Now Abel was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of
time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit
of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn
of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel in
his offering, but he did not respect Cain in his offering.
And Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. So the Lord
said to Cain, Why are you angry, and why has your countenance
fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you
do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you,
but you should rule over it. Now Cain talked with Abel his
brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field,
that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then
the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? He said,
I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? And
he said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood
cries out to me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the
earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood
from your hand. When you till the ground, it
shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond,
you shall be on the earth. And Cain said to the Lord, my
punishment is greater than I can bear. Surely you have driven
me out this day from the face of the ground. I shall be hidden
from your face. I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond
on the earth. And it will happen that anyone
who finds me will kill me. And the Lord said to him, therefore,
whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.
And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should
kill him. Then Cain went out from the presence
of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And
he built a city and called the name of the city after the name
of his son, Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad
begot Mahushael, and Mahushael begot Methushael, and Methushael
begot Lamech. And Lamech took for himself two
wives. The name of one was Ada, and
the name of the second was Zillah. And Ada bore Jabal. He was the
father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His
brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those
who play the harp and flute. And as for Zillah, she also bore
Tubal Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and
iron. And the sister of Tubal Cain was Nehama. Then Lamech
said to his wives, Ada and Zillah, hear my voice. Wives of Lamech,
listen to my speech. For I have killed a man for wounding
me, even a young man for hurting me. If Cain shall be avenged
sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold. And Adam knew his wife again,
and she bore a son and named him Seth. For God has appointed
another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed. And as
for Seth, to him also a son was born, and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the
name of the Lord. Amen. line of Cain and then ultimately
the godly line of Seth. Now, I'll confess that some of
these sections are a bit difficult to go through. I mean, the death
or the murder of Cain and Abel, it's a bit more easy to follow
in terms of the storyline when we get into these family descriptions
and then, God willing, next week the genealogy of Genesis 5, sometimes
a little bit more difficult to draw out practical lessons. But
I do want to attempt to do so here in this section concerning
the family of Cain. We'll look at that, verses 16
to 24, the family of Cain, and then secondly the birth of Seth
in verses 25 and 26. But we ought to begin with the
judgment of God in verse 16. Notice, then Cain went out from
the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the
east of Eden." Now this happened as a result of Cain's murder
of Abel, which we saw in chapter 4 verses 1 to 15. Over and over
and over again, seven times to be precise, in that section we
see that emphasis on his brother, his brother, his brother, highlighting
the sinfulness, the escalation of sin. So closely after the
fall of Adam and Eve into sin, the first brothers bring their
first offerings, and we see the first murder and then the first
trial. And so Cain is judged by God and sent to live as a
fugitive and a vagabond on the earth. And then in verse 16,
it says he went out from the presence of the Lord. Wenham
says, the story that began with the attempt by Cain and Abel
to draw near to God through sacrifice ends in Cain's leaving the Lord's
presence and living east of Eden, presumably even farther from
the Garden of Delight from which his parents had been expelled. And Matthew Henry draws out the
practical note. He says, hypocritical professors
that have dissembled and trifled with God Almighty are justly
left to themselves. And that is precisely what we
see there. He went out from the presence
of the Lord. He dwelt in the land of Nod.
And the word Nod simply means wandering. Cain lives in a land
whose very name reminds him of the divine sentence that he would
be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth. So Cain is in a
place of judgment. Cain has been cut off from the
glory and the presence of God Almighty, and certainly the lesson
ought to be obvious here. We ought not to murder people.
We ought not to engage in that sort of a thing where we take
the lives of others. When we get into the epistle
of 1 John, John highlights that those who hate their brothers,
their brothers and sisters in the Lord, are like Cain who murdered
his brother. And so the New Testament develops
this in terms of the people of God are to take heed and not
to engage in violations of the sixth commandment lest they be
like Cain. And we know from the Sermon on
the Mount that we're guilty of the sin or crime of murder, not
just when we engage in something externally or outwardly, but
we're guilty of the sin of murder when we hate people without a
cause. when we assassinate their character, those things that
Jesus prohibits in Matthew chapter 5. It's not simply Jesus prohibiting,
it's always been the case that the law of God speaks to the
internal part of man as well. And so, in order to abide in
the presence of God Almighty, we ought to, by His grace and
by the power of His Spirit, walk in obedience to His holy law.
Now, when we do sin, we confess our sin. We seek the advocacy
of our Lord Jesus Christ and cleansing in His blood. Certainly,
Cain did not do that. Cain never repented. Instead,
rather, he moans or he whines or he cries about the punishment
that is going to be his. Verse 13, Cain said to the Lord,
my punishment is greater than I can bear. That's simply the
wrong response. He ought to have said, my sin
is wretched and I repent of it and I cast myself upon the mercy
of a gracious God through the Lord Jesus Christ. But he doesn't
do that. He whines, he snivels, and he
complains about the judgment that has been imposed Now, that
brings us to the family of Cain in verses 17 to 24. Now, certainly
we ought to expect with a man like Cain that things aren't
going to be a whole lot better in his family. Now, certainly
it can be the case that the grace of God does come to a son or
to a grandson in spite of the fact that a father or a grandfather
is a wicked man. But in this particular section,
again, I think the contrast is clear between the ungodly Cainites
and the godly Sethites. But notice this city that Cain
built. And Cain knew his wife, verse
17, that would have been a sister. Now this is prior to the prohibition
against men marrying their sisters, but in order for all of posterity
to descend from Adam and Eve, initially they would have had
to marry brothers and sisters. So that's what's happening in
this particular instance. Cain knew his wife and she conceived
and bore Enoch. This is not the Enoch that we
will see later in chapter 5. Just because they have the same
name doesn't mean they have the same character. The Enoch in
chapter 5 walked with God and Benny was not. So you have an
Enoch and a Lamech. here in the line of Cain, but
you also have an Enoch and a Lamech in the line of Seth in chapter
5. So we ought not to make that
mistake that we're dealing with the Enoch that walked with God
and then was not. No, Cain knew his wife and she
conceived and bore Enoch and he built a city. Now some see
this and they say, well, that doesn't seem to be consistent
with the judgment or the punishment of God, that he would be a fugitive
and a vagabond on the earth. Well, probably the city here
wasn't like Vancouver. Could have been any sort of a
walled domicile wherein he would seek out protection from those
who might want to do him harm. He already assumed and he already
supposed that there would be those that would want to do him
harm and God promised to protect him, not because of any love
for Cain, but to extend the judgment and the punishment that he would
in fact be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth. This as well, this
city building, may indicate his commitment to life on earth.
Now we know the people of God seek a city that is above, and
yet Cain doesn't have the presence of the Lord in which to look
forward to, so he sort of ties himself to this earth. Now there
are some who see that the book of Genesis, or some who interpret
the book of Genesis as being somewhat anti-city. And some
see that in the grand scope of redemptive history, that God
is pretty much against the city. I don't believe that. When we
see the New Jerusalem, it's the city of God. It's not cities,
per se, that are wicked. It's wicked cities, per se, that
are wicked. God is opposed to wicked cities.
He's not opposed to cities in and of themselves. So I don't
think we ought to make that sort of a mistake. But also, He's
probably seeking to find protection. And then note the sons of Enoch,
or the sons of Cain, are given us. Enoch begot Ired. Ired begot
Mahushael. Mahushael begot Methushael. Methushael begot Lamech. Again,
not the Lamech in chapter 5. And Enoch literally means trained
up. He's not trained up in the way
of godliness. What is in view is that he has
been trained up in the ways of Cain. And then note the polygamy
of Lamech in verse 19. It says, then Lamech took for
himself two wives. The name of one was Ada, and
the name of the second was Zillah. Now, polygamy will be practiced
later on from this point on by even godly men. Now remember,
what a godly man does that is in rebellion against God is not
to be duplicated by other godly men. In other words, we can't
say, well, David had a multitude of wives, therefore we ought
to have a multitude of wives. No, in Genesis chapter 2, verses
18 to 25, God sets forth the pattern. It is to be one man
and one woman. That is conspicuous, not two
men, One woman, not one man, two woman, not man and man, not
man and animal, but one man and one woman. That was the design
of God. And so Lamech here violates that
creation order. That Klein says, Lamech's abuse
of the creation ordinance of marriage exemplifies the ungodly
spirit of the Cainite culture. And that's what's under, sort
of, we need to appreciate. We've got this ungodliness rising
up in and through this family of Cain. It will be counteracted
by the introduction of Seth as we end up in verses 25 and 26. But this polygamy was not the
original intention of God. Remember back, or not back, but
in front, in Matthew chapter 19, when Jesus is asked specifically
about divorce, the lawfulness or the reasons for divorce. Well, Jesus goes to the creation
account to argue with reference to marriage. He is asked by Pharisees,
is it awful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?
And he answered and said to them, have you not read that he who
made them at the beginning made them male and female? Now the
beginning there is the beginning of the creation. It is the beginning
with reference to Adam and Eve. And that is a pattern. That is
the way it's supposed to be. One man, one woman, until God
shall separate them by death. He says, and said, for this reason
a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his
wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then they are no
longer two but one flesh, therefore what God has joined together,
let not man separate. So already, outside or out of
the gate, we're introduced to this man Lamech, and we see he's
got problems, he's got issues. Now that's going to escalate
as we move through this particular section of Scripture. But we
do want to appreciate the cultural achievements of the sons of Lamech
in verses 20 to 22. Verses 20 to 22 aren't simply
sort of interesting tidbits about the lives of individual people.
in this pre-flood world. They are telling us something
concerning culture. They're telling us something
concerning God's common grace. They're telling us something
concerning life on this earth and the fact that God has commanded
man to exercise dominion on the earth. In order to exercise dominion
on the earth, man must use his rational capacities. Man must
engage in mathematics. He must observe the created order. He must engage in the scientific
enterprise of testing things, testing hypotheses and whatnot. And we see that cultural achievement
is reached in this particular section with these sons of Lamech. Notice in the first place the
advancement in animal husbandry. In verse 20, it says, In Eda
bore Jabal. He was the father of those who
dwell in tents and have livestock. This doesn't mean he fathered
every single human being that lived in tents and had livestock. It meant that in terms of the
innovator, in terms of the one who did sort of pioneer this
methodology in terms of herdsmanship, He is the father over persons. John Gill says, father not in
a proper sense, the father of them, though his posterity might
succeed him in the same business, but he was the first author and
inventor of tents or movable habitations which could be carried
from place to place for the convenience of pasturage for cattle. You
see, this is an advancement. See, Abel had sheep and he had
goats, but what this man now does is he goes mobile so that
he can go to where the feed is. And also, he can multiply his
flock so that he can engage in trade. In fact, Wenham says,
Jabal is thus the father of the Bedouin lifestyle. He did not
merely reestablish Abel's pastoral work. Abel shepherded sheep and
goats, but Jabal tended herds. Whereas Abel merely lived off
his flocks, Jabal could trade with his beasts of burden, and
this represents cultural advance. So again, within this ungodly
line of Cain, we see in the family of Lamech certain accomplishments
or achievements being made. Notice, secondly, there is the
arts. Now, I'm not a big fan of the
arts, and I don't know that everybody else is here or not, but this
is something we ought to appreciate. And I really think these few
verses really render a devastating blow to the theory of evolution. I mean, the idea of evolution
is sort of, you know, bent over, hunched over, knuckle dragging
sort of a fellow that grunts and groans and moans and does
whatever and has to figure out that he can't put his hand in
the fire and that by trial and error. He has to sort of figure
out what he can eat, We don't see that in the book of Genesis.
We see God make Adam with the capacity to reason. We see God
make Adam with the capacity to speak. We see God make Adam with
the capacity to understand God and to realize what a prohibition
was and to know that he ought not to engage in violating God's
law. We get here and we see that sort
of cultural advance. It doesn't take millennia. It
doesn't take millions of years. It doesn't take a stage of knuckle-dragging
to get to the place where man is actually making musical instruments. Notice in verse 21, his brother's
name was Jubal. He was the father of all those
who play the harp. flute. So you've got the arts. We've got these string and wind
instruments. Again, cultural achievements,
even in the ungodly line of Cain. And then notice in verse 22,
and as for Zilla, she also bore to Balcain, an instructor of
of every craftsman in bronze and iron, metallurgy. You have
somebody here, not only in arts, but also in the sciences. This
is culture. This is the very basic beginnings
of what we see society thriving on and flourishing in today.
This is an expression of cultural achievement in the lives of these
ancient people. So it's difficult to know why
Nehemiah is mentioned, the sister of Tubal-Cain. If you can figure
that out, email me and let me know, because I don't know. And
the sister of Tubal-Cain was Nehemiah. The name literally
means pleasant. The Jews thought that she was
the wife of Noah. It doesn't say that. We don't
know why she's mentioned there. I'm sure somebody knows why.
I don't know why, and I didn't have the time to sort of search
it out today. But suffice it to say, there are specific achievements
stated, and as I said, the evolutionary development of man is false,
but as well, the common grace of God is obvious. I thought
John Calvin was very helpful on this particular section. He
writes, Moses now relates that with the evils which proceeded
from the family of Cain, some good had been blended. for the
invention of arts and of other things which serve to the common
use and convenience of life is a gift of God by no means to
be despised and a faculty worthy of commendation. We ought to
appreciate this is what he's saying. He goes on to speak about
music being given for pleasure and then of course he has to
qualify what kind of pleasure is acceptable and appropriate
and typical sort of puritanical form. The idea is that we ought
to command the good in this particular instance, even though it was
an ungodly or a wretched line. But as well, the relationship
between these achievements and the Cainites indicate ultimately
that all of life is tainted by sin. And we see that not only
subsequent to this when we see city building in Genesis chapter
11, which is more of an attempt to build basically a communistic
sort of a society where man is supreme and raising the fist
at God. We see ultimately the taint of
sin on the arts in our own day, and we certainly see it in the
sciences as well. So the idea is that these are,
in fact, cultural achievements, but cultural achievements can
be used for good or they can be used for ill, and we ought
to be aware of that, as I'm sure that we are. And then note the
wretchedness of Lamech in verses 23 and 24. Now, again, this is
a bit of a difficult section of Scripture. There's a couple
of different ways one could interpret. John Gill says, it's either he
has or he is confessing what he had done or he's boasting
what he would do so should he be attacked. In other words,
he's either stating what he has accomplished or is boasting about
what he will accomplish. should anybody touch him, should
any young man ever hurt him. So Lamech said to his wives,
Ada and Zillah, hear my voice, wives of Lamech, listen to my
speech, for I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young
man for hurting me. Now it's certainly interpreted
here as a past tense event, but the tense of the verb in the
Hebrew could be either something that he has accomplished or something
that he will do if it should be the case that anybody ever
makes the mistake of wounding him or hurting him. And then
he says, if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold. Now, difficult as it may be,
I think the obvious ought to be observed. He's a blood-lusting
man. He's a blood-thirsty man. He's
a man that is exceeding even Cain in terms of wickedness. Again, Wenham says, if Ada and
Zillah watched with pride as their sons developed animal husbandry,
music, and metalworking, they listened with horror to their
husband's violent bloodlust." He's boasting. You know, Cain
denies any responsibility whatsoever for having rid the world of Abel. We get to Lamech, and he's boasting
that if anyone were to touch him, he would dispatch them quickly
and speedily. Or he is saying that somebody
had in fact touched him, and that he had, in fact, killed
him for that very thing. It certainly exceeds what will
later be called the lex talionis, the eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
stripe for stripe, burn for burn, that law of retribution. You're
not supposed to kill a man for wounding you. You're not supposed
to kill a man for hurting you. You're supposed to pay back with
a just retribution. So Lamech's wickedness and blood
guiltiness exceeds even Cain's. Kyle and Dalich say, the idea
is this, whoever inflicts a wound or a stripe on me, whether man
or youth, I will put to death. And for every injury done to
my person, I will take ten times more vengeance than that which
God promised to avenge, the murder of my ancestor Cain. So he's
stepping it up. Again, I think we ought to appreciate
in the narrative this escalation of sin. When Adam sins against
God and God comes to deal with Adam, Adam doesn't deny outright
that he sinned. He shifts blame, he tries to
put it on God, he tries to put it on Eve, but he doesn't deny
that they had actually transgressed in terms of eating from the tree.
We get to Cain, we see escalation. Cain engages in the act of murder. I mean, Adam Comparably, I mean,
eating forbidden fruit or murdering your brother, at least all of
us would agree, at least on the surface level, the one seems
a lot more extreme than the other. Obviously, the first is bad because
God prohibited it. But when we see Cain, we see
that denial, we see that lack of ownership, we see that unwillingness
to deal with God in terms of, yes, this has been committed,
and yes, I have engaged in it. And then we get to Lamech, and
in terms of a boast to his wives, I mean, imagine being married
to this wretch. I mean, ladies, I doubt as bad
as your husbands may be on occasion, they're boasting about killing
people. That's simply unconscionable,
and it's absolute wickedness that Lamech has engaged in this
manner of lawlessness so early on in the history of man. So
that's the ungodly line of Cain. Now notice the birth of Seth
in verses 25 and 26. We return to Adam and Eve, verse
25. And Adam knew his wife again. That's the biblical convention
for relations within marriage. He knew his wife again, and she
bore a son, and named him Seth, which means appointed. For God
has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain
killed." Now, there's a few observations we ought to appreciate. Remember
that we knew or know that Eve has, in fact, or Adam and Eve
have, in fact, expressed faith in the promises of God. They
have expressed faith in the promises of God, vis-à-vis Genesis 3 15. And I will put enmity between
you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall
bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Adam called
his wife's name Eve, verse 20, because she was the mother of
all living. Adam and Eve had confidence in
the promise of God that a seed of the woman would be raised
up that would be the deliverer, that would be the redeemer, that
would be the skull-crushing seed that was promised by God. We
know in 321, Adam and his wife, the Lord God, made tunics of
skin and clothed them. So Adam and Eve were operating
at some degree or with some degree of faith in the living God. I
think that's expressed here by Eve in verse 25. Adam knew his
wife again and she bore a son and named him Seth. The recognition
of God's faithfulness comes about when she says, because or for
God has appointed. She ascribes this to the power
of God and to the kindness and faithfulness of God. In other
words, she doesn't give up hope. Even though Cain has murdered
Abel, and even though Cain's family has gone awry, nevertheless,
Eve has a confident expectation and the promise of Yahweh that
he will make good on Genesis 3.15. We see that specifically
in her choice of terminology. Notice. For God has appointed
another seed, singular, for me instead of Abel. This is the
promise of Genesis 3.15. And between your seed and her
seed. See, they were taught to look
for a singular seed. She didn't know at this particular
juncture that Seth wasn't the Messiah to come, but she did
operate based on the promise of the Messiah to come, and she
walked in faith based on that. And I would suggest, brethren,
that for the persons prior to the cross to operate according
to faith in the promise of the Redeemer, We ought to appreciate
that. We have not only the promise
of the Redeemer, but we have fulfillment. We have realization. Remember, the Old Testament is
a book of anticipation, and the New Testament is a book of fulfillment
or realization. We live on this side. We have
all the promises of God, and we see how they are, yea and
amen, in Christ Jesus. And if Eve, in the midst of this
particular society, can live by faith in the Son of God, then
certainly you and I ought to be able to live by faith in the
Son of God. Our faith ought to grow. It ought
to be fed. It ought to be maturing. We ought to be taking in Scripture.
I mean, they had Genesis 3.15, and they operated by faith in
that promise. We see that as we move through
the book of Genesis, when we get to Abraham, for instance,
and his confident expectation of a coming Messiah. We see it
with Moses, specifically in the book of Deuteronomy, in terms
of the promise of God that a prophet would come, one like Moses, but
one not like Moses. We see these steps given in the
Old Testament ultimately realized in and through the person and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So while they did not have the
same information that you and I have, they certainly have the
same faith. Because the object of that faith
is the same. It is the Lord Jesus Christ and
she is walking by faith. Notice as well the memory of
the murder of her son Abel. For God has appointed another
seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed." Now, I don't
like to psychologize with scripture or psychoanalyze, but I think
it's important at times to stop along the way and sort of put
ourselves in the feet, or in the shoes rather, the sandals
probably, of the persons in view. I mean, this had to be a difficult
thing for this lady. I mean, you have difficult sons
at home, probably they're not murdering each other. You have
difficult daughters at home, probably they're not murdering
each other. That had to be a real tough thing for Eve to bear up
under, realizing that her own son killed her own son. And then in verse 26, we read,
And as for Sath, to him also a son was born, and he named
him Enosh. And then I love this last statement
of verse 26. We see essentially the revival
of religion. We see a specific contrast now
by the author in terms of Genesis 3.15 played out between two types
of people. You have the ungodly Cainites
and you have the godly Sethites. And in verse 26 we read, then
men began to call on the name of the Lord. So after all this
bad news, Cain has murdered Abel, Cain's progeny, Lamech, is rising
up, boasting in the blood that he will shed, or the blood that
he has shed, for somebody who had simply wounded him or who
had simply hurt him. And yet we see this promise,
or rather this statement, concerning the sons of Seth. And men began
to call on the name of the Lord. John Gill says, not but that
Adam and Abel and all good men had called upon the name of the
Lord and prayed to Him or worshipped Him before this time personally
and in their families. But now the families of good
men being larger and more numerous, they joined together in social
and public worship. That's what it means, then men
began to call on the name of the Lord. Meredith Klein says,
though the section, Genesis 2.4 to 4.26, is largely concerned
with sin's entrance and escalation, it closes with a notice of the
preservation of a people of God and their worship. So I think
that's something that will fare later on in redemptive history.
In fact, a lot of the stuff going on here in these early chapters
of Genesis will be developed or come out later in the books
of Exodus through Deuteronomy, the rest of the Pentateuch, and
then ultimately the rest of Scripture. You see that in the midst of
the ungodliness, there is nevertheless this remnant, men who began to
call on the name of the Lord. You see this in the northern
kingdom. You see this in the southern kingdom. You see this
with Elijah when he is sitting under that broom tree and God
comforts him by saying, I have 7,000 that have not bowed the
knee to Baal. So there's this godly remnant
even in the midst of flourishing evil and wickedness. And Kyle
and Dalich make this observation, while the family of Cainites,
by the erection of a city and the invention and development
of worldly arts and business, were laying the foundation for
the kingdom of this world, the family of the Sethites began,
by united invocation of the name of the God of grace, to found
and to erect the kingdom of God. So you see, what Genesis 3.15
announces in terms of the skull-crushing seed of the woman who would deliver
this death blow to the devil himself, this introduces the
reality that there would be an antithesis in history between
the godly and the ungodly. And that antithesis is seen here
in the family of Adam, vis-à-vis Cain and Seth. These are two
warring factions in terms of commitment to or rebellion against
the living and the true God. And so in the midst of this abject
wickedness in terms of the godless Cainites, we have this blessed
statement. then men began to call on the
name of the Lord." It's a beautiful description of God's grace, even
in the midst of what looks to be chaotic times. Now, I also
think, with reference to this particular section, as I mentioned
before, we ought to appreciate the common grace order. The fact
that the achievements are connected to the Cainites ought not to
make us become Luddites. Has anybody ever heard of the
Luddites? The Luddites were named after, I think it's a guy named
Luddy or something like that. They were afraid that machines
would take away their jobs, and so they went and started to destroy
all the machines. So that terminology, Luddite,
has come to be associated with people that are anti-technology.
They have an aversion to any sort of cultural achievement
in this regard. I don't think that's the appropriate
response and I don't think any of you do either because you
are all carrying $500 cell phones. So, I don't think anybody could
accuse us of Luddite-ism at least here in this particular place.
We're using this and it's going out over the internet. But this
might be the temptation to see, oh, these things are associated
with the godless line of Cain. Therefore, we ought not to engage
in an advanced animal husbandry. We ought never to dwell in tents,
to raise our livestock. We ought never to engage in any
sort of musical instrumentation, and we ought to shy away from
the sciences. No, that's not the way we ought
to approach this. Again, I'll quote from John Calvin,
who I think has some really excellent views or thoughts on this. He
says, Moses, however, expressly celebrates the remaining benediction,
that's the good word, of God on that race. which otherwise
would have been deemed void and barren of all good. Let us then
know that the sons of Cain, though deprived of the spirit of regeneration,
were yet endued with gifts of no despicable kind, just as the
experience of all ages teaches us how widely the rays of divine
light have shone on unbelieving nations for the benefit of the
present life. And we see at the present time
that the excellent gifts of the Spirit are diffused through the
whole human race. There's this doctrine of common
grace. Now, some people don't like that sort of identification
because they'll say that grace is never common. Grace is the
unmerited favor of God. Well, that may not be the best
terminology, but the concept that it expresses is a thoroughly
biblical concept. The idea that God causes His
sun to shine upon the righteous and the unrighteous. He sends
rain upon the righteous and upon the godless. He does good things
for the created order, and that's precisely what Calvin is referring
to. I realize that some don't like
the title Common Grace. It may not be the best choice,
but you have to see that the concept is taught in Scripture. And I think this is an evidence
of it, that even through these godless men, nevertheless, the
godly would learn something about animal husbandry. They would
learn how to play stringed and wind instruments. They would
know something about working with iron and steel and forging
things that they could use as tools and weapons. So you see
the godly prosper even off the achievements of the ungodly,
and we ought never to resist that. or to reject that. Now
we don't take in everything and we certainly utilize discretion
and wisdom and those sorts of things. It's intriguing to me
as well that later on in redemptive history, when it came time to
fund the building of the temple, God turned the hearts of Cyrus
and pagans to contribute money to the building of the temple.
Notice that the Israelites did not say, well, that's pagan,
heathen money. They said, our God turned the
hearts of the pagans and the heathens to give us this money,
so we're going to utilize it for the glory of God. Now, I
realize that that may introduce more questions. Well, what if
somebody robs a bank and gives money to the church? Don't take
it because that's ill-gotten gain. Certainly, if the Cyrus
and the heathens and the pagans said, you know, we stole this
money, that would have been another ethical conundrum for them to
deal with. But the point is that Israel benefited from the hard
work of the pagans and the heathens around them. Calvin goes on to
say, but while we admire the riches of his favor which he
has bestowed on them, and them in the context that Calvin is
speaking of are the heathen. He says, we have inherited from
the heathen the liberal arts. We have inherited from the heathen
astronomy. We have inherited from the heathen
medicine and order for civil government. Now, I'm not sure
that there weren't some Christians involved in that sort of thing
as well. That's why I'm not quoting Calvin
straight out here. But just to highlight what he
is saying, while we admire the riches of his favor which he
has bestowed on them, the heathen, let us still value far more highly
that grace of regeneration with which he peculiarly sanctifies
his elect unto himself. So yeah, animal husbandry that
helps us to keep our livestock and to multiply and sell part
of our herd, great. Instruments made for wind instruments
and stringed instruments can be very pleasant and helpful
to sort of cheer us along the road of life and certainly to
know how to work with iron and steel and to forge blades and
to make tools so that we can engage in the tasks about us. All that is most profitable But
far surpassing is that grace of God wherein the Sethites began
to call on the name of Yahweh. That always exceeds, that always
excels, and that is always to be much more admired by the people
of God. when it comes to surveying the
works of our Lord. There is a common grace order,
there is a special grace order, and the recipients and inheritors
of that special grace ought to never tire of singing, amazing
grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. And we
ought to appreciate, finally, the presence of the people of
God in all ages. It's very tempting for us in
certain sort of eras to say, oh, we're outnumbered. In fact,
I think if you ask people, they get fearful at the growth, the
rapid growth of Islam. Well, Islam will never extinguish
the people of God. The government will never extinguish
the people of God. The federal state or the state
cannot extinguish the people of God. Nothing can extinguish
the people of God. The Lord God Most High will preserve
us. He will keep us unto that great
day. We just sang it, number 712. There is nothing that will keep
us from ultimately inheriting that place in heaven and God
preserves His church here on earth. Then men began to call
on the name of the Lord." After a description of ungodly Cainites,
you would think that we read in Genesis 5, well that's it,
it's all over, the wicked have won. I think at times the people
of God think that way, but we need to be encouraged with Matthew
16. Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of Hades
shall not prevail against it. Remember, that promises two things. One, Christ's victory, and two,
that the gates of Hades are still going to attempt to thwart the
people of God. So it's not the case that we'll
ever live unmolested on the face of this earth, but it is the
case that we'll always be protected by the God of Seth. Well, let us close in a word
of prayer. Father, we thank you for your Word and we thank you
for what you tell us concerning your faithfulness and that programmatic
promise of Genesis 3.15, casting its blessed light throughout
the rest of Scripture, that promise of the seed of the woman, that
promise concerning Messiah. and how we thank you for the
interpretation given to us by the Apostle Paul that that seed
is Christ, and how we thank you for salvation by grace through
faith in Him. Thank you for the common grace
that you display in the created order. Thank you for the dominion
that man has exercised, the various benefits that we enjoy as image-bearers
of God. But, Lord, all these things,
pale in significance to the great grace of God Almighty, to that
special grace that has called us out of darkness into marvelous
light. We ask that you would go with us now, that you would
encourage our hearts, that you would strengthen us, and that
you would bring us together on the Lord's day, that we may worship
and praise and glorify your great and awesome name. And we ask
this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
