Father, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us.
Help us, Father, to be more confident,
but not confident, Father, in our own powers per se,
but help us, Father, to be confident that you are sovereign,
that you are good, that you are real,
that your grace is powerful,
that Jesus really is, Father,
the power in his death upon the cross,
the power that comes from you for salvation
when we receive it by faith.
Father, grant us an ever deeper confidence in you
and your ways and your word and your power,
and we ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Please be seated.
I mean, why do we live in...
This sounds like an odd way to begin this sermon,
but why do we live in Ottawa?
I mean, maybe some of you are wondering that.
Why do we live in Ottawa?
Why do we live in the city?
My wife and I, before I came to serve in this church,
we served in a small little place,
probably had about 1,200 people living in it,
called Eganville.
And I not only looked after Eganville,
but I also looked after a tiny little church
in a place called Killaloo.
That's where beaver tails are from, by the way,
the treat.
Killaloo Sunrise.
It was started at the Killaloo Folk Festival
many, many years ago by ex-hippies.
And Killaloo is a little tiny blip of about 600 people.
And I also looked after two other little churches.
One had no people living around.
Actually, neither of them had any people living around it.
And when we went there,
they had a long history.
For almost 100 years, over 100 years,
ministers who went there only stayed there
for about three years,
and they got out as soon as they could.
And we stayed there over seven years.
In fact, when we left the church
in the 140 or 150 years history of that set of churches,
I was the second longest serving minister
in the church's history.
And I used to feel blessed to live there.
I'd say to myself,
and I'm a city kid.
I was born in Montreal and then lived in Ottawa.
But I loved it up there.
I'd think to myself,
you know, other people have to take their holidays
to come to live in Eganville and to enjoy this.
And I get to live here all year round.
And I really liked it.
But so why did we leave the countryside?
This was probably a bigger sacrifice for my wife
than it was for me.
But we came to the city basically for our kids
to give them opportunities
and to be able to get them set up
in a way of living their life later on
that they wouldn't have
if we had stayed in a place like Eganville.
We had a large family, have a large family,
and we knew that we couldn't help them
go to university or college.
And I just knew that the way that we could help them
to go, and so did Louise,
to go to university and or college
was to go to a place where there were universities
and a college,
and they could live at home with us
while they would get further education
and training to go on with their lives.
So it was for our kids.
It was for their advancement
and their opportunity
that we left the country,
the small town in the country,
and came back to Ottawa
and why we stayed.
You know, it was really interesting
because my wife,
it was very heavy for her in many ways
leaving Eganville to come to Ottawa.
And in a small town like Eganville,
everybody knows what's going on.
And she was in the little fresh mart
just down the hill from us,
maybe just a week or two
before we moved to come to Ottawa.
And she got talking to the cashier.
She talked to the cashier regularly,
and the cashier said,
oh, I hear you're moving to Ottawa.
And Louise said, yeah,
we don't really want to go.
I don't really want to go.
And the cashier looked at her
with complete surprise and said,
who on earth wouldn't want to go to Ottawa
and get out of Eganville?
Like, who wouldn't want to be able
to leave Eganville?
She felt trapped with her job
and her kids and her roots there.
And the idea of the city,
a city like Ottawa,
of its opportunity,
of everybody not knowing your business,
which is what happens in Eganville
if the cops pull somebody over on the road,
within several hours,
if I wanted to,
I could find out who was in the car,
why they were pulled over,
and what happened to them.
Like, that's what happens
when you live in a small town.
And, you know,
but for the cashier,
just this, you know,
the city is a place of opportunity,
of life,
of not having people
know everything about you,
of freedom.
It's just a great place to go.
So believe it or not,
the Bible has some things
to say about cities,
and you might not have picked it up,
but that text,
which Emily read,
actually introduces
the notion of the city
in a very, very interesting way.
So if you could turn in your Bibles,
we're going to look at that.
It has far more to say
than just cities.
It really is,
you know,
it's like a lot of things in the Bible.
It's Genesis chapter 4, verse 17.
It's like a lot of things in the Bible.
If you just give it a quick read,
it looks a little bit boring.
But if you pay a little bit
of attention to it,
if you especially think
that in the book of Genesis,
in particular,
these first 11 chapters,
but all the way through the Bible,
but really here as well,
every word counts.
Every word matters.
It's a very carefully crafted story
filled with symbolism
and meaning,
and every word matters.
So let's just read this.
Actually,
just before I start reading it,
verse 17,
if you're not familiar
with what's going on here
in Genesis,
here's been the flow.
Genesis 1,
at the very beginning,
teaches that God creates
all things out of nothing.
Then it gives us
sort of a story,
the so-called first story
of creation
that teaches us
other things about creation
and who God is
and who we are.
Then there's a second story
of creation
that teaches us
more things about
who God is
and who human beings are.
And one of the main things
out of all of this
is that God makes everything
completely and utterly good.
And Genesis 3
describes how evil
and sin and death,
which we all see around us,
come into the world.
And it comes into the world
through the choices
made by human beings.
And then we see
after this choice
has been made
and Christians call it
the fall,
we see how God both,
God shows mercy to them
and promises
a mighty deliverer
and there's also judgment
and there's also prediction.
And immediately after that,
when Adam and Eve
are out of the garden,
the very next story,
which is just the one
before this,
is the story of Cain
murdering his brother Abel.
And this is sort of the story
where Emily read
is continuing.
Well, we'll just go up
a few verses
before verse 17.
Let's start at,
let's say,
verse 13.
So God has sort of
spoken to Cain
words of punishment
and Cain's response
in verse 13,
Cain said to the Lord,
My punishment
is greater than I can bear.
Just last week
we talked about
how this isn't repentance,
this is self-pity.
At no point in time
in Cain's response
is there repentance.
It's self-pity.
My punishment
is greater than I can bear.
Behold,
you have driven me today
away from the ground
and from your face
I shall be hidden.
I shall be a fugitive
and a wanderer
on the earth
and whoever finds me
will kill me.
Then the Lord said
to him,
Not so.
If anyone kills Cain,
vengeance shall be taken
on him sevenfold.
And the Lord put a mark
on Cain,
lest any who found him
should attack him.
Then Cain went away
from the presence
of the Lord
and settled
in the land of Nod.
And if you look at your note,
Nod means wandering.
So he basically settled
in wandering away from God.
It's a bit of a poetic wordplay.
What his home was,
what he now saw as home,
was wandering away from God
east of Eden.
And now the story continues.
Cain knew his wife
and she conceived
and bore Enoch.
When he built a city,
he called the name of the city
after the name of his son,
Enoch.
And we'll just sort of pause there.
And just if you're wondering
who's Cain's wife,
what I've decided is,
what I'm going to do is
next Sunday at the sermon,
I'm going to sort of tie together
several questions
or problems that we have.
Like what is the flood?
Is it universal?
Who did Cain marry?
Who lived in the city?
I'm going to spend
a couple of minutes
on all of those questions
and group them together
next Sunday.
So just if you're curious,
come in next Sunday
or you can listen to it online
afterwards.
But here's the thing
which is very, very interesting
is this is the first city.
And it started by Cain
whose home
is wandering away from God.
And Cain
is the one
who makes the first city.
And if you'll notice,
it's very interesting.
He doesn't name it after God.
He names it after his son.
In other words,
the city is named
in honor of Cain
and his line.
not in honor of God
or in any type of way
of referring to God.
And the other thing
which is very, very interesting
about this
is the word for city
here
can also be translated
as fortress.
And it can also mean
like a wall
as part of a fortress.
So the very first city
is also
a place of power.
It's a fortress.
fortress.
So what is this?
Now, here's the interesting thing.
If this was the only place
in the Bible,
we didn't know anything else
in the Bible about cities,
probably the way for us
to interpret this
would be to say
that Christians
shouldn't live in cities.
I mean,
it's the very first city
is named
in the honor
of Cain's line.
and Cain is the guy
who murders
his brother
whose wine
shows no repentance,
is quite happy
to have his home
and his whole destiny
wandering away from God.
And it's very, very interesting
that the Bible
pictures him
as building
the very, very
first city.
And
this shows
a very, very big
human problem.
Like as we just think
about this,
especially if it's the only piece
in the Bible,
which it isn't,
which we'll get to
in a moment.
Now, if you're a guest here
and you're not
from a Christian background,
you might not know this,
but some Christians
don't believe
that Christians
should celebrate Christmas
because it's pagan,
because it was started by,
it was a replacement
for a pagan festival
in a pagan country.
And they,
there's Christians
who don't celebrate Christmas.
In fact,
they have similar types
of things around Easter.
Because of the origin
of the holiday.
Now, for some of you,
you might be saying,
well, that's just really odd
that there are Christians
like this.
But, you know,
it's actually a very, very,
very common human problem.
Imagine that
there started to be
a cultural trend
or a cultural movement
that people are really
getting into.
And then it came out
that the person
who launched that trend
had been a key
financial supporter
of Donald Trump.
What would happen?
Well, the Twitterverse
would explode.
People would stop it.
Why?
Because it's poisoned
at its origin.
And this isn't just
a more left-wing problem
in quotation marks.
What would happen
if it turned out
that there was a,
some type of a cultural trend
and it went back
to Naomi Klein
or Michael Moore
or a big supporter
of Hillary Clinton.
Both of those two were,
of course.
Well, there'd be
a whole part of America
would say,
how on earth could
Christians
or more conservative people
get on board
with such a movement
or such a celebration
given the terrible roots
that it has?
In fact,
it's a very, very human problem
that if we know something
about the roots
of something
and we don't agree with it
or we think it's wrong,
that we don't want
to be involved with it.
So it's a human problem.
So what's the Bible
doing here?
Is the Bible
trying to communicate
that cities are bad?
In fact,
you know,
as we know,
there's terrible things
about cities as well.
They don't have
not only opportunity
and universities
and education
and government
and prosperity,
they also can be
very, very terrible,
brutal places,
places with murder rates.
I guess I have a bit of a,
anyway.
So,
so what's the Bible
doing here?
Is it,
um,
and,
and for some of you,
I don't know,
maybe for some of you,
there's been a time
in Christian history
not that long ago
where Christians
were very suspicious
of the city.
Where real Christians
move out to the suburbs
or move out to the country
because the city
has too much vice
and evil in it.
So is this what
this Bible text
is doing?
Why is it that,
I mean,
apart from the fact
that it probably was Cain
who builds the first city,
why is it that the Bible
brings this out to us?
I want to suggest
that what's going to be
going on in this text,
and it starts here
with the city,
is that the Bible text
wants to teach us
something really important
about God
and that this text
wants to humble us.
And I know that's not
a very popular thing.
People don't like going
to places
where they're humbled.
They like to go to places
where they're pumped up.
But this text
is going to humble us
and it's going to begin
by humbling Christians
in some very, very,
very powerful ways.
But here,
if you could put up
the very first point,
what we're going to see
here is this,
that even though
human beings are fallen,
God's common grace
is still at work
in the world.
Even though human beings
are fallen,
God's common grace
is still at work
in the world.
This is really,
really, really,
really, really important
for us to get our minds
around and to understand.
Every single person
that we meet,
it doesn't matter
if the person
is an angry atheist,
it doesn't matter
if they're a settled secularist,
it doesn't matter
if they're a devout Muslim,
a devout Hindu,
a devout Buddhist,
even if they're
a devout witch,
it doesn't matter.
In every single human,
I mean,
on one level
those things matter,
but another level,
it doesn't matter
because every single
human being
is fallen
and in every single
case,
the fall
doesn't have
the final word
about human life
and human experience,
but God's common grace
is always present.
God's common grace
is always present.
And what the text here
is doing
is in story form,
it's introducing us
to this idea
that won't be developed
until later on
in the scriptures.
And remember,
if those of you
were here last week,
you might remember
that I said
that what's happening
with, you know,
Cain murders his brother,
he, you know,
he's a smartass
with God,
lies to God,
God speaks to him
with grace,
you know,
Cain talks back,
Cain shows no repentance
at all for having
murdered his brother,
he only whines
and shows self-pity,
and then in the response
to Cain's self-pity,
God says,
no, no,
I'm not going to let
people kill you.
And you might remember
that I said,
what you're seeing here
in picture form
is God's common grace,
the fact that there still
is beauty in the world,
the land continues to grow,
that there's beauty
in human beings
and human lives,
and so what happens
with God,
with Cain,
is that Cain
still has provision
and protection
from God,
that's common grace,
provision
and protection
from God,
common grace
doesn't save us,
it doesn't make us
right with God,
it doesn't make Cain
right with God,
but God acts
in such a way
that Cain
is provided for,
he's protected,
and this story here
is going to continue
to show other aspects
of common grace
in a way which is going
to very powerfully
humble us
and not just humble Christians
but the text is going
to go to humble all hearts
to reveal our hearts
pride
and their boasting.
You know,
that's why,
and so,
why do I say some of this
about the city?
Because here's one of the things
about the city,
here's one of the things
that we know
if we know other things
about the rest of the Bible,
Jerusalem is important.
Jerusalem,
the city Jerusalem,
is a powerful symbol
of God's presence
and his purposes
and his people.
And for Christians,
we look for the new Jerusalem,
we continue to have a concern
for the earthly Jerusalem,
you know,
the Bible tells us
to pray for the peace
of Jerusalem,
and we are to do that.
Doesn't mean we agree
with everything Israel does,
but the Bible tells us
we don't have to agree
with everything they do.
We pray for the peace
of Jerusalem
and we look forward
to the heavenly city
and to the new Jerusalem.
And in the book of Revelation,
part of how redeemed humanity
is portrayed
is like a city.
So we know here
that the city
is not just something
which is portrayed
as evil,
but it's telling us something
that it's not going to be the case
that we're going to see
that all of the good things
just come from that line
that is in obedience to God.
It's very, very, very important
to see that good things
are going to come out
of Cain's line
and it's showing us
in picture language
an important principle
of God's common,
sovereign grace
in human affairs.
You know,
it's why there's lots
of non-Christian marriages
that are better
than Christian marriages.
It's why there's
lots of non-Christians
that you and I all meet
who are nicer,
kinder,
smarter,
more self-giving.
It's God's common grace.
And this is being introduced
in story form,
in symbolic form,
not in,
like in propositions
as I put it up there,
but God uses stories
and images
to lodge things
in our mind
so that when we hear
the idea,
there's both an idea
and a type of image
even if we're not aware of it.
So, you know,
what else is going on
here in this particular text?
You know,
there's another problem
which is being addressed
in this text
which is a very,
very common problem.
It's a common problem
for Christians
and just for all human beings.
My parents are immigrants.
I was born a year
after my parents
immigrated from Europe.
In fact,
they immigrated
from Northern Ireland.
And some of you
might have heard
that Northern Ireland
has had problems
in its past
between Protestants
and Catholics.
And one of the things
about my parents
is that when I did
something really well,
like if I made my bed
really properly
and cleaned my room well
or cleaned the kitchen well,
my mom would say to me,
that's very Protestant.
She'd say,
that was very Protestant.
Now,
isn't that really interesting?
Catholics don't know
how to make their beds
in clean kitchens,
but Protestants do.
And just for the record,
you know,
as part of God's sense
of humor
for both families,
I marry Louise
and Louise is Polish
and Ukrainian.
And in Poland,
even the atheists
are Catholics, right?
Even Buddhists
are Catholics.
Like,
Poland is Catholic
with every letter capitalized.
and one of the things
the family said
about Louise marrying me,
which was a bit of a
not really very good,
was they said,
sorry,
at least he's not a Baptist.
So,
that was very faint praise.
At least I'm not a Baptist
because I would have been
really bad
if their daughter
had married a Baptist.
Anyway,
so, you know,
there's a bit of a problem,
right?
That the best things
come from Christians
or the best things
come from Protestants.
And by the way,
this isn't just a common,
this isn't just
a Christian problem.
What's one of the things
that many, many, many
secular people believe?
Evangelicals are stupid
and unread.
I mean,
sometimes they actually
literally say it.
They literally believe
if you were better educated
and better read,
you wouldn't believe
the Bible.
If you knew more science,
if you knew more art,
if you knew more philosophy,
if you knew more culture,
you wouldn't be a Christian.
What is it that Muslims believe?
Muslims believe
there has never been
a better written book
than the Koran.
There is,
in fact,
one of the proofs
they would use,
so-called,
for the superiority
of the Koran
and why it's God's word
is that it is
the finest example
of human writing
in existence.
I mean,
in the gay culture,
there's often
a conceit
within the gay culture
of its superiority
over straight culture.
there's a common
human problem
of believing
that your group
is somehow smarter,
more creative,
kinder,
better.
It's a human problem.
So,
what is the Bible,
is the Bible
going to help
or hurt this?
Well,
this is where the story
gets very interesting.
So,
go back to reading
the story,
verse 17.
We've already got
this idea of common grace
which is being
illustrated here
because the city
isn't an evil place.
It's a bit of a mixed place
on a human level
but it's not saying
cities are evil.
17.
Cain knew his wife
and she conceived
and bore Enoch.
When he built a city,
he called the name
of the city
after the name
of his son,
Enoch.
Then we have this
genealogy.
To Enoch
was born Irad
and Irad fathered
Mahujael
and Mahujael
fathered Methusheel
and Methusheel
fathered Lamech.
So,
the point here
is this is all
of the line
of Cain,
right?
The guy who
murdered his brother
and is living
quite happily
in wandering
away from God
and this is his line.
These are the people
who are following
in his footsteps,
so to speak,
not only biologically
but in other senses
as well.
And then it comes down
to Lamech
and then in verse 19,
and Lamech took
two wives.
It's very interesting.
The Bible shows
that polygamy,
which is going to show
is basically
always wrong.
This is a bit
of a distinction.
You have to read
the rest of the Bible
to see it,
but polygamy
comes from this line
and polygamy
is a clear sin.
Living in a city
is not a sin.
Polygamy is a sin.
And it comes here
from that line,
but we'll continue on.
And Lamech took
two wives.
The name of one
was Ada
and the name
of the other
was Zillah.
Ada bore Jabal
and he was the father
of those who dwell
in tents
and have livestock.
Just pause.
What this is saying
is a bit,
I mean,
you can sort of get it
in the translation,
but in the original language
it's even clearer.
Civilization rests
on the fact
that farmers
are able to breed
and produce
and figure out
how to grow
lots of grain
and feed animals
and there's surplus.
So in a sense,
it's connecting
the beginning
of prosperity
and the beginning
of what's needed
for civilization
that that comes
out of Cain's line.
And then look
what happens next.
His brother's name
was Jubal
or Jubal.
He was the father
of all those
who played the lyre
and the pipe.
And what this is using
and just a very,
you know,
it's like one of those
really good artists
who can just,
with a couple
of very lines,
just three or four
or five lines
can capture a picture.
And so the significance here,
it's saying that music
and not only music
but poetry
and not only music
and poetry
but therefore
of literature
and basically
of all the arts
that this comes
out of Cain's line
as well.
In a sense,
it's out of Cain's line
that they're the patron
saint of that.
And then look
what happens next
in 22.
Zillah also bore
Tubal Cain.
He was the forger.
That doesn't mean
you make counterfeit money.
It means he's able
to build things,
make things
in a forge
of all instruments
of bronze and iron.
And the sister
of Tubal Cain
was Nama.
And the significance
of the instruments
is that in a sense
it's the beginning
of technology.
It's the beginning
of tools.
It's not just
stone tools
but tools
of bronze and iron.
It's the beginning
of mining,
of metallurgy.
It's the beginning
of technology
and of science.
So isn't this
very interesting?
Cities
come from Cain's line.
Polygamy,
which is clearly
taught throughout
all of the Bible
as being wrong,
comes out of this line.
But the Bible
isn't going to say
that science
and technology
are wrong.
You know,
later on in the Old Testament
when the ark
is being built
and when the first
temple is being built,
God gives special
abilities
to both
a Jewish person
and a non-Jewish person
to build
all of the furnishings
and to bring
all the beauty
into the temple.
And the text
is saying
that prosperity,
which is a good thing,
by the way.
The Bible never says
that prosperity
is a bad thing.
And that's coming
out of this line.
And the Bible
is not going to say
that art and culture
is bad
because, I mean,
who is the greatest
king in Israel?
Who is like
the archetype
and it's from
his descendants
the Messiah
will come
and it's David.
But David wrote songs
and played the lyre.
So the Bible here
isn't saying
that music is bad.
Far from it.
But it's saying
that music,
that culture,
that science,
that technology,
it all comes out
of Cain's line.
In other words,
it would be
as if I said
to my mother,
you know,
the person who invented
a well-made bed
was a Catholic.
Not a Protestant.
Protestants never
dreamed it up.
It's a Catholic idea.
It's very,
very interesting
what the text
does here,
isn't it?
And so here's
the second point.
This is where
we have to start
to get humbled,
right?
So I remember
I began by saying
that there's
a human problem,
right?
You can see it
in secular culture.
You can see it
in, you know,
people who are
in the Trump side
and that whole
political equation
in the States.
You know,
they're the ones
who are going
to make America great.
You know,
you can see it
on the Clinton side.
You know,
the Trumpers
are deplorables.
It's a human problem.
But what we see,
if you could put up
the next point,
that would be great.
Here's what this text
is starting to see.
The Bible is trying
to undermine
this powerful
human problem.
It says,
I've added Jesus
in here
because we're reading
it as Christians.
Belonging to Jesus
does not make me
better than other people.
Belonging to Jesus
does not make me
better than other people.
Belonging to Jesus
doesn't mean I make my bed
better than other people.
Actually,
Louise will tell you
I don't make the bed
at all ever.
That's confession
for later on.
I have to confess that.
And for those of you
who are young,
there used to be a time
when you didn't have
these comforters
that you just threw over beds
and it covered up
all sorts of lack of,
you used to have to actually
make everything tight.
Anyway,
there you go.
That's a separate thing.
But this is what the text
is teaching us
indirectly here,
right?
It's saying that
it's definitely
not the case
that just because
you're a Christian
you're going to be
better at science.
Just because you're a Christian
you're going to be
better at music.
Just because you're a Christian
you're going to be
better at poetry.
Just because you're
a Christian you're going
to be better at
carpentry or better
mechanic.
The Bible's telling us
that in a series
of images here
it's humbling us.
It's telling us
to reject
that very powerful
human drive
and desire to see our tribe as better than all other tribes.
It's doing this very ancient story.
It's undermining this powerful human problem and drive
that causes so much problem, so much prejudice
and everything like that in the world.
But some of you might say,
okay, but George, like shouldn't grace make us better?
Like if you've given your life to Jesus,
if God has reconciled you to himself through the person of his son,
if the Bible is God's word written,
if God gives us the Holy Spirit,
shouldn't grace make us better?
Shouldn't grace just make us better?
Well, in some ways it does, by the way, right?
I mean, it's a very, very common thing that many people,
what helps them in dealing with their addictions or their alcoholism
is in fact the grace of Christ.
What can sometimes be a check on marriage being broken up
is just the call of the Bible and the call of Jesus
to come to him and to take his yoke upon you.
And obviously in sanctification,
there is to be changes in our lives.
But remember this thing about common grace.
Let me tell you this.
All of my prayers, I could fast and pray.
I could memorize the book of Psalms.
And I will not run as fast as Usain Bolt.
Talent matters.
I don't have his ability to have oxygen come into his lungs
and go to his muscles.
I don't have the percentage of fast twitch muscle fibers
that he was just born with.
I don't have the perfect proportion of different parts of his bones
to each other that just allows him to go so gloriously fast.
And I can hardly draw a stick figure.
And I can just tell you, I could pray till the cows come home.
And maybe God, for some reason, would do a miracle
and allow me to be able to paint well.
But you know what?
Why necessarily would he do that?
See, here's the thing about this.
Which is, you see, it's actually a grace of God
that the way our human desire that,
okay, Christians are just going to be better.
We're going to be the better musicians.
We're going to have the best families.
We're going to have the best businesses.
We're going to have the best made beds.
You know, we're going to have the best science
and the best technology.
You know, it's actually part of God's grace
that that doesn't happen to us.
To put up the next point,
because this is what would go on in our hearts.
If godliness leads to my success,
if godliness leads to my success,
I will choose godliness to be successful,
not to be godly.
Now, maybe I'm way more wicked than you,
but that's what would start to happen.
If it really was the case,
as the health and wealth gospel people
fraudulently claim,
that if I could just give 10% of the money
that I make into the church
and I'll become rich,
if that really got out,
Kevin O'Leary would be giving 10%
of his money to the church.
Would he be doing that to become godly?
No way.
He'd be doing it to become rich.
If it really was the fact that praying
would make me as fast as Usain Bolt,
they'd be doing prayers
at the Olympic training camp.
Why?
Because they want to know God?
No, because they want to go faster
and win a gold medal.
Right?
If a hockey team understood
that memorizing the Ten Commandments
would make them win,
they'd all memorize the Ten Commandments.
Why?
Not because they want to know God,
not because they want to be known by God,
not because they want to be right with God,
but because they can triumph themselves.
And so it is that it's a kindness of God to us.
It's a kindness of God to us.
We're going to see why even more in a moment
with this next surprising twist in the story,
that it is not the case
that when you give your life to Jesus
that everything in your life
will now be better than others.
It won't be.
You know the wonderful thing about the gospel?
Everything that happens in your life,
you don't do it alone.
You do it with Jesus.
You do it with your Heavenly Father.
And you do it with your brothers and sisters in Christ.
That's a great, great, great, great, great thing.
I'm going to be going to Angola in July.
You know, we'll talk to you about that in a little bit
to speak to some missionaries in Angola
and to do some teaching to local churches.
And I'll be honest, in my flesh,
I'm chicken when it comes to stuff like that.
And I feel nervous about navigating myself
around different airports in Ethiopia and Namibia
and rural airports in Namibia.
And I, you know what,
especially one of the things that just worries me,
it feels far more comfortable.
I've just had one human being with me.
Because being with others matters, you know.
But we have Jesus, so we can talk about it all too.
But the text goes on, and not only does it then,
the text deals with another human problem
that also affects churches and Christians and non-Christians.
You have to watch the time.
One of the things that, you know, around the city right now,
I'm going to take a risk of offending people,
maybe not people who are here,
but maybe some people who are here.
There's a lot of churches which are closing in the city.
And one of the things which is really interesting
is that these churches that are closing,
some of these churches that are closing,
and some of them choose not to just sell their buildings
for the highest bidder.
Some of them sell them for lower than their highest bidder.
But they sell them to arts groups.
They don't say, you know, there's a powerful move amongst God
for new Canadians coming from Africa.
And there's this really wonderful pastor
who's come from Africa to minister to new Canadians from Africa.
Why don't we give the building to them?
Or there's this powerful move of God
amongst people who've come from China to become Canadians.
And they come here to become Canadians,
but then they become Christians.
There's a powerful move of God.
Why don't we give our building to them?
No.
They want to give the building to an arts group.
They're revealing their idol.
And the fact of the matter is
that many, many, many, many people in our culture
believe that science will solve our problems,
that technology will solve our problems,
that art will solve our problems,
that prosperity will solve our problems,
that better cities will solve our problems,
that better government will solve our problems.
And it's a very, very, very, very, very common idea,
but the Bible is far wiser.
The Bible is far wiser.
Look again at what the Bible does next.
It's very, very, very, very interesting.
Very interesting.
So we've just, if you go to verse 24, 23,
so the city has been invented.
Prosperity is going back to Cain's line.
Art, science, and technology.
And then the father of this,
in verse 23, Lamech said to his wives,
Ada and Zillah, hear my voice.
You wives of Lamech, listen to what I say.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man, literally a lad,
for striking me.
A lad strikes him, he kills him.
A lad strikes Lamech,
and Lamech in anger and rage kills the lad.
Now here's the thing.
If Cain's revenge,
in other words, God says,
I'm going to protect Cain by sevenfold protection,
then Lamech's,
Lamech's is 77-fold.
Next point.
I get this thing from a novel that I read.
Even after science and art and prosperity and civilization,
the lizard part of our brain still thrives unchanged.
It comes from the Jack Reacher novels.
He comes to a point,
and he'll mention how the lizard part of his brain kicks in,
which means he's going to kick butt in a serious way.
And it's a very, very powerful image, isn't it?
And you know what?
University faculties that fight,
women's centers that fight,
mosques that fight,
churches that fight,
nations that fight,
families that fight,
streets that fight,
neighborhoods that fight.
Even after science and art and prosperity and civilization,
the lizard part of our brain still thrives unchanged.
See, it's easy for us to see,
we now have,
we have the beginnings of prosperity,
we have the beginnings of science,
we have the beginnings of technology,
we have the beginnings of art and culture of civilization,
and it all looks very good,
and it's not come out of the line that's going to worship the Lord,
it's come out of the line that is seeing God,
they're quite happy wandering away from God,
and it can look as if,
well, what we need is we need more of this,
this is going to solve our problems,
this is fantastic.
And then the text very subtly has this boast of Lamech
to remind us,
the lizard part of our brain is unchanged.
Is it going to put up the next point, please?
Cities, prosperity, science, and art are great goods.
That's what the Bible is going to teach,
they're great goods.
It's not a virtue to be poor.
It's not a sin to be poor.
People who are poor aren't sinners,
people who are rich aren't virtuous.
It's not saying that.
But cities, prosperity, science, and art are great goods,
but as idols, they always fail.
As idols,
when we put our hope and trust in them,
they always fail.
And you know, the other thing which is so interesting about this
is the way that the story very subtly
plants in our mind this idea of their failure.
So what's going to happen?
Lamech makes this big boast.
Chest-thumping boast.
I'm way more powerful than God.
You fear God, you should fear me way more.
I'm way stronger.
I'm meaner.
I'm harder.
I'm faster.
I'm quicker.
And what's the very...
How does the Bible...
What's God going to do?
Show him he's bigger and tougher.
Send down a lightning bolt.
Kill him.
You know what he does?
It's very simple.
What happens next?
A baby's born.
We all know babies can sure beat big strong guys, right?
A baby's born.
That's the response of God in the text.
A baby's born.
And you know the other response?
Lamech's line disappears.
We go to see the ruins of the Roman Empire.
We don't go to visit the Roman Empire.
We go to see the ruins of the Mayan Empire.
We don't go to visit the Mayan Empire.
Look at verse 25.
And Adam knew his wife again.
And she bore a son and called his name Seth.
For she said, God has appointed for me another seed instead of Abel.
For Cain killed him.
To Seth also a son was born.
And he called his name Enosh.
At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Now, my time is up.
I just, here's the thing.
You could put up the next point, please.
Actually, could you all say this with me?
It's a great text.
But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.
So the text says we have art, we have civilization, we have science, we have prosperity,
we have all of these great goods.
We have cities.
They're great goods.
But God is going to continue.
His common grace is present, but his special grace will come.
The line out of which the one who will slay the serpent and slay sin and death,
God's promise continues in the face of all these goods,
in the face of all this sin, in the face of all this human arrogance,
and all this human pride, God's purpose remains.
He continues to be true to his word.
And he teaches that rather than boasting,
wisdom says that we call on the name of the Lord.
Now, that would have been hard to know what people understood of it
when they first hear this story.
They have to come to Exodus 3 to understand a little bit more about the Lord.
They have to wait until they hear about David to hear more about what the Lord is.
They need to wait until Isaiah and Daniel and Ezekiel to know a little bit more about who this,
the Lord is.
And ultimately, they need to wait until Jesus has come,
who is the promised seed, who does slay the serpent and does slay death and sin
and defeats demons and will bring in the new heaven and the new earth by his death upon the cross.
The Bible says that when Jesus is dying upon the cross,
it is we see before us God's power for salvation for those who receive it by faith and trust in Jesus
and what he has done.
And what this text is very interestingly do is the normal human tendency is,
and most of our boasting is quiet.
But what boasting reveals to us is,
where do we get our identity?
Where do we get our meaning?
What makes us think that we will triumph and survive?
What gives us direction?
Well, it's because I'm cultured.
It's because I'm good looking.
It's because I'm able to control things.
And you know, if you think about it,
it's because I'm able to control things.
Well, that's part of my identity.
That's what's going to give me success.
It's what I put my hope in.
It's what I trust in,
that I can control things,
or that I'm good looking,
or that I'm rich,
or I have this degree,
or I'm a scientist,
or I'm a secularist,
or I'm a Baptist,
or I'm an Anglican,
or something other than God.
And what this text is saying
is that as the gospel grips us,
as we give our lives to Jesus
and the gospel grips us,
one of the purposes of the gospel gripping us
is that we start to no longer believe
that these are the things
that will give us direction and success
and meaning and identity,
but that we are to understand
that what our identity comes from
is God's power given to us
in the death and resurrection of Jesus
to make us right with him,
that nothing will change that,
nothing will shake that from us.
That's to be my ultimate hope.
It's not whether I can have lots of children,
or I can get the job that I want,
or the husband that I want,
or get political power.
Not that these things are bad.
It's not that we should seek them,
but if they become our boast,
if they become the thing that makes us believe
that if that's the sign of success
and the means of success,
if that's the basis of our identity,
it's going to be like Lamech,
and it will fail.
But as the gospel grips us,
and we realize that God
is not only giving common grace,
but saving grace,
that his strong arm has reached down
and reached our tiny failing arm
to put our hope and trust in him
because our idols have failed,
and our idols are consuming us,
and our idols are only making us anxious
or making us arrogant,
and that we can start to understand
that our identity,
our hope,
our trust,
our ground,
our shape comes from being gripped
by the gospel,
by Jesus' death upon the cross,
by who he is and what he's done.
As that becomes our boast,
it doesn't mean that we leave the world,
but we live in the world in a different way.
that the idols that make us
either arrogant or anxious
start to lose their control over us,
and they start to lose their allure to us
as we're gripped by the gospel.
Please stand.
Just before we pray,
could you put that scripture passage up again,
that last point?
Could you just all say this with me one more time?
It's a great text to memorize, by the way.
I encourage you to memorize the Bible,
meditate upon it,
ask God to make it true in your life
and in your heart
that the gospel would grip you
so that your boast,
my boast,
our church's boast
will be in the gospel
and in Jesus
and that that will shape
how we live in the world
and how we do science
and how we do marriage
and how we do family
and how we do relationships.
Can you say this with me one more time?
But far be it from me to boast
except in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ
by which the world
has been crucified to me
and I to the world.
Father, we thank you that,
we thank you, Father,
that you know that we have,
we struggle with idols.
Father, you know that
we don't even struggle with idols.
Father, you know that many of us
have powerful functioning idols
in our lives
that we don't even struggle against.
We just think that's
just the way to be.
And we thank you, Father,
that you don't wait for us
to be perfect,
but you see us and you love us
and you saved us through Jesus
and his death upon the cross
that all who call upon him
to be the Lord,
to call upon the name of the Lord,
to be their Savior,
that you will turn none away.
You will turn none away
who calls upon you today,
right now in this place,
that you turn none away,
that you take them for yourself.
Father, we give you thanks and praise
that you do not weigh our merits,
but you look at Jesus
and look at us
and take us in Jesus
and give us Jesus
and put us in Jesus
and put Jesus in us.
Father, make us disciples of Jesus
who are gripped by the gospel,
who are learning to boast
in the gospel,
in Jesus
and what he has done for us
in the cross.
May that be, Father,
more and more
the source of our identity,
the source of our hope,
the lens by which we see the world,
the lens by which
we understand ourselves,
so that we live,
not, Father,
for our glory
or the glory of our city
or for art or for science,
but for your glory
as we live in a city
and do art
and do science.
And, Father,
we ask all of this
in the name of Jesus
and all God's people said,
Amen.