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.
Cain's Departure from God's Presence
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.
Eve's Faith in the Promise
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.
The Revival of True Religion
Then men began to call on the name of the Lord. Amen.
Introduction
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,
The Family of Cain
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.
Cultural Achievements of Cain's Line
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
The Wretchedness of Lamech
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
The Birth of Seth
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.