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Take your Bibles and go to Genesis 38 please. Genesis 38 verse 7 was the memory verse. Genesis 38 verse 7. And the Bible says, And er Judah's firstborn was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. The title for the sermon this morning is, The Lord Slew Him. Now think about that. Just think about that title. I mean if you're so wicked that the Lord himself just slays you. You know God just steps in and kills you. Not from natural causes, just supernaturally steps in, kills you. I mean that's a lot of things, that's a lot to think about. That a man can be so wicked for the Lord to do that. And then yes, it also teaches us something about the Lord God that we serve. Something that you don't get taught in your average church. You know God is love, and yes of course he is. But God also has vengeful anger, right? He will step in and he will create consequences for your sins when you disobey the Lord. And you know that's just who our God is. We need to understand that our God will slay the wicked. And our God is also so loving to, as we're thinking about Christmas, to send his only begotten son to die for the sins of all the world. Even for the wicked, even for this one that the Lord slays. But without getting too sidetracked, you know we started the story in Genesis 37 on Wednesday, the story of Joseph, right? And most of the rest of the Genesis will be about Joseph. Now when you're reading through your Bible, when you're reading through Genesis, I'm sure this thought comes to you as I've done. When you get to chapter 38, you're wondering where this story come from? We started with the story of Joseph, he got sold into Egypt, and now we have a story that has nothing to do with Joseph. Just this sort of seemingly random event that takes place, and the Lord throws it in here. And I'll give you my reasons behind that shortly. But one of these things is of course we're going to the story of Judah. And Judah would be the, you know, the, what's the word I'm thinking about? The patriarch to the tribe of Judah, which of course would be the tribe which Jesus Christ would be born from. Okay. And you know, the story of Joseph has a lot of parallels, a lot of parallels with Jesus Christ, you know? And so it kind of, it seems fitting to me that the Lord would include this story about Judah, just as a reminder, this is where, you know, Jesus Christ would come from. Okay. So again, seemingly out of place, but I believe God has that for that reason to bring our attention, our thoughts back to Jesus Christ and his birth. But look at verse number one, Genesis 38 verse one. And it came to pass at that time when Judah went down from his brethren and turned into a certain Adulamites whose name was Hira. And Judah saw there was a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shuah, and he took her and went in unto her. So we have here the story of Judah taking a wife for himself. Verse number three, And she conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Ur, and she conceived again and bare a son, and she called his name Onan, and she yet again conceived and bare a son, and called his name Sheila, and he was at Chesed when she bare him, and Judah took a wife for Ur his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. So we have a lot of history taking place here, right? Judah taking a wife, having these three kids, of course that takes time, to the point where now Ur his firstborn is old enough to get married, okay? So a lot of time takes place during these first verses. Now it says in verse number six that the wife he takes for his son Ur, her name was Tamar. Now there is another Tamar in the Bible, and it's not, you know, I don't want you to get confused with the other Tamar. She also features in a very prevalent story, and that other Tamar was the daughter of King David. You may remember that story of Tamar, King David, not the same Tamar. This is a separate Tamar. Let's keep reading verse number seven, and of course what I just mentioned there, and Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. So what are your thoughts there? Immediately when you start the story about Judah, his firstborn is so wicked in the sight of the Lord, the Lord steps in and kills him, right? I mean, his wickedness must have been exceedingly, right? It must have been exceeding wickedness, but my media thought turns to Judah. You know, Judah, what kind of father were you? You know, did you step in and raise your child? You know, did you raise your firstborn to love the Lord? No, he did wicked in the sight of the Lord, and of course every time we sin, we're doing wicked in the sight of the Lord, but to step in and kill him, you know, this son was off the rails, right? He was not living a Christian life. He was not living a life that was godly, and another reason why I believe the Lord gives us this story in chapter 38, is just so we can, you know, immediately have, we just finished reading chapter 37. Let's go there once again, Genesis 37 verse 26, Genesis 37 verse 26, and we see Judah's hand in delivering up his brother Joseph to the, you know, the traitors, and verse number 26 says, And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it that we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh, and his brethren were content. So we see with Judah in chapter 37, that here's the one, here's the one that came up with a decision to sell his brother, you know, to do a way not to kill him, but let's make a profit from him. Let's sell him, let's make some money, and you see where Judah's head is in life, right? He's about money. He's about, you know, he's got no empathy for his own brother. He's got a lack of love, you know, and we see then when we get to chapter 38, well, look, you lost your firstborn son. He was so wicked in the sight of the Lord, you know, what were your priorities Judah? And as you're reading through your bibles, you need to start thinking about these things, the consequences of his sins, the consequences of the things that he prioritizes, hey, he was seeking money, and the immediate thing that I can think of is as parents, you have a decision to make in life, you know, we live in Australia, and you know what, in Australia, it's not difficult to make money. It's not, you know, so many of us are rich beyond measure compared to the rest of this world, and if you just, you know, and is it important to make money? Absolutely, you know, God allows us to have finances, riches, so we can use that to be a blessing for ourselves, to raise our children, to be a blessing to our church, to be a blessing to those in need, but you know what, if you want to be rich, you can be rich in Australia. There's a lot of opportunities to have your own business, lots of opportunities to work jobs, you know, we have a, we pay a lot here, you know, it's one of the nations that has the highest income for the average person, we have a lot of opportunity to make money, but there's got to be a time when you understand, well, am I making money to provide for my needs, or am I making money to chase, you know, unrighteously, to chase the riches of this world, to be worldly, and what I think we see with Judah here, is he is someone that was chasing the money, right, he was willing to sell his own brother to make, you know, money, and I've seen this in the business world, you see, you know, there's this mentality that's often said in the business world, you know, dog eats dog, you know, you step on whoever's toes you have to step on, you know, you put down whoever you have to put down in order for you to promote yourself, in order to make a name for yourself, and a lot of people have that mentality, I don't care who I sell, I don't care who I betray, I don't care, you know, how righteous they were, if it's going to profit me, I'll do it, you know, he's got the mentality of the world, and so no surprise, when he has his children, he's not even raised them for the Lord, and Brevin, you know, if you're someone whose heart is for the riches of this world, your heart is for, you know, a prominent position, you know, having a name for yourself in this world, you're probably going to have to sacrifice your children for that, and is that something you're willing to do? Are you willing to sacrifice your children for riches in this world? And I hope as parents we would say, absolutely not, you know, I'm going to prioritize my kids, you know, I'm going to make sure that I develop empathy and love, and I train my children to love the Lord, because I see here, even though, you know, we see a godly line, we see people who the Lord is blessing, who the Lord is working through, that if we turn our backs on our children, they can become wicked like this world, to the point that even God himself might even slay them, okay, slay around children, because we do not raise them to love the Lord. And, you know, again, you know, I'm a pastor, something that's constantly on my mind is my children, why? Because how many pastors do you know whose children leave the church, whose children go after the devil, whose children go for the world, and deny the Lord, deny the Bible, these kinds of, I've seen it happen in every church, even the independent Baptist churches, this happens, you know, pastors are so distracted with other things than their own family, than their own children, and it's important that we, you know, raise our children to love the Lord, you know, it breaks my heart to see, you know, I'm not expecting my children to be pastors or missionaries, I just want them to be hard workers, I just want them to love the Lord, I just want them to love the lost and go soul winning, read their Bibles, have the wisdom that God gives us, and just live a godly life, that's all I want, you know, if they become more than that, bonus, you know, you know, bonus, that's a cherry on top of the cake, you know, bonus if they do more for the Lord, great, but you know, we need to strive to make sure if God has given you children, please focus on them, it's so easy to lose them in this world, and you know what, I'm not a perfect father, I'm not a perfect, you know, parents, have there been times that I've been distracted with things that are vain, empty, you know, and neglected my children? Of course, there's been times like that, and I'm sure all of us can say there's been times we've done that, where we've neglected our children, put other things before our kids, you know, sometimes people ask me, you know, do you want to hang out, do you want to catch up, do this and that, and I don't mind, that's all cool, you know, I'm at a point now in life where I'm kind of like, well, I kind of would rather catch up with my kids, right, like I almost would just rather have a date with my wife, right, I'd rather just spend time with my family, they're so valuable to me, I'm seeing my kids grow, you know, they're almost as tall as Christina, they're catching up to me, at some point I'm sure the boys will be taller than me, and I'll be like, what happened to the years, right, it's happening so quickly in life, I don't want to lose that, I don't want to look back in life and regret the time that I did not spend with my children, Judah failed, Judah failed as a parent, and let's learn from these lessons, they're written for us by God, so we can learn from them, so we don't make the same mistakes, and verse number eight, and before I read verse number eight, I just sort of wanted to start with that point there is, you know, there are consequences for your sins, okay, there are direct consequences, direct things, you know, if you're, you know, if you're a drunkard and you're constantly, you know, defiling your body with alcohol, it's going to destroy your body, there are direct consequences to your sins, but then there are indirect consequences, you know, things that play out over the years, you know, and I believe the reason the Lord has given us these stories back to back, Genesis 37, Judah selling, Judah then having this wicked son that the Lord slays, is just to show us how the consequences of our sins can sometimes carry on even into the next generation, okay, and so be mindful that we'll see that play out again here, look at verse number eight now, and Judah said unto Onan, go in unto thy brother's wife and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother, so here we have something that is, I guess, cultural in this time, right, where if a man took a wife, and he was not able to have children with her, and she was now a widow with no children, she didn't have a man to look after her, she didn't have sons that could look after her in widowhood, that, you know, she would be offered to the brother, to the brother to raise her up a seed for himself and for her, and so it's not just, you know, it says here in verse number eight, marry her, raise up seed, you know, marry her, have children, right, and Onan says in verse number nine, and Onan knew that the seed should not be his, and it came to pass that he went in unto his brother's wife, and 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. Now, was the second son as wicked as the first? We don't really know, but what we learn here in verse number 10, is that the Lord slays the second son of Judah, for the actions that he's done, in just these verses that we read here, right? Now, I've heard preaching on this, like I've had some really weird teachings, so they would take the story, and really apply it in some very unusual ways that I've heard of in the past, but let's understand, why is it that it displeased, what is it that displeased the Lord? Why is the Lord so angry to slay Onan, okay? Why is this? Well, again, Judah asked the second son, well, you know, marry her, can you take her, marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother? Marry her for the purpose of having children, and let me say something that is unpopular in this world, getting married is for the reason of having children. It goes hand in hand, right? Having children is not a decision. You don't make a decision to have children, and I know that sounds so weird, because you've been brainwashed, right? Because I've been brainwashed. You know, there was a time in my life when I got married to Christina, I wanted children, of course, but I said, well, I'm gonna have three. You know, someone said to me, how many children do you want, Kevin? I'll tell you, three, I wanna have three, right? I thought, not too little, not too much, you know, just right there in the middle somewhere, you know, three would be a good number. Why, why did you say that? Didn't you know the stories or the Bible? Don't you know how God says be fruitful and multiply? Don't you know that the Bible says the fruit of the womb is his reward? I know all those things, but guess what? I've been brainwashed by the world, and you know what? When you see things in the Bible, and you go, ah, that's weird, it's because you've been brainwashed by this world. You've been brainwashed by the media, you've been brainwashed by the previous generations, and we're at a point today, people ask the question, are you gonna have kids? Why do you think I got married? Of course I'm gonna have kids. It's not a decision, you know, waking up in, you know, I don't decide if I'm going to breathe air today. It just happens because you're alive, okay? And when you get married, you just have kids, it happens. I don't have to decide, oh, let's, are we gonna decide this? Look, if God wants to withhold me having children, it doesn't matter how much I decide to have children, it's gonna be withheld. It's in the hands of the Lord, all right? And that's, it's just, that's how it is, you know? You get married, the purpose of that is to have children, and if you're a believer, more than that, to raise a godly seed for the Lord, a godly seed for the Lord. That's what the Lord wants. You know, children are a blessing. You know, children are a beautiful reward from the Lord. You know, children strengthen a marriage. Oh, no, no, yes, they do. I'll tell you why, because when you have kids, look, you know, husbands and wives, we're different, okay? God's made us different, so we can complement one another. And you know, you can go in marriage, and you know, you go through the years, and you might have times when you don't even talk to one another. You know, you don't have something, you don't, you know, you can't relate to another, one another, you can't talk to one another. And one thing that keeps a marriage strong is when you're working on a project. You know, some couples start a business. You know, the husband gets out there, but the wife is there taking the calls, arranging the appointments, maybe handling the finances, whatever. You know, they're working together, you know, for the family business or whatever. You know, getting a project together will strengthen your relationship between husband and wife, because you're putting your heads together, you're talking to one another, you're making sure that whatever you do is productive. Well, you know what's better than any business, better than anything like that, is a life. Imagine God giving you a life for your marriage, a child, a clean slate, he doesn't know good and evil when he's born, right? And God says, look, here's a child, you know what's going to make a successful relationship between husband and wife, what's gonna create a successful upbringing for that child, is when husbands and wives put their heads together and say, well, God's given us this, what a responsibility, what a blessing, how do we raise this child? How do we train this child? What do we teach this child? How do we discipline this child? You put your heads together and you, that's gonna strengthen your marriage, you're gonna be able to communicate, and it's such an important project that God has given you, raising a family. And let me encourage you brethren, there's nothing wrong with seeking advice from another brother or sister in the Lord, there's nothing wrong with seeking advice from the pastor, there's nothing wrong with going on internet and looking up family blogs and saying, well, what can I get out of this? How can I raise my family? But don't make that your first point of call when you're making decisions about your family, okay? Wives, go to your husbands first, husbands, go to your wives first, honey, we have this situation, we need to discipline our child, our child has done wrong, what do we do? That's who you go to first, you put your heads together, you communicate, you talk, and when that happens, you're gonna grow in love for one another, more than you already have. But if your first point of call is, let me go on Facebook and ask a question, let me go on a blog and send family, or let me go and ask the pastor, you're missing out on the opportunity of husbands and wives putting your heads together, working for the cause of raising children. And look, honestly, when moms and dads put their heads together, you're gonna have a better solution than anything you see from any other family, because it's tailored for your family. As long as it's within the boundaries of God's word, what God allows, you do what God says, you put your heads together, you're gonna be able to raise your family for God instead of looking at what other people are doing, okay? It doesn't always work. Looking at what other people do and applying it to your home does not always work. But children are a work, and that's what people complain about, right? They complain about how much work it is to raise children, how much money it costs to raise children. Of course it's work, what do you want to do in life? You want to be just lazy and just lay on the couch and watch soap operas all day? What do you want in life? Do you want to be productive? Do you want to leave a mark? Do you want to do something great for the Lord? Well, having children is being great for the Lord. Raising them to be soul winners, raising them to live godly lives, to be an influence in this generation, is doing something great for the Lord, okay? Not everyone's going to be a pastor, okay? But you know, pastors fail in their families all the time. How about you not be a pastor and have a solid family, have a fruitful family, have a family that God can look down and shine his face upon him because he gives him glory? That's a priority, you know? And again, it's not a decision. People ask us after we have children, are you going to have any more? I don't know, it's up to God, right? I said I wanted free. God never gave me free. He gave me one, he gave me two, then he gave me twins, four. And that's when I realized, okay God, I'm not in control of this. You're in charge, whatever you want, Lord. If you don't want to give me free, I give up, right? I mean, I had to change my mind, right? I was brainwashed by this world to think about how many do I have? God might give you one, God might give you 10, God might give you 15, God might give you none. You don't know, it's in the Lord's hands, okay? But it's not a decision you make. Just as much as breathing air is not a decision you make, you get married, that's just what happens. And unfortunately, just for those that are single, those that are unmarried, for the children, because we are so brainwashed in our society, you actually have to ask this question these days before you get married to your partner. Make sure you ask this question, do you want to have kids, right? You've got to ask that question these days, right? Because I know of couples that want, you know, maybe a husband that wants kids, but the mother doesn't, or the wife doesn't, or the wife wants kids and the husband doesn't. And you know what that causes? Conflicts. It causes sorrow. It causes despair. You know, people are seeing the time tick away in their life and say, well, am I going to have kids? Or they have one, they want another, whatever, they put it off or whatever, and then later on, they put it off, they can't have them later on or whatever. Whatever happens, right? And it's such sadness when I see this in couples and families that can't agree on kids. Well, it's not something to agree on. You just have them, right? You just have them. It's just part of your natural marital life. The physical relationship will bring forth children. And look, in this case, Onan's duty, well, you know, he decided to marry her. He decided to go in unto her, but he decided not to give her kids, right? He spilled his seed on the ground and that angered the Lord. That caused displeasure on the Lord, so much so that he killed him. Think about how important children are then for the Lord to kill someone over it, okay? And listen, when you get married, you are not just saying till death do us part. You're saying we're going to have kids. That's what you're saying to each other when you get married, okay? And when you're like, well, no, I'm not going to have kids. We're not going to have kids. Well, it displeases the Lord. You know, expect the Lord's chastisement upon your life. If you're stopping that, okay? Even to the point of death, potentially. Potentially, all right? Now, in saying that, many times when we see the Lord slay people like that, it's usually the first time in a story for the Lord to teach us how displeased he is at it, okay? Like the man who picked up sticks on the Sabbath day, the first one that went to work on the Sabbath day, God kills him. Now, again, to show just how serious some sins are. Now, he won't necessarily go around killing everybody. That breaks our sins. But usually the first time you see that, he kills them, okay? When it's such a sin that displeases the Lord, he will step in and do that. And so when you see the Lord killing people over certain sins, make sure you're not doing those sins, because that's how the Lord feels about you when you're breaking those commandments, those laws. And so I don't think this is confusing. You know, he was required to have children. He was his duty. He refused to impregnate this lady, Tamer. And, you know, children, it is work, but it's satisfying work, okay? It is satisfying work. And again, it brings the couple closer together, all right? Now, when it comes to this story, I also want to talk about, you know, we need to rightly divide the story. You know, one of the challenges in the Bible that, I mean, even I find it challenging sometimes, and I'm sure many of you do, because these are the kind of questions that we often talk about with believers when we're gathered together is, you know, we have the old covenant, we have the new covenant, and obviously there are differences between the old and new covenant. And then we also have a point in time, which we're reading about now, where the old covenant is not in effect as of yet, right? They live in pre-Old Testament times, even though the book of Genesis is considered an Old Testament book, we're living before those times, okay? And, you know, if you guys just keep your finger, then go to Deuteronomy chapter 25. Deuteronomy chapter 25, and I'm just sharing this with you, is that the way you view the differences in times can affect your doctrine today, okay? Now, usually it's got to do with very specific things that aren't major doctrines. Your major doctrines are always clear in the Bible, that's never, you know, you never need to change your mind on clear doctrines, but sometimes there are small little things like this. Well, is that right, you know? You might be asking the question, you know, if my son marries a girl and he dies before she falls pregnant, should I give my second son to her to get married? I mean, those questions will start to come in your mind, right, at some point. And so go to Deuteronomy chapter 25, and there are two ways to view the times before the Old Testament. Now, some basically say is, well, even though the Old Testament was not in effect, they were still following the laws before that, some have that view. And so when they read these stories, they see it through the Old Testament lens, okay? That's not what I believe, okay? What I believe is that we have the book of Genesis for a reason, and we see the mistakes that happen when we don't have law, when we don't have these things that God has to state, you know, such as the death penalty. We see mistakes happen, so when God creates the Old Testament law with the nation of Israel, He addresses those issues. In that nation, so the mistakes don't keep happening, okay? That's my view. That's my view, that we see where things go wrong, people do things, and then the Lord, well, when He puts in that old covenant, He creates laws around these things that have gone wrong, okay? Like the death penalty and things like that, okay? Now, Deuteronomy 25 verse 5, let's have a look at how the Lord feels about the situation when it comes to the Old Testament nation of Israel. It says, if brethren dwell together, and one of them die and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in unto her and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her. And it shall be that the firstborn, which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name shall not be put out of Israel. So, now we have the story. We see Onan didn't want to have children with Tamar because he, in his mind, he thought all those children would be considered his brother's children, and he would not have children. So, he withheld. That was one of his reasons that he didn't, right? But then when we see when the Lord puts in the law, He has to clarify this and create some laws around this and say it's the firstborn. The firstborn from that relationship will be considered the son of the first husband. Meaning the second, third, fourth will be the children of the brother that took her as his wife. Say, why is that important? Because remember in the Old Testament days, these families, these tribes would inherit land. They would inherit things from the Lord, right? And these things were to remain within the family, within the same tribes, okay? These inheritance, the pieces of the land and stuff like that. So, it's important for a lady like this, you know, who would be a widow with no children, with no husband, you know, what future would she have? Where would she reside? It would create complications into the future. And so, well, let's make sure that she's able to inherit the land. She's able to receive the, you know, the possessions that she's rightfully so. So, she was required to marry the next brother in that family, okay? Now you say, well, what if he didn't want to marry her? Well, God creates an outlet for that, right? So, we don't have an onan situation, you know, and he's deceiving this woman, deceiving his father. So, if he didn't want to marry her and not raise children for his brother, we do have a situation for that as well. Let's keep reading verse number seven. And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders and say, my husband's brother refuses to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. So, she's to go and say, well, look, he doesn't want to marry me. Then the elders, verse number eight, then the elders of the city shall call him and speak unto him. And if he stand to it and say, I like not to take her. So, the elders are basically trying to encourage him, like you should take her as your wife, right? But if he stands and says, no, I don't want to marry her. Well, that's fine. Verse number nine, then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders and loose his shoe from off his foot. I'll illustrate that. There's one shoe off my foot, right? And spit in my face, in his face, it says here, and shall answer and say, so shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house. Verse number 10, and his name shall be called in Israel, the house of him that have his shoe loosed. So, this would be a bit of a shame, right? Oh, you're the guy that had the shoe loosed. Did you want a photo, brother? But that's the situation, right? So, the right thing to do for this woman, you know, I mean, this is a time, this is a different time, different culture. You know, she would not inherit things. She would not have children to look after her in her old rage. It was right for her to marry the next one in line that was unmarried, and for him to look after her and raise up children unto her. But there was a way out, all right? Instead of taking her as a wife and spilling the seed on the floor and being killed by God. So, if you don't want to marry her, here's the situation. You'll be spat in the face to make her feel better, I guess, you know? And then she'd be free to marry, I guess, anybody else that would take her. We have a situation like this as well in the book of Ruth, where Boaz as the next to kin, even though he's not the brother, but his next and kin in line to take Ruth as his wife does so. So, that's another situation story similar to the laws that were given here by Moses. Now, I just wanted to show you that in the Bible. So, the Lord sees a situation. This is bad. This is not good to the point that he has to kill someone. So, he doesn't want this happening in his nation with his people. He creates laws around this so people know what to do in the right way, even though it seems unusual to us. Even this seems unusual to us, right? And so, you know, saying all that, I don't believe today you have like, you know, a brother has to marry the wife of the first brother if he passes away. You know, I believe that was a law required specifically for the nation of Israel, and it has to do with tiding with all the inheritance of the land that would be received by the families, okay? And we don't have that today. So, I don't believe this applies to us. Like, you know, some people say, well, we saw this happen before the law. This is happening now during the law. Therefore, why should it continue today? Yeah, but that's if you believe the law was in effect before the law came. I don't believe that. I believe the Lord sees what's happened. Then he introduces a law to fix those situations, okay? So, if that's gone over your head, don't worry. Let's get into the rest of it. Let's go back to, actually, if you can, please go to Acts chapter 5. Acts chapter 5? Acts chapter 5 for now. And I did want to talk about the Lord killing, himself killing people. The Lord slew him, right? And as we've been going through the book of Genesis, we've seen how the Lord will wipe out people, okay? The first time he kills people, he kills everyone on the earth, except for Noah and his family. He floods the entire world, right? God is able to destroy the entire world if he sees fit, and he's going to do it again, brethren. He's going to do it again in the book of Revelation when he destroys, essentially, almost the entire world, right? With the plagues that fall from the trumpets and the bold judgments. Then we see the Lord's able to destroy the world if it's that wicked. Then we have the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Lord can destroy entire cities if they're wicked enough, right? An entire city of people he could destroy. And we keep seeing this, you know, just constantly being narrowed down from the world to the city. Then we have Lot's wife who looks back. You know, it's sort of the same story. She looks back at Sodom and Gomorrah burning. The Lord kills her, okay? That's Titus. I guess she's suffering the same fate as the sodomites did. And then we have this story where Ur and Onan are killed as individuals. Will God kill individuals? Yes. Does he still do it today? I believe he does. In fact, he does, okay? Could he destroy entire cities if he wishes? Yes. Will he destroy the entire world one day? He will, okay? It's still the same God that we worship today, okay? And that ought to bring us great fear. You know, you may think you've hidden your sins, you know, from your wife, from your family, from church members, but the Lord sees them. The Lord knows, okay? Don't be surprised when the rod of chastisement falls on your life. Don't be surprised, you know? And I hope it's not as bad as death, but it does happen. Look at Acts 5 verse 1. We're talking about New Testament times. Acts 5 verse 1. And I'm giving you these stories because I don't want you to drop dead, right? That's why, all right? Acts 5 verse 1, it says here, But a certain man named Ananias and Sapphira his wife sold a possession and kept back part of the price. His wife also being privy to it and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles feet. And Peter said, Ananias, why have Satan fueled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? Was it remained? Was it not thine own? And after it was sowed, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing those words, fell down and gave up the ghost and great fear came upon all them that heard these things. Why are you preaching this? Because they want great fear to fall upon this church. You know, lying to the Lord could cause you to be put to death by the Lord to just drop dead like that, okay? And what's the story here? They had some possession, maybe a piece of land, maybe a house. They sold it for a price, right? They came to the apostles saying, well, we sold it for this price. We're giving this to the church. Hey, praise God, nothing wrong with that. But they held back a certain portion. They lied to God about that. They lied to the church and said, well, essentially they're saying, look, what we sold it for is what we're giving to the church. Whereas they took a little bit for themselves. Now, was there anything wrong with taking some for themselves? Absolutely not, it's all fine. It says it's in your power to do whatever you want when you sell it, but to lie about it. You know, to lie about it. And we need to be careful when we lie to this church. You know, preachers, when you get behind this pulpit, don't lie, don't lie, okay? Now, can we be mistaken and say wrong things? Yes, we can be deceived and say, you know, yes, but don't purposely come behind this pulpit and lie. You know, don't be a church member that lies to the church congregation. God may cause you to suffer, cause you to suffer, even put you to death. Don't lie. Now, look, they could have just sold it, kept back some for themselves, given the rest of the church and said, look, we sold it. Here's some of it. We're going to give it to the church and some of it we kept it for ourselves. They would not have lied at that point, right? And it would have been all good. Don't lie, especially when it comes to finances. This is why I'm open to you guys. If you want questions about, you have questions about finances, ask me. The reason I give an update on the report every six months on the finances, I don't want any lying. I want it to be transparent. You know, so many problems in church when it comes to finances. Don't lie about it, okay? Don't hide it. What else happens here? Verse number six. And the young men arose and wound him up and wound him up, wound him up and carried him out and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours later when his wife, not knowing what was done, Peter answered, unto her, tell me whether you sold the land for so much. And she said, yea, for so much. So did you sell it for what you gave it to us? Yeah, that's what we sold it for. No, they sold it for more. Remember, they kept back for themselves. Nothing wrong. But they lied is the issue. Verse number nine. And Peter said unto her, how is it that you have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out. Then she fell down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost. And the young man came in and found her dead and carried her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things. Brethren, when you read that, the great fear came upon the church. Make sure great fear comes upon your hearts as well. That's why it's here. Don't read over these things. These are serious sins to the Lord, lying to the church, lying to the congregation, especially when it comes to finances. You know, it's a disgrace and the Lord's chastisement may very well fall upon you. If you guys can go back to Genesis 36 and I was going to read through 1 Corinthians 11. Again, just very quickly, very briefly, you know, you can also be put to death by God if you disgrace the Lord's Supper. You know, when we participate of the bread and the grape juice, remembering the Lord's death and burial, you know, and his sacrifice for us, his broken body and shed blood. If you disgrace that, the Lord may very well cause you to die as well. And you can read about that in your own time. 1 Corinthians 11. But let's go back to Genesis 38, verse 11. Genesis 38, verse 11. So can God kill you today? He absolutely can if he wants. If it's wicked enough and he decides to do that, he may very well allow that to bring great fear into the rest of the church. Verse number 11. Then said Judah to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, remain a widow at thy father's house till Shelah my son be grown. So this is the third son, but he's younger. He's not ready to get married, right? Just wait for him to grow up to get old enough to get married. For he said, lest proadventure he die also and as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. And in the process of time, the daughter of Shewa, Judah's wife died. And Judah was comforted and went up into his sheep shearers to Timnath. He and his friend Hera the Adulamite and he 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. So now the years have gone by. Shelah has grown the third son. He's old enough to get married but Tamar realizes, well Judah doesn't want to give him as my husband now. What's going on? This promise that he gave me is not seen through his promise, all right? Judah had done wrong once again. You know, he had promised this that he's going to give his third son as her husband and it wasn't happening. So what does Tamar do with the rest of this? She gets revenge, all right? She gets revenge on him and you know, your mistakes guys, your sins have consequences. Remember this. You know, she steps in and takes revenge and what I would want to encourage you brethren, if you've wronged someone, if you've wronged someone, if you've done something wrong to someone, go and sort it out. Go and sort it out. Be humble. Don't be so prideful. Be humble and sort out your problems. How you have wronged another person. You know why? Because that person, as the years go by, might be plotting revenge against you and should they do that? No, they shouldn't do that. But does it happen? It happens. It happens, okay? Don't be surprised when you've wronged someone, the years go by and they get revenge on you. They do something wicked towards you. Don't be surprised. You should, well, yeah, they were wrong, but you were wrong too. You should have gone and sorted out that business. You know, if you had made a promise, you did not keep that promise. You've lied to them, whatever, sort it out now. Here's the thing. As a believer, we're not told to go and make revenge for those that have wronged us, right? We shouldn't take revenge as believers. But the great thing about that is, if I don't take revenge, the Lord will take revenge, okay? The Lord will take revenge and he'll step in and cause you to face your consequences for your sins, for your mistakes. Go and sort it out now before anyone takes revenge on you, okay? Sort out your problems, brethren. Verse number 15. And Judah saw her and thought her to be in harlot because she covered her face. And he turned 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? Wilt thou send it? So, she's dressed as a harlot. Judah's wife had died. He's at a point of weakness. We really see that he's not a great guy, right? So, what should he have done? He should have taken a second wife, right? Instead, he commits fornication and he ends up committing fornication with his own daughter-in-law. Did she do wicked? Yes, she did wickedly, okay? Did he do wickedly? Yes, he did wickedly, okay? I'm not saying any of these guys are right. All I'm saying is these are consequences for the mistakes you make, all right? The promises that you break. Go and sort them out before it comes back and bites you. Anyway, and to offer for her service, he wants to give her like a kid, like a young sheep, right? From the, is a kid a goat? A goat. So, young goat, right? To her. For that, and then she says, well, instead of that, can you give me a pledge? Verse number 18. 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 to her and came in unto her and she conceived by him. So, what she wants are things that are very unique to Judah. His own staff, his bracelets, his signet, something that signifies who he is. I'm not sure what that is exactly, but something that the possession she holds would prove that the man that laid with her was Judah. This is her revenge on him for not giving her his third son as her husband and conceived by him. Verse number 19. And she arose and went away and laid her veil from her and put on the garments of her widowhood. 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. So, she arranges the goat, the young goat to come to get his things back, right? But then he can't find this harlot. Verse number 21. And he said, 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. So, not much to say there, except you can't find this harlot. Verse 24. And it came to pass about three months later that it was told Judah, so obviously she's fallen pregnant by this. She's now showing three months later. He was told Judah saying, tamer thy daughter-in-law have played the harlot and also behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, bring her forth and let her be burnt. So, he finds out his daughter-in-law has fallen pregnant. You know, she's committed fornication. And he's so angered by this. He says, look, let's just kill her. Let's just burn her, you know. Now, is that right? Would it be right to kill someone over the sin of fornication? No, it's not right, okay. And so again, you know, Judah's angry. You know, it's right to get angry about fornication. It is a wicked sin. It is a sin that will get you kicked out of church, but it's not a sin that is worthy of death, okay. And again, God has to create these laws when he has the nation of Israel says, look, these are the laws, these are crimes, these are the adequate punishment for these things because they're not always doing things right prior to the law, okay. God has to come in, step in and fix things up. And so he commands her to be put to death. But he committed fornication, right. Verse number 25, and 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 bracelets and staff. And Judah acknowledged them. So he says, yeah, these are my things. He realizes this was the harlot. This was the person I went in unto and said, she had been more righteous than I because that I gave her not to Sheila, my son, and he knew her again no more, okay. So great embarrassment, a great embarrassment. He says, yeah, kill her, let's burn her. Actually, it's found out that he's the one that committed the sin. And he says, look, has she been righteous? No, she's been wrong. But he says, she's been more righteous than I, okay. He was wrong to go in unto her, but he was also wrong to withhold his third son, the promise that he made to her for a third son. And so he realizes his mistake is what caused these consequences. That's why she points and says, well, she's been more righteous, though they've both been wrong. They've both been wrong in doing that. So a great embarrassment, right? He's trying to do this publicly, trying to show how righteous he is, well, she's committed for an occasion. She requires being punished, right? And that reminds me of church sometimes, the holier than thou attitude. Well, I'm so righteous. Look at the wickedness of that person. Your sins will find you out, brethren. Your sins will find you out. We're all sinners, all of us. And leave it up to me to decide who we're gonna kick out of this church, please. God has given us the Bible. He's given us 1 Corinthians 5. He's given us a list of people. And trust me as your pastor that I will kick people out if they commit these things. But understand, if someone's new, brand new Christian, not even not even saved, living in these sins, doing these things, I'm gonna give them an opportunity. I'm gonna give them time to change and turn around. You know, there are sins you commit today that I'm willing to give you time to fix those things. You know, I get behind the pulpit and preach. I'm not expecting this afternoon, if there's something here that you need to fix, I'm not expecting this afternoon you're gonna fix it. I'm willing to give you time, weeks, months, if it has to. Some things take years to change. Again, we've been brainwashed by this world. Some things take time. You know, please don't thumb your nose down on Christians because all of us are on this journey. All of us have sins. All of us are trying to improve. And one day with you, your high mighty attitude of being so holy, it's gonna be found out what you've done. What are you gonna say then? You're gonna have to turn around and say, well, these people have been more righteous than me. You know, just a shame, a shame of thinking you're so holy and righteous and, you know, criticizing every believer you come across. Oh, they don't believe right on this. They don't believe right on. Oh, they're not living right here. Oh, they're not dressed properly, whatever. Listen, let the preacher preach the word of God. All right? Let the preacher preach the word of God. Let the Holy Spirit take those words and change people's lives. We all have the new man. You know, God is speaking to each one of us. You know what? And if people decide to disobey the Lord, they decide to sin, well, let the Lord chastise them, okay? I'm not gonna kick people out unless those things have been pointed out to me in the word of God specifically as something to keep people out about, okay? Let's keep going. Verse number 27. 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 the one put out his hand and the midwife took and bound up his hand in a scarlet thread saying, this came out first. So, I don't know. You know, when my wife is giving birth, I can't look. You know, I'm just looking at my wife's face and saying, honey, keep breathing. It's gonna work out. I mean, these midwives, you know, I don't know. They're able to, you know, deal with this. But obviously, a hand comes out, you know, she goes, oh, this one's gonna be born first. So, she puts a scarlet thread to make sure we remember that because they're twins and they might look alike, you know? So, she puts that around and just to remember this one came out first. So, the hand comes out. But then verse number 29, it came to pass as he drew back his hand. So, the hand goes back in that behold, his brother came out. So, the one that was meant to be second actually comes out first and she said, how hast thou broken forth this breach be upon thee? Therefore, his name was called Phares. And afterward came out his brother that had the scarlet thread upon his hand and his name was called Zara. All right. So, the twins are being born there. Now, why does God give us this story? Okay. Keep your finger there. Actually, you don't need to keep your finger there. Go to Matthew chapter one now. Matthew chapter one, verse one. Matthew chapter one, verse one. Matthew chapter one, verse one. Because how would you like this story in your family life? It'd be a shame. All right. It's so shameful to have this story in your life. And I love it how, you know, people that mess up their lives in the Bible, I love it how God can still use them. You know, use them in such an amazing way. And look at Matthew 1, 1. Matthew 1, 1. It says here, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob. And Jacob begat Judas. That's Judah, right? Judas and his brethren. Look. And Judas begat Pharise and Zara of Tamar. And Pharise begat Esrom and Esrom begat Aaron. You know what God's telling us here? Is that even though this is a very wicked situation, a very shameful situation that took place in his family for Judah, it is shameful for him. We see that still God uses this, right? Tamar, you know, who was who was disgraceful in her actions, but also disgraced by how she was treated. And yet by this union, by this son that came forth, Pharise would come the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, it's an amazing thing because brethren, you know, we all make mistakes. We all mess up our lives. Some more than others. And it saddens me when I see the hearts of the brethren so downcast for the mistakes they've made in the past. And yes, there are consequences for your sins. You know, that's life. Learn from them. Teach your children to not make the same mistakes. But understand, even if you have a child out of wedlock, a child out of fornication, something as wicked as a father-in-law and a daughter-in-law, something as wicked as that, you know, that child, if he's raised godly, if he's raised, you know, to serve the Lord, God can use him in an amazing way. And the Lord used him to bring forth the Lord Jesus Christ. What an honor to be in that name. The ancestors of Jesus Christ. So we have two stories here. We have the story of the children of Judah from his first wife. How wicked they were. How wicked. They had everything to their disposal. They had the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had godly teaching. But Judah messed up as a father. They did not raise them well. They destroyed their lives to the point that God has to step in and kill them. And we have the story of Judah's other woman there, giving birth in a very disgraceful way. But these children were raised well. These children were raised, right? They would bring forth the ancestors, eventually Jesus Christ, to come into this world. So brethren, let me just say this, you know, just because I'm a pastor and I have children, it doesn't guarantee that my kids will be better than your kids if your kids have been raised in a disgraceful environment or situation. No guarantee. The only thing that guarantees faithful godly children is how we raise them. How we raise them. Raise them for the Lord. Bring them to church. Pray with them. Read the Bible. Sing the hymns together. Moms and dads, put your heads together. How do we raise our kids? Be consistent with the way you teach and raise your children. When you're inconsistent, your kids won't know what's right and wrong. Okay, they won't know what's right and wrong. You need to put your heads together. Raise your kids for the glory of God. Let's pray.