put into practice in your life, but maybe

not today. That's this final point of application.

you will never be abandoned by God. You will

never be abandoned by God. That is a principle

that you need to hear today, and you need to

take away from Genesis chapter 38. It is all

Genesis 38 · chapter mention

throughout the Bible, but you need to hear that

today, that you will never be abandoned by God.

God does not abandon Tamar when she's sent away

from Judah's house. As hopeless as the situation

looks to the entire world around them, and I'm

sure, I'm sure Tamar had friends who are reaching

out, like, are you going to be okay? What's going

on? Why is Judah doing this? Like, did you do

something wrong? Is this your fault? And all

of that, God had never abandoned her. Think of

it similarly in Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41, God talks

about gathering his people together. He says

this in Isaiah 41 10. Do not fear, for I am with

you. I'm with you. I haven't abandoned you yet.

Do not be afraid, for I am your God. I am sovereign

over everything. I will strengthen you. I will

help you. And here's my single favorite line

in the entire book of Isaiah. I will hold on

to you with my righteous right hand. Friends,

when you are feeling really low, remember a passage

like Genesis 38, when you feel like maybe God's

not with you in the midst of that trial. Remember

a passage like this, that God is with you even

in that hard time. That God has not abandoned

you just as God did not abandon Tamar. God's

word never changes, so you can cling to the promises

of Isaiah 41 .10. You can cling to Genesis 38.

So I want to encourage you today. I want to encourage

you that God is with you and that God has not

left you behind. God has not abandoned you. God

has not said, well, there was that one time this

one person did this sin. God's not sitting there

saying, well, Andrew did that thing, and so now

he's too far gone for me, and I'm just going

to leave him alone over there. God is not doing

that. Friends, God has not and God will not abandon

you. So let me ask you this. What is an area

of your life where you need to remember that

God is with you and that God has not abandoned

you? Maybe it's an area of health. You know,

if you know me over the last couple months, you've

known, had some... really hard health stuff going

on with my ribs, and it can be really hard on

those nights where I can't sleep to remember

that God has not abandoned me. So I have to remember

this. Maybe you have to remember that God has

not abandoned you with financials or your job

situation. Maybe you have to remember that God

has not abandoned you with your studying or something

else. Whatever that place is, let me encourage

you today to do three things. First, go to God

in prayer with it. Whatever that situation is,

bring it to God. Secondly, go to God's Word to

hear from God. That's what we've just done. We've

heard from God's Word. And third, rest in the

assurance of God's provision that He will provide

and He will never abandon you. Ever. He will

never leave you. He will never abandon you. Hear

that from Genesis 38. That when everything else

seemed hopeless, God did not abandon Judah or

Tamar for that matter. Let me pray for us. God,

thank you so much. for today. Thank you for this

passage and this reminder, God, that shame does

not control us, that guilt does not have to run

our lives, God. Thank you for this reminder that

you will never abandon us, that even when the

world around us seems hopeless, even when we're

hurting, when we're struggling with the brokenness

of this world, God, help us to remember and help

us to cling, God. Help us to cling closely, God,

to the fact that you will never abandon us. That

we can rest in you completely, God. God, I just

ask if anyone's here this morning and is hurting,

is feeling abandoned, is struggling to know if

you are there with them, God. Lord, right now

as we reflect and sing together, God, would you

move in their hearts, God? Would you bring comfort

to them? Father, if anyone's here and is trapped

in a cycle of shame and this feeling of not being

good enough, of not being worthy of you, God,

help them to remember now the words of Romans

8 .1, God, there is no condemnation in you, God.

Be with us now as we reflect and respond, as

we lift our voices, as we continue worshiping

you this morning, God. Lord, we just offer all

of ourselves to you. In your name we pray. Amen.