People are non-religious. Let me repeat the question. The survey question was, is it a good thing that increasingly people are becoming non-religious? Is that good? Is it good that fewer people are religious? Well, in 2010, 25% of people that were asked that question said that it is a good thing that fewer people are religious. In 2020, 10 years later, four years ago, the percentage increased from 25% to 47% of people believe that it is a positive thing that people are less religious because religion, according to these people, is bad for society. It's a bad thing. Well, it's interesting that I found that survey this week because Genesis 4, is going to begin to show us what a society looks like apart from God. What happens, and by the way, by religious, they were not specifying any particular religion, but we know as believers in Christ that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, that Jesus is the only way to heaven. We also would accept that God has given to us commandments that we are expected to obey and follow. And what happens in Genesis 4 and then into Genesis 5 is you have humanity beginning to branch in one of two ways. Today, we're going to look at branch number one. Next week, we'll look at branch number two. But when we look at branch number one, we are going to see very clearly what happens when a society ignores God and tries to live in and of itself. Now, I know what happens to most genealogies. You're reading along in the Bible, and you come to a genealogy, and you see the word begat, and you think that means skip. Okay, it doesn't mean skip, okay? But it's very tempting to just skip over these genealogies, but we're not gonna do that. As I said last week, we're gonna look at every name, and we're gonna pick them apart. We won't do that, I promise. My lofty goal was to do four and five today, and that was from Delusionville. We're not gonna do that. But we are going to look at branch number one, and let's read it together. Genesis four, look at verse seven. Cain knew his wife. If you're not familiar with Cain, we studied him last week. We'll rehearse his life briefly. Well, not briefly. We'll rehearse his life again in a moment. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. Now, I want to just say this here. There's two Enochs. Okay, there's two. This one, Thumbs down, okay? We'll get to the good guy, but he's not yet, okay? This is Enoch, the son of Cain. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after his son, Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Meheual, and Meheual fathered Methuselah, and Methuselah fathered Lamech. And Lamech took two wives. The name of one was Ada, and the name of the other was Zillah. Ada bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and pipe. Zillah also bore Tubal-Cain. He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. His sister, the sister of Tubal-Cain, was Nahumah. The only, by the way, daughter mentioned, which is interesting. Lamech, in this text, 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 sevenfold, then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold. Let's pray together and let's take a look at this genealogy and learn what God says happens when a culture turns its back on God. Let's pray. Father, we are grateful for your word. And as we turn now our attention to scripture, Lord, I pray that we would be reminded of the truths that we find here in these verses. And God, I pray that you would guard each and every one of our hearts. that we would not fall prey to some of what we see in this genealogy. Lord, we ask now your blessing on our time around your scripture today, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Now, I don't know what jumped out at you when we read through this genealogy, other than some strange names, a couple of them are a little difficult to say, but it makes you wonder, why are these genealogies there? What is the purpose? I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this, but I'm gonna give you just three quick ones before we jump into the text. First, they remind us that we are reading about real people. that lived in real places, that were raising family in real circumstances within a particular timeline. Okay? This isn't, as we belabored this in Genesis, this isn't fiction. Okay? This is history. Second, they follow the lineage of people so we can see the faithfulness of God. particularly when it comes to the promises that we'll get to in due course of time, particularly regarding the promises of the coming Messiah. They piece those together. How do we go from Adam and how do we get to Jesus? Third, they remind us, maybe in a sense that we need to think about from time to time, they remind us that everyone who lives has a fixed time to be born and a time to die. We'll talk more about that next week. Ecclesiastes 3 verses 1 and 12 say, for everything there is a season and a time for everything under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die. We'll talk more about why did people live so long. We'll get into that more next week. But we're going to start today with the line of Cain. And as I was reading through it, I hope a couple of comments, a couple of descriptions jumped out at you. Well, let's take a look at some of these names. We're gonna follow some of the people. We won't do every name, but let's look at some of the people that are involved in what I call the ungodly line of Cain. First, let's start with Cain himself. We are introduced back to him in verse 17. Those of you that were not here, maybe you're not quite familiar with Cain, but Cain is famous, infamous, I should say, for murdering his brother. We don't know how he killed him, but most likely it was a very brutal, very bloody murder. Whether he strangled him or beat him to death, we don't know. But what we do know is he murdered his brother in cold blood. And now we see, remember that God gave him a promise. He said that he would protect him because Cain was worried, as Cain often was very self-centered in his thinking, he was worried that somebody was going to retaliate against him and that he was going to be murdered for murdering Abel. But God says, I will put a mark on you and I will protect you. And God does that. We see that God protects Cain. Notice what he's doing in verse 17. He knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. He is living a life. He is working. He's living his daily life. He is married. He is having children. In fact, as we'll get down the line a little bit farther, God uses the line of Cain in some pretty remarkable ways. And we'll highlight those when we get to them. But even in God's grace, God's promise to protect him, Cain is given a life. He is living life. He's flourishing to some degree. And then we notice this. We find that he is a person who built a city. And remember what Cain means. His word means, here he is. Eve likely named him, here he is, believing that he was the Redeemer. He was the one that was going to fulfill the promise that God gave to Satan in the garden, that there was going to come a one that was going to crush his head. And Eve believed that this was him, named him, here is he. And yet, he's not, clearly, and God commanded him to wander the world, wander the known earth at that time, and he is wandering around, and he comes to the place that he begins to build a city. This man that was once a farmer is now building a city, and he names it after his son. Enoch. Now, I don't know if it was Enochville or Enochsburg. I don't know. But he named him after Enoch, which is rather interesting in that a lot of people through time, when they would name a city, they would name it after God. There's no thought of that. When Cain names this, he names it after his son. Now, it begs a question, though. What's Cain doing building a city? because he was supposed to be a wanderer. He wasn't supposed to be settling down into a city. Well, there's a couple of answers to this. I can't give you a dogmatic answer, but let me give you two that I think are possible answers, and I'll tell you which one I think most fits, but I may or may not be correct about that. One, it may be an outright act of defiance. Which given Cain's history, what we know about him, that's quite possible. I know you told me to wander around, but I'm going to build a city. I'm not going to do that. The second one I lean toward, and that is the building of the city is Cain's attempt for self-preservation. He's been selfish this whole time. He's wallowed in self-pity. We saw that last week. And I would say what he's wallowing in here is self-protection. He didn't believe that God would protect him. Now, what we do know, I don't know the exact reason, we do know is that he begins to build this city, this civilization, and his wife, who's unnamed, is obviously part of this, and likely, by the way, she would have been one of his sisters. Understanding that at that time, Adam and Eve had multiple children and they were marrying one another. And we'll talk more about this next week, but understanding at that point, the genetic nature of humanity was not as fallen, if you will, as it is now. There was not the genetic fears at that time. And the other side of it is there was no one else available. They were all related and marrying later on in Leviticus 18, that practice is going to be forbidden. But here, he is marrying, and they are participating in this, and he starts to build a city. Now, cities are interesting. I like cities. I like New York City. I like Philadelphia. I like D.C., France. France is not a city. I like Paris, okay? I like big cities. When Michelle and I were coming out of college, I said, let's live a year in Manhattan. Let's do it. And she's like, Oh, for my New Englanders, I love Boston too, don't worry. She's like, no way. No, no, no, no, no, no. She talked me out of it. I mostly am thankful for that. But I love visiting them. But think about cities for a moment. Whenever more people get into the same place, really positive things generally happen, right? You take a collection of sinners And you congregate them in one place. And what you generally get is every sin that you can imagine to an even greater and greater degree. And so cities, even within the Old Testament, if I say names like Sodom and Gomorrah, what's your impression of that city? What's your impression of Babylon, Tyre, Nineveh, Rome, Corinth? The cities, when they were congregating together, aligning themselves, typically what happens is the trajectory is not a positive one. Sin becomes more available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But we also know, interestingly enough, the New Testament is primarily written to cities, people living in cities. God didn't send the apostles to farms. He sent them to cities. Why? Well, you reach the city, you reach the people. And there's a saying, you probably have heard it, but the closer you get to a coast, the closer you get to a city, the closer you get to a college campus, the more likely it is that there is much a philosophy that stands against eternal truth. Now, that's a generalization, but it is often true. Well, it is interesting that Cain here is building this city. Now, cities aren't all bad. There are things that come out of cities that are very positive. They are very helpful. In fact, we're going to look at a few of these as people are beginning to organize in this city. They are growing this place. There are some very good developments that come out of this, and we'll look at those in due time. So, Kane, we see here he's building a city. He's living a life. And now let's jump to another name that we want to look at. And that is the name Lamech. There's a couple of those too. Notice Lamech here. And Lamech took two wives. That should jump off the page at you. For the very first time in human history, a man says that one wife is not sufficient and he marries two. He is violating directly God's commandment of one man and one woman for one lifetime, and this person, Lamech, is the one who is the first person to begin the sin of polygamy. Now he's dissatisfied with what God had given to him, that one person was not enough for him, and so he marries two women. Romans 1 verse 30, the apostle Paul talks about culture and people within it as inventors of evil. In a sense, Lamech is the inventor of bigamy. A clear, direct violation of God's Word and Scripture. Now, I know what some of you are thinking, but Jay, there's a lot of polygamy in the Old Testament. In fact, the leader, Abraham, others, I mean, there were many of the patriarchs that were polygamous. You're right. That is true. But let me ask you a question. Well, let me make a statement, then a question. There are times that Scripture simply records what happened without a statement about it being right or wrong. There's no statement here to say that Lamech marrying a second wife, God doesn't interject into the text and say, this was evil. We know it's evil because God said it was wrong. He said it was never his intention. So yes, the patriarchs, many of them did, in fact, get involved in polygamy. Now let me ask you my question. How much good came out of that? How much good came out of the polygamy that was practiced in the Old Testament? In fact, I would suggest to you for time, I won't read it. You can read it later. Deuteronomy chapter 21 verses 15 through 17 assumes that polygamy is a road to family destruction. And so when we think about, well, God allowed this to happen, but the assumption on Deuteronomy 21, when Moses is writing that, that this was a pathway that was going to destroy families. And when you read through the book of Genesis, you see the domestic struggles that polygamy and such produced, that it was inevitably going to be destructive. Now, lest we muddle that in our minds, the New Testament, Jesus himself is profoundly clear. Marriage is supposed to be limited to one man and one woman for one lifetime. That it was never something that God approved of, never something that God certainly never promoted. So, we'll get back to Lamech in just a minute. He comes up again. But let's look at another name. Verse 20, look at the name Jabal. Verse number 20, notice, Ada bore Jabal. This is one of Lamech's wives, Ada, bears Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. Now, this is an interesting person. Here's one of the positive developments that comes out of Cain's life. That now, you know, that this isn't, he's not the first person to take, Jabal's not the first person to take care of animals. We know that Abel did that, but livestock here is a broader term, and it's talking about a farming community, if you will, that was likely near the city that begins to produce food for the people that live there. So for the first time, part of the positive development of a city was the production of food, the production of clothing, and a more mass production of animals for the people to eat, for them to live, for the city to grow. Now, I should mention the word city in Hebrew can refer to any size of town. New York City, big city. Wilmington is a city too, but it's not nearly the city that New York is. The word, we don't know exactly how big this city was, but what we do know is it's laying the infrastructure in order to sustain groups of people gathering together in one place. And so Jabal becomes a person that lives in tents, growing animals, providing food, providing even clothing that they will certainly need. Verse 21, we meet the next verse, his brother Jubal. Verse 21, his brother's name was Jubal, and he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Now, this is very interesting development too. We see the development of human art. You see the development of music, that they are making, producing musical instruments. Those who play the lyre and pipe, 1 Samuel 16.23, David took the lyre and played it. with his hands so that Saul was refreshed and was well. Instruments created here by even ungodly people were used for godly purposes within the context of worship. So you have a congregation of cities being developed. You have food in a more mass production, not on our scale, but a more mass production of food. But you also now have the city developing the arts. And like any other technology, any other technology, like a road, any art can be used for righteousness sake or it can be used for sinfulness. You can use a car to deliver goods and you can use a road to get to work or you can use a road to move drugs and people around in an illegal way. So, technology, not sinful, bad, or wrong, but how it's used is greatly determined. You see the development of the arts along the same way. Now, let's look at another guy before we get back to Lamech, and that's verse 22. Zila, so if you're keeping score, this is Lamech's other wife now, giving birth to Tubal-Cain, also bore Tubal-Cain. He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah. We don't know much about her, but she's the only, as I mentioned, daughter that is mentioned in this account. But notice Tubal-Cain. Woo, how would you like to name your son Cain? Don't meet a lot of Jezebels. You certainly don't meet a whole lot of people named Cain either. But he's an interesting character. He was a forger, meaning a hammer, to use a hammer or to sharpen. Metals, metallurgy. You have the development now of weapons, probably, but you also have the development of agriculture. You have rakes, hoes, I don't know what they were exactly, but gardening tools that they could farm, that they could use, and Tubal Cain was a person that was very much involved in creating that. There's all kinds of debate, probably, I won't bore you with all the details. There's a lot of debate about what the word forger means. that the idea of smelting probably wasn't yet what he was doing. But regardless of that, he was fashioning metal for the purpose of farming, for the purpose of weapons, for protection. And again, all technology can be used for positive and or negative, which leads me back to Lamech. Notice what happens here. He's quite the performer. He's a singer and a poet. and he's gonna write a poem. It's a very barbaric poem. The way I picture Lamech, I'll keep this mild, is no shirt on, burly man, and just belting this with his arrogance and his condescension and his ridiculousness. That's how I picture this guy. And listen to what he's singing about. Listen to his great work of poetry. And wait, first of all, notice the audience. He writes it to his wives. Not only is it humiliating enough to be married to this guy, number two, he's going to humiliate them even further by writing and singing this ridiculous song, this poem. Notice what he says. Ada and Zilla, hear my voice. You wives of Lamech, listen to what I say. I have killed a man for wronging me. You think Cain was messed up. Now we're at the place, by the way, is the first murder that happens outside of the garden. Cain murdered Abel for absolutely no reason. No reason at all. It was God that rejected Cain's offering, not Abel. Abel had done nothing to him, and yet Cain murders him. Lamech here says, yeah, I killed somebody because they wounded me. Now, there's all kinds of discussion about this, too. Was this a physical wound? Or was it just an insult, a verbal insult? The word can kind of go either way. Regardless of what happened, let's point out the obvious. Lamech is alive to tell the story. Whatever this wound was in comparison to what Lamech is going to do, they don't compare. Remember later in the scripture when you get to the principle of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, that it has to be proportionate. Regardless of what happened to Lamech, it did not remotely deserve for Lamech to respond by killing this guy. Not only do you have now the first murder outside of the Garden of Eden, or not the first murder after Cain rather, not only do you have the first murder since then, you now find that this murder was for something in comparison that was insignificant. And unless we think too highly of ourselves, let me remind you that Jesus in the New Testament says, if you become angry with another person in your heart, you have already committed murder in your heart. So how often do we get ridiculously angry over the slightest slights that come our way? But notice Lamech's not finished. I have killed a man for wounding me. Debate about this too, but I think the second one is a second person that he's talking about, a young man for striking me. In other words, I would kill even a small child. Yeah, I killed him and I'll kill you too. Please don't edit that, put that online. That's going to make me sound like a terrible person. That I would kill a small child if he offended me. You better watch yourself because you think Cain was bad. Look at me. I'm better. I'm tougher. I'm even more angry. I'm even more resentful. I'm even more murderous. Now watch his arrogance grow. And again, imagine, put yourself in Ada and Zila's place. They're sitting there listening to this. I would love to see what their faces look like. If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold. What was the purpose? When God said to Cain, if Cain's revenge is sevenfold, in Genesis 4, 15, The Lord said to Cain, not so, if anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." He's quoting that. But what was the purpose of God's statement there? God was saying that, I will protect you. It was a statement of protection. Cain, I promise you that if somebody does something to you, I will respond back to them sevenfold. In other words, Cain, you have my word." That is not how Lamech understands it. He understands it as a badge of honor. Lamech is gloating over his ruthless reputation. He shows disregard for Cain's line, the disregard that Cain's line had for the dignity of human beings created in the image of God. Rather than seeing this as a promise from God for Cain's protection, he sees it as a badge of honor. His statement is, if you think Cain's life had value, mine's even more valuable. If someone touches me, it won't be seven, it'll be 70 times seven, it'll be 77 fold. This was a warning against anyone who would have even the remotest idea of coming against Lamech. He was bloodthirsty. His nurture was murderous and he was willing to kill at the slightest insult. Now Lamech was so proud of his actions. He dares someone to stand against him. Now, think about that for a moment. There should be some verses of Scripture coming to your mind. Lamech sees his life as so valuable, you touch me, the results are going to be…you're going to be murdered and murdered and murdered horribly. But here's the words we should be thinking about. Then Peter came up to him and said, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but 70 times seven. Forgive. Lamech longed for exponential vengeance. that produced an avalanche of violence. By the way, I would suggest that some of Tubal Cain's instruments of bronze and iron turned to weapons that Lamech likely used to kill this man. Lamech longed for vengeance, an avalanche of violence, but Jesus says that his followers are to give exponential grace that produces an avalanche of forgiveness. Very different perspective than what Cain's line presents to us. It presents to us a culture that is heading to a place of absolute disregard for God, for his boundaries, for his word. The Garden of Eden at this point is long forgotten. It's in the rear-view mirror. And culture, Cain's line, is going to go in a very dark path, and they're going to evaporate in time. My question for you before we turn to the Lord's Supper is, are you following the way of Cain? Does your life look more like Lamech? Disregard for God's boundaries, not just about marriage, but other ones? Does your life look like Lamech in that, I'm trusting you've never killed anyone, but does your hatred for people and others who have slighted you, hurt you, does your heart throb with a desire for vengeance? Jesus is the answer to all of that. When Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes unto the Father but by me, he was promising that anyone who claimed the name of Christ could, in fact, be reborn. That by nature, we are a lot more like Cain and his line than we want to admit. But through the grace of Almighty God, we can. Go a different way. A way that we'll learn next week comes through the line of Seth. A way, let me just read for you one verse of Scripture that we'll get to next week, but listen to the line of Seth. In Genesis 4 verse 26, to Seth also had a son, was also a son born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. Very different. So as we turn our hearts to the Lord's Supper today, I'm going to ask the men, if you would, to go ahead and get into position. I want you to take an assessment of your own heart and life and ask yourself, which path are you on? A path that is seeking after the name of the Lord or a path that is seeking after unrighteousness? The Lord's Supper in the New Testament is a very serious matter. And I want to take just a moment of your time and explain to you that today, the Lord's Supper is for Christians, it's for believers. It's one of two ordinances that God left for the church to observe. One being baptism that happens after salvation by immersion. The other one is the Lord's Supper. And we take the Lord's Supper so that we remember what Christ did for us on the cross of Calvary. It's an act of remembrance. So this morning, I don't know your heart. I don't pretend to know your heart. I don't know your relationship between you and the Lord. I can't answer that. Only you can. But if you are here today and you know with confidence that you are a child of God, you don't have to be a member here at Grace to participate in the Lord's Supper, that's not necessary, but you do need to be a member of God's family through salvation, which happens through faith in Christ and in Christ alone. If you believe that, we would invite you to observe the Lord's Supper and participate with us. If you have not, however, I would ask that you not partake today. Reason being, in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 27, where Paul is correcting some wrong teaching on the Lord's Supper, he says this, whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks of this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup, for anyone who drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself." In other words, this is a very private, personal, spiritual matter that you need to make sure that your heart is right with the Lord this morning. If the answer to that question is yes, we would invite you today to join up with us as we remember the Lord Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection through the Lord's Supper.