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I am Pastor Nathan and today we are going to be looking at the very condensed family tree of Cain

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and how that is contrasted with the birth of Seth. If you've been with us in our last message,

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you might remember that when Cain got furiously angry with God for rejecting his offering,

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throughout his entire interaction with God, he displayed a radical self-righteous independence

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and ultimately an arrogant contempt for God. We saw that as Cain was mad because God accepted

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Abel's sacrifice and not his, that he then killed his brother Abel, which was really an attempt to

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attack God for favoring Abel. And then Cain did this without any remorse. We don't see any remorse

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in his attitude. The only emotion we see from Cain comes with the, poor me, my consequences

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aren't fair after murdering his brother. Then he went out from the Lord's presence as the Lord

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just kind of put a curse on him to have to wander. The Lord took away his livelihood as he was a

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farmer and the curse involved the ground no longer yielding any crop to him. And that really put Cain

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in a position of having to depend on others in contrast to the self-righteous independence that

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he displayed in the murder of his brother. And so as he went out from the land of Eden, cursed,

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he was then cursed to live a life with no satisfaction, none of the self-gratification

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from accomplishment, but simply a life of discontented purposelessness with no point,

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no purpose, no goal, no nothing. Now what we see in the remainder of chapter four today is what

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happened after. And it's not a play-by-play, it's more of a big overview of the next seven

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generations or six generations that come after. And really it shows us what happened when Cain

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left the land of Eden, which you remember the garden, it was the garden of Eden and then it

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was in the land of Eden. And that word Eden actually means delight. So he left the land of

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delight to live in the land of Nod, which means the land of wandering, exactly what he was cursed

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to do. But he did that with angry contempt for God, still mad at the Lord, still playing the victim,

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yet protected with a very gracious mark that God had given him so that none would come after him

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and seek vengeance. Now even though it's never directly stated in Scripture, the rest of Cain's

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line suggests that Cain himself never repented, even though he had an entire life to live,

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reflecting on what he had done. The way he is represented throughout Scripture is always in a

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negative light. And I don't know about you, but when we see in Scripture, I know that my God loves

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to tell stories of people and their redemption. And so if Cain did indeed get redeemed, I think

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it would have been recorded. However, Cain goes on, as we're going to see today, to take actions

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that continue to show God. I'm going to show God I don't need him. I'm going to show God that his

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will and curse on my life, I'm just going to disdain that. We're going to see that that is

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still a part of Cain's attitude. And really the most interesting part of what we're going to see

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today is that as Cain left the land and started to wander, we're going to see that Cain and his

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progeny prospered. They prospered. And that's a very interesting thing to look at when someone is

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cursed by God and judged and cast out. But Cain's family, we're going to see, took the lead in

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producing cities, in civil engineering. They led the charge in developing the musical arts and

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performance and instrumentation. They took the lead in developing the industries of taking care

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of herd animals and sheep and all the breeding and everything that comes with that. They took the

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lead in developing agricultural tools and the implements of really the ideas, technology and

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industry. To summarize, Cain's family line produced civilization. Civilization as we understand it

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today. But although it was a prosperity, it was a dark prosperity because despite all the culture

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blossoming, despite civilization blossoming through their line, there was still a decay that was

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taking place because the moral situation within the heart of Cain's line had not changed. And then

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of course we're going to see today that as always God comes through with grace. So today we're going

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to learn that despite the advances in culture and civilization, despite the inventions of man,

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despite the discoveries of man, despite the advancement of all of that, whether it's

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agricultural abundance or in art and music, whether it's in technology, whether it's in all of that,

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despite every kind of earthly prosperity that could come to man, there is no hope for humans

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in these things. There's no hope for mankind in those things because as those things flourish,

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as civilization advances, man still has a heart of sin and will still continue its decline. And the

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only hope is and ever will be to call upon the name of the Lord. But before we get into that,

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we're going to worship God as we call upon the name of the Lord this morning to praise Him for

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who He is, what He's done in our lives, because from the beginning to the end, God is the only

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answer. And for those of us that have experienced the forgiveness, the grace, the mercy, salvation,

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the salvation that God offers us, well it truly is better than anything man can offer. Amen. Let's

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pray. Father, we love you so much and God we thank you Lord for your word. God as you've been teaching

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us through your word from the very beginning, God, we see so much that just tells us that some

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things never change. That because of the fall and the sin that entered into the heart of man,

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God we are hopelessly lost. And yet God there are those even today that would point to what

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man has accomplished, Lord, that as we have invented things and advanced culture and civilization and

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advanced technology that people would look to that and say, look, there is no God. Man is the source

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of all wisdom. And yet God despite what we have developed, despite the advancements and despite all

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of that God, our heart has never changed. We have a heart of sin and that heart is lost without you.

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And Lord, just like from the very beginning, it will be until the very end that the only hope is

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to call upon the name of the Lord. And so God, we as your church, we want to do that right now. We

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want to praise your name. We want to lift up your name and just God tell you how much we love you

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and how thankful we are for who you are and what you've done. And so God, we're going to do just

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that. We love you. We thank you for everything, every blessing. We thank you especially for our

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salvation. And God, yeah, you're just, you're it, God. We love you so much. It's in Jesus' name we

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pray. Amen. All right, guys, we're going to be in Genesis chapter four, verses 17 through 26

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tonight. And I think every single child of God all over the planet has at one point or another asked

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the question, why do the wicked prosper? You ever wondered that? You know, you're like, the people

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that do bad things seem to be the ones that are rich and powerful and, you know, have this or that

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nice house, nice car, positions of power. You know, God, what is up with that? And that is a question

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that God's people have been asking forever, right? Jeremiah the prophet dealt with this in

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Jeremiah chapter 12, verses one and two. He says this, you will be righteous, Lord, even if I bring

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a case against you. Yet I wish to contend with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do

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all the treacherous live at ease? You planted them and they have taken root. They have grown and

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produced fruit. You're ever on their lips, but far from their conscience. You know, ever on their

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lips, far from their conscience. This is the people who write songs about murdering and

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promiscuity and then get up to accept the reward and they go, I want to thank God for this award.

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No, you don't. You know, people that will talk about faith and stuff and yet they just live a

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sinful life. Job asked this question in Job 21-7 and Job is considered to be the oldest story in

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the Bible, right? Like probably a pre-flood, some say, but he said this, why do the wicked continue

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to live, growing old and becoming powerful? And then seven verses later in verse 14 of Job 21, he

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goes, yet they say to God, leave us alone. We don't want to know your ways. You know, it's a

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question that everybody asks, especially when they're a child of God and they're maybe

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suffering. They're going through tough times. They're dealing with difficulty. And we go, why is

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my life so hard, you know? Why are the wicked the only ones who can afford to live in California?

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Right, God, what's up with that, right? Part of the answer is that the wicked have a part to

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fulfill in God's plan, right? God orchestrates everything. There are no coincidences in this

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world. God is aware and behind everything that happens. And there's a point and a purpose to

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everything. You know, in Habakkuk 1-6, it tells us here that God raised up the Babylonians, a

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really bad people. In Isaiah 44-28, it tells us God raised up the Persian king, Cyrus. In Isaiah

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7-18, it says God raised up the Egyptians and the Assyrians. All of those cultures were very

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anti-God in many, many ways, but they were all raised up for purposes, for God's purposes.

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Sometimes that purpose was judgment. Sometimes it was discipline on his own people. One of them,

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God even raised up to fund the rebuilding of Jerusalem. So God has a purpose in all that,

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and there's a purpose in God keeping Cain alive, right? Cain murdered his brother. It's really

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kind of the death penalty, right? You should be done with, but God kept him alive and marked him

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from being killed by anybody else. And the purpose that I believe God keeping Cain alive

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involved Cain, but it was also far beyond him and dealt with his line. And so what we're going to

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see, really the overall theme here is that prosperity, that idea that, hey, things are

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going well or advancement, like I'm inventing things, we're doing good as a culture, and all

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that type of stuff is neither a sign of favor or not a sign of favor. Did that make sense? Okay,

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great. That sounded weird coming out of my mouth right there. But when prosperity happens,

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it's just prosperity. Now, prosperity can come because of favor and the favor of God,

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but it doesn't inherently mean one or the other, and we're going to see that today.

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So verse 17, read with me in Genesis chapter 4. It says, Cain was intimate with his wife,

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and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Then Cain became the builder of a city,

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and he named the city Enoch after his son. Now, this isn't the other Enoch that some of you may

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be familiar with in Genesis. This is a different Enoch, the son of Cain, right? Now, through the

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end of chapter 4 of Genesis, the history of Cain and his line is very condensed, right? We don't

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get a ton of detail here, but we do get some details here about Cain and what happened after

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he was cast out, after God marked him and he left. Now, there's a detail here about his wife that is

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very surprising for many people and has led to a lot of people asking the questions, where did Cain

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get his wife, right? If it was just Adam and Eve, and then they gave birth to Cain, and very likely

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he was the very first baby born, and then Abel was born, and then Cain killed Abel, where did

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Cain get his wife, right? Some people really struggle with that, and it's not a difficult

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answer, but it is an awkward answer from the perspective of our current culture and today's

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mindset. Really, the answer is, is Cain's wife was one of the offspring of Adam and Eve,

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which would make his wife possibly his sister, or his niece, or a great niece at that point.

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That's really the only possible answer, right? Now, what the Bible doesn't tell us is how old

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Cain was when he killed his brother Abel. It was likely he was a full-grown man, he was working in

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his career as a farmer, and it doesn't tell us that Cain and Abel were the only offspring of

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Adam and Eve at the time of the murder, right? So I was thinking through this and trying to do some

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math, and I was like, well, let's say Cain was 30 when he murdered his brother, right? And that

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close to the creation, that close to the perfect genetic makeup of humans, that close to where

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they had fallen and sin had entered in, but they were still that close to creation, how many babies

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could Adam and Eve have in 30 years? And then when those children came of age and started having

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babies, how many babies could they have in 15 years or 20 years? Not 20 years, I would make them

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10, that's weird. So the other direction. But you see that there's a lot of offspring that would

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come from that situation, and so Adam and Eve being the most perfectly fertile couple that has

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ever existed, plus with their mandate to be fruitful and multiply, surely they had more

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children, God told them to do that, right? And they likely had lots and lots and lots of children,

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and by the time that we get to the Cain and Abel story and the first murder, it's likely that there

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was at least a second generation or a third generation, and we look at that and we go, ew,

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isn't that gross, right? Now in our modern mindset, of course, we're like, oh, that's creepy,

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that's creepy, you know? That brings up images of abuse and different things, and there's many

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reasons, biological reasons and stuff, why that's just frowned upon. But that early in the history

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of mankind, we have to understand that there was literally no other choice if they were going to

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follow the mandate to be fruitful and multiply. But more than that, that then, especially then,

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it was the norm. It wasn't weird, it wasn't a taboo thing, it was absolutely the norm, it was

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acceptable at that time. Now, the practice did become outlawed by the time we get to the law of

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Moses, and I believe the reason it was outlawed is because as the generations went on and on and on,

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and that corrupted genetic code got more and more spread out and diluted, what happened was the

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perfect genetic code that was in creation simply got corrupted, and that started to result in birth

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defects. And the things we see today when people go, don't have children in her family because it

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leads to a lot of biological problems. But back then, that close to perfection, I don't believe

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the genetic code was mutated or corrupted such to a point that would risk those biological defects

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and stuff. And so that's the answer, you know? And some people are like, well, that's just super weird

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and all that, and yeah, it's a weird thing today. It's definitely like, no, that's bad. But back

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then, that's just what it was, okay? Can we be okay with that? Awesome, okay. Now, Cain's curse,

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his consequence for murdering Abel was to be a restless wanderer for the rest of his life, right?

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He was told by God, you're gonna wander, right? He was a farmer. He farmed the land. God said,

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I'm gonna remove that from you, right? The land is no longer gonna yield its crop to you, Cain.

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You're gonna be a wanderer, which meant is that in order for Cain to eat and to survive, he was

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gonna have to depend on other people, which was completely contrary to his self-righteous independence

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in trying to say, this is what I'm offering you, God, take it or leave it. But what does it tell us

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here about Cain? He became a builder of a city. Do people build cities if they're wandering?

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Not typically. The idea of building a city was the idea that Cain was settling down,

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that Cain wasn't gonna wander anymore. And then he named this city after his son. Well,

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the first thing about this city is that in order to build a city, that would take resources. That

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would take significant resources, lots of them to build a city. And so this is what hints at the

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prosperity that Cain experienced. Even when it came to resources and stuff, he had enough to build

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a city at this point. And then when he named it Enoch, that word Enoch means dedicated, right?

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It's kind of a cool way, oh, I'm gonna name my son dedicated. But what we see about Cain's life is

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it wasn't that his son was dedicated to God. It wasn't that Cain was dedicated to God. It was

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really this picture that Cain was dedicated to himself, his own way, his own will, his own

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method of getting things done. Because the fact that he built a city was a direct, intentional,

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defiant violation of God's revealed will for Cain's life. God had told Cain, you're gonna be a

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restless wanderer. Now, even though it was punishment, even though it was difficulty,

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that was God's revealed will to Cain. We don't know how long Cain wandered before he found a

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wife and settled down, but he's settling down now in direct defiance of what God said for his life.

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Now, the word city, we picture a certain thing when we hear the word city, but the word in the

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Hebrew here, it could mean any type of settlement, a big settlement, a small settlement. So it could

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just be a village or whatever, but that's besides the point. The point is, is he built a place

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to stop wandering, to settle down in defiance of God's will. And so, and then he named this city

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dedicated. What was this city dedicated to? Well, it was a statement to God and a statement to the

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rest of his family, which was everybody at this time, that I'm in charge of my own life. That God,

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I don't care what you want me to do. I'm gonna do what I want to do. I don't care about your will.

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I don't care about your punishment. I don't care about what you said. I'm dedicated to doing my

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own thing, which is what was the point in the very beginning in Cain's offering. Now, nothing

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else is said about Canaanite culture here in the next few verses, except just a list of five

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generations that takes us all the way up to a man named Lamech and his two wives. Now, you'll notice

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that when we add up the generations there, Lamech is the seventh generation from Adam or the sixth

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generation from Cain. So verse 18, it tells us, Irad was born to Enoch. So we had Cain, Enoch, and

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then Irad. Then Irad fathered Mahusael. Mahusael fathered Methusael, and Methusael fathered Lamech.

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Lamech took two wives for himself, one named Ada and the other named Zilla. So again, this is just

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a quick summary of the growth, the initial growth of civilization as his people were spreading out

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in the next few verses. We're going to see what happened eventually in the line of Cain, but it's

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also the first sign of civilization's demise. And the detail we see here, it tells us he took two

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wives. You guys remember God's will had been given to Adam and Eve as a part of creation. Back in

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Genesis 2, 24, this is what God said, a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife,

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and they become one flesh. Can you become one flesh with two wives? No. So what we see here in

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the line of Cain is the tragic institution of polygamy, the idea of having multiple wives. And

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sadly, this practice came to really dominate both Cainite culture and Sethite culture as we see

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through the rest of Genesis. And we'll see through the rest of Genesis the disastrous effects that

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this has on families, on, you know, God works through things absolutely, but this particular

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defiance of God's will that carried through culture, both Sethite and Cainite culture, was a

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bad thing. And it often led to very just tragic difficulties and circumstances. But the picture

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here for us in studying this is as civilization advanced, so did rebellion to God's will in the

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line of Cain. So did that rebellion to God's word. And so verse 19 again, it says, Lamech took two

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wives for himself, one named Ada and the other named Zilla. Ada bore Jabal. He was the first of

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the nomadic herdsmen. His brother was named Jubal. He was the first of all who played the liar in the

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flute. And then Zilla, his other wife, bore Tubal Cain, who made all kinds of bronze and iron tools.

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Tubal Cain's sister was named Nehma. So we have this generational narrative, right? Enoch bore

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Irad, Irad bore, da da da da da. And then all of a sudden we get to this guy named Akhen, the whole

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narrative stops, specifically to share with us some particular details. Let's focus on the great,

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great, great grandson of Cain, this guy named Lamech. And why does it stop there? Because

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something very important to civilization happened during Lamech's time through his sons. What we

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see here is that these cultural advancements came from his sons, who it says were the first of these

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three things. Now that word first there means they were the fathers of these things or the

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founders of these things. So what we see here is that his first son Jubal was the first of the

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nomadic herdsmen. That's meaning the people who developed animal husbandry, the people who took

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care of cattle and bred flocks and all of that type of thing. And it really was the idea of

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agricultural advancement, the science of breeding animals and raising them for food and wool and all

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the other stuff. He was really the first one to really do that seriously, or at least to codify

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the science of it to a fact where it grew. His second brother Jubal, it says, was the first of

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all who played the lyre and the flute. This means that he was the one that developed the arts,

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the musical arts and everything related to it, right? For those of you that have ever studied

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music, it's not just, you know, boing, boing, plucking a string. There's a whole science behind

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it and how you make chords and this and that and why something sounds good and why something sounds

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bad. It's an entire art form and this guy was the progenitor of that art form in music and

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it really by implication involves all the things that would be considered the arts, right? And then

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his third brother, Jubal Cain, made all kinds of bronze and iron tools. That's the idea of forging

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metals, crafting things. It's really the bigger idea of the development of technology and industry,

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right? So when it says they were founders or fathers of it, the idea is that they perfected

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these things. They honed these things. They codified these things. They were really the first

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to establish the science of these things or the art of all these things and develop it into more

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than it was. Really the first to make it a lifestyle and an occupation and an industry.

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That's what it's talking about here. Now this isn't to say that the Sethite culture wasn't

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making advances when it came to culture and civilization. I mean obviously we know Abel

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took care of sheep, right? Because he brought the lamb as his offering but these are the guys that

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really like advanced it into a way where it spread out and blessed culture as a whole.

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And that is a prosperity that these people in Cain's line were really the founders of these

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industries, these practices, these science, these arts that really revolutionized civilization

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and really changed culture across the known world at the time. Those discoveries ended up being a

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blessing among God's people but these were discoveries that God used that came through

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the disobedient descendants of Cain's line. God used these disobedient descendants of

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Cain's ungodly line to impact history through their discoveries. We know that Abraham, Moses,

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and David were shepherds, right? We know that if you read the book of Psalms, guess what you see

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there all over the place? Music and poetry. And then in Exodus chapter 36 verse 1 when they were

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building the tabernacle, it says this of the skilled craftsmen, the ones who were like building

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the things. It said God gave them wisdom and understanding to know how to do all the work.

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So the idea is or the implication there is even the idea of industry and technology, it was God

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the one giving insight and stuff through what is known as two volcano, the third sun.

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But the overall picture is that this godless civilization, this godless rebellious Canaanite

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civilization gave birth to these massive cultural advances that enriched all of life. Yet the

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rebellious God rejecting moral degradation in Cain's line also continued. Now this degradation

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is hinted at in the name of his third son, two volcano, and in what we're going to see right after

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that in Lamex, murderous boast. But he had these three sons, right? And if you've had kids, sometimes

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like parents want to name kids in this like sing songy way or a rhymy way or something, right?

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And so like, right, I would be like, oh, j-ball, ju-ball, two-ball, wow, right? You know, what a

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cool family. And the second kid probably made a song about it. Maybe that's where rap came from,

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who knows? But the third son is like out of line with it all, right? It's like j-ball, ju-ball,

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and then two-ball Cain. Now for Cain's line and his family, Cain was the famous ancestor,

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and I say ancestor like he was far, far away, possibly still alive, who knows? But he was the

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progenitor of this line that was famous for what? Murder. He was the first murderer on planet Earth.

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He was the first one that took the life of somebody for no other reason than he was mad at them.

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And so therefore, Cain was known for violence. And then Cain's the builder of the city, so he was

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known for just forget God and forget God's will. I'm going to do things my own, right? That whole

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idea of Cain, Lamech attached that name to his third son. And so the inclusion of Cain's name,

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this ancestor known for all this, suggests something. And you may go, well, that's kind

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of a reach, but when we get to the next part, you'll see the connection. But it tells us about

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two-ball Cain. He made all kinds of bronze and iron tools. With Cain being added to his name and

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this whole idea, this connotation of violence and murder, it suggests that he made more than just

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farming tools. He may have also made tools of war, tools of killing, tools of bloodshed.

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And so we see this anticipated in his name, and then we see it in what we're going to see next in

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Lamech's boast. But before we get to that, I just want to make this point. These cultural developments,

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these cultural skills, these civilization-changing moments of agriculture development and

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development of the arts and development of technology and industry, those are on their own,

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really all blessings that can and should be used for the betterment of all mankind.

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They really should be used to ultimately glorify God. You know, if you're a Star Trek fan,

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you know there was this guy named Luke. No, just kidding, right? I lost like half the world right

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here. No, Star Trek. Okay. The concept of Star Trek, for those of you that may not know, is the

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idea that mankind advanced to the point of technology where they wiped themselves out in

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nuclear warfare. And then the remaining culture of man kind of said, you know what? That was dumb.

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We need to band together, and everything needs to be for the advancement of mankind. And so in the

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Star Trek universe, there was no more money because it wasn't about self-enrichment. Everything,

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every invention, every discovery was about the furtherance of mankind. And guess what happened?

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Well, we ascended to the point where the Vulcans found us and went, wow, you guys are developed.

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And then, you know, rest of Star Trek, right? Utopian society. That when man would finally get

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to the place where they were completely selfless, right, we would advance and ascend into everything

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man was created to be. Well, sure, technological advancement, cultural advancement should be used

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for the betterment of man, but the reality is that the advances in civilization, when it's done by

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man apart from God, they have unlimited potential for evil. And that's just the reality. You know,

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think about the microchip. The microchip can help you find your lost dog. Isn't that wonderful?

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It can also guide a smart bomb through your bedroom window. What about the advancements in

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medicines and pharmaceuticals and, you know, drugs, right? Our modern medical technology,

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there's been so many advancements and inventions and painkillers and, you know, antibiotics and all

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this stuff that is really good and really beneficial. But then you also see pictures of

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the streets of San Francisco where everybody's dying from fentanyl overdose. And you know,

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you're not going to find anything that's going to help you. I mean, you just go down the list of

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things that could be used for good or bad. And while these advancements can be the catalyst for

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so much good, mankind has a tendency to elevate its own pride in the face of look what I have made.

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Look what I have made. You guys remember that movie Castaway? Tom Hanks on the Island when he

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finally makes fire and he's like beating us just, look what I have made. That's mankind.

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We've learned something and we think it was of and from us. We think it highlights our intelligence

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and how wonderfully just, you know, how wonderful we are. Even though mankind has this sense to

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invent and discover, when we elevate our own pride in those things, we invent these things and then

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we tend to use them for our own pleasures and our own appetites. Not for the good of mankind.

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But it's like, how am I going to benefit from this? Ooh, can I get a patent and become a billionaire

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over this? And then even in our world today, secular scientists all over the world, as they

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discover more about the wonderful beauty of God's creation from the macro side of the universe to

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the micro side of the smallest elements of atoms and molecules, what they say every time they

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discover something new is we have proven there's no God. We are the source of all wisdom.

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Look at what we have discovered. But no advancements of any kind, agricultural abundance,

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arts of technology, industry, none of it can save society. Right? Star Trek is fake.

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It's not going to lead to the utopian society of man because we're sinners.

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We're sinners inside, regardless of how far culture advances, regardless of how far civilization

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advances, we are still sinners. And so the story of Canite civilization, it really saves us from

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overvaluing cultural advancement. It saves us from the idea of raising up man and saying,

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wow, he is the end all of everything. He is the best. He is the most advanced because what we see

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is although the descendants of Cain through Lamech prospered in living life and prospered in

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developing world-changing cultural advancements around them, they couldn't manage their own lives.

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They couldn't manage their own mortality. And this is what we see in Lamech. And this is why

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I believe the story went da-da-da-da-da. Lamech. Let's stop here and look at this dude. So verse 23.

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Lamech said to his wives, Ada and Zilla, hear my voice, wives of Lamech. Pay attention to my words.

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For I killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain is to be avenged seven

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times over, then Lamech, for Lamech it will be 77 times. Now in the Hebrew, this is written in a

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poem form. It's like Hebrew poetry. And so this poem is about a woman who is a woman who is

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a woman who is a woman who is a woman who is a woman who is a woman who is a woman who is a woman.

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This poem has been traditionally referred to as the Song of the Sword. Okay, they call this the

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Song of the Sword. And it really follows the characterization of all who reject God's way for

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their own way, which started with Cain. Right? Now although there's no sword mentioned specifically

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in the two verses here, again, we looked at the name of his third son, Two-Bal Cain, and then

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he died to violence and murder, and that's why there's this, there's suggested in Two-Bal Cain

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that he made more than just, you know, pitchforks and, you know, plows, that he actually made

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implements of war, and that would include swords and stuff, and that's where the idea of Song of

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the Sword comes from. But when we read these verses, what we picture here, and I'll say this

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before I say it out loud. No, I'm saying this out loud too. I don't mean to offend anybody, okay?

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But this picture, when you read these two verses, it's a picture of a bare-chested, arrogant bro

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standing next to his lifted truck with his fox sticker on the back holding a beer in his hand

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proclaiming how great he is. That's what this is the picture of. This arrogant, violent punk who

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just thinks he is everything in his own world. Now this man had to have been the worst nightmare for his wives.

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I mean, it's really the picture of the worst results of the curse on Eve in Genesis 3 16. You

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guys remember that one, right? The second half of the curse that fell upon her was,

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your desire will be for your husband, but he will rule over you. And we walked through that in great

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detail. If you missed that one, go check it out on YouTube to understand what that meant and what it

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really means was the idea of the authority in the family that as Eve was going through the curse,

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that as Eve led her husband to do this bad thing, she would have a tendency to want to do that in

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her nature as a woman for all time. Yet the husband is the one that God said, no, no, no, I'm

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appointing the husband as head of the household, right? That's the idea here. And so we get to this

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point in Cain's line and we see that, okay, this man of the household is this brutal, violent,

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arrogant, narcissistic punk. I mean, not only did Ada and Zilla suffer the humility of polygamy,

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right? I mean, it's likely that they were the very first polygamy family in history and all the other

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women, oh, they're getting married and they're becoming one and wow, and no, and this and that,

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and then Lamek comes along and he's like, no, I'm taking two. I mean, how humiliating for those

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women. But on top of that, they were married to this violent, remorseless brute. Now again,

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it doesn't say here, and this is a complete assumption on my part, but I don't think it's

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difficult to understand that this might've been the place of domestic violence, that these wives

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were suffering greatly because this man gloried in his violence and gloried in what he thought

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made him a man. And we still see that today. So in his glorying, this is what he says,

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I killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. What he's saying there is I killed

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a kid for wounding me in some way. Now the idea here is that when it says this young man struck

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him, there was some type of wound. It wasn't like he bumped into his shoulder or anything. I've heard

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it explained that way sometimes, but the idea was that this kid hurt him in some way, but the idea

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of it is like a scratch. It was a small thing. And then Lamex bragging, Lamex bragging about how he

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murdered the kid for it, murdered him. Now the word youth there, we would probably use the word

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teenager today, right? So here's this grown man with his cool truck, all arrogant and some

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teenager scratches him and he murders the kid. And he thinks that's what makes him ascendant.

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That is what makes him elevated and superior. I responded to an insignificant thing with murder.

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Look how great I am. So he brags about it to his wife and what we see here is there's no shame,

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there's no remorse, but there's pride and celebration and look at me. You know, and again,

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it's about the attitude, right? It's not about those things I used in the illustration, right?

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It's not about what he's wearing or what he's driving. It's his heart. It's his heart that is

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the issue that he is a sinful man. And so as marriage was spit on in the Canite culture,

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right? With the introduction of polygamy. So is the value of life.

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Does that sound familiar to anybody? All right, we're talking about pre-flood primeval history.

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No, it sounds like we're talking about today in America. Nothing new under the sun, right?

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And then we look around today and yeah, the value of life, right? People would rather record an

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assault than get involved and protect the one being assaulted. You have kids, teenagers

374
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that are recording and finding it great and saying, this is giving me cloud as they go

375
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down the street and sucker punch an old lady. And we're going, what is going on?

376
00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:26,640
What is going on is the spirit of Cain and his line is alive and well today.

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00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:33,520
You have podcasts about serial killers, right? And I know some of you may listen to these and,

378
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you know, that's fine, but what's interesting is you'll have these podcasts, right? And so it's

379
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:43,600
like, you know, some lady putting on her makeup and telling you about this guy who murdered 50

380
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:49,520
people. And everybody's like, oh, wow, that's so interesting, so exciting. And what you're

381
00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:54,480
listening to is not a condemnation of the action. You're just listening to a retelling of the story

382
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about a guy who murdered people and finding entertainment out of it. Wow, that's exciting.

383
00:39:00,960 --> 00:39:08,560
And it's like, no, that's murder. That's abhorrent, right? And, you know, there's multiple

384
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different areas where we evaluate our entertainments and go, oh, my gosh, am I glorifying in something

385
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:18,640
that is not right? But, you know, we see all this stuff and then we think about, like, you know,

386
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there's been some studies and there's a lot of evidence that indicates that the 20th century,

387
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:28,720
despite all the advancements in culture and civilization, and we invented airplanes and

388
00:39:28,720 --> 00:39:36,400
flight and military technology and computed all this stuff, it was the most violent century

389
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:44,960
in all of history. And you look at all that stuff and you go, has mankind really gotten better

390
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:52,400
as we've advanced culturally and as we've advanced technologically and as we've advanced in the arts

391
00:39:52,400 --> 00:40:00,000
and not so much. Now, the verse 24, this is a verse that some people get tripped up on because

392
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:05,120
his boast is, if Cain is to be avenged seven times over them for Lamech, it will be 77.

393
00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:10,560
The idea here, there's two possible interpretations and it could be a blend of both, but one

394
00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:17,760
interpretation is what he is saying in that is that he's exalting in the fact that he suffered no

395
00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:25,120
consequences for what he did, right? Like, Cain murdered his brother and from the outside, well,

396
00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:29,600
he didn't suffer any consequences, right? He's still alive. He lived his life. Sure, he couldn't

397
00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:34,000
be a farmer anymore, but he became a city builder, right? It's like from the outside, he's still

398
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alive, right? It's like from the outside, it looks like he suffered no consequences. And so, Lamech

399
00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:44,800
is referencing this idea that he was protected, right? God said to Cain after Cain was like, oh,

400
00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:49,520
no, someone's gonna kill me, right? You just murdered your brother, bro. But anyways, he was

401
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:55,040
afraid and God said, fine, I'm gonna mark you. And if anybody kills you, it will be avenged seven

402
00:40:55,040 --> 00:40:59,600
times. And so, Lamech is referencing that and saying, look, you know, my great, great, great

403
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:05,280
grandpa Cain, he murdered and he lived on without any fear of people taking his life. And so, guess

404
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:11,760
what? Me more so, right? That's one interpretation. The other interpretation is it's a boast about

405
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:21,280
how he went even further than what his infamous relative did, right? The idea was is if someone

406
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:31,520
killed Cain for what Cain did, like they took vengeance on Cain and then they were, oh my gosh,

407
00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:38,800
it just went blank. They suffered seven times for doing that. Then what Lamech is saying is what I've

408
00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:44,880
done is so much greater. That if someone comes after me for what I've done, they should be killed or

409
00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:51,520
they should be, I should be avenged for that killing 77 times, right? He's saying, my brother,

410
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:56,400
our famous ancestor, he did this murder, but you know what? I did something greater. I killed a kid

411
00:41:56,400 --> 00:42:02,880
for nothing. And he's glorying in it. So that's the other interpretation of what he's saying there.

412
00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:08,000
It could be one or both, you know, the blending of all that that meant. But the idea is as society

413
00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:13,760
and civilization was blossoming, as advancement was coming, as growth and all these great,

414
00:42:13,760 --> 00:42:20,160
wonderful things that were pushing mankind further, it was also decaying. It was getting morally

415
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:29,200
more and more bankrupt. But verse 25, here comes God's grace again. Adam was intimate with his wife

416
00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:34,320
again and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth. For she said, God has given me another

417
00:42:34,320 --> 00:42:40,080
offspring in the place of Abel since Cain killed him. A son was born to Seth also and he named him

418
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:48,320
Enosh. At that time, people began to call on the name of the Lord. Now the name Seth, right, there's

419
00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:54,400
a lot of meaning in the names and Seth means granted, right? So Eve is like, God granted me

420
00:42:54,400 --> 00:43:00,800
another child, right? So I'm going to name him granted, right? And so, but like the previous

421
00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:11,440
children, we see Eve giving, attributing his birth to God. God did this, right? Now she says, he gave

422
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:18,880
me another in place of Abel. You know, some people ascribe to the fact that when Cain was born, Eve

423
00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:23,040
might have been like, this is the ultimate offspring, right? God said that you're going to give birth to

424
00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:29,040
someone who's going to crush the head of the serpent. It's him. Well, he's bad. Maybe it's Abel.

425
00:43:29,040 --> 00:43:34,000
Oh, well, he killed Abel. Maybe it's Seth, right? You know, and they see that kind of in her

426
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:40,720
explanation or her exclamation here, or at least in her like whole idea that God has given me another

427
00:43:40,720 --> 00:43:47,280
to replace Abel. It's an idea that, oh, even though Cain killed Abel, God's promise is still

428
00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:53,840
going to come, right? The line is secure. So, but we see the beginning of what's known as the

429
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:59,600
Sethite line here. Now that line is detailed all the way through chapter five, which we'll look at

430
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:03,920
next time, and that is a long chapter of this person beget, this person beget, this person beget,

431
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:08,080
this person beget, this person beget, this person, right? It's a genealogy, and we'll look at all that,

432
00:44:08,080 --> 00:44:16,560
and I promise it'll be interesting. So, but we see the beginning of this here in the end of chapter

433
00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:20,240
four, and you know, of course, sometimes when you're studying, you're going, you know, that looks like

434
00:44:20,240 --> 00:44:24,960
it should have been included in this chapter, right? The chapter breaks and stuff were added

435
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:29,200
after the fact, and there were people that were, you know, trying to, you know, make it so you could

436
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:32,560
reference parts of the Bible, and that's where all the chapters and verses came from, but it wasn't

437
00:44:32,560 --> 00:44:36,400
there originally, but sometimes you look at something, you go, why did they decide to break

438
00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:42,800
the chapter right there? If all of Seth's line is in chapter five, it would have made sense to put

439
00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:48,480
this in chapter five in that sense, but there's a point, and it's included here at the end of

440
00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:55,200
chapter four, I believe, to be a contrast to Cain's line. What we see in Cain's line is cultural

441
00:44:55,200 --> 00:45:03,840
advancement, moral degradation, and then we have hope, we have grace, we have the birth of the

442
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:09,520
Sethite line, because what we see in Cain's firstborn and all his successors is, wow, they're

443
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:14,800
the pioneers of building cities and civil engineering. They led the charge and the development

444
00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:19,920
of the arts and song and poetry and all those things connected, and wow, they led the charge

445
00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:28,960
and the development of metallurgy and forging and industry and technology. And then we have this

446
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:35,200
picture of Seth line being born, and what were they known for? What does it tell us? They were

447
00:45:35,200 --> 00:45:43,440
the pioneers of worship. They were the pioneers of trust in God, trust in the Lord alone for

448
00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:49,200
salvation, the glorifying of his name. That's what they were known for, and that is put in stark

449
00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:55,440
contrast to what Cain's line was known for. And it says that at that time, people began to call

450
00:45:55,440 --> 00:46:00,800
on the name of the Lord. Now, it was more than just calling on the Lord, right? Sometimes when we hear

451
00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:05,120
that word, like, oh, someone called on someone, it was like, hey, I'm calling on you, step forward,

452
00:46:05,120 --> 00:46:09,280
or it's like, hey, I'm calling you for help, right? And we call on the name of the Lord like that all

453
00:46:09,280 --> 00:46:15,520
the time, God help me, right? But it means way more than that. The idea of calling on the name

454
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:21,440
of the Lord, as we see through Moses's writings, regularly refers to the idea of proclaiming,

455
00:46:22,400 --> 00:46:28,000
proclaiming the name of the Lord. And then that phrase, name of the Lord, it's about proclaiming

456
00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:39,600
his character, his nature, who he is. Now, these people were known for proclaiming who God is to

457
00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:46,320
humanity. Does that sound like anything we're called to do today? It's called the preaching of

458
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:52,880
the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we are called as people to go into this world and proclaim

459
00:46:52,880 --> 00:47:00,480
who God is. He loves you. He created you. He's the God of all creation. And he loved you so much that

460
00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:05,600
that he went to the cross and died for your sin so that you could put faith in what he did. He

461
00:47:05,600 --> 00:47:11,760
paid the price so you could be forgiven, right? It's the gospel. And so we see this wonderful

462
00:47:11,760 --> 00:47:16,400
picture that here in the very beginning of time, in the earliest stages of the development of

463
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:22,720
civilization, where sin further degraded man and mankind was going further and further into the

464
00:47:22,720 --> 00:47:30,320
pit, a special, sanctified, set apart group of people started to develop by God's hand.

465
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:36,400
And these people proclaimed the Savior. They proclaimed the Lord. They proclaimed God.

466
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:43,280
When Canaanite culture was rising up to worship at the altar of abundance and to worship at the

467
00:47:43,280 --> 00:47:49,600
altar of advancement and to worship at the altar of technology and art and human accomplishment,

468
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:55,840
when abuse and violence and the devaluation of life was becoming normalized and celebrated,

469
00:47:57,280 --> 00:48:03,200
you have Sathite civilization preaching repentance, preaching dependence on a patient,

470
00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:15,440
loving and grace-filled creator God. It is the exact same today that God's people, we are called

471
00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:20,080
to go into this world that worships at the altar of abundance and worships at the altar of

472
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:25,920
accomplishment and worships at the altar of self and brags about its violence and celebrates the

473
00:48:25,920 --> 00:48:32,160
abortion of 50 million children and all of this stuff. And we're called to go proclaim the name

474
00:48:32,160 --> 00:48:40,160
of the Lord. And so when you think about this, it's just, it's encouraging that way back here

475
00:48:40,160 --> 00:48:46,400
during primeval history, right? That's like before flood, that's the ancient ancient times, right?

476
00:48:47,520 --> 00:48:53,840
Before Abraham's covenant, before the law of Moses, before the Davidic covenant,

477
00:48:54,800 --> 00:48:59,600
God's people were known, characterized as proclaiming the name of the Lord.

478
00:49:00,960 --> 00:49:03,920
This is one of the defining characteristics of God's people.

479
00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:08,880
It is here and it always has been and it is today. We are people who proclaim who God is,

480
00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:15,200
what God has done and we praise Him for it. So the second half of Genesis 4 here,

481
00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:20,320
it gives us a wonderful outline to understand civilization and culture today.

482
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:28,880
To help us understand that, well just to understand as our culture increases in abundance,

483
00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:33,280
and I know there's places around the world that are suffering greatly, but overall with our

484
00:49:33,280 --> 00:49:39,760
advancements in technology and in cultural advancements in arts and the advancements of

485
00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:45,360
just everything that mankind has accomplished over the years, it's all very impressive.

486
00:49:46,800 --> 00:49:53,520
But despite all those advancements within it lies the demise of mankind because sin is in the heart

487
00:49:53,520 --> 00:50:01,440
of every single human. And the only hope of the world is not when we discover the cure to cancer,

488
00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:07,440
or we discover this technology or that technology, or we go and fly out into space and find a new

489
00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:13,600
beautiful world, right? And all this stuff science fiction tells us. The only hope of the world is

490
00:50:13,600 --> 00:50:22,160
to call upon the name of the Lord. It's the only hope of our culture, our culture, our culture,

491
00:50:22,160 --> 00:50:29,200
the only hope of our culture. It's the only hope of any culture. It's the only hope for our soul.

492
00:50:29,200 --> 00:50:34,080
It's the only hope for our country. It's the only hope for our families. It's the only hope for our

493
00:50:34,080 --> 00:50:43,040
church is to call upon the name of the Lord. And this side of the cross, we know who that is,

494
00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:49,280
Jesus Christ. God in the flesh who died on the cross to pay the price for all of our sin,

495
00:50:49,280 --> 00:50:55,360
who rose on the third day defeating death, and who gives that gift of forgiveness and eternal life

496
00:50:55,360 --> 00:51:02,240
to all who would call upon the name of the Lord. But to answer that final question, why do the

497
00:51:02,240 --> 00:51:07,360
wicked prosper? Why doesn't God just wipe people out when they do horrible things? Well,

498
00:51:08,560 --> 00:51:13,520
another big part of it is because God is compassionate and he is merciful and he is

499
00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:19,600
patient with the wicked. Right? Every single one of us could think of the life we lived before Jesus,

500
00:51:20,160 --> 00:51:26,720
and we're like, I'm so glad he was patient because he could have wiped me out an infinite number of

501
00:51:26,720 --> 00:51:33,520
times for what I had done. Well, he's still being patient with our friends and our family and our

502
00:51:33,520 --> 00:51:39,840
coworkers and all who don't know him yet. He wants them to be saved. He wants them to come to him and

503
00:51:39,840 --> 00:51:45,440
to be able to receive that forgiveness from their sins. The Bible says he is slow to anger and that

504
00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:51,840
he abounds in love. You know what the Bible also tells us? That he causes the sun to rise on the

505
00:51:51,840 --> 00:51:58,080
evil and the good. It tells us that he causes the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous.

506
00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:05,440
And the idea there, as we see Canite civilization responsible for these wonderful advances in

507
00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:12,560
culture, the idea is that that success and prosperity and advancement and all this stuff,

508
00:52:13,120 --> 00:52:22,800
it's neither good nor evil, but it's what one does with it. That is the point. So God's patience

509
00:52:22,800 --> 00:52:27,360
while the wicked prosper, it's an opportunity for them to come to know him. It's an opportunity

510
00:52:27,360 --> 00:52:32,400
for them to hear what the gospel is as God's people are calling on the name of the Lord,

511
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:37,280
proclaiming who he is and what he's done. Everything else in our life is secondary.

512
00:52:38,560 --> 00:52:42,720
Now don't get me wrong, I get it. We gotta pay bills and we gotta take care of our families and

513
00:52:42,720 --> 00:52:47,920
we gotta fix the car and we need to take time to relax, right? The Bible tells us all those

514
00:52:47,920 --> 00:52:55,360
things are important, but none of them has a greater priority for you as a believer than to

515
00:52:55,360 --> 00:53:00,480
call upon the name of the Lord every day, in every place, with every people.

516
00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:04,640
So I wanna close with this final encouragement, Romans chapter 10 verses 14 through 17.

517
00:53:05,600 --> 00:53:08,720
It says, how then can they call on him they have not believed in?

518
00:53:09,600 --> 00:53:14,800
And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?

519
00:53:15,760 --> 00:53:21,520
And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those

520
00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:28,080
who bring good news, but not all obey the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message?

521
00:53:28,080 --> 00:53:33,360
So faith comes from what is heard and what is heard comes through the message about Jesus Christ.

522
00:53:34,080 --> 00:53:39,200
And I hereby commission every single one of you sending you out to take that message to the lost

523
00:53:40,240 --> 00:53:43,760
that they would be saved as well. Amen. Let's pray. Father,

524
00:53:45,680 --> 00:53:51,120
we love you and we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for what you've done.

525
00:53:51,120 --> 00:53:58,480
And God, as we saw today, Lord, that God, you even work through the wicked and the line of the wicked

526
00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:06,000
and you do things that benefit all of mankind. And Lord, it's not those things that make someone

527
00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:13,600
righteous or unrighteous, Lord. God, you worked through Pharaoh to save Moses.

528
00:54:13,600 --> 00:54:19,120
And Pharaoh was a wicked dude. And you worked through him.

529
00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:27,680
You were a wicked dude. And yet, God, when we see all of that, Lord, we learn the very valuable

530
00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:36,640
lesson that none of that means anything when it comes to our soul, our eternal soul.

531
00:54:38,640 --> 00:54:45,120
That success doesn't mean moral goodness. That accomplishment doesn't mean salvation.

532
00:54:45,120 --> 00:54:49,440
Instead, Lord, what we should understand is that the accomplishment and the invention and all that

533
00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:52,480
stuff that civilization does moving forward, it's a grace from God.

534
00:54:56,160 --> 00:54:59,840
And that, Lord, instead of depending on those things, we would be people that would always

535
00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:06,480
depend on you and know that it is in your name, only in your name that we are saved.

536
00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:12,800
And we thank you for that. And God, I pray, Lord, that every single believer in this room, Lord,

537
00:55:12,800 --> 00:55:18,400
would take that commission. That God, as they think about, well, how are people going to be saved if

538
00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:21,280
they don't believe? And how are they going to believe without hearing the message? And how are

539
00:55:21,280 --> 00:55:24,880
they going to hear it if someone hasn't sent? That, Lord, they would take the commission that

540
00:55:24,880 --> 00:55:29,760
you've given to every single one of us to go into all the world and to preach the gospel of Jesus

541
00:55:29,760 --> 00:55:35,280
Christ. That we would lead people to you and see them get baptized in a public confession of that

542
00:55:35,280 --> 00:55:43,920
and then move forward living a life that glorifies your name. God, we thank you so much and we love

543
00:55:43,920 --> 00:55:50,880
you. We ask that you would continue to increase our faith. That you would continue to use us,

544
00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:56,880
Lord, yes, to do things and to invent things and to accomplish things, but, Lord, most importantly,

545
00:55:57,680 --> 00:56:03,280
to be known as people who call on the name of the Lord, to be known as people who are

546
00:56:03,280 --> 00:56:08,480
called on the name of the Lord, to be known as people who proclaim who you are

547
00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:16,080
above and beyond everything else. God, we love you. We thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

548
00:56:16,080 --> 00:56:44,080
Amen.