In the Beginning: A Bunch of Names (Part 1)

Find this passage and when I'm ready, here's your cue. Okay? We're going to read God's word aloud together and the people of God read the word of God. That's your three, two, one from now on. Okay? We're going to try this out and see if we can make this sound better.

A Modern Cain and Abel Story

Before we do so, a modern Cain and Abel story. In 1919, two brothers in Germany, Adolf Rassler and Rudolf Rassler started a company in their mother's laundry room, which was a shoe company. This company took off slowly, grew to twelve employees, and they finally moved out of mom's laundry room. But they really hit it big in 1936.

The Summer Olympics happened that year in Germany and they got the first what we would consider sports endorsement in history. They got the American track athlete Jesse Owens to wear their brand of shoes—GeDA is the brand. So they got Jesse Owens to run wearing their shoes and this launched their company. In the next year, they sold 200,000 pairs of shoes and things were looking great for the company until World War Two hit.

World War Two hit and Rudolf went to war, Adolf stayed at home. After Rudolf returned from the war, Geida started its operations up again, but it soon dissolved and there was a feud that began in 1948 that split the company in two and the brothers never spoke to one another again.

The thing that sparked this big animosity between the two brothers was an event that supposedly took place in their hometown in 1943. In 1943, the Allied forces were bombing their village and they had an air raid shelter in the back of their house. Rudolf was already there with his family and Adolf comes in with his family. And they overheard this—this is what was purportedly said. Adolf's wife said, "The Schweinhund are back. The pig dogs are back." If you don't speak German, the pig dogs are back.

Now there's a debate as to whether she was referring to the Allied forces or the brother's family. This began a feud that split the family apart and eventually split the company apart. Now these two companies are known today as Puma and Adidas. These are the brands. But that family never reconciled. And to this day, even though those are corporately owned and publicly traded companies, those families have never reconciled with one another. A modern Cain and Abel story. We can find these all over the place.

The Genesis Account

Last week, we read from Genesis chapter four, the story of the first murder. The story of the first family like the Rasslers that split in two with anger between two brothers. And today, as we're picking up this passage, we're going to read again from Genesis chapter four. We're sort of reading the rest of the story.

And the people of God read the word of God.

Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he called the name of the city after his son Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, the name of the other was Zillah. Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah also bore Tubal Cain. He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal Cain was Naamah. Lamech said to his wives, Adah 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 for striking me. If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold. 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 offspring 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. — Genesis 4:17-26

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. — Isaiah 40:8

The Importance of Genealogy

You know, today we may be picking up what for you is one of the most boring parts of Scripture—the begats. The genealogy. One of my roommates in college, Greg, was into genealogy and I always thought that was weird. I thought it was really weird. At my place in college, I wanted to think about the present and the future. The last thing I wanted to think about was the past. I thought that was incredibly boring.

And so I know what you do with genealogies is what most people probably do when you come to these kind of passages in Scripture. You skim it, maybe, or you skip it. Skim or skip, that's our options. You know, who likes the begats? Well, the Israelites, that's who.

What's funny is the boring parts of the Bible for us are the parts that the Hebrew people would have poured over. This was riveting material to them. And so I know you think I'm crazy.

I'm spending the next two weeks going through Genesis 4 and Genesis 5 because they have something to show us of the character of God. They're in our Bible for a reason.

Now, a couple of observations about this passage right off the bat. When you read this, you have to come to the Bible with questions. If you're not dealing with questions at this point, you're not paying attention. Questions like this: Well, where did Cain's wife come from? Anybody ever wondered about that one?

What about this? How do we go from one man and one woman to suddenly lots of people? For example, Cain kills Abel in the field, which sort of implies there's a town somewhere. What do we do with this understanding that there are other civilizations that seem to appear quickly in the Old Testament? Where did these people come from?

Well, one scholar puts it this way. He says what's really hard for us modern readers to see would have been obvious to ancient readers: The Bible is aware of a larger human history, but chooses not to comment on it. Like so many parts of Scripture, the writer of Genesis—Moses here—sort of tips his hat like, "I know that's going on, but we ain't talking about that right now. We're talking about this."

The book of Genesis is not a book explaining everything like an encyclopedia, all the parts of how everything began. Rather, it's telling a specific story—the story that God wants to tell about His relationship with people. This is not an origin story of everything. It's God's story. It's the story God wants to tell us. And so I don't skip the genealogies. This stuff is rich. I don't want you to miss out on the goodies of the genealogies.

The Line of Cain

Today we're going to look at this story of Cain and his family. And to be honest, it reads like a dumpster fire. This is the dumpster fire line of Cain. Cain is not a good guy. We read about his family. These are not good people. We'll contrast this next week between the family line of Cain and next week, the family line of Seth.

But I want to point out a couple of things. Notice Lamech here. He's kind of highlighted for us. If you want to know especially a not-a-good guy? Let's talk about Lamech for a moment. He is the first polygamist in the Bible. He has two wives. And this is clearly against the teaching already in the Bible of monogamy in Genesis 2:

A man will leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, not his wives.

Lamech is already like, "I'm doing my own thing." And we also find out Lamech is a murderer. He kills a man for striking him. He's repeating the sin of his forefather Cain. He's just doing the same thing. And he even kind of takes God's name in vain, like, "If God is going to protect Cain seven times, then 77 times for me."

The Line of Seth

At the end of this passage, we're pointed to a different line. It begins:

Adam knew his wife Eve and had another son named Seth.

And there's a little parenthesis here in verse 26 that says this: they called upon the name of the Lord. Now that in the Old Testament, especially in the book of Genesis, is used four times in Genesis to really highlight public worship—a group of people whose hearts are turned toward God.

Cain and his dumpster fire line turned away from God. There's a contrast being set up between these two things. But isn't this curious? Don't you think it's curious that this is in our Bible? Why would God want to tell this story? Why would God record for us this story of the dumpster fire line of Cain?

Here's what I think this passage shows us: it shows us how God thinks and relates to an unbelieving world and how we are called to relate to unbelievers and an unbelieving world. This is a really important passage. Let's walk through it together.

Human Progress Without God

So as much as this is a story about people who turned away from God, it's also a story about human progress. Did you notice this?

Look here. Cain builds a city. Jabal—by the way, if you're looking for baby names, this passage has not been used very much. Jabal is the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. Jubal is the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Tubal-Cain is the forger of instruments of bronze and iron.

Now what's interesting about this is that all this is recorded for us without comment from God. God doesn't seem to give us a thumbs up or thumbs down on what's happening in all these situations. I've read commentaries. I've listened to other pastors—which there are very few people who preach on this. They skip this one for obvious reasons. And here's kind of what people do with this. They say things like this: "Well, progress without God isn't progress."

Man, that sounds like a good sermon right there. But unfortunately, that's not what this passage says. One of the temptations we have in reading the Bible is to read what we think it's going to say and assume we know what it's saying instead of what it actually says. God doesn't say shame, shame, shame. Progress without God isn't proper. Nothing like that in this passage. Rather, all this is just reported for us, straight. And I think that's remarkable. There's a summary statement of condemnation, but there's nothing—Tubal Cain wasn't saying, you know, stop doing that. This is just given to us.

Why? Because these people, even as unbelievers, are fulfilling the creation mandate. Now some of you are like, "Creation what?" The creation mandate. Let me remind you back from Genesis chapter one. When God creates people, he gives them the blueprint—the job description. Here's what you're gonna do. And God says five things: be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion. This is what a lot of Bible readers call the creation mandate. It just means this is what you and I are designed to do. God created us to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion. In other words, when God designed us, he made us for a certain kind of work. You and I were made to be co-creators, gardeners.

I want you to think about this. I love gardening. For years, my family lived in Downtown Philadelphia, which meant concrete in front of the house, concrete behind the house, and our house joined both neighbors' houses. All the houses bunched up together. Trick or treating was very efficient in Philadelphia, but there was no dirt. When we came here almost eleven years ago, Susan and I discovered we love gardening. It's not just the outcome of gardening—vegetables and flowers. We actually love the process itself. Gardening is about nurturing. It's about stewarding. Anybody who gardens knows you can't make anything grow. You prepare the soil, you tend the plants, you pull the weeds, you do all the things, and the plants grow. There's something about that. And that's a great metaphor for how God has made you and me. Whatever soil God has put you in—your line of work, your studies, the place that God has planted you for now—is a place for you to steward and tend and develop.

So it's significant for us to listen to this and realize God doesn't condemn the list of unbelievers in this passage. He doesn't say, "Cain, Jubal, Tubal Cain, since you don't worship with me, your work is worthless." He doesn't say that. God doesn't say that. But here's what I find: Christians often do. Christians often are confused, and it's confusing. Let me give you some examples about this. I'll give you a high-brow one and a low-brow one.

First, the high-brow one: Amadeus Mozart and his rival competitor Salieri. This is captured in a movie about him. Salieri is a believer, and he watches the rise of this incredibly talented young man named Amadeus Mozart, who's got these incredible musical gifts but is kind of a morally reprehensible person. The movie captures him saying, "God, how can you do this? How can you do this?" He sees this as a failure of divine justice. Maybe you're not into classical composers. Let's try a different lesson: Tim Tebow and Tom Brady. We got Tim Tebow, a devout believer, and yet Tom Brady is the one whose character is pretty questionable, but man, that guy can win some games. Why is that?

Let's try another one. In our day, Christians often live and work and think about life in a sort of subculture. We go, "We want a Christian doctor. We want a Christian dentist. We want a Christian lawyer." We sort of think, "We need to promote Christian businesses because they have the same beliefs that we do." That's sort of a "progress without God isn't progress" mentality.

What about this one? Have you ever noticed—and this is hard. Are you ready? Have you ever noticed the unbelievers are nicer a lot of times than Christians? That they're sometimes more moral, more wise, better at the things that they do? I mean, don't you kind of scratch your head and go, "Well, how does that work?" Cain and his family line are obviously, like I've been saying, a dumpster fire of sin. And yet the sinful family line, in some degree, is still fulfilling the creation mandate. This is entirely unexpected. So what's going on here?

Well, two dynamics I want to point out to you. First one's this: cells and cooking. Cells, like in your body, and cooking. Think about how cells work.

Cells can be healthy and self-replicating, or cells can be turned against the health of the body and we call that cancer. There's a structure to the cells, but there's a direction. It can either be moved in a good way for the health of the body or a bad way.

Think about cooking, especially my cooking. You combine all the ingredients in a pot. If you put in the right amount of ingredients, man, something delicious. If you oversalt something—I have a history of this—it's inedible. You can't eat it. So there's a structure and there's a direction.

This is true throughout creation. This is true throughout the way God has designed the world. There are structure and direction. Some examples of this: strength can be used in this passage to plow the ground or to kill your brother. Email can be used to encourage a friend or send a death threat. Sex can be used to glue in a marriage that expresses intimacy between two partners, or it can be used in pornographic destructive ways.

God has designed this world with structures that can be moved toward Him or directed away from Him. The creation, though God made it good, is shot through with cancerous tendencies, and it can be moved in that direction. This is why some of you grew up in more fundamentalist churches or cultures or time periods, and you know this: the fundamentalist impulse is to make objects the bad thing. Playing cards is the bad thing. Dancing is the bad thing. Alcohol is the bad thing. No. Those are all good things. They can be turned and used toward or away from. They can be healthy or destructive.

Common Grace

The second dynamic of this passage is an aspect of God's kindness that theologians call common grace. This is a little bit weird, so I need you to hang in and listen real close. Common grace is different from God's saving grace on the cross.

God's saving grace on the cross—let me describe this in the life of a believer—is like a lightning bolt. It comes down on your life, and you are transformed. You are made alive again by Christ. The death and resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Spirit's work in your life—lightning bolt. Common grace is more like a salt shaker. God shaking out His goodness and kindness on this world. Saving grace, we could call it uncommon grace. Not everybody lays hold of saving grace, do they? There are lots of people who do not. But common grace is something God sprinkles on the life of every person who lives on the planet. It's general. It's for everyone, and it works out in several ways.

Common grace is on display here big time. This is what I want you to see. Because even though Genesis 4 looks like a massive train wreck, it highlights for us God's kindness in the life of unbelievers.

God's favorable attitude—common grace—is His attitude toward all creatures, not just toward believers. Psalm 145 says it this way:

The Lord is good to all. He has compassion on all he has made.

Jesus says God causes the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. Paul and Barnabas would later say the same thing:

God has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons. He provides you with food and fills your hearts with joy.

He's saying like, that's a salt shaker over all the planet. God is that kind, that compassionate. Every breath that wicked humans take—think Lamech in this passage—is a gift from God. It's an example of the kindness of God. He's just generally that kind, that compassionate.

Second, God's common grace isn't just His kindness, but it's also His restraint. God restraining sin in the life of individuals and societies. This is evident in this passage, and we're going to see this in a lot of places in the Bible. God keeps things from being as bad as they could be.

I know it's hard to believe. Some of you are like, this is a dark and hard world we live in. But notice in this passage, Cain wants nothing to do with the worship of God. And yet, God says to him:

If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.

This is in verse 15 and 16. We read this from last week:

The Lord put a mark on Cain lest any who found him should attack him.

Then Cain went away from the presence of God. Cain's like, I reject you, even though you're being kind to me, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. And I'm reading that going like, man, what a jerk Cain is. He shows himself over and over again to be a jerk, and yet God is restraining things from being as bad as they could be. God actively restrains evil in Cain's life. Why? Common grace.

And third, common grace means that God, without renewing the heart of the unbeliever, still exercises such goodness in the world that even unsaved humans are able to do good things.

This passage shows us that God is still at work even through unbelieving people. Isn't that amazing? The people outside are hanging in with me while y'all inside are staying warm. Isn't that amazing? But common grace will only get you so far.

Every person on this planet is operating, borrowing and stealing things from God and shaking their fist in the face of God. Romans 1 tells us that every person has enough knowledge of who God is just by observing the created world—like a beautiful crisp fall day like today that screams, "God is good"—and yet suppresses that truth. It's interesting. The Bible says we have enough information about God to know that he's real, but the universal condition of the human heart is to push that down. Like pushing a beach ball underwater—you can keep doing it, but it's going to pop up. It's going to come back up to the surface. So also this universal knowledge of God. People do have enough information, but they don't want to believe it. They don't want that to be true.

The glory of God is said to fill the whole earth. John Calvin called this a "sense of the divine," which is in everything. Paul says this is why people suppress the truth. This means that much of what non-Christians say about God, we would say they both know and don't know. I know it, but I don't want to know it.

Leonard Bernstein and the Whispers of the Divine

Let me give you an example. There was a twentieth century composer named Leonard Bernstein. He was an amazing composer but also an atheist. During a TV interview, he was remarking on the power of music in his life, talking about Beethoven. He said, "You listen to Beethoven. It makes you feel at the finish that something is right in the world. There's something that checks throughout that follows its own law consistently, something that we can trust that will never let us down."

Now, of course, what he's talking about and isn't even able to put his head all the way around is that he's talking about the God of the universe. This is who God is. There's something about an incredible piece of music that's like hearing whispers. I hear whispers of the divine. I'm in touch with some kind of transcendence that doesn't add up in my mathematical atheistic formula of the world.

If you're not a Christian, you may be a better person than most of us in this room. You may be smarter, you may be more accomplished than all kinds of people around you, especially Christians. And yet you live in God's world. This is one of the things we need to tell our kids over and over again. You live in God's world. You breathe God's air. The gifts that God has sprinkled upon your life have been given for you to garden with, to steward for God. You may be making all kinds of progress for humanity. And yet you have a soul that was made by God and for God. I want you to consider where you stand with God this morning.

Listen to Bernstein. Whispers of the divine—they are everywhere. God is whispering throughout this whole world of His presence and His power. The universe shouts His name. While you may have great success, the question is: which storyline are you living out of? Are you living out of the storyline of Cain or the storyline of Seth? The storyline where your soul belongs to a God and you begin to call upon the name of the Lord, or are you running away? Do you want nothing to do with God?

Here's my call: find meaning and purpose in Him. He is your source. He's the purpose. He's the end. He is the meaning. He will save you from your sin and from yourself.

Common Grace and the Christian Life

For you who are Christians, I want you to understand how helpful this passage is for us and how humbling it is. It helps us to live in a world surrounded by people who don't know and acknowledge God. Without an understanding of common grace, you're going to be really confused. But let's think about this.

Remember Tim Tebow and Tom Brady. Remember Salieri and Mozart. It's easy to be confused. How could God give such amazing gifts to people who have nothing to do with Him and don't want anything to do with Him? If you think that, that's a failure to understand common grace—God's goodness, His kindness. You can watch a Tim Tebow or a Tom Brady game and say, "Look at that. That guy doesn't love Jesus, but man, that talent shows off God's kindness."

Without an understanding of common grace, the world's going to be really confusing. It may seem like God gives skills to people who are completely unmerited. And yet far from that being unfair, what it shows us is that God has made this world far more rich in this life than we deserve it to be. This life is filled with good and beautiful things.

Remember my example of Christians only going to Christian lawyers and dentists and doctors. Of course, we know that any person who is not turned toward God is turned away from God. Jesus said, you're either for me or you're against me. But the fact remains that God has put gifts in the world to give even to his people through unbelievers. So there may be some really great business people out there, whose business services you can benefit from, that don't know Jesus. Receive those as gifts. That's God's kindness.

Without understanding common grace, Christians will tend to feel like we don't need to study the world or its cultures or listen to other voices. We only want to listen to Christian voices. Well, the reality is all truth is God's truth. God has put places that don't tell the capital T truth about God, but tell small t truths about this world all over the place. We need to be curious. We need to be teachable, willing to learn from other cultures. This culture doesn't have the corner of the market on what it means to be human. There are other cultures that show forth different aspects of how God has made the world and his goodness.

Without an understanding of common grace, Christians will also have trouble understanding why non-Christians are sometimes nicer and better. Why they're more wise or more moral, more kind, more upright, more truthful than Christians. But even this reminds us of the gospel. In our pastoral prayer this morning, Fritz referred to First Corinthians. At the end of First Corinthians, we read these words:

God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being may boast in his presence. — 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

This reminds us of the gospel. Common grace reminds me of the gospel that God didn't call you to himself on the basis of your merit, but in spite of your sin. God didn't call you to himself on the basis of your morality, but in spite of your immorality. God didn't call you to himself because you were smart enough to understand the gospel, but in spite the fact that you had a hard heart like me. God didn't call you to himself based on your goodness, but actually in spite of your arrogant pride about your supposed goodness. God didn't call you to himself because you're righteous. God called you despite yourself, despite the fact that you are self-righteous. Amen?

These are so great. When I understand common grace, it makes me more humble and more filled with joy and wonder and awe. Christians who rightly understand this, who've really taken all that transactional Christianity—I earn it, God gives it—and we've dumped it all in the dumpster. What's left over is shock and awe, wonder, and laughter. God loves me like this? Uncommon grace. Lightning bolt salvation? Praise the Lord. Amen.

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Father, we thank you that your word tells us over and over again of your character. We're so quick to forget what you're like. We live in a world where a meritocracy is what everybody thinks. Lord, it's so hard for us in our thinking to be totally converted to the fact that you are just unbelievably kind, that you don't treat us on the basis of our merit or our unmerit, but on the basis of Jesus.

Father, I pray that you would make us to be a people who are most of all hopeful and humble. Hopeful for the salvation of our family members and friends, and also humble because we've done nothing that gives us a right to be here with you and be at the table with you and celebrate the goodness of Christ for us. Lord, we praise you. We honor you. We pray, Father, you'd fill our hearts with wonder and joy and humility and boldness. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.