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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could find your seats and grab a song book. Let's turn our hymnals to song 432, Angels from the Realms of Glory. 432, Angels from the Realms of Glory. Song 432, Angels from the Realms of Glory. The angels from the realms of glory. In your final holy earth. The angels and the angels of fear. Now proclaim Messiah's birth. Common worship, common worship. Worship, worship. Praise the newborn king. Shepherds in the field of dying. Watching your thoughts by night. God with man is very sighted. God nurtures the infant life. Common worship, common worship. Worship Christ the newborn king. Sages leave your contemplations. Brighter visions beam afar. Seek the great desire of nations. He hath seen His angels star. Common worship, common worship. Worship Christ the newborn king. Saints before the altar bending. Watching one in hope and fear. Suddenly the Lord is sending. In His temple shall appear. Common worship, common worship. Worship Christ the newborn king. Amen. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for this time of year. Remember the birth of your son. Thank you so much for all that you do for us. Pray that you bless the service. And pray that we just honor and glorify you tonight. Amen. Alright, for our second song, we'll go to 227 saved by the blood. 227 saved by the blood. 227 saved by the blood. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Now read, sometimes in a new word begun. Sing praise to the Father and praise to the Son. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Glory and safe, glory and safe. My sins are all hardened, my guilt is all gone. Glory and safe, glory and safe. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. The angels rejoicing because it is done. A child of the Father joined care with the Son. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Glory and safe, glory and safe. My sins are all hardened, my guilt is all gone. Glory and safe, glory and safe. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. The Father he's taken, his will it was done. Great Christ the Black Lord in his own precious Son. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Glory and safe, glory and safe. My sins are all hardened, my guilt is all gone. Glory and safe, glory and safe. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. All hail to the Father, all hail to the Son. All hail to the Spirit, the great, free and one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Glory and safe, glory and safe. My sins are all hardened, my guilt is all gone. Glory and safe, glory and safe. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Good evening, thanks so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you don't already have a bulletin, put your hand nice and high and one of our ushers will come by and get your bulletin. On the inside we have our service to soul winning times. How many did they count for any soul winning from the past few days? Was there anything from Monday to report for soul winning by chance? Alright, one for Monday. What about Tuesday? Was there anything for Tuesday? Okay, zero for Tuesday. What about today? Was there anything from today? Is that five? Or one? Okay. Looks like two for Wednesday. Keep up the great work on soul winning and we just got to push all the way to the end. I think we're going to have some really good numbers. On the right we have our list of expecting ladies. We have several listed there. Continue to pray for them. Also we have our prayer list. Continue to pray for everyone on our prayer list. We're going to go ahead and go over that real quick. If you have anything you would like to add, try to email those in to Steadfast Baptist KJV. We'll try to add those to our bulletin. Continue to pray for the Negara family for their health. Miss Lucy's mother's tumors. Brother Cameron Hall's leg. Verity Baptist Manila with Brother Matthew Stuckey and Pastor Kevin Sepulveda with their churches. Continue to pray for Miss Stephanie Weathers and her pregnancy. Brother Eber Garcia, his mother's health. Those are minnow family for their neighbor situation. Miss Grace Scott, if you continue to pray for her nerve pain. Brother Steven Moulton's family's salvation. Also, Sabrina Johnson was in our list for a C-section and they had Isaac Elias Johnson since then. And so we have a congratulations to them. He was 5 pounds 8 ounces 19 inches and it was 3.22 am. So, congratulations to them. Continue to pray for them. Yeah, congratulations to them. Continue to pray for their recovery. Also, Miss Allison Holden was praying, asking for prayers for her health. There is a surgery on January 11th for Brother Jeremy Gore. He's in Oklahoma City Church and he's having some kind of a, I think it's kind of a minor surgery, but it's dealing with something in his head, and so if you continue to pray for him. Also, Brother Richard Capito has been struggling with some health things, so if we continue to pray for his recovery. So, several health concerns, other situations. We'll say a quick word of prayers, our church family, for those mentioned. Thank you Heavenly Father for Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to come here and be gathered. I pray that you would continue to bless all the ladies that are expecting. That you would bless their children. That you would give them healthy pregnancies and an easy delivery. And that you would bless their baby's health. I pray that you would also bless the various health concerns in our church. That you would be giving them favor. That you would give them wisdom. That you would bless them with health right now. I pray that you would just continue to bless the churches abroad that need some relief. And that you would just give them the ability to fully practice their faith. And that you would allow them to continue preaching the gospel. That you would be with them. That you would strengthen them. I pray that you would also be with the rest of our church family and their various concerns and their needs. And that everything we do will be in honor and glory in your name. In your son's name, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Down below we had the note about the Brownsville-Madam Morris Soul Winning Marathon. And everything went excellent down there. We had a great number down there. Was there any extra salvations to report by any chance? Okay, alright. Well, it was excellent being down there. We had a lot of fun. I would highly recommend, if you're able to ever go down, either there or Reynosa. They're both really great areas. I almost feel like Madame Morris is my new favorite just because of La Canza Yeria. But, it was epic, okay? If you ever go you have to get the tomahawk, alright? Tell them Pastor Shelley sent you, okay? On the back, we have some other notes. We also have some brethren that are in the Bahamas right now. If you'll pray for them. They snuck in there, I guess. I don't think they swam, but they're apparently doing really well over there. And somebody asked, they're like, where could you go? If you go anywhere for Soul Winning. And I was like, I'd go to the Bahamas, just being honest. And so, they're in there and hopefully they'll come back with a good report. You know, it won't be an evil report and we'll see what's going on over there. We also have our Christmas caroling last night. Thanks to everybody who participated. It went really well. I think we should, I should have anticipated we needed three groups. Because I think we had two groups of 30 plus. But, it went really well. And so, hopefully next year, I guess the pizza really brings people out. So, I'll anticipate better next year. And then, we have our ladies Christmas party this Friday. So, really looking forward to that. I think there's going to be a lot of cool stuff. There is a gift exchange. The notes are down here below. There's a dinner catered and there's a gift exchange. If you have a question about that, please either submit an email. If you don't know my wife's contact information or just contact my wife. And she would love to give you the information on that. But, even if you don't, you can still participate in all the activities. You don't feel like you have to bring anything. But, it is nursing's only. And so, hopefully you guys can help, you know, take care of the kids for one night. Okay, come on. Joseph had to take his wife through the wilderness or whatever. You know, take them back home. So, we can do it one night, alright? Let them have a special night. And then, also the 18th, we have the baby shower for Megan Wood and her baby girl. The registered bye-bye baby. It's going to come up pretty soon. The 19th is our make-up day for yearbook pictures. That's that Sunday. And so, hopefully you're going to sign up or we'll sign you up. And then, the 22nd, we have our cookie bake-off. And our candlelight service. Again, we're going to have three categories. So, best tasting cookies, best decorated, and most unique. And basically, how it's going to work is we'll put a cup in front of your cookie. And you'll put your, like the name. You have to come up with a name, okay, for your cookie or whatever. But, don't put your name. You know, it's not a popularly contest. So, you'll just, you know, chocolate chip cookie or whatever. Best chocolate chip cookie ever. You know, however you want to label that. And then, essentially as people try all the cookies, they'll eventually get a couple beads or a couple tokens or something. And they'll be colored for each one. Best tasting, most unique, best decorated. And they'll go and vote. And here's the thing. If you only bring like three cookies, you'll probably only get like three votes. Okay. So, if you really want to maximize your votes, you've got to bring a lot of cookies. Okay. So that lots of people can try them and say, like, I like that one. And we're going to vote for that one. So, it's incentive to bring extra cookies. All right. Lots and lots of cookies. And there is no limit to how many cookies you can bring for the competition. So, you could technically bring two kinds or three kinds or a hundred kinds. You know, there's no limit. All right. It's not Noah's Ark. It's not just two. It's, you know, of every kind of animal. Okay. So, you can bring all of them. And there'll be some prizes for those that win. We're going to let anybody age 10 or older vote. So, there'll be a lot of voters. And, you know, mob rules wins. All right. So, there you go. You can't say the church never voted on anything. All right. So, there you go. Cookies. And then the 31st, we're going to have our New Year's Eve party at 7. So, a lot of fun. We'll have pizza. So, you can show up. And it'll be pretty similar. Last time we had a lot of games. People brought their own board games. And we just kind of had time of fellowship, hanging out. And you don't have to stay until midnight either. So, you know, if you just want to show up and hang out for a little bit, you can. And so, that's pretty much all I had for announcements at this time. We'll go ahead and go to our third song for the evening. 351, Tell It To Jesus. 351. And that song, 351, Tell It To Jesus. 351, Tell It To Jesus. Are you weary? Are you heavy-hearted? Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Are you breathing over your heart? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well-known. You no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Through the tears, no matter, He's unlimited. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Have you sinned that human's eyes are hidden? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well-known. You no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Are you anxious? What shall be tomorrow? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well-known. You no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. You no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Are you troubled at the thought of dying? Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. For Christ's coming kingdom are you sighing? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well-known. You no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Genesis chapter number 38. We're going to read the whole chapter starting in verse 1. Genesis 38. And it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren and turned into a certain Adulamite whose name was Hira. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua and he took her and went in unto her. 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 Kezab and she bare him. And Judah took a wife for Ur his firstborn whose name was Tamar. And Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife and marry her and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his and it came to pass when he went in unto his brother's wife that he spilled it on the ground lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord wherefore he slew him also. Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, Remain a widow at thy father's house till Sheila my son be grown. For he said, Lest peradventure he die also as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. And in process of time the daughter of Shewa, Judah's wife, died. And Judah was comforted and went up unto his sheep shearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hira the Edulamite. And it was told Tamar saying, Behold thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. And she put her widow's garments off from her and covered her with a veil and wrapped herself and sat in an open place which is by the way to Timnath for she saw that Sheila was grown and she was not given unto him the wife. When Judah saw her he taught her to be in harlot because she had 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 till thou send it? And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet and thy bracelets and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave it her and came in unto her and she conceived by him. And she arose and went away and laid by her veil from her and put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adulamite to receive his pledge from the woman's hand, but he found her not. Then he asked the men of that place saying, Where is the harlot that was openly by the wayside? And they said, There was no harlot in this place. And he returned to Judah and said, I cannot find her. And also the men of the place said that there was no harlot in this place. And Judah said, Let her take it to her lest we be ashamed. Behold, I sent this kid and thou hast not found her. And it came to pass about three months after that it was told Judah saying, Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath played the harlot. And also behold, she is with child by Hordom. And Judah said, Bring her forth and let her be burnt. When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law saying, By the man whose these are, am I with child? And she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet and bracelets and staff? And Judah acknowledged them and said, She hath been more righteous than I, because that I gave her not to Shelah my son, and he knew her again no more. And it came to pass in the time of her travail that, behold, twins were in her womb. And it came to pass when she travailed that the one put out his hand, and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first. And it came to pass as he drew back his hand that, behold, his brother came out. And she said, How 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 Zarah. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, thank you for Genesis chapter 38. And, Lord, I pray that you would fill Pastor Shelley with your spirits so you can help him to explain this chapter to us and help us to understand it, Lord. We know that there are truths in this chapter that we need to understand to be better Christians, and I pray that you would help us pay attention to do so. We thank you for our church, Lord, and I pray this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. And can you turn us down on the, can you turn these mics, these speakers down just a hair, it's like a little bit ringy. So we're in Genesis chapter 38 and we kind of take a weird break from the storyline of Joseph here in chapter number 38 as we kind of got introduced to Joseph and then we're going to pick Joseph back up again. But here in chapter number 38 we have an interesting story with Judah and it's kind of just elaborating a lot of other details that are happening. And I think the reason why it makes this break is because this is probably after the fact of Joseph or it's around the time of Joseph being a young lad and then going into Egypt. And as we start getting into the rest of that story we're kind of forgetting about Judah and all the other characters so it makes sense for God to kind of just tell us a little bit more about Judah before we move on to strictly Joseph in the Bible. And we find out a lot about Judah. Now Judah is a very interesting character in your Bible because he kind of has good, bad, and ugly. Okay, so like Judah has got a lot of stuff going on. He's not really only a bad character. He's not only a good character. He's kind of got all of it. So what I like about Judah is that he's real. He's like a real person. And the fact is all of us have good, bad, and ugly and it's very realistic. Whereas the Muslims, they kind of dislike the Bible because the characters of the Bible do wicked things or they do weird things or like crazy things happen in the Bible. And then you go to Kentucky and you realize weird stuff happens. Especially when it comes to relationships and how people are born and everything like that. And so there's no new thing under the sun. Jerry Springer is a real TV show. I mean there's all kinds of crazy stuff. And look, the Bible, it's not that Jerry Springer is the first person to introduce weird relationships. The Bible is the one that introduces you to all kinds of weird relationships and situations. And it's really just a signification of the fact that we're all human. Look at verse 1. The Bible says, It came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren. I don't know what it means. It says that it came to pass at that time. Meaning it's around the same time as Joseph. That's why it's introducing this story at this time. It says that Judah went down from his brethren and turned into a certain dolomite whose name was Hira. So Judah makes a friend. A friend's name is Hira. And it says in verse 2, And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shewa. And he took her and went in under her. So we see that Judah is marrying a Canaanite which is very wicked. It's not right. The Bible constantly condemns the children of Israel from marrying heathen wives. And we've seen this over and over. We've seen the mistake of the previous generations of their fathers making this mistake. But the reality is it's just a mistake that men make. They look at a woman that's attractive and they marry the wrong woman. And really you'll notice this pattern in the Bible. It'll say that first the guy saw her and then he married her. Indicating what? That looks is pretty much the primary reason why these guys are marrying these type of women. Getting in these type of relationships. And let's be honest, most men marry their wives solely on looks. I mean it's really probably the most important factor when it comes to who they determine who they marry. And it's not really the best criterion on who you should marry. And I'm sorry to break it to you single guys. You want to just go for the looks is the only criterion. But really that's not the most important criterion. And frankly speaking, after you marry her, she'll never look like that again. Because she's going to age. We all age. We all look different. Now she could look better, but eventually it's going to look different. No matter what, it's just going to look different. And if you really want a good idea, look at the mother-in-law. And you're like, ah! And it's like, but that's what you're going to get eventually. That's why you should realize, I should marry something more than just looks. You should look for a woman that has integrity, has character, loves the Lord. And honestly, physical attraction, which some people that are not married or they're young, they can't understand this. But the more you're with someone, or the more you spend time with someone, you can actually like their physical looks more and more. Like there can be a person that you find attractive, not that attractive, but the more time you spend with them and the more you get to know them, you actually find them more and more physically attractive over time. And you actually develop a stronger physical attraction to them than you had at the very beginning. And it's an interesting phenomena that you don't really understand until you get there. But I'm trying to help you young people realize that even if you don't really like the way someone looks today, that could change tomorrow. But you know what you're not going to like? A liar, or a thief, or a criminal, or someone that's just a whore. You're not going to like someone better when they have horrible character attributes. And so you really want to be careful who you marry and the fact that they love the Lord and that they're not coming from this Canaanite spiritual jungle that's out there. Now I'm not going to say that you couldn't rescue someone out of that, but in the Bible it's really clear, it's a picture here, it's a symbol here, and we notice that the children that are going to be reduced from this relationship are a mistake. In fact, that's how he names his children. Look at verse 3. And she conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Er. You know how you know you had a mistake as a child? You name him Er. It's like, who's this? This is a mistake. You know, mistake number 1 and 2 and 3. You know, that's not a very good name for your child, is it? You know, and what's so silly about this is men, even though they know they make the mistake, look what happens, verse 4. And she conceived again. Did he learn from the first Er? Nope. He's going to have a second Er and bare a son, and she called his name Onan. So now he's just producing just, you know, child after child, Er, Onan. Oh, verse 5. And she yet again conceived and bare a son and called his name Sheila, and he was at Kizib where she bare him. So, he just finds this woman, he's having children, gives a really strange name unto his first child. And then Judah ends up finding a wife for his child, verse 6. And Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. That was pretty quick. Notice that it's not good to be wicked. And notice that God may just kill you for being wicked. Here's a good reason not to be wicked. God may just kill you for it. And, let's be honest, a lot of people die young in this world. And you want to know why? Because they're wicked. Now, I'm not saying that's every single situation. What I am saying is that a lot of very wicked people will die very young. And it's very biblical. Look at, go to Proverbs, keep your finger, go to Proverbs chapter 1 for a moment. Proverbs chapter number 1, what would be a group of people like this? I don't know, people that go join a gang at a very young age. They do very evil, you know, criminal acts. In fact, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, I believe it was Arlington, if I remember correctly, there was a young man who was involved in a gang recently who went to school and shot like three people or something like that. And, you know, it's very likely that he could have been killed. Or that he's killing these other people that are all involved in these gang activities, selling drugs. This is in high school. And look, it's in junior high, it's in high school, these gangs and criminal activity. And, in fact, even killing people, oftentimes kids that are in these gangs talk about how they were introduced to drugs and alcohol at the age of like 10, 11, 12. They're introduced into, you know, all kinds of horrible trafficking and all kinds of evil perversion and sin and fill. And then they're also introduced to literal robbery, death, all kinds of evil like this at very young ages. And all the way at age 16, 17, 18, they already have a rap sheet, you know, longer than most adults in prison. And the reason why they recruit kids at these very young ages, a lot of these gangs, is because of the criminal punishments doled out for these children are like slaps on the wrist, first time offender, they're so young. So it enables them to basically get out quickly or just go to juvie or something so they can basically commit all these horrible acts and get out while they're young. I even read an article and they were talking about initiating into gangs and they would try to get their young men involved in these gangs to kill someone before the age of 16 because typically their sentence would be less than two years. So basically they would kill someone, go to jail for two years, and then they come back to the gang at around 18 or whatever, and now they've been fully initiated because they've been to prison, they've killed someone, and they know they can basically get out on a very short time window. And so it's out there. But you know what, God could kill these people, and a lot of times these people die. You know, a lot of people are killed in these activities. And the Bible, when I think about this situation, it makes me think of Proverbs chapter 1 where it looks, look at verse 10. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, come with us, let us lay weight for blood. Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause. Let us swallow them up alive as the grave and whole, as those that go down into the pit. We shall find all precious substance. We shall fill our houses with spoil. Cast thy lot among us. Let us all have one purse. My son, walk not thou in the way with them. Refrain thy foot from their path. For their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. And they lay weight for their own blood. They lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain, which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. You know, the bloody and deceitful man shall not live out half his days is what the Bible says. And notice what the Bible warns in verse 19. So are the ways of, notice this phrase, everyone that is greedy of gain, which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. Notice that the Bible is giving a strong warning to those that want to live this type of lifestyle and want to go out and commit grand theft or steal money or do these wicked evil atrocities that God may just kill them in some way. That God may just take their life and just end them just like air. And you don't want to be air because air just was wicked and God just like, I'm done with you, and he just killed him. Another reason why it's important to follow God's command was to go back, if you would, to Genesis chapter number 38. You know, it's a quick verse, but it's a strong lesson that we need to learn that, you know, there is a God that judges in the earth. And the Lord, you know, he has his reasons for taking someone's life today and not tomorrow. And we don't understand all of that, but especially someone that knows to do right and knows to do good and just does it not. And is just presumptuously sinning and is presumptuously backslidden and is presumptuously wicked. You know, that person, in my opinion, is on much more thin ice than the wicked people of the day that have never been to church, that don't know any better. God's probably going to be a lot more long suffering with those type of people than the person that knows to do right, that knows, you know, what they're supposed to be doing and just chooses not to. Why it's very important that you emphasize your children to serve the Lord, that you help them learn a true zeal for the Lord so that they do right and they're not like air and they're just slain and just destroyed. Seems like Judah didn't do a very good job raising air. Probably because he didn't really care that much, I mean, just marrying this random Canaanite woman. And notice again, Judah's a pretty good guy in general. Okay, this chapter's rough, but other chapters Judah does some good things and obviously Judah's going to be the lineage of Jesus Christ. He's got Jacob as his father. So Judah has a lot of pretty good things going for him. But we have this mother over here that's a Canaanite and notice the first son, just wicked. Why? Because typically the mother is going to have more influence on the child than the father. And I don't say that lightly, I'm saying that because it's practical reality. It's not to say that men don't have a really big importance, it's just to say that women have a major, major impact and role on their children. You want your wife to love on those children and teach those children and instill great values into those children. And you can see a lot of children turning out well even when they don't have a father figure because they had a really great mother. You want both, but notice when you have a pretty good dad and just a bad mom, you know, the children turn out wicked again. And so that's why it's really important to raise your children for the Lord and marry the right type of woman that wants to raise her children for the Lord. Look at the verse next to that, verse 8. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, marry her, and raise up seed thy brother. Onan knew that the seed should not be his, and it came to pass when he went in unto his brother's wife that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord, wherefore he slew him also. So Judah's not doing so hot on children. First one, dead, because he's wicked. Second one, commits a sin that God is really angry with, just kills him too. Now, there's not really a lot of places in the Bible that spell out birth control, or as I would call it, conception control. Here's pretty much your one mention. Wasn't very positive, was it? Notice that God wasn't really kind to the guy that decides to practice this. Now, there's two words I want to differentiate in your mind. There's birth control and there's conception control, okay? The story we just read is not birth control. I'm going to give you an example of birth control. Keep your finger here and go to Exodus 21, go to Exodus chapter 21, and we're going to kind of elaborate on this passage for a moment. Because Onan's a pretty well-known figure in the Bible for basically not wanting to have children. Exodus 21, look at verse 22. If men strive and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. So, according to the Bible, if a woman loses her child due to an accident, some kind of injury that was not planned, there's no guile, there was no purpose in her losing that child, the person's punished. Does it sound like God likes children dying in the womb for any reason? No. It goes even further. It says in verse 23, and if any mischief follow, so meaning you find out, actually, this wasn't an accident, these people did this on purpose, or, you know, something was amiss. Somehow, somebody in this situation did something unintentional to try and harm this child, be it, I don't know exactly how intentional, it doesn't really matter. Notice what it says in the next phrase, then thou shall give life for life. So God's perspective of birth control is life for life. Now, again, what is birth control? Birth control is not stopping children from being conceived. It's why the name is called birth control. It's not called conception control. Now, most birth controls do have multiple mechanisms in play, okay? And one mechanism is supposed to reduce your likelihood of releasing an egg in which it will get fertilized, okay? And, frankly speaking, that's a different concept that we're going to talk about in just a second. That's ONAN, okay, that we're going to talk about in a minute. But there's a backup mechanism to almost all birth control, and I'm talking about, like, your pill, your abortifacient pills, and, like, the morning after pill, or birth control pills that people will put women on and everything like that. This backup mechanism will harden the uterus of a woman so that after a fertilized egg travels down the fallopian tubes, about five to seven day journey, it'll try to implant itself in the uterus. Because the uterus is either too hard, the egg won't be able to successfully plant, it'll just be flushed out and killed, okay? Or it'll be hardened where the egg will attach but just not really well, and then eventually it'll just attach, separate, and then get flushed out. Again, another kind of miscarriage, and so really all it's doing is it's stopping the live child from being born. That's why it's called birth control, not only conception control, okay? Now, some people would say, well, what about the conception control? Well, first of all, let's just establish birth control is murder. If you're killing something that's alive in your uterus, that's murder, especially when it's intentional. And look, every doctor knows what they're doing when they're prescribing those pills. Unfortunately, a lot of young ladies, teenagers, and mothers are just ignorant of what birth control does or what's happening. They're just here, I'm not going to get pregnant, and they're just like, where do I sign, okay? But they don't really understand all the things that are happening to their body or that it's killing children. And really, it's important that we educate people on these topics so that they make an informed decision. They actually know what they're doing because I guarantee a lot of women in this world would probably stop taking birth control if they knew it literally murdered a child in the womb. And when you do studies on this, they've said that it's very likely that if you're on birth control for about a year's time, you'll probably have had one of these miscarriages, okay? Now, I'm not saying you did. I'm just saying statistically, you probably had at least one if you're active with your partner and it's been a whole year that you've been on this cycle. Most likely, you flushed out at least one truly conceived egg, okay? And it's murder. That's not what we're talking about in Genesis 38 that God got really mad at. Let's talk about the first mechanism of most birth control would be conception control. Now, conception control is contextually not a sin, okay? And I want to explain a few different things. First of all, the Bible teaches breastfeeding and breastfeeding is called the LAM method, okay? It's like L-A-M. Essentially, it's a natural way where your body as a woman while you're breastfeeding actively will stop your body from releasing eggs, okay, naturally. And it's pretty much effective 99% for the first six months according to just the world, okay? So, according to the world, the first six months if you're breastfeeding exclusively on demand, there's like a 99% that you're not going to have an egg be released and you're not going to get pregnant again in those first six months. The 1% is for the air method, okay? It's for the people that make mistakes. But it's pretty much just it's really 100% but it's just the fact that people are people and they don't do it right or whatever. But in things that affect this, and I'm teaching this, we have a lot of pregnant ladies, okay, in our church, okay? Things that affect this LAM method from working, pacifiers, bottles, not feeding on demand, okay, supplemental feedings, all of every one of these things decreases your ability to actually exercise the natural LAM method that God has provided for. And historically, you know, there hasn't been all these inventions necessarily. Pacifiers haven't always existed necessarily. There hasn't been the formula and all these other kind of things. Typically, it's pretty much breastfeeding was your only option, okay? And if you really were in a situation where your body just couldn't do it because you're injured or something, you'd have to have a wet nurse or you'd have to have some other lady breastfeed your child. That's historically how it's happened. But because of all these modern inventions and modern medicine and this world today, a lot of women don't do breastfeeding the way God intended, which will cause them to get pregnant earlier than that first six months. I will submit to you that if you do it correctly, I believe that it's still 100% effective beyond six months. The reason why it's at six months, and this is my personal opinion, okay? The reason why it's at six months is because almost every pediatrician will tell you to start supplement feeding or start doing table food or something at six months, okay? And because of those changes is why that percentage is decreasing. But obviously, over time, as you get further and further along, it just naturally does decline a little bit. But as long as you're breastfeeding on demand, the way that God made your body, theoretically, you're not going to release eggs, okay? And so that's why me and my wife, we exercise this method to the extremity of extremities. It's on-demand feeding. He's the only one that ever feeds. No pacifiers ever. You know, we don't even let her suck her thumb or anything. No alternatives. Because your body responds to whatever you do. Have you ever woken up and you just go work out right first thing in the morning? And you know what's interesting? If you wake up early and you go work out, okay? Let's say it's 6 a.m. You wake up, you work out for an hour, okay? Or you just slept till 8 a.m. If you compare yourself from 8 a.m. to 8 a.m., the one that worked out, you're going to have more energy than if you slept in. It's because your body responds to whatever you're doing. So if you work out really hard, all these endorphins and all these things are going to release in your body. Your body's like, yeah, yeah, let's go. Whereas the extra sleep causes you to just be more lethargic and more tired in your day. So more sleep doesn't always help you. So as a woman's body, if it's constantly getting attention in that area through breastfeeding, the body's going to be like, produce milk, produce milk, produce milk. You know, it's going to be like, go, go, go, go, go. And then the less you do, then it starts reducing. Your body just responds to whatever you do. So you start using pacifiers, you know, women will say, oh, my milk production is decreasing. And then they'll be like, well, now I can't supply enough. So then they introduce formula and then say, oh, my milk supply is decreasing even more. But it's like they don't realize that they're doing it to themselves. By introducing these inventions, by doing the pacifiers or introducing the formula or introducing the formula, you reduce your supply. Whereas even if you're just using your body as a human pacifier, it's alerting your body like, oh, I need to make more and more milk. And I need to constantly make milk and constantly feed and constantly feed. And here's the thing. You got to choose your suffering, okay? I know I'm going on a tangent for a moment, but it's important, okay? You can, as a woman, decide to just be a human pacifier, okay, which is obviously hard work. And it's like I don't get any breaks or whatever. But you know what? You get a break by not getting pregnant for a really long time. Or you can use inventions like pacifiers, formula, and all this other stuff. And then you're going to get pregnant just like super rapidly and just over and over. And you'll start having Irish twins and, you know, other consequences. And look, I'm not here to condemn anyone. I'm just trying to tell you choose your suffering. For me and my family, for me and my wife, I think the best is that she's a human pacifier, okay? And in fact, there's even studies that when you co-sleep, it's important that your baby is like next to you, like right next to you. Because there's something that goes on in your brain when you can just feel the baby next to you. And there's just hormones that are being released and the mama just is aware. Whereas if you put them off somewhere else or another bed or whatever, it can decrease your hormones and all the other things that are going on. And look, I don't understand the hormones, women, okay? The mystery. But I do know that God made these things on purpose, okay? And he created these things on purpose. And the more inventions, the more unnatural things you do, the more consequences you're going to have to that situation. So is conception control sinful? Well, I don't believe the Lamb method is sinful at all. I think there is zero sin associated with that. Meaning that if you practice breastfeeding until he's four, God bless you, okay? Now, I'm not recommending that. I'm not saying that that's right. What I am saying is that I do not believe that would be sinful in any way regarding conception control, okay? I've heard some people think like it's somehow bad because they're not being fruitful and multiplying or something. I'm like, that's bizarre, okay? Obviously, if God created your body to behave this way, that's what he wants you to do, okay? If you decide, you know, maybe you have some situation, you just genuinely couldn't breastfeed for whatever reason, and you formula feed or whatever and you get pregnant two months after having birth, I'll pray for you, okay? I'm not here to condemn anybody. I just want people to be aware so they can make educated decisions though about their children, about birth, about breastfeeding. What does the Bible actually teach? Now, what people have done though is because they don't want to get pregnant for selfish reasons, is they've created medical devices that cause them to not conceive. There's other birth control. It's in the label of birth control, even though it's not really birth control. More conception control devices and there's devices for men, there's devices for women, there's pills, there's all kinds of... I don't even want to talk about it. It's all gross, okay, frankly speaking. But how does God feel about that? Well, we see that the Onan method made God really angry and he killed him. Now, go back to Genesis 38. Let me make it clear, because I've heard some people try to twist this passage into saying that something else made him mad or whatever. I've heard it say, well, it's only because he wouldn't raise up seed to his brother's wife. Now, obviously, that's in connection here, okay? But notice that it says in verse 9 at the end that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother, and the thing which he did. So it's not saying something that he didn't do, it's saying something that he did, okay? Now, what did he not do? He did not give seed unto his brother. But what did he do? He exercised conception control. And what is it that God got mad at? The conception control. Therefore, you cannot say that the conception control didn't anger God, absolutely did. Now, obviously, they're both related and they're both in coordination, but what if he was infertile? He could have potentially not given seed to his brother, but I don't believe God would have killed him for that because that's not his fault. What's the reason that God's mad at him is he's refusing to be fruitful in multiplying, he's refusing to do the act that causes pregnancy, and because of that, God killed him. Well, I think that God's okay if I do it. Well, I'm not going to take that risk. Now, maybe you do it in ignorance, but you know what? You're not ignorant anymore. And you know what? Onan, what a name. Have you ever met anybody named Onan? I think there's a reason why. Have you ever met anyone named Ur? Okay. No. There's a reason why because these people are shamed. It's an evil thing. And in fact, throughout history, exercising birth control or conception control was actually considered evil. Even by U.S. presidents in the United States, U.S. presidents got up and said that birth control was wrong. And it used to be illegal in America. People like Margaret Sanger are the ones that are bringing in the birth control, bringing in the conception control, bringing in these devices from Europe, from France and these other places in the world, and then they're trying to push it through Planned Parenthood and through all of their, you know, agencies, you know, organizations, alliances. She's part of the Ku Klux Klan. And it was really, it was kind of a genocide on black people. If you really want to understand, like, the mentality of these people is they hated black people, so they were trying to create a system in which they would stop black people from having children. And so they were creating these clinics where they'd give away free devices to a lot of black people so they would kill and murder their children. And look, it's no coincidence that the quote-unquote black community, which doesn't, you know, just people that happen to be black, are the most affected by these type of things. They're the most having children out of wedlock, they're the most growing up in fatherless homes, they're the most exercising abortion, they're the most demographic. I mean, the demographics in these categories, it's usually always black people are number one in every single one of these categories. It's been shown that Planned Parenthoods and these type of organizations are usually found in black neighborhoods or in low-income areas where they're really trying to just kill all of the children. And through feminism and through, you know, the baby boomer generation and the free love movement in the 60s, it crept into the white population too, even though it's for everybody. And now we see that almost everybody in America just loves birth control, loves conception control. You know, when I went to high school, they used to teach abstinence in the public school. They would get up and they would teach abstinence, they would basically start out the class with a piece of gum and they would have every student try to pass, they would say chew on this gum and then pass it to the next person. And we were like, this is gross. And they were like, that's what you get when you are not a virgin. And we were like, oh, you know, some kids thought it was cool. I was like, this is gross, you know. And then they show you a bunch of really bad pictures I wish I'd never seen. You're always wondering like, what is that? And you're like, oh, ah, ah, you know, it's scary. They scared you. And, you know, I've met a lot of people that were not saved and they would just say like, the only reason I don't sleep around is because of STDs. And you know what, that's a good enough reason. That is a good enough reason, okay. And you know what, the ONAN method doesn't protect you from STDs. You know, a lot of people whore around and they try, and look, you can do weird, foolish things that try to stop you from having children, but you know what, that doesn't stop you from getting STD. There is no ONAN method that stops those, okay. And they try and they create all kinds of things to try and prevent that. But you know what, I don't ever want that. You know how you don't have that? Marry a virgin. Marry a virgin, be with one woman your whole life, and guess what, you never have to worry about that. And then you just have as many kids as God's going to bless you with, and then you don't have to worry about being killed for being ONAN, okay. But at the end of the day, you know, the Bible is really clear on this. Go to Genesis chapter 1. In fact, it's the first instruction recorded in the Bible given to man. Now I understand you could argue that there's instructions given to them before this, but I'm saying the first thing written in the Bible as an instruction to mankind, Genesis chapter number 1, look what it says in verse number 28, and God blessed them, talking about the man and the woman, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it. This also proves that, you know, they knew which gender they were because Adam and Steve could never be fruitful and multiply. All they do is get STDs and die. They're not fruitful and multiply, they get STDs and die. They're just AIDS dispensers, okay. And nobody wants an AIDS dispenser, they're supposed to be thrown in the trash. But God made it clear that we're supposed to be fruitful and multiply. Look, this is the first thing. Wouldn't you think that's pretty important? Hey, let me go ahead and give you the first thing, be fruitful and multiply. And you know what, praise God that we have a church that actually likes this commandment and is actually exercising this commandment, and you know what, people love it. I know that, you know, some people give you our time, people love it. When you meet old people and they come and there's a church full of babies, they think it's the greatest thing ever. They love little babies and little children. Grandparents love babies and little children. And let's face it, your parents only like you because of your children now anyways. They're like, I know they're in a cult but they have so many cute kids and I just want to see the kids. You know, if it wasn't for the kids, they wouldn't even want to see you anymore. The kids are your saving grace. And the more of them that you have, the more they're just like, man, I just got to love you. You know, you just have so many cute kids, you know, and it just keeps them at bay. But the Bible's clear, go to Genesis 9, just flip a few pages, Genesis chapter number 9, and look at verse number 7. Notice God just says it again. And then he says it again later. And then he just says it again and again. Like, how many times does God have to tell you to be fruitful and multiply for you to believe it though? It should just be one. It's a very important commandment and, you know, unfortunately a lot of people are not raised understanding these things. They weren't taught this and they suffer the consequences of not understanding the Bible or understanding God's commandments and how we're supposed to actually behave ourselves. But the Bible makes it clear that we're supposed to be fruitful and multiply. And they say, that's hard. Well, I don't want you to do something hard now, do I? Actually, I do. Look, why would you want to go through life doing the easy thing? You know, the easy path has a low reward. The hard path has a great reward. You know, and having lots of kiddos, having lots of children that love the Lord and you raise them right, you're going to have a huge reward in the end of the day. And you know what? Grandchildren are your reward. Because you get to love on them and you don't have to raise them. You know, it's like the best ever. But you know, you want good children to raise them. Because you don't want to have to raise your grandchildren because you failed the first time. You want to get it right the first time so you don't have to do it the second time. If you fail the first time, you got to do it all over again or just be worried that all your grandchildren are going to the devil, okay? Now, no matter where you are in this timeline, you know, raise the children that you have to the best that you can. Now, go to Deuteronomy 25. I want to spend a lot of time on this verse just because there's a lot of things you could explain from it. What have we learned? First of all, birth control is a sin. Not only a sin, it's murder. It's a very wicked sin. Conception, obviously, God was very displeased. Conception control is very displeasing to God. Literally killed the only person we have recorded performing that. And it has to be a sin because the Bible says, be fruitful and multiply. Now, let me explain that verse to you, okay? Because I've heard some people ask or quibble over this. I do not believe it's a sin to not have children. I believe it's a sin to not try to have children. Okay? So, if you're doing your part, if you're not pulling an onan, then God bless you, okay? You're not doing anything wrong. There's nothing to be found fault for because, in fact, some of those godly people in the Bible were barren for a very long time. Not like they were doing anything wrong. But if you are able to have children and you're just refusing to do that, you just say, no, I don't want to do that. The reason why people do that is because they're selfish. The only reason, I mean, every time I've heard someone give an excuse for why they're not going to have more kids, always selfish. Well, I don't want my body to change anymore. I don't want to go through the pain. I don't want to, I can't afford it. I don't want to have to get a bigger car. I get that, okay? It's always about money, though. It's pretty much always about money or image. Something vain. Something that really doesn't have any value. You can't have the boat if you have more kids or whatever. You can't have the second home. You can't have all these other things. Well, which one's more important? You know, it's interesting. Everybody that already has kids, they would never sell their kid for a boat. They would never sell their kid for another house. They would never sell their kid to look a little thinner or something like that or to have less wrinkles on their body or something like that or have less work to do. You would never sell your kid. They're priceless. Every child, there's not a price put on their head. A loving parent would never want any kind of physical good or monetary. So then it's so silly to then say like, well, now I'm going to choose money over the kid, though. It's like, that's silly. You wouldn't have done that. In hindsight, you wouldn't do that. So then why now are you making that decision? It really makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. You know, the wise decision would be to learn from the first child that you got that you loved it so much, just do it again. And the Bible says, happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them. You're not going to be disappointed following God's commandments. His commandments are not grievous. What's grievous is not following His commandments and not doing that which is right. And, you know, us for no more is not a biblical concept. It does multiply. It doesn't say to double. It says to multiply. I mean, we're taking three times, four times, five times. Some of you all are doing that, okay? There's definitely some families doing that. Praise the Lord for the multiplication. And, you know, you want to fix America, that's a great thing if God's people will multiply whereas the evil people that can't even reproduce, they just constantly destroy themselves. And they're constantly killing themselves and they're killing all the wicked with them, okay, all the evil with them who inject everything into their body. They just let their body be a petri dish to the world. And guess what? They're going to get destroyed for that. They're going to be killing themselves for that. But, you know what? God's people, by putting the word of God inside of them, are going to preserve them and they're going to be fruitful and they're going to constantly multiply and we're going to take back, you know, our inheritance. We're going to take back this land. But I had you turn to Deuteronomy 25 because it was bringing up another concept here, not raising up seed on your brother's wife. Now this is a biblical commandment. It says in verse 5, 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 should 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 be not put out of Israel. And if the man like not to take his brother's wife and let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders and say, My husband's brother refused to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. And the elders of his city shall call him and speak unto him. And if he stand to it and say, I like not to take her, then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders and loose his shoe from off his foot and spit in his face, so answer and say, So shall it be done unto the man that will not build up his brother's house, and his name shall be called in Israel, the house of him that hath his shoe loose. According to the Bible, if you have a brother, he dies, and he had produced no child from that relationship, then you had to marry his wife. And your first child would take on your brother's name, not yours. So you could actually have lineages in the Bible that are a result of this. So sometimes the lineages are kind of a little confusing, and I actually use this method to interpret one part of the scripture. I'm not going to go there for the sake of time. I'm just bringing it up. Secondly, this is important to understand the book of Ruth. Because in Ruth, Ruth comes and looses off Boaz's shoe at night and basically says, Spread thy skirt upon mine handmaid, which is a euphemism for marry me. And the reason why she took the shoe off is she's saying, you better marry me or I'm going to take you in front of the elders, take your shoe off, and spit in your face, and you're going to have a bad reputation. So it's kind of a veiled threat, a little bit. I'm just being honest with what happened. And he doesn't do it initially because he says, well, actually, there's someone that is supposed to do that before me. And then he goes and talks to him first, and that guy doesn't do it. So that's why Boaz then takes his shoe off, and then he gets the bad rep, and then Boaz takes her on as his wife. But it's also a lot of spiritual pictures here. Jesus Christ is the one who is going to redeem us, and he's raising us up. But here's the parallel I want to make, because I could spend all night on this, but I'm not. I know some of you are worried. But think about us, and how does this relate to us? Not related. Because here's the thing, not all of us are Hunter Biden where we're going to marry our brother's wife, okay? Now, Hunter Biden, he married his brother Boaz's wife, but she already had two kids. So he's just wicked. And I want to explain another verse. Go to Leviticus chapter 20, Leviticus chapter 20. In that scenario, you're not supposed to. In fact, it's a very wicked sin to do so. But if he's dead and there was no child, then you raise up the first child. How could I relate to this? Because you're thinking, like, first of all, I'm already married. You know, probably a lot of you, number one. Number two, your brother's not dead with the wife situation. But what could be raising up seed into someone else's name? Soul winning. Think about it. We're raising up seed into someone else's name, and we're getting them saved in Jesus' name. And we're basically giving that seed unto the Lord, and it's not really ours per se. We're not really getting the credit for it. We're just helping other people. And you know what? God gets mad when soul winners refuse to raise up seed under their brother Jesus, but rather spill it on the ground. And what's that seed? It's the Word of God, isn't it? Where Christians, they refuse to preach the gospel. Hey, they got the gospel. Hey, they get all the benefits of the Word of God. They go to church on Sunday morning. They get to enjoy the pleasures of that seed. But then guess what? They go and spill it on the ground rather than using that Word of God to actually do the hard work of preaching the gospel and being a soul winner. And just like Onan, who gets the pleasures of being with the woman but then spills it on the ground, is so many Christians today. They go to church. They hear the Word of God. They're ministered by the Word of God. They're ministered by the seed. But then they spill it on the ground because they're a selfish Christian. They're selfish because they refuse to preach the gospel and get people saved because, oh, well, I don't get any credit for that. And here's the reality. In this life, you're probably going to get almost zero credit for the soul winning that you do. Anybody that's a good soul winner, anybody that's doing soul winning for a long time, you and I both know that we've pretty much gotten zero credit on this earth for the people that we get saved. Isn't that true? I mean, they pretty much never show up at church and they pretty much never get baptized and they never come and thank you. And no one's like, this is so and so's convert, you know, or whatever. You know what happens? They probably go back to their lame church and you know who probably gets credit? Their pastor probably gets the credit for their salvation even though he didn't even get them saved. But you know what? They're saved and they're your brother now and Jesus gets the honor and Jesus gets the glory for their salvation. And you know what? It's not about you getting the honor and the glory. It's about people getting saved. It's about being fruitful and multiplying. It's about following God's commandments and doing that which is right. And you know what? Don't be an onan Christian today. No, let's actually raise up seed to our brother Jesus and say praise Jesus and give, let's give him more seed and not allow him to be buried in our church. But be one that's constantly reaping that benefit and that blessing. Now, Leviticus 20, I want to explain this verse real quick because some people point it as a contradiction. Look at verse 21 and it says that if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing. He hath uncovered his brother's nakedness. They shall be childless. Now, some people point to this and say, oh, the Bible is full of contradictions. In Leviticus it says don't have your brother's wife. In Deuteronomy it says have your brother's wife. Well, here's how I would interpret this verse because obviously the Bible is no contradiction whatsoever. Clearly, in verse 21, this is in a situation where their brother is probably still alive. Okay, so basically his brother has divorced his wife and then you marry her which is divorced and now it's like a super wicked sin because you're with your brother's wife while he's still alive and it's just like a super weird situation. It reminds me of Herod. You know, Herod is like taking his brother's wife which is like, you know, it's kind of this weird scenario. Or you could just say it's in any scenario that's not prescribed in Deuteronomy 25. But Deuteronomy 25 has a very, very specific situation. The brother's dead and there's absolutely no children. Which, you know, is going to make it a little bit more reasonable because it's weird when it goes from uncle to dad. Okay, this is like a new country music song or something like that. You know, from uncle to dad, you know. No, no, you don't want to do that. Whereas if you come in and now all of a sudden you're, you know, the first one, it's just like a reset. Okay, and you get that marriage. But Onan didn't want to do it because he's just selfish. The child wouldn't be his. He wouldn't get glory and recognition for it so he's unwilling to do it. You know, a lot of Christians today are unwilling to serve God unless everybody can pay attention. Unless anybody sees them doing it. You know, we should serve God whether anybody sees or not. In fact, we should desire for it to not be seen. Now, go back to Genesis 38, Genesis chapter 38. And there's a lot of cool things that we could talk about in this chapter actually. But let's kind of move on from this. We've exhausted Onan, okay. You didn't think I could spend that much time on Onan but I could, alright. Verse number 11, the Bible says, Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown. For he said, Let us spare adventure, he die also. And his brethren did, and Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. In the process of time, the daughter of Shelah, Judah's wife, died. Judah was comforted and went up unto his sheep shearers at Timnath, he and his friend Hira the dulamite. And it was told to Tamar saying, Behold thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. 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. Now, let's address a few things here. First of all, that commandment in Deuteronomy 25 ends up coming in play again because we have a double dip of where a brother, you know, did not end up producing child, so Shelah would now have to do that. But, for whatever reason, Shelah doesn't. Okay, so Shelah doesn't end up marrying her. So, Tamar has this weird idea, Hira's going with Judah, and any time Hira's around, he's encouraging him to do weird stuff apparently. He's like a bad friend, okay, because he wants to be comforted because he no longer has a wife. So, what does he do? Verse 15, when Judah saw her, he thought her to be in Harlot because she had covered her face, and he turned under 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 will thou give me that thou mayest come in unto me? So, apparently, he went to Kentucky, found her, and she was just like pretending to be a parlet. You can't tell who she is. This is weird, okay, but you know what? You got to realize that men, you know, have a strong proclivity to this wicked sin. And so, that's why it's important not to put yourself in these weird situations, in these weird scenarios, that you do these weird, wicked acts, okay, and she's enabling it, obviously, too. By dressing in a certain way, it'll look like a whore, okay, to look like a harlot. She's enticing him and encouraging him, and both parties are at fault here, okay? It's not just one, it's both. Both are being very wicked here, and it says in verse number 17, And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock, and she said, Will thou give me a pledge till thou send it? And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And he said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thy hand. And he gave it her, and he came in under her, and she conceived by him. He rose and went away, and laid by her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. 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. Now, this is just weird. What kind of friend is going and paying the harlot? I mean, isn't that weird? It's like, hey, I need you to do me a favor, buddy. Will you go pay my harlot from the other day, or whatever? I mean, obviously, his friend's a weird friend, okay? That's why it's also important not to have bad friends that will encourage you to do these things. I mean, if you come and ask me to do this, I'm not doing it, okay? I'm not paying your hooker, okay? You're on your own, buddy. Verse 21, then he asked the men of that place, saying, where is the harlot that was opened by the wayside? And they said, there was no harlot in this place. Now, notice they say there was such certainty. If there was a harlot, we would have known, guys. And there's no harlot here, okay? Verse 22, 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. Judah said, let her take it to her, lest we be shamed. Behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her. It came to pass about three months after that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar, thy daughter-in-law, played the harlot, and also, behold, she is with child by Hordom. And Judah said, bring her forth and let her be burnt. When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, By the man whose these are, am I with child. And she said, discern, I pray thee, whose are these? The signet and bracelets and staff. Now, interesting, Judah's a pretty big hypocrite here. Someone commits Hordom, well, burn her with fire. It's like, well, what about you, buddy? What about you being a whoremonger? You know, and unfortunately, double standards are met by a lot of people. You know what, just because you're a dude doesn't mean you can be a whoremonger and get away with it. You know what, it's still wicked, it's still evil. You know, it's not just that women are bad because they're whores or something like that. And this is a very wicked sin because you're not supposed to lie with your daughter-in-law. As far as specific commandments in the Old Testament, the Bible said if you lie with a daughter, like a wife, and her mother, that you're supposed to be killed for that, okay? That was a very wicked sin. And that's what, you know, Judah's kind of like laying with his daughter-in-law, which would not necessarily be the wife and the mother scenario. But the Bible did say that if a daughter of a priest is a whore, that you would burn her with fire. But he's not a priest. So, really in my mind, he's just kind of being a hypocrite before he even knows what's going on. Just by wanting to kill a harlot, but not really taking ownership for his own sin. So it's easy for him to judge others, but not to judge himself. Now, she smartly keeps the tokens, and it says in verse number 25 again, And when she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, By the man whose these are I am with child. And she said, To sir and I pray thee, whose are these, the signet and bracelets and staff. Now, this is a weird story, okay? Super bizarre, you know, it's like a Jerry Springer show or something, but I believe that there's still a little bit of parallel here between Hamar and Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, the one who gave birth. Because if you think about it, she's in a sense without child, and she's promised to a specific person, right? She's promised to Sheila, okay? And we have Mary, who's actually a virgin, and she's promised to Joseph. So they both kind of have this, like, promise of this other person. Now, Mary becomes pregnant, and it's not Joseph, right? And we have Tamar's pregnant, but not by Sheila. And in both scenarios, initially Joseph thinks that it's by whoredom and wants to put her away. And then we also have Judah, who thinks that it's by whoredom, which it is, but I mean, you know, a different kind of whoredom at least, and wants to have her burnt with fire. But then we find out that it's a unique scenario why they're with child. And really, obviously Mary's is a good, like, weird, okay? Hers is like a really horrific weird, but they're both unique. And think about this, Mary is with child from God the Father, right? Through the Holy Ghost. Well, in a sense, she's with child by her father, albeit it's her father-in-law. And a really unique, one-time scenario that only happened once, because it even says later, he knew her not again, I'm skipping ahead in a verse. But I think there's kind of a little bit of a, you know, parallel. Also, what do we have? Mary gives the lineage of Jesus Christ, Hamar is going to end up giving us the lineage of Jesus Christ. So I think it's a little bit of a foreshadowing of how Jesus is going to come to be, and she has a little bit of a, you know, symbolism with Mary. Albeit, it's not the best picture of Mary, because Mary was a virgin and righteous, and, you know, there was nothing wrong with her scenario, whereas Hamar's is bizarre in Kentucky, okay? Or whatever you want to call it. But it says in verse 26, And Judah acknowledged them and said, She hath been more righteous than I, because that I gave her not to Sheila my son, and he knew her again no more. And it came to pass, in the time of her javail, that, behold, twins were in her womb. And it came to pass, when she javailed, that one, the one put out his hand, and the Muai took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first, and it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out, and she said, How 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 Zerah. Now, here's a bonus point for you. It has nothing to do with the sermon, but here's a bonus point. Notice it says in verse 28, And the midwife, notice midwives are biblical, and here's a really important point that I want to make. Verse 29, And she said, You know what I think is wicked? Male gynecologists. There I said it. They're all perverts. Okay? I don't think that that's biblical. It's bizarre that a man would want to enter into a professional career and say, I want to do that. I think that that's weird. Okay? And I think those men are weird, and they're perverts. And I think if you have to get a person to help you or assist you in birth, it should be either a female midwife or a female gynecologist, but I'm not going to have a man doing that. Obviously, you might go to the hospital and it's the wrong person or whatever, and I'm not condemning you, but I'm just saying, as long as you have a choice or an option here, I'm not picking one of these weirdos. Maybe there's an exception to that rule, but I don't believe so. I think it's weird. Notice that guys constantly are making these weird mistakes, and look, I've read tons of stories about gynecologists getting their female clients pregnant, giving them STDs and all kinds of weird stuff, whereas it doesn't happen when you have a female midwife. Those scenarios aren't happening. So there's just a bonus point for you, all right? Also, we have a spiritual picture here coming through Perez and Zara. Now, Zara is actually kind of like the firstborn in a sense because his hand comes forth, and then the scarlet thread is tied, but then it comes back and then the Perez comes out. So then he actually becomes the real, legitimate firstborn, and it really strikes the midwife as being bizarre. Like, how in the world was one child right there and his hand came out, but then yet another child came before him, and so his name's Perez, which means breach, okay? What does all this mean? Well, we have a lot of things. Perez, being the firstborn, is going to be the actual lineage of Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter number one, Perez is in the lineage, and it's actually Jesus. It tells me a couple things. Number one, God can use really horrible situations for his glory. This is a bizarre scenario, and you know what? All of us have been sinful in our past. We've made bad mistakes. We've done weird things. You know what? God can still use us greatly for him. You know, there's never a bad time to start serving the Lord. It's only bad to not serve the Lord. It's only bad to be ignorant, continually ignorant, or after becoming aware, to refuse to serve the Lord, okay? There's another person like this. Go to Joshua chapter number two. Go to Joshua chapter two. It has this scarlet thread tied to it, and there's a scarlet thread tied through the whole Bible, and that's the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ is the scarlet thread throughout the whole Bible, and it's what gives us the forgiveness of sins. The Bible says the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses away all sin. In fact, I pretty much have been using that verse in my soul winning every time now, because it's just an easy little phrase that I can show people from verse John chapter number one, verse seven, and I always ask them this question, did Jesus pay for some of your sin or all of it? And pretty much everybody says all of it, but then I just show them that verse on top of it, because that's an important point to realizing you can't lose your salvation. Did he pay for some of those sins or all of them? Oh yeah, he said all of them. The Bible showed you it was all of them, and that's the important point of, look, we're saved from all of our sin by the blood of Jesus. Nothing about us. Now Judges chapter two has the same scarlet thread. Look at verse 18. And when the Lord raised them up, judges, then the Lord was with the judge. I'm sorry, I'm in judges. Joshua chapter two, you know, that was a test for all of you out there, right? Judges, Joshua right before that, chapter two, and we're going to just read one verse, verse number 18. Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window, which thou didst let us down by, and thou shalt bring thy father and thy mother and thy brethren and all thy father's household home unto thee. And it shall be that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we be guiltless, and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head if any hand be upon thee. So basically, Rahab the harlot ends up putting a scarlet thread on her window, and the entire city of Jericho is destroyed, except for her and all that are in her house, picturing those that have the blood of Jesus Christ applied to their house by faith are saved by complete grace, no works are done. I mean, it's Rahab the harlot, for crying out loud, and notice it was Tamar the harlot, because God really wants to emphasize something. It doesn't matter how sinful you are, the blood of Jesus Christ gets you into heaven. And all you have to do is rest on him, rest on his blood, rest on his promise. It's all of his works, and he saves you. Now, another point to make here, Phares is the firstborn. Jesus is also the firstborn of every creatures that the Bible says. And he's the firstborn among many brethren. So I believe the reason why you kind of have this scarlet thread coming out and coming back, and then Phares coming first, is to illustrate how Jesus is going to be the firstborn, okay? The scarlet thread is applied to Zara to teach us the important doctrine of imputed righteousness. Go, if you went to Romans chapter four for a moment, go to Romans chapter number four. And I only want to go to two places, Romans four and Philippians three. So if you want to turn there, we'll be finished, okay? Romans chapter number four, we have the picture of what's called imputed righteousness. Now, the Bible teaches this, look at verse six. It says, Even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man in whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Now, to impute something is similar to a credit or to a count. So it's basically saying that Jesus' righteousness is given to us, accounted unto us, and our sin is given to him. So the scarlet thread put on Zara is a picture of Jesus' righteousness, Jesus' blood coming upon him and counting him righteous, which is what we get for salvation. Look at verse 11. And this is talking about Abraham. And he received the sign of circumcision to seal the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. So imputed righteousness is not just for the Jews, it's for the Gentiles, it's for all people, for every single person. Verse 22, And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Why was it imputed to him for righteousness? Because he believed. And look at verse 23. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Notice the Bible says we get imputed righteousness if we believe in Jesus. That's all we have to do. Just by faith, faith alone, we're accredited to that. But what happened to him? Verse 25, He was delivered for our offenses. Now, if we think of our story, Perez is named Breach. Okay? Why is he named Breach? Well, think about this. Zara was supposed to come out. So what happens? Perez takes his place, and by taking his place, he's also taking this name of a breach. And what happens with Jesus? Jesus takes our place, but by taking our place, he ends up being what? Delivered for our offenses. So he ends up having to take the breaches that we've caused, the transgressions that we've done, he ends up taking that. And so we end up taking a second birth. Think about this. Zara was supposed to come out for the first birth, but then he gets the second birth, and when it comes to us, we all need a second birth in order to get into heaven. And you know how we get that second birth? It's through the blood of Jesus Christ, through that scarlet thread that's applied to us. And by getting that second thread, he gets all the breach, but he's the firstborn, right? We are born again, but we get the blood of Jesus Christ applied to us, and we get to go to heaven, and it's only by the thread. And what gives us the second birth is the blood as well. A lot of parallels here. Go to Philippians chapter three, the last place I want you to turn. Philippians chapter number three. We get this imputed righteous, and you know what? It's so great that in a chapter when we learn some of the weirdest stuff that ever happened, some of the craziest sin, that we get the picture of Jesus Christ's salvation. Because I think God wants to emphasize that, look, wicked people get saved too. Harlots get saved. Is it really any coincidence that God uses two harlots to show the scarlet thread? And in the New Testament, what's a common theme? A lot of whores and women that were possessed with devils and a lot of very evil, sinful people get saved. You know? Some people teach that whores are reprobate, but you know what? They're probably reprobate, so... Whereas a lot of whores in the Bible end up getting saved. So, there you go. Philippians chapter 3, look at verse 4. So Paul is saying, if anybody could trust and work salvation, he's your guy. And that's the point that he's trying to emphasize. He's saying, like, of every category you could imagine of why someone should be saved apart from faith, Paul's got it. I mean, he's a Hebrew of the Hebrews, he's a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he's blameless concerning the law. I mean, like, he's the most righteous guy from the law, he's born in the right family, he's in the right religion, he's at the top of the right religion. I mean, he's saying, like, I got every checkmark on works that a man could ever have. Obviously, no man's perfect, though, but I'm just saying, of all the checkmarks that a man could check, Paul got them. Paul's just like, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. And he's saying, like, but what does he say in verse 7? Those I counted loss for Christ, yea, doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. So Paul is saying, look, I'm not saved by anything that I did, not by the works of the law, but rather by faith. That's the constant theme throughout the Bible. That's why God has pictures of Judah and Tamar. Tamar isn't going to go to heaven because of how great a person she was. Judah isn't going to heaven because of a great person that he was. Paul didn't go to heaven because of a great person that he was. No one in this room is going to heaven for being a great person. It's only the scarlet thread that gets us into heaven. And it's so important that we don't be an onan Christian, that we actually take that blessing, that gift that God has given us, the seed, the word of God that He's given us, and we share with other people. And we raise up seed unto our brother Jesus because it's just a free gift, my friend. And freely that we've been, you know, I freely receive, I freely give that which you've received. You know, I'm not going to sit here and brag about the fact that I'm going to heaven because I have nothing to brag about. I'm not good. You know, you could read chapter 38 and think like, well, I'm not as bad as Judah. But look, no one's good. Maybe you're worse. I don't know. I don't really care because if you have the scarlet thread applied to your heart by faith in Jesus Christ, we're all going to heaven. And that's what the Bible teaches, and it makes it clear. And you know what? We should take lessons from this and apply it into our lives. We should be fruitful and multiply physically and spiritually. Let's go to prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the scarlet thread that you gave in the Bible here and the picture that what your son would do, that he would be delivered for our offenses, but ultimately raised again for our justification and that our justification is found in faith in Jesus, not in ourselves. And I pray to you that you can show us examples of people that were screwed up and messed up so that we ourselves can realize that we're all sinners, saved by grace, but that we as sinners still have a great responsibility and task to go out and preach the gospel and that we wouldn't be fruitless Christians, we wouldn't be an onan spiritually, but rather we would be a great, fruitful bow like Joseph and that we would produce many people physically and spiritually. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. For our last song this evening, we'll go to song 409, the fight is on. Song 409, the fight is on. 409, the fight is on. The fight is on The trumpet sound is ringing out The cry to our hearts is heard up far and near The Lord of hosts is marching on to victory The triumph of the Christ will soon appear The fight is on, O Christian soldier And face to face in stern array With armor gleaming and colors streaming The right and wrong engage today The fight is on, but be not weary He saw that in his might hold fast If God be for us, his man for all of us We'll sing the victor's song at last The fight is on, the rising soldier's brave and true To hold the lead and victory will assure Oh, what the law, the armor God has given you Within his strength forever will endure The fight is on, O Christian soldier And face to face in stern array With armor gleaming and colors streaming The right and wrong engage today The fight is on, but be not weary He saw that in his might hold fast If God be for us, his man for all of us We'll sing the victor's song at last The fight is leaning on to certain victory The flow of confidence spans the years we've tried His wordless name in every pledge of honor be The Lord will break the gun of peace's knife The fight is on, O Christian soldier And face to face in stern array With armor gleaming and colors streaming The right and wrong engage today The fight is on, but be not weary He saw that in his might hold fast If God be for us, his man for all of us We'll sing the victor's song at last