Grace In Genesis - Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to some of you? It means it doesn't matter what you've done.

It doesn't. It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter what's in your past. It doesn't matter the terrible things that you say.

You don't even compare to these people when it comes to wickedness. It doesn't matter what you're doing now. It doesn't matter what kind of sin you find yourself in right now.

It doesn't matter. What matters is, would you respond to the grace of God? Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. You know that story. You know what happened. Joseph goes to Egypt and you know his rise to the top. But this is a tale of two brothers and I want you to see something else. Judah is not a very good guy. Judah is the guy that wanted him dead at first, then said, let's try to make money on him.

But he gets a lot worse. Chapter 38. And it came about at that time that Judah departed from his brothers and he visited a certain Adulamite whose name was Hera. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shewa.

And he took her and he went into her. What? If there's one group of people, especially in the Old Testament, and Jesus Christ even speaks the one that is on God's bad, bad list. It's the Canaanites.

They are probably the most anti-God people in the word of God. The Jews are to have nothing to do with Canaanites. But notice what Judah does. He sees a Canaanite and he said, I think that's who I want.

I want a Canaanite. And so he takes one, Shewa. And so she conceived and bore a son and he named him Ur. And he says, and then she conceived again and bore a son and named him Onan. She bore still another son and named him Sheila. And that's it. Three sons out of a Canaanite woman. Now, verse six, Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, and he named her Tamar. Now, this is interesting.

That's what you do. It's an arranged marriage. My oldest son is eligible to be married. I want him to marry her, Tamar. And so he does. But Ur's, Judah's firstborn, was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord took his life. What kind of kid is Ur? He's a kid that God takes out because of how evil he was.

Where do you think he learned that? What kind of father is Judah? You see, these are despicable people.

Despicable. And then Judah said to Onan, go into your brother's wife and perform your duty as a brother-in-law. You see, these are called levirate marriages.

It's all over that part of the world at this time. That is, there's nothing worse than to be a widow, a childless widow. You could starve to death. You cannot own things. Nothing can be yours.

And you have no one to support you. So what they did was somewhat family member then, if there was a widow, especially with small children or no children, one of the family members then would marry her. In Judaism, it's almost always a brother.

The Canaanites didn't care. Any relative would work. But the idea was you would inherit then the estate that was your relatives or your brothers, and then she would come. But your children would be considered his, not yours. And they would inherit then that estate. Well, you can read on your own.

It's so despicable. But Onan wants no part of it, and he's just as bad as his brother. And Onan dies. He's taken out by the Lord. So he has two sons.

They're both dead. Then in verse 11, Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, remain a widow in your father's house until my son Sheila grows up. For he thought, I'm afraid that he too may die like his brothers. So Tamar went and lived in her father's house. Judah now wants to make another deal.

Instead of taking her in and supporting her or anything like that, he says, you go live with your father. I have one more son. He'll be yours.

That's our tradition, Sheila. But he's just a little boy right now. And so he can't take care of you.

You've got to let your dad take care of you. But he has no, no intent at all of ever letting Sheila marry her. That's just to buy time. That's the kind of guy Judah is. Well, now, after considerable time, Sheila's daughter, the wife of Judah, died. So we now know, and when the time of mourning was ended, Judah's lost his wife. Judah went up to the sheep shears of Timnah and he and his friend Hera, the Adulamite.

Now, you might say, well, he had to get on with his life. He's just going to go share some sheep. But this is Canaanite.

This is not about sharing sheep. This is worship. This is demonic. This is Mardi Gras with wool.

Okay, that's what this is. These are temple prostitutes. This is overt sexuality, all part of the worship. So Judah says, hey, my morning's over.

I want to go see some action. That's what he's doing. That's the kind of man Judah is. Well, it was told to Tamar, behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear the sheep. And so she removed her widow's garments, she's been wearing them ever since, for years now, years and years, and covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself and set at the gateway of Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah, for she saw that Sheila had grown up and she had not been given to him as a wife.

He never intended to do this. When Judah saw her, he thought that she was a harlot or a prostitute, for she covered her face. So he turned aside to her by the road and he said, here now, let me come into you, for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, well, what will you give me that you may come into me? And he said, I'll send you a young goat from the flock.

Apparently that's the going price, a young goat. She's a pretty smart lady. She said, will you give a pledge until you send it? And he said, what pledge shall I give you? And she said, your seal, that's your ring, and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.

And so he gave them to her and he went into her and she conceived by him. Then she arose and departed and removed her veil and put on her widow's garments. And when Judah sent the young goat by his friend, the Adulamite, to receive the pledge from the woman's hands, he did not find her. And he asked men, he said, of her place, saying, where's the temple prostitute who was on the road of Enaim? And they said, there was no temple prostitute there. So he returned to Judah and he said, I did not find her. And furthermore, the men of the place said, there has been no temple prostitute here. And then Judah said to him, let her keep them then, otherwise we'll become a laughing stock. After all, I sent this young goat, but you did not find her. And now it came about three months later that Judah was informed that your daughter-in-law, Tamar, who has played the harlot, and behold, she is also with child by harlotry.

He finds out that Tamar is pregnant. And now watch, what a great guy. Then Judah said, bring her out and let her be burned.

That's what the Canaanites do, alive. Let's just burn her alive for this. What a terrible woman she is.

Now think about who's saying that. It was while she was being brought out that she sent to her father-in-law and said, I am with child by the man to whom these things belong. She said, please examine him and see whose signet ring and cords and staff are these. Everything that goes around comes around.

Gotcha. Most important verse in Genesis for Judah. Judah recognized them and said, she is more righteous than I, in as much as I did not give her to my son, Sheila. And he did not have relations with her again.

What's that? He acknowledges the sin. And he says, you know, she's more righteous than I.

Even though she played the harlot and even though she tricked me, what kind of man am I? This is the first time that Judah begins to change it all. You see, that he changes it all. Well, the story then moves back. The story moves back to a famous story. And of course, the story is Joseph. And I won't spend too much time on that because you know the story of Joseph. But I want to pick it up in verse chapter 42. Now, Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt and Jacob said to his sons, why are you staring at one another?

I think that's just a funny line. Like, come on. Why don't you get moving?

Why don't you do something? He said to them, behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us from that place so that we may live and not die. And the 10 brothers of Joseph went down to buy grain from Egypt. But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, I'm afraid that harm may befall him.

So the sons of Israel came to buy grain among those who were coming, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also. Now Joseph was the ruler over the land, and he was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.

Does that sound like a dream to you or not? When Joseph saw that his brothers had recognized, he recognized them, but he disguised himself to them, and he spoke to them harshly. And he said, why have you come down? And they said from the land of Canaan to buy food. This is 20 years later, by the way.

Twenty years have passed. Now, he's all Egyptian. Remember, he's prime minister in a sense of Egypt. He looks Egyptian. He talks Egyptian. In fact, they're using translators because, and he understands our language perfectly, but they don't know that he does.

And so the setup is already in place. Now, he then decides something has to be done. In verse 18, Joseph said to them on the third day, Do this and live, for I fear God. If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined in your prison. But as for the rest of you, go carry grain for the famine, he said, of your households, and bring your youngest brother to me, so your words may be verified, and you will not die.

And they did so. And then they said to one another, truly, we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, and yet we would not listen. Therefore, this distress has come upon us. Reuben then said, did I not tell you? Do not sin against the boy.

And he says, and you would not listen. Now comes the reckoning of his blood. They're all feeling guilty about Joseph. This has come to bite us. We knew this was going to happen.

We should have never done this. And Reuben said, I told you so. And the point of it is, is that he's sending them back to get Benjamin, and they don't want to go get Benjamin because they know it'll kill their dad. Benjamin's his favorite now that Joseph, he thinks, is dead. Well, chapter 44.

They finally come back, and they have Benjamin with them. And it says, and then he commanded his house stored, and he said, fill the men's sacks with food as much as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of a sack. Now, understand, this is not good.

He is equal almost to Pharaoh. They went down and said, we're going to buy all this food. He says, okay, I'll sell it to you. So they fill up all their packs with food, and he said, now take the money they gave me and put it back in there, as though they're stealing the money to take it back.

It gets more interesting. Put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain. And he says, and he did as Joseph told him. He said, let's frame Benjamin even more.

For Benjamin, by the way, stealing the silver cup from prime minister of Egypt, that's death penalty. He says, put it in there. Now, notice, by the way, you notice Joseph has a little bit of the conniving thing going for him.

He's not really into the honesty thing right yet either. He's making them squirm with this. Now, it's kind of interesting as this whole story begins to play itself out. As soon as it was the light, the men were sent away, and they, with their donkeys.

They had just gone out of the city, and were not far off, when Joseph said to the house toward up, follow the men. And he says, and when you overtake them, say to them, why have you repaid evil for good? Is this not the one which your Lord drinks, and which he indeed uses for divination?

You have done wrong in doing this. Now, the Egyptians are really into divination. And Joseph, I don't think Joseph is, but he's saying, tell them that silver cup is what he uses to divine things. And so, they overtake them, and they run them down.

So now they have a frame job that's just about perfect. They get caught, and verse seven, I mean verse 12 says, he searched beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. They tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city. We're all dead men, every one of us. When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, he was still there, and they fell on the ground before him. Ah, sounds like another dream.

And it says, and Joseph said to them, what is the steed that you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed practice divination? In other words, do you know I could figure this out? I can see into the future. Not really.

That's kind of a lie. And Judah said, what can we say to my Lord? What can we speak? How can we justify ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we, he says, are my Lord's slaves. He says, both we and the one whose possession the cup had been found.

God found us out because of what we have done. Verse 18, then Judah approached Joseph and said, Oh, my Lord, may your servant please speak a word in my Lord's ears. And do not be angry with your servant, for you are equal to Pharaoh. My Lord asked his servant, saying, have they a father or a brother? We said to my Lord, we have an old father and a little child of his old age. Now this brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and my father loves him. And if you read on, what Judah keeps saying is, please don't do this to Benjamin.

This is going to kill our father. And in verse 33 it says, Now therefore, this is what Judah says, Please let your servant remain instead of the lad as slave to my Lord, and let the lad go up to be with his brothers. Judah says, let it be me.

How about if I'm your slave? Notice the change a little bit in Judah's life. He now says, let this be me. Let me be the one through his change of heart. Well, chapter 45, the grace is all revealed.

You know the story. Joseph can't hold it in much anymore. He bawls. He cries. He lets him know who he is. And what do you think they're thinking at that moment? Oh no, this is worse than Pharaoh's prime minister.

This is the brother that we hate. They could have had tremendous judgment, couldn't they? What did they get? Grace. They got grace from Joseph. He said, not only will I feed you, but bring down my father, bring down everybody, and we'll take care of him in the land of Egypt. You see, they got grace.

They were expecting something else. They are despicable human beings. Judah is the worst of them. And instead of getting judgment, they get grace. The last passage I want to look at, chapter 49. This is at the end. Jacob is dying. And he brings each of his sons and he wants to give them the blessing. And Judah shows up. Now Judah could have had the book thrown at him. This is what Judah gets. Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's sons shall bow down to you. Judah, this is your legacy. All the other tribes of Israel will worship through you, to you, to the line of Judah. Now is that the guy you'd pick?

You see, is that the guy you would pick? He says, Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion. And as a lion, who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the roller staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes. And he says it to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

The leadership of our great nation comes through you. That's what he got? This is a guy whose only defense against having a sexual relationship with his daughter-in-law was, I thought she was a prostitute.

That's his defense. Who said, let's not just kill our brother, let's not just sell our brother, let's sell money on the side with our brother. But no one can be so undeserving that they do not qualify for the grace of God. By the way, an amazing story at the end of the Bible, in Revelation 5, John is standing there and they're gonna open the book up. That is, who has the authority at the end times? Who has the authority at the end of this earth age?

Who has the authority for the new heaven, new earth? And they said, there's the book, and there's seven seals on it. And the seal, the only way you can open a seal is you have to have authority. John knew no one could have authority to open that book. And so John began to cry. And when John began to cry, one of the elders came up to John and told him to stop crying. And then the elders said this to John, stop weeping, behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seals. The lion of Judah is Jesus Christ our Lord. And notice, Jesus Christ is from whom? David. And David is from whom? Judah. Now who would ever think the son of God, Jesus Christ, David the great king, and Judah, the despicable human being, all in the same sentence.

How do you put them all together? The grace of God. You see, it's the grace of God.

That's the point. That's what Genesis is about. Abraham was willing to put his wife through misery to protect his own skin. Isaac played favorites with the only two children that he had. Jacob was a schemer, a scoundrel, a swindler who stole a birthright, who had 12 sons, six of them, to a woman he didn't even love, but was tricked into marrying four of them to servant girls and only two to Rachel. And then those 12 boys, despicable. And Judah, the worst of them.

And what happens? These 12 boys are the foundation of the Jewish people. Those 12 boys. And Judah is in the lineage to David and to Jesus Christ.

Why? The grace of God. You see, Abraham believed. Jacob believed after he wrestled with God. And Judah believed after he repented.

That's the only part they brought. It reminds me of the New Testament with Saul, who was hunting down and killing believers. And the grace of God saved him. And Paul said for the rest of his life, I am what I am by the grace of God, not based on any qualities. You know what this means to some of you? It means it doesn't matter what you've done.

It doesn't. It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter what's in your past. It doesn't matter the terrible things that you say.

You don't even compare to these people when it comes to wickedness. It doesn't matter what you're doing now. It doesn't matter what kind of sin you find yourself in right now.

It doesn't matter. What matters is, would you respond to the grace of God? You see, would you respond to the grace of God? That's the beauty of the grace of God. That's what's so wonderful about the grace of God.

Because it saved a wretch like me. That's what the grace of God is. And for the rest of us, I don't know about you, but I am thankful for the grace of God for my past. And I am thankful for the grace of God for my present. And boy, I am grateful to the grace of God for how secure my future hope is. Not based on my ability, not based on my quality, not based on my character. But to God be the glory, it's all based on the grace of God.

And I'll say one more thing. I'll never think of anyone now after I look through the book of Genesis and in my thought life I think that person is undeserving of the grace of God. There is no one undeserving of the grace of God.

Let's pray. Father, it's an amazing thing to see the heroes of our faith, the heroes of Judaism, and to see that not only do they have feet of clay, but Father, they live lives that don't even measure our lives. And we know the battle of sin that we have. Father, I thank you that each and every time we go into the book of Genesis from now on, we see something maybe we've never looked for before. Your grace. Your grace in creation. Your grace to Adam and Eve. Your grace to Noah and the Ark and to his family. Your grace, Father, to Abram of Ur the Chaldeans. Your grace to Isaac and Jacob and all of their children. Father, they were what they were by the grace of God, and we are what we are by the same grace. Father, I thank you for your grace.

In Jesus' name, amen. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That's F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find a message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.