Genesis chapter 4, verses 17 to 26, here now, the Word of our God. 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. 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, and the name of the other, 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-Kain. He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-Kain was Namah. 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 for striking me. If Cain's revenge is 7-fold, then Lamech's is 77-fold. 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. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever. And so let's ask his blessing upon our study of that word tonight and another brief word of prayer. Gracious God, we do pray as we come to your word that you would help us to understand the significance of what we have just read, that we might be able to set it within the broad history of redemption, which you have worked out in the world. And we pray, Lord, that as we read this text and reflect upon it, that you would lead us to a greater faith in you. And we ask this in your name. Amen. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Are you familiar with those words? If we were to do a Bible drill right now, would you be able to locate those words in your Bible? Those were the words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ to the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 when he requested that his thorn in the flesh, that emblem of his suffering, whatever it may have been, he requested that his thorn in the flesh be taken away from him. And yet when he made that request, Jesus said, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Now that was not the answer that he went looking for, of course, but it was the answer which he received. And so as we read 2 Corinthians chapter 12, what we find is that Paul resolved to be content with his weaknesses, with his insults, with hardships, persecutions, and calamities. Why? Why could he resolve to be content with all of those things, including the thorn which he had tried to pray away? Well, he could do so because he had learned that the Lord was able to use those troubles as a stage upon which to display His vast strength. His power, Jesus says, is made perfect in our weakness. And brothers and sisters, the fact of the matter tonight is that that paradigm was not true for the Apostle Paul alone. Yes, it's true that the Lord used him in a particularly mighty way and he turned Paul's weakness into a tool to bring glory to himself, even down to the present. But the fact of the matter is that when we survey the grand story of the Bible, we find countless occasions when it looks as if God's plans have failed and His people have faltered. And then, from that desperate down and out position, God shows that He was in control all along, working all things together for the accomplishment of His will. And our sermon text this evening is the beginning, at least, of one of those stories. Halfway through the fourth chapter of the Bible, we are already at a desperate down-and-out juncture in history. God, as we've seen in weeks and months past, had created a perfect world, but that perfect world had been quickly corrupted through the sin of His creatures. Those creatures, Adam and Eve, who had been tempted by the serpent. However, rather than scrapping the whole project, God announced, as we saw in Genesis 3.15, His intention to defeat the serpent through an offspring of the woman, who, though bruised and healed, would deal a devastating blow to the serpent's head. Evidently, Adam and Eve would be mercifully spared for a time so that they might have children who would then be used by God to turn back the darkness. And surely, this promise would have been highly prevalent in Adam and Eve's mind as they began to have children. When we studied Genesis 4, 1-16 last week, we were introduced to two of those children, Cain and Abel. Now, as someone helpfully pointed out last week, I misspoke and said there were three characters in the first three chapters of the Bible. There's actually four. But regardless, before long, that number increased to six as Adam and Eve began obeying God's command to be fruitful and multiply. As we saw last week, the birth of those two children was not as hopeful as it may have first seemed, because over time, it became apparent that one of those two children would not live in submission to the Creator. Instead, Cain chooses to serve the serpent, acting as one of his offspring by killing Abel. The hypocrite slaughters the man of faith. And that's the point at which we arrive at this desperate down-and-out place. Adam and Eve, they bear two children in the jubilant hope that one of them might be the offspring, one of them might be the seed who will trample down the head of the serpent. But instead, one of those children decides to ally himself with the serpent and destroy the other. leaving all of humanity in a seemingly hopeless situation. So the question which the story of Cain and Abel raises is how will God bring the seed promised to pass now? Who will defeat the serpent? Who will redeem? In Genesis chapter 4 verses 17 to 26, as we look at our sermon text, it does two things in response to these questions. First of all, it shows just how difficult answering those questions will be. And then it answers them. And as our text answers these questions, here's what we learn. We learn that God demonstrates His power amid human weakness by raising up another seed of the woman to replace Abel, through whom He would sovereignly preserve a remnant of worshippers for himself, leading ultimately to the birth of the seed of the woman who would bruise the head of the serpent. Now I know that's a long sentence and there's a lot in there, so I'm going to say it again because that's important. What do we learn here? We learn that God demonstrates His power amid human weakness by raising up another seed of the woman to replace Abel, through whom He would sovereignly preserve a remnant of worshippers for Himself, leading ultimately to the birth of the seed of the woman who would bruise the head of the serpent. That's the lesson to be learned in our sermon text tonight, and we will learn it by acquainting ourselves with what I'm calling the tale of two seeds. The first being Cain, and the second being Seth. And so for our first point tonight, we come to the first seed, which is Cain, and we can find this in verses 17 to 24. Now at this point in Genesis chapter 4, Cain has already been cursed for killing his brother. He's been sent off to, as we saw, wander the land as a fugitive. He'd been a farmer. He had thrived as he sustained himself on the fruit of the ground, but no more. He's sent off into the wilderness, out of God's presence, into the wild. Yet, as God did with Adam and Eve before, He has mercifully spared Cain's life. He sent him out into exile, but He's allowed him to keep on living. And so, this seed of Satan, which we might call him, I think, appropriately, is permitted to sprout. He is permitted to bear fruit. Verse 1 explains, Cain knew his wife. She conceived and bore Enoch. Now, our text states this matter-of-factly and then moves on. But you should know that this is a favorite verse of amateur Bible critics. It's a favorite verse of amateur Bible critics, and why? Because they'll immediately ask, okay, where did Cain's wife come from? Haven't heard anything about her up to this point in the text. Who is this that he is supposedly marrying and bearing children with? The author, evidently, of Genesis has slipped up and forgotten that there were no women for Cain to take as his wife, right? Wrong. As we have noted before, the Bible takes a selective approach in its record of history. It names and features those who contribute to the development of the story that it wants to tell while freely leaving others unnamed and unmentioned. And we're quickly alerted to this in Genesis chapter 5 when Moses tells us in passing that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters. How many? When? What were their names? Don't know. We're not told. All that we know is that they existed. And so, by necessity, Cain's wife must have been taken from his own family, one of those unnamed descendants of Adam and Eve. And these sorts of close relations had not yet been outlawed by God. They were, at this point, the only choice. And so it is not some grand mystery where Cain might have taken a wife from. When you hear someone bring this up, they've watched too many internet videos, okay? So don't be scared if someone tells you that this defeats all that the Bible has to say. It doesn't. So Cain has a wife. And with this wife, he bears a son named Enoch. And in this way, even though Cain himself is a great sinner, he engages in that task which has been given to Adam and Eve of being fruitful and multiplying. That was the commission they had been given, now he takes it up and he bears Enoch, a man that we're not told much about. And actually, when we hear about Enoch, we learn more about Cain than we do about him because what we learn and what the Bible does tell us about Enoch is that Cain is unrepentant. How does the text relate that information? Well, the text tells us about Enoch that his father founded a city in his name. Now remember, Cain has been cursed to live the life of a vagabond. He's to wander. He's to walk the earth. He is not to settle in one place. He's not to try to live off the ground. But he quickly begins grasping for some sense of permanence by building a city and naming it after his son. So evidently, Cain hasn't learned his lesson yet. And this son goes on to have a son of his own, and thus the initial seed line of Cain becomes a full-blown garden. Cain begets Enoch, who begets Irad, who begets Mahujah El, who begets Methushah El, who begets Lamech. With most of these men named here in our text, we just have to content ourselves with knowing their names. Everything else about them is lost to history. But when we get to the seventh generation of humanity, seven down from Adam, we have Lamech, who the text clearly shows us does leave a legacy. And it is with Lamech that we find confirmation of the fact that the seed line of the serpent lives on in the family of Cain. In fact, it thrives. The great wickedness of Lamech described here in our passage is seen in two regards. First of all, he's a great wicked sinner because he takes two wives, Ada and Zillah. And in doing so, he becomes the first known polygamist in history, though he certainly will not be the last. Here, as elsewhere in the Old Testament, Can note though that we don't find explicit condemnation of this polygamist arrangement. This perhaps troubles those who need everything spelled out. But keep in mind that as this story is narrated, the book of Genesis has already communicated to us the creational design of marriage as it was expressed in the garden. One man, one woman, covenantally bound together for life. That information is assumed when we arrive at Genesis chapter 4. And in addition, Lord willing, as we'll see in the weeks, months, and perhaps years ahead, the book of Genesis will also show us in so many ways the heartache and destruction which follow upon the great sin of polygamy. And so Lamech becomes a polygamist taking two wives to himself and bearing children. And so as we come then to the description of Lamech's family, what we find is that his wife Ada bears Jabal and Jubal, while Zillah bears Tubal, Cain, and Namah. They weren't perhaps the most creative namers in the world. Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal, Cain. And three of these children at least, we don't know much about Nama, we really don't know anything about Nama, but three of these children at least would come to be quite influential in the development of culture, the development of society. Jabal, we're told, he pioneers sort of the nomadic Bedouin lifestyle of living in tents, caring for livestock of all sorts. That's what sets him apart from Abel. Abel was very specifically a keeper of the sheep, whereas now Jabal is expanding the sort of animals under his care. Jubal pioneers the field of music, paving the way for those who play the stringed lyre, who play the The pipe, think something along the lines of a pan flute. If you know what that is, that's probably along the lines of what's envisioned here. And then finally, Tubal Kane makes a name for himself by pioneering metallurgy. He's a metal worker. He's a fabricator, if you want to use some modern language. And he leads the way for those who will shape and form various tools and weapons, as we'll see. And so obviously these sons of Lamech were skilled. They were productive. They accomplished a great many things. And this shows us, I think, by way of a brief facade, that even though they hailed from a wicked and faithless family, these sinful men did contribute to positive developments in society according to the operations of what theologians sometimes call God's common grace in the world. These men may not have been, probably weren't morally good, but they were able to cultivate some good in the civil sphere, in culture, in society, in their day. Industries that are still in existence today got their start among Cain's sons. And practically speaking, I think this ought to be a reminder to us that God sometimes uses the work of the wicked to bless us all. He sometimes uses the work of the wicked to bless us all. He can do that sort of thing. He's a sovereign God. Now outside of Christ, the activities of such folks don't amount to what the New Testament is going to call good works. in the technical sense, but they do sometimes do good work in a non-moral, non-religious sense. And we often fail to recall this principle and appreciate every blessing which God gives to us regardless of where it comes from. So keep that in mind as a practical point that sometimes not-so-great folks can do good things for the world even if those don't qualify as good works in the sense of which we typically think of them. But getting back on track, We observe that the seed line of Cain, for all of the societal progress which it provoked, was still a collection of sinners. And this is seen most clearly when the text now, having discussed those children, backtracks and returns to a discussion of Lamech, whose character is seen most clearly in the song, the poem of verses 23 and 24. Lamech said to his wives, Aidan, 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. We said earlier that Lamech's wickedness could be seen in two regards. And now it is clear as we come to this story that to his polygamy he added murder. We're not given all the gory details. But we do hear in this poetic piece that Lamech has gotten into some sort of physical confrontation with a young man, and in order to repay the wounds inflicted upon him by this other gentleman, Lamech murders him. He slays him. He slaughters him. Perhaps he even used a weapon made by his son Tubal-Cain. The Bible doesn't say. But either way, we know that Lamech, seventh from Adam, was a murderer even more brash, even more bold, even more haughty and arrogant than Cain. Sin has really begun to unleash its effects at this point. Things are snowballing in the wrong direction. Think about it. When Adam sinned, he hid. When Cain hid, he was evasive. And when Lamech sins, he sings. He sings. Thereby subjecting his wives to what some will call the song of the sword. Sworded though it is. Adam hid, Cain was evasive, and Lamech sings. Things are getting worse. And as we see in these lines, Lamech esteems himself so highly that he assures all that any who would try to kill him would be the subject of 77-fold revenge. Now, this alludes back to God's merciful protection of Cain described in the text which precedes this one. God had promised to avenge Cain sevenfold if anyone tried to take Abel's vengeance into their own hand. But now it seems that Lamech is prepared to take all of it into his own hands. He thinks, according to his own words, that he can protect himself ten times better than God could protect Cain. Or maybe he's assuming that God will protect him ten times better than he did Cain. He's insinuating one of these two ideas, whichever one it is, it's wrong. It assumes upon the grace, it presumes upon the grace and mercy of God. It presumes upon Lamech's own power to defend himself from other sinners. And what do we learn from all of this? Well, we learn that Cain's family is dominated by the power of the serpent. Down through the generations, things compound. They get worse rather than better. Sure, God graciously chooses to use some of these folks to produce good things for the world, but sin wins out in their lives and gets the best of them. It comes to define them. If these folks are all there is, then the world is lost. No redemption is forthcoming. The serpent will win the great struggle which has been kicked off at the beginning of the ages. That is the implication of this family history, this family tree of wicked Cain and his wicked children. But praise God, that's not the end of the story, and that's not the end of our text. Because Cain and his children don't get the last word. We come now to the second seed in our tale of two seeds, and that is Seth, who is described in verses 25 and 26. Here we see that Abel does not go down as the only righteous seed of the woman willing to follow the Lord at great cost. So after describing several generations of offspring for Cain, the story returns back to that first generation to Adam and Eve. In verse 25 we read the following. 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." There are a couple things I think we ought to note in this very short description of Seth's birth. First, we should note Seth's name. He's named Seth because the name Seth sounds like the Hebrew word for appoint, to be appointed. And this etymological, word-based naming method is similar to the one used the first time when Cain was born. He had gotten his name Cain because Eve said, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And those two words sounded similar. And the thing to note in connection to these names is that Eve recognizes that God has appointed the birth of Seth as a sort of replacement for Abel who had been killed. Again, she says God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel before Cain killed him. This offspring, this replacement, this new seed has been appointed for this occasion, for this purpose. So the first thing we note is his name and its significance. The second thing we note is the language which Eve uses to describe her son. And this is so significant I think. When Cain had been born, I just quoted a minute ago, what did Eve say? She declared that she had gotten a man with the help of the Lord. But she puts it a bit differently now. Now, in the text, she testifies that God has appointed for her another what? Offspring. Not man. Offspring. And this language of offspring could also be translated seed. Maybe your Bible translation does translate it seed. Offspring, seed. Both of those words, the point is, this is the language contained in the seed promise of Genesis 3.15. Same word. So while it would be impossible to know just how thoroughly Eve had considered the implications of her words, the implications in the narrative are clear. Cain had turned out to be a son of the serpent, set on doing his bit. Consequently, he will not be the seed of the woman who crushed the head of the serpent. But now there's a new seed in town. A new one has been appointed. Is this the one? Will he be the redeemer? Has the one who will bruise, crush, destroy the head of the serpent, has he now come? In the ultimate sense, no. Seth would not be the last man born in a long line of descendants of Adam and Eve. In that sense, he's not the one who would finally crush the serpent's head. But he is, mark this well, he is one of the seed of the woman used in the plan of God to get the story of redemption back on track. Cain and his children, they were of the devil. They were seed of the serpent. But now Seth really is taking Abel's role as the seed, the offspring of the woman who can get things back in order. And this is evident when his family tree is distinguished from that of his brother. Now we'll have to wait until we get to chapter 5 to get the full picture of Seth and his progeny and those who would come behind him, but verse 26 is enough to get the point across. Here's what it says. 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. What we see here is that with the introduction of Seth and his children, true followers of Yahweh, who will carry things into the next generation, are reintroduced to the story. In the days of Seth and Enosh, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. In other words, they began to worship They begin to exhibit faith. They cry out in prayer. They are likely making sacrifice like the late Abel. This doesn't mean that they were sinless. Far from it. But it does mean that this seed line was markedly different from that of the elder brother Cain. Here's how one commentator describes the stark difference between the two. He says this, Cain's firstborn and successors pioneered cities and civilized arts, but Seth's firstborn and successors pioneered worship. The work done by Lamech's sons may have been truly valuable from a cultural perspective, but it was all temporal good. Things which would pass away. Their productions, their work, their developments, they did not have the savor of eternity. And so in the grand scheme of things, all that they did pelled in comparison to the religious development which took place under Seth. As they called upon the name of the Lord, they were contributing to the coming of the kingdom of God, not just to the kingdom of men. What does all of this teach us? Once again, it teaches us that God's power is made perfect in weakness. Already in the Bible and its story, it is abundantly clear that if the seed of the woman is to triumph over the seed of the serpent, it will take an act of Almighty God. In this life, God's people find themselves in desperate down-and-out positions. Godless sinners, on the flip side, often find themselves living the good life in the limelight. But when this occurs, it's not because God has lost control. It is so that God can show his glorious might by causing that which is weak in the eyes of the world to triumph over that which is strong. And in this way, he gets the glory. So when Abel died, it may have seemed as if all was lost. The whole world was bound for hell. But then, God appointed Seth to take Abel's place. And from Seth and his sons, worship of the Lord would spring up again. And when we zoom out, congregation, we see just how significant this appointment would turn out to be. As you may have noticed during our scripture reading earlier, when we read the genealogy of Jesus, as it is found in the book of Luke, the Messiah himself is said to come from the lineage of Seth. When the Lord appointed a new seed to take Abel's place, he was clearing the way for the serpent-crushing seed of the woman to come in the person of Jesus Christ. Like Seth and his sons, Jesus was not characterized in his earthly ministry by his great ingenuity or industry, though he certainly could have been if that's what he so desired. But instead he was known for his devotion His piety. He was committed to doing the will of His Father, even under humiliating conditions. So that through His work on the cross, sinners might be redeemed from the curse of the law and transformed into saints who call upon the name of the Lord. As Jesus was crucified, and thus bruised and healed, He was stepping down upon the head of the serpent. He would then go forth on the third day, having been raised from the dead, so that we might know newness of life in His kingdom, the kingdom which He has been building since the foundation of the world. And it is through faith in Him that we are redeemed and set free from tyranny, tyranny of sin and Satan. And we are set free from this tyranny in Jesus Christ forevermore. So congregation, understand that your God is working all things according to His perfect will. We may not understand why He is doing the things that He is doing in our lives. We may not understand why He is doing the things that He is doing in the world. But even when we find ourselves in a desperate down and out position, this is no indication. It is surely no indication that all is lost. To the contrary, that is often the circumstance that God will use to exalt His power in our lives. So, let me encourage you as we come to a close now. Don't look to your TV or your social media feed to set your expectations for the future. Don't look there to determine what God is doing in the world. Instead look to the scriptures which proclaim abundantly clearly that Jesus wins. He wins. He will get the job done. The son of Seth has bruised the head of the serpent, and he is coming again in glory to consummate his kingdom. So let us together set our hopes on him, regardless of our circumstances. For he will not let the gates of hell prevail against the church. All glory to him. Let's call upon his name together.