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["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background as music continues to play in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background as music continues to play in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] ["Ode to Joy", by Tchaikovsky, plays in the background.] So God is already prophesying and talking about how there's going to be these two seeds that have produced these two lineages that go forth. And we see here the lineage of the serpent kind of taking place. Remember Christ said of the serpent that he was a liar and a murderer, right? He was a liar from the beginning and a murderer. He bowed not in the truth because there's no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. And in that passage Christ called the devil both a liar and a murderer. And that's exactly what you see taking place with Cain here. The murder's pretty obvious, but again, when God comes and confronts him and says, Where is thy brother Abel? He says, I know not, right? So he's a liar. Not only is he a murderer, he's a liar. So you can see this is the beginning of that serpent's seed, right? This is, you know, this is going to lead to worse and worse things. By the time you get to Genesis 6, things get really bad. But that is interesting to point out. And it says in verse 10, and he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And so obviously Cain, having slain his brother, knew exactly where his brother was. But he just tells this bold-faced lie right to the face of God. I know not where he is. And he knew very well where he was because he's the one that killed him. And he said in verse 11, And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I compare. And I always kind of read it with that whiny voice, right? Because that's what it reminds me of. If you, when you listen to Cain here, he's kind of got this, he's complaining. What's he complaining about? That he's being punished. What's he being punished for? For murdering his brother. I mean, it's good night. It's like, get over yourself, man. Like, what's, what's, you know, what's the problem here? What did you expect? What did you think was going to happen? But this is how people can be sometimes. You know, they do things and then they'll just lie to God, they'll lie to the people who know the truth. And then when they're busted, it's kind of like, eh, this isn't fair. You know, it's just this whiny, and they're, they're, they're complaining that they got caught. He's not sorry about his brother. He's not going, oh, you know, on second thought, now that I think about it, you know, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I don't know what came over me. You know, not that that would have absolved him of anything. But the guy can't even admit what he did was wrong. All he can do is, he's just thinking about himself. And this is, you have to remember, this is the beginning of the book. This is sin entering into the world. We're one generation removed from the first, you know, couple of sinners. And we're seeing how sin has already affected mankind. We see, we're learning a lot about human nature. Obviously, we're not all going to do the things Cain did. But this is kind of how people can behave sometimes. They get busted, and they want to lie about it. They won't just come clean. Or, you know, they're, they're just focused on themselves. I mean, Cain here is probably some kind of, he'd probably be classified as like a sociopath or something like that. He's just so callous and so indifferent to the suffering of others, that even when he's busted for his own brother's murder and is being punished, he's complaining about it. My punishment is greater than I can bear. But here's the thing, you know, if you don't want to do the time, don't do the crime. Right? If you're someone who wants to go and flirt with sin and mess around with sin, and get into sin, well, okay, just be prepared to pay the price. Prepare to deal with the consequences that come with it. And there will be consequences. You know, I preached it this morning, what silver man soweth, that shall he also reap. God is not mocked. You know, if we walk in the flesh, we shall of the flesh reap corruption. You can't just go out and sow your wild oats, and, you know, pray for, and hope that the crops fail. You know, you're going to reap what you've sown. What silver man soweth, that shall he also reap. You know, Cain here is just, you know, whining about having gotten busted. And really, in comparison to the crime, you know, cold-blooded, calculated, first-degree murder, you kind of wonder, does the punishment even fit the crime? Right? Because he's just being told, hey, you know, you're just going to be a vagabond and a fugitive. You're just going to go out into the earth, and this cursed earth is going to be even harder for you. And it also goes to show us that, you know, if we want to mess around with sin, that God can just put his finger in our lives and mess things up. At any time, God can just, you know, reach down and make things way more difficult than they have to be. Right? Because the earth is already cursed. That was part of Adam's punishment. Right? He said, in the sweat of thy face, thou shalt eat bread. Right? And now God's kind of doubling down on that. He's even making it even more difficult for Cain. So it's not that he's cursing the earth again, it's that he's cursing Cain. Right? It's the same earth that, you know, Cain's neighbors are going to be working, but Cain's going to have an even harder time. You know, Cain can go out and get, you know, 40 acres somewhere, and the guy who's leasing him the land or selling him the land or whatever says, oh man, this land's really fruitful. Yeah, this, you know, it's yielded a lot of crops, maybe very rich, but as soon as Cain puts a plow in there, God's just going to make sure that it doesn't yield what it could. And that's how it is in our lives. God can punish us. Right? You always talk about the chastening hand of God. You know, God's not going to literally show up with a belt in his hand. You know, God's not going to come and give you a literal whooping. Right? The Bible does say he chastens every son whom he receives. Right? And neither is there any son whom he chastens not. So that's what we can learn from Cain. Obviously, we're not going to do this. I mean, hopefully no one's going to ever, you know, kill anybody, let alone their brother or something. But if we are going to be sinful and do wicked things, don't think you're going to get away with it. You know, God can make life hard for you in different ways. It's not going to be a literal beating, but, you know, he's cursed from this day forward everywhere he goes to try and plow a field, try and raise crops, make a living. It's just going to be a struggle. It's going to be difficult. You know, life is hard enough. Right? The earth is already cursed because of Adam's sin. You know, Cain's already having to deal with that. And now he's just making things harder because of his sin. Right? And his inability to, you know, fess up and to admit wrong. Right? Life's hard enough. We don't need to go make life harder by upsetting God. Right? You know, life could actually be a very enjoyable, life could be full of joy. It's always, you know, everyone's going to have to go through some degree of suffering. I get it. It's not going to be perfect. But, you know, we can actually find ourselves in a place where we're enjoying life, where life is actually pleasurable. Right? Where we feel blessed if we're doing right. Right? If we walk in the Spirit, we shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. You know, that law of reaping and sowing works both ways. You know, if we want to sow to the flesh, then we all the flesh reap corruption. But if we do sow to the Spirit, meaning, you know, we can and we can, then we'll reap of the Spirit. We'll have the blessings of God in our life. I mean, I'm not trying to like lift myself up, but I mean, sometimes I pinch myself. Is this really my life? Is it really this good? Because then I think back like the guy was, where I came from. You know, I'm not saying like I had the hardest time or anything like that. But, you know, some people at some points in my life probably saw the path I was on and were kind of like, this might not turn out so good. You know, I remember I had a relative tell me, you're on a downward spiral. Those were his words. And you've been on it for a while. Right? So sometimes I catch myself. I'm like, man, I'm in the ministry. I've got a beautiful wife and family. We're in good health. Life's not perfect. Got a good job. I live in a beautiful part of the country. You know, I got good folks at church. I got a good church. Friends, opportunity to serve God and earn rewards in heaven. Man, life's good. Life is good. I have to pinch myself and remind myself of that sometimes. Why? Because being obedient, being obedient of the Bible, doing what God said. You know, I didn't get unequally yoked with an unbeliever. I'm raising my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I served God in a local church and, you know, He lifted me up, so to speak. And I'm not trying to say that to like, say, you know, nah, nah, boo-boo. You know, I got it good. What's your problem? I'm not saying, I'm saying that's possible for any of us. We could all have a blessed life through obedience. So why wouldn't we do that? That's what just, you know, makes me scratch my head sometimes. Like, well, why wouldn't we do that then? Why wouldn't we be obedient? Why wouldn't people want God's blessing in their life? Instead, they, you know, they dismiss the things of God. They don't want to obey God. They just want to go beat their head against the wall. You know, proverbially speaking, of course. You know, they just want to go and make life harder on themselves through disobedience, through not serving God, through going against the commandments of God. It's like, well, then God's going to say, well, and I'm preaching all the time. God's not just passive. God's not just going to just stay out of it. God's going to get involved for better or worse in our lives. You know, so we might as well, you know, get on God's good side and stay there. But Cain here obviously got on God's bad side, and God said, you know, this ground, you know, the ground is going to be cursed. Thou art cursed from the earth. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. This wasn't a blanket curse upon all the earth. It was just him everywhere he went. I mean, imagine having God's curse just following you everywhere you went in the earth. But that's exactly how some people live their lives. Some Christians live their life like that. Everywhere they go, they just keep having God punish them, punish them, punish them, and they just don't want to get right. And then Cain, verse 13, whining about his punishment. It's more than I can bear. Verse 14, Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid. So he understands what he's losing, what it means to be out from God's protection. That's kind of what he's complaining there, right? That's what he's saying. And from thy face I shall be hid, meaning, you know, you're not going to see me, you're not going to be watching over me, and I shall be a fugitive in a vagabond, and it shall come to pass, everyone that fineth me shall slay me. He's saying, you're casting me out from your face, and people are going to want to kill me, and you're not going to be there to stop. What are you going to do? Are you just going to go out and let me die? It's just a death sentence that you just gave me, right? Oh, you killed your brother. How do you like it? It's not so nice, is it? Being under threat of death. How do you think Abel felt, Cain? And it's interesting because the Lord doesn't just say tough to Cain, right? God actually shows Cain a little mercy here. And you kind of have to wonder why. Why did God do this? If Cain was killed by some complete stranger, I mean, wouldn't that be kind of, you know, getting what he deserved? Think about Abel, right? And the Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, so some kind of physical feature, lest any finding him should kill him. So there was some kind of a distinct mark that was put upon Cain. I don't know what it is, but it's very distinct so that people would know and hear about what had happened, and say, oh, that's Cain, the guy with the mark, right? And they would know. The Lord said, if we kill him, sevenfold on us. So God is saying, well, you know, you're going to be driven before my face, but I hear you, I'll show some mercy, and I will preserve your life. He doesn't, you know, you're still going to have to live with the cursed ground. You're still going to have to deal with that, right? So what's going on here? Why doesn't he, I thought God wanted the death penalty, right? Well, that's Genesis 9, right? Which comes after Genesis 6, when every imagination of man's heart was only evil continually. So I believe part of the reason why God went this route with Cain was to allow man to begin to see how truly sinful he is, right? Maybe that's part of God's reasoning here, you know, or maybe it is an act of mercy, but either way, what it allows to happen is it allows Cain to live, and for this wicked group of people to start to rise up. Because what we're seeing here in Genesis and these chapters and the ones, the next immediate few chapters, is you start to see these two lines diverge, right, and separate. You have Cain's line, and then you're going to have Seth, right? And Cain's line, you know, you have a group of people, as it says in the end, you know, men begin to call upon the name of the Lord, and then you have other people who are not calling upon the name of the Lord, okay? And they're coming, you know, from Cain. So I think what's going on here is God is kind of allowing Cain to live so that man would see how wicked he truly is, right? And what's interesting about that, and maybe, you know, and that's speculation, admittedly. You know, that's just a theory I have. But, you know, if that's true, what's interesting is that, you know, it's not that God was softer back then or something, right? Like God didn't really get, you know, start getting tough until, you know, after the flood, you know, after he killed everybody, right? It wasn't until like Genesis 6 when God finally, you know, got a spine or something, however you want to put it, right, and finally toughened up a little bit. Quit being so soft on these wicked people. I mean, it's not that, you know. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, amen, okay? God has always been the same. And by the way, God hasn't gotten any softer either, okay? Because that's another stupid thing you'll hear people say sometimes. Oh, that's the God of the Old Testament. It's like you've never read the Bible. If you think the God of the Old Testament is any less wrathful or any more wrathful and vengeful than the God of the New Testament, it's the same God. Have you read Revelation? There's a lot of, there's more people dying at the end of the book than the entire rest of the book maybe combined. It's like the biggest bloodbath comes at the end and it's Jesus Christ who's doing it, okay? So God isn't going to get, hasn't gotten softer and God wasn't softer back in Genesis chapter 4. It's just that God has his purposes, right? He's preserving Cain's life perhaps to allow these things to come to pass so that man would see how sinful he is. I mean, I believe that's one of the purposes of the millennial reign. The earth is restored. You have Christ ruling and reigning. You have true justice. You have peace or else. All wars cease. We'll be living in a perfect earth under a perfect political system called Christ's millennial reign. And yet you'll still have at the end of that when Satan is let loose for a short season and you'll still have an entire rebellion brought up against the New Jerusalem and against the saints and against Christ. Why? Because man is inherently sinful. You ever thought about that? How is it that after a thousand years of peace and prosperity man just so quickly is deceived and turns on the Lord? It's because they still have sinful flesh. It's because man is inherently sinful. So I believe it's kind of the reverse of that here. Like God is preserving life to kind of allow that to happen, allow Cain to go out and allow this wickedness to rise so men would see that man is sinful. And without God, without His word, without the Holy Spirit and God's word tempering us, you know, things can get really out of hand. You know, I'm kind of getting ahead of myself, but that's what happens in Noah's day. Things just get way out of hand. I believe it's because of the fact that Cain and others like him were permitted to live because there was no death penalty until after the flood. So it says in verse 16, Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. Cain knew his wife and she can save and bear Enoch. And he built it a city. He called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. So no points for originality there. He really likes that name Enoch, which is kind of a cool name, but this is not the other Enoch that we're thinking of, you know, the Enoch that was taken, right? That's a different Enoch. We're actually going to, I think we're going to go look at that here in a minute, but basically you have these two Enochs, right? You have the respective sons of Cain, and then you have the Enoch of Seth, not Seth's direct descendant, right? But it's like his great, great, great, great, great grandson. That's the other Enoch, if you remember him, right? Who walked with God and was not because God took him, right? That's the other Enoch. Now what's interesting here is that you have these two Enochs. You have Enoch here that's being born of Seth, excuse me, of Cain, and then the Enoch that's going to come later in Seth's line. And what's interesting is that when the Enoch who was taken up, right, who was of Seth's line, you know, he had this testimony that he walked with God and was not before God took him, right? Meaning he was kind of like Elijah. Remember when Elijah was caught up in the whirlwind in the chariot, right? He didn't die. It's the same thing with Enoch. He never saw death. He was taken up into heaven. You know, and some people will say, well, that's why, you know, they're the two witnesses of Revelation. Because we don't know exactly who it's going to be, right? The Bible doesn't explicitly say who those two witnesses are. But some people will speculate and say, well, Enoch and Elijah, you know, they never saw death. And the Bible does say that it's appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment. Because those two witnesses, if you remember, are later slain and their bodies are left in the streets and everyone gives gifts to one another. You remember that? Some people say, well, the two witnesses must be Enoch and Elijah because it's appointed unto man once to die. Like, they have to come back and be the two witnesses so that they can die, right? Well, I don't believe that other one is going to be Enoch. I believe it's probably going to be Moses and Elijah, right? Because they spake with Christ on the mount when he was transfigured. That's my theory, right? And that other theory about, well, men have to die, well, what about everybody that's raptured at the return of Christ? They didn't die, right? So that theory doesn't really hold honor. It's like, so do all those people have to come back and die before they're allowed to go into heaven, right? Before they can get a resurrected body? No. They're changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, right? They're caught up with the Lord. They don't see death, right? How great would it be to be one of them, okay? I wasn't planning on going in and all that, but that is another theory that's out there, okay? What we're talking about tonight is these two Enochs. You have Enoch that's born of Lamech, who has a city named after him, right? And then you have the Enoch that was translated into heaven without having seen death. So these are these two Enochs, right? And what I like about this is I want to make this comparison between temporal and heavenly, or eternal, rather, accomplishments, right? Think about it. Like, we talk about the Enoch of Seth's line, right? He's a, you know, some people even try to forge books in his name, the Book of Enoch, which is complete fraud. But a lot of people know Enoch, right? If you say Enoch, they're not going to think, oh, you mean the son of Cain. No, they're going to think of the other Enoch, the good Enoch. I don't know that this other Enoch was a bad person. We don't really know a lot about him, right? But Cain was his daddy, you know, and I don't doubt that the apple fell far from the tree, okay? Because after Enoch, you know, a couple more generations, you have Lamech, who is also a wicked man, as we'll see here in a minute. But you have the Enoch of Cain, and you have the Enoch of Seth's line, and it's kind of like these two Enochs, and really, what did they leave behind? Like, you know, who do we know better? The first Enoch? Nope. The second one. Why? Because he had that testimony. Because he was a spiritual man, he was a godly man, he walked with God. People to this day are still talking about him, right? He's in heaven. He has an earthly reward, right? He's mentioned in scripture, in a cast and a good light. Whereas this Enoch has a city named after him, Big Whoop. Where is the city of Enoch today? We just got a world map at home. I didn't look that close, but I didn't see Enoch over there in the Middle East anywhere. Because it doesn't exist, right? It's been wiped off the face of the earth. It's been renamed probably a dozen times if it did exist. The only reason we know anything about this Enoch is because of what the Bible says. I know that's the case for both Enochs. But this Enoch, all that's said of him, there's a city named after him. That city probably no longer exists. In fact, I'm pretty sure it doesn't, right? It's not there. It's not on any map I've seen. It's just some temporal thing he had that came and went, right? Two people with the same name that had different lives, whose lives had different merit. One of them had eternal accomplishments. One of them had heavenly rewards. The other one just had some stupid city named after him. Here's what I want us to understand. This is kind of what this chapter gets into because it starts talking about the descendants, right? And chapter five gets into the generations of Adam as well. It's that we are going to leave behind us a spiritual heritage, whether we like it or not. We are going to leave behind an influence upon the next generation. None of us is probably going to influence the whole world, okay? But you're going to have an influence on the people in your immediate sphere of influence, right? You're going to have an impact on those people. Mom, dad, you know, you're going to have an impact on your children and your grandchildren. You know, and the things that they learn from you are going to get passed down in all likelihood. And even your great grandchildren. I mean, I'm getting ahead of myself, but look at Lamech. Lamech is, you know, he's referring back to Cain. You know, if Cain be avenged, you know, I'll be avenged, right? That's his, you know, grandson. Many times removed, like that's an influence that's gone down through the generations. You know, we need to think about what we're going to leave behind. You know, are we going to leave behind just some stupid old city that's going to wither away? Just some earthly accomplishments that are going to be forgotten over time? That are going to have no lasting value? Or are we going to have a testimony that we walked with God like that Enoch? You know, which Enoch are you going to be like tonight? Both of them leave behind a spiritual heritage. The Bible says in Proverbs 13, I'll just read to you. Go over to Psalm 16. I've got to have you turn at least to one place tonight. Go to Psalm 16. The Bible says in Proverbs 13, a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children. And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Now that inheritance there, you know, I believe you could say that that's a financial inheritance. OK. You know, some people say, oh, you shouldn't leave your kids anything. You know, they got, you know, it'll spoil them. But possibly, you know, if you don't teach your kids anything, if you don't instill character in them. Yeah, maybe. Maybe that would ruin them. But I do believe it's also possible to leave behind a physical inheritance to your children and teach them character and teach them to be good people so that they use those things wisely. I believe you can instill in them and teach them to appreciate the things that they've been given, the advantages that they have. Now, let me just break it to my children. There's no great wealth being laid up for you. Right. And there wasn't for me. You know, at least unless Dad's, you know, holding out, you know. Last time I saw him, he said, you know, he had 10 acres on the Pine Ridge Reservation that he wanted to give to my son. There you go, son. Your grandfather said he might leave you 10 acres on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The poorest reservation in the United States. One of the poorest counties in all of America. You know, and I don't mean to mock that. It's deplorable the way those people are living up there, okay. But that's the best you got, you know. Right. And my son's always asking about tools and things like that. Dad, what's that? And he'll see me, you know, a hammer or a screwdriver or something. I said, son, one day all this will be yours. And you're going to need it. Right. But there's nothing wrong, I believe, with leaving an inheritance, right. It says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. And you say, well, you know, I don't have some great wealth. I'm not going to be some rich person who's going to make an abundance of money and have this great fortune to leave to my children, okay. You're not going to see anybody at my, the reading of my will fighting, right. There's going to be a lot of, if anything, a lot of people will just be shocked if they got anything at all, right. But what about, what can we leave our children? What can we leave for the generations to come? We can leave them a spiritual inheritance, which is a far greater value. You know, Enoch, yeah, he said, here son, here's a city I built that's named after you that decayed and is gone. Enoch had a, got from his and his predecessors a spiritual inheritance that caused him to walk with God, and now he's got a testimony. I mean, there's only two people so far that have that testimony, you know, all of human history, that God took them to heaven, translated them without having to see death. You know, that's pretty cool. That's some rare air to be in, right. But look at Psalm 16 verse 5. It says, the Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup. How maintainest my lot. The Lord is my inheritance. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yeah, I have a goodly heritage. Those lines talking about like the lines of a lot, like property markers, right. Because a lot of times that's what you inherit back then. Hey, this land goes to you, right. That's how it was supposed to be in Israel, that the land that they inherited would be passed under their sons. And there was that whole system with the year of Jubilee where the inheritance always went back to the original owners so you couldn't have these monopolies and things like that. But David here is saying that the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places. You know, we have a plot in heaven. You know, if you have parents that love the Lord, that are saved and have taught you salvation or taking you to church, teaching you the things of God, you know, that's your lot is a good one. But you also can say, like the psalmist here, that your lines are fallen in pleasant places. Well, I don't know, I'd rather my dad built the city and gave me that, named it after me. I'd rather, you know, I got some earthly inheritance. You know, I'd rather get a cool million bucks. Hey, a million bucks would be nice to take the edge off, right. But you know what, I'd take a spiritual inheritance far more than I'd take anything else. You know, that's what we want to leave behind for our children. That's what's going to make a difference. And you know, that can happen or it cannot happen. There's no guarantee of that happening. You can't just say, well, you know, I'm saved and I go to church and I take my kids to church and therefore it's just going to happen by osmosis. You know, you have to teach your children, parents and those that will be parents, you have to instill that in your children. You know, the church can't raise your children for you. And some people look for the church to do that or to instill some kind of spirituality in their children. What we see in the story is that children follow the path that their parents walked in. And that's what children often do. Okay? Unless, you know, somewhere along the line they decide to change things, for better or worse. That's kind of what we see happening in the story. Look at verse 18. And unto Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begat Mahujael, Mahujael begat Methuselah, Methuselah begat Lamech. Okay, so now you're onto Lamech. This is the descendants of Cain. And we don't know a lot about these other guys and everything that they did, but we know that Lamech is a murderer, just like his great-great-great-grandfather Cain. Okay? So in all likelihood, this is something, this is just a pattern that's been passed down from generation to generation. It says in verse 19, Lamech took him to two wives. The name of the one was Ada, the name of the other Zilla, and Ada bear Jabel. He was the father of all such that dwell in tents and of such that have cattle. And his brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all such handle the harp and organ. And Zilla, she also bear Tubalcain, an instructor and artificer in brass. And I always think I can remember that Tubalcain because a tuba is a brass instrument, right? So I always make that word association. So that's just meaningless trivia, okay? But if you're ever into some kind of Bible trivia and they say, who was the artificer of everything brass? You will be able to say Tubalcain, right? Tuba, anyway. And the sister of Tubalcain was Nahima. And Lamech said unto his wives, Ada and Zilla, hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech, for I have slain a man to my wounding. Meaning this wasn't self-defense, this wasn't in the line of duty or anything like that. This is to my wounding. This is a blight, this is a reproach unto me, I believe is what he's saying. And a young man to my hurt. If Cain should be advanced sevenfold, truly Lamech 70 and 70 fold. And he kind of makes that pronouncement upon himself, right? He just, who knows whether or not that was truly the case. Kind of presumptuous, right? Well, if Cain could get away with it, then so can I. If that's what great granddaddy Cain did, that's what I'm going to do, right? And this is what I'm getting at, you know, we want to leave something behind for our children, and here's the thing, you will. You know what, you say, I'm not interested living in some kind of a spiritual inheritance to my children. You're going to, whether you like it or not. It's just, it's what quality is it going to be of? Is it just going to be, you know, the first Enoch, which led to Lamech, who was just another murderer? Or is it going to be the Enoch of Seth's line, who was a righteous man and walked with God? Which one's it going to be? You have to decide that. And you have to pass that on. I can't do it for you, the church can't do it for you, you have to do it. You know, the church is just a supplement to that, to the training you're doing at home, okay? This is important to understand because I think sometimes people get the impression that somehow just by crossing the threshold of that door and coming in here and sitting down, that everyone's going to walk back out and go live a righteous and godly life. That's not the case. You have to, you know, you could just sit there and not do anything with the preaching. And if kids grow up and go out of this church and quit the church and go out and live a wicked life, they won't be the first ones. And they won't be the last to do it. And I know sometimes those things are kind of out of our hands at a certain point, but, you know, we ought to not make it easy for them. We ought to, you know, not, we ought to at least say, at least we tried, you know, to teach our children to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You know, that'd be a heart, that's heartbreaking to me. To think that my children might go off and live in a life of sin and not care for the things of God. And all I'm saying tonight is that you're going to leave behind a spiritual inheritance one way or another, so you should probably endeavor to do the, you know, leave behind a good one. Make sure the lines are falling onto them in pleasant places. Okay? The church can't do it. You have to do it. You know, we're just a supplement. You know, we're just icing on the cake here. The preaching of the Word of God is not the meat and potatoes of, you know, of living the Christian life. You know, that's, you've got to eat your veggies at home, right? This hopefully is just kind of, you know, the occasional steak dinner. And steak dinner's nice, but, you know, I don't know how it is in your house. I don't eat a steak dinner every night. Sometimes it's the bean burrito. I don't mind the bean burrito. Bean burrito's good. I was raised on bean burritos. I'm talking refried. I'm talking refried or, you know, Ortega out of the can, warmed up in a saucepan, chopped lettuce, and this is before I got married. I was raised on this, okay? At least now the beans are whole, right? At least now they're big, right? There's sour cream involved. There's corn involved. It used to just be refried beans, you know, cheese, tortilla, lettuce, and paste picante sauce for chili, right? That was it, you know? What's that I got to do with the sermon? Nothing. I just want to let you know who you're dealing with here, okay? I just want to let you in on a little bit about the deacon. You know, we're a little closer now because of that. I'm more relatable, you know? I eat beans just like the next guy. I'm nothing special, right? What was I saying, though? Hey, you're not eating the steak dinner every night, right? Sometimes it's the bean burrito. Nothing wrong with that, you know? Got me this far. But when you sit down at the steak dinner, it's kind of a treat, isn't it? You know? In fact, if you ate steak probably every night, it probably wouldn't be good for you. I know we had some people who are into the health food here and stuff like that. Maybe they can testify that eating red meat every single day is probably not a good thing. Isn't that kind of the case? They say you shouldn't do that. No, it is. It's a great thing. I mean, I'm not complaining about it. I'm for it, you know? I think that you're supposed to eat it two or three times a week is what they recommend. I'm not saying not eat meat. I'm saying red meat. You should try to eat pork, chicken. Chicken's a good one to eat. Although it is a weak bird, you know? It can barely fly. I don't know why, but anyone wants to eat weak animals. But that's what they say. Look, the church is just the steak dinner. You know, it'll fill you up. It'll give you some strength, but you know what? The real spiritual growth that's going to take place at home when you're taking the multivitamin of daily Bible reading, when you're eating the vegetables of daily devotions, you know, that's where the real growth is going to be. That's where you're going to get what you need. And I'm preaching that to parents and those that will be parents, right? That you are going to leave behind a spiritual inheritance whether in one way or another. An Enoch is going to come up. Enoch's coming, right? Which one is he going to be? One who just has, you know, temporal, earthly, you know, carnal accomplishments? Or one who's accomplished something for God who has lines that have fallen onto him in heavenly places, right? We will have an impact. Sin begets sin, okay? That's what we see with Lamech here. He's going back and saying, hey, if Cain's avenged sevenfold, me seventy and sevenfold. Cain slew his brother, I slew a young man to my hurt and to my wounding. And what we see from the story is that sin can span generations. And this always, you know, just kind of surprises me with people. When you have somebody who's like a drunk, who is the child of a drunk, who is the child of a drunk, who is the child of a drunk. It's like, when are you going to learn? You know, when they see, how is it that people can grow up in a home with drunkenness in it? And look, I'm not trying to make anybody feel bad. That's my testimony, okay? Who can grow up in a home where there's drunkenness, drug use, that kind of stuff. And then say, and see all the problems firsthand. And even been impacted, even though they're not the ones doing the drinking and the snorting and the smoking. It's still, it's having a huge impact on their life. Because of all the things that come with it. You know, being in jail on Easter, being in jail on Father's Day. Where's dad? He's in jail. Seeing dad come home from the bar beat up. You know, that has an impact on children, right? You know, seeing the yelling and the violence, seeing the divorce, seeing the bitterness and the anger that takes place there. How is it we can come up in these houses like that and see these things firsthand, be impacted by them so, on such a personal level? And then go, yeah, you know, I'll drink. Yeah, drugs are for me. It's like, haven't you learned anything? Haven't you seen what it does? And yet people will do that generation to generation after generation to generation. Well, my dad was drunk and that's just what we do. We're just drinkers in this family. You know, we just die of liver disease in this family. We just die in fiery wrecks. We all get divorces in this family, which is what we do. Sin begets sin. You know, that's, you say, what's the point of going through these stories? Why did God put this in there? Because he's showing us what human nature is like. People are selfish. People are liars. People won't fess up to sin. And people will do things that will have an impact on generations to come because of it. For the worse. I mean, that's what's going on here in this story. Cain, you know, just one murder with Cain, but, you know, then generations later, and who knows what happened with these other guys? The Bible doesn't go into those details. It just focuses on Lamech. I mean, I don't know, maybe they were all just godly people. I kind of doubt it. Because it seems to me the way the story goes is that at Seth line, that's when men begin to call upon the name of the Lord with, because pretty soon you have the sons of God, right? Which we're referring to the saved people back then, not fallen angels, okay? I don't want to get ahead of myself. So I think, you know, probably every person in between Cain and Lamech, all these guys, all of his, you know, ancestors, you know, his grandparents and parents and things like that, they were probably much the same. Because by the time you get to Genesis 6, the whole earth is filled with violence. Okay? Sin begets sin, folks. It will span generations. So that's kind of a negative sermon. Well, you know, the Bible's kind of a negative book, and we're only fourth chapter in, and it's murder, lying, people being cursed. You know, soon God's going to flood the whole earth and kill everything that has breath in it. You know, God annihilates the human race. It's like chapter 6, like, how many more to go? Oh, there's 1,183 more to go, and, you know, it doesn't get a whole lot better, you know. But eventually, you know, Christ come, you know, there are good stories too. But, you know, this is how you know, you say, give me proof that the Bible's the word of God. No one writes about themselves like this. No one just goes, and God made man, and man was pretty bad. He just starts ripping on himself the whole time. Like, this is too, it would take too much humility to write this book, to write this story. I don't know. That's probably not enough proof for anybody. But you say, man, this is negative. Just sin, murder, like, well, here's the good, this is why I'm bringing up the two Enochs, right? Because just as sin can span generations, just as that can be what we leave behind for our children, you can do the same thing with righteousness, you know. And sometimes it takes somebody getting up and just saying it like it is, for somebody to finally say, maybe somebody that is coming, you know, coming down in a line of canes, so to speak, to finally just snap out of it and say, it ends here. I'm not going to pass this on with my children, you know. Maybe I won't have all the best, you know, sometimes maybe the best thing we can do for our children is just not pass on what's been passed on to us. You know, at least give them, you know, give them a starting point that was better than the one we had, you know, if we're coming from that kind of a background, you know. That's something, you know, sorry I can't give you everything, you know, that someone who was brought up in a home like that could give you, right. But I can at least do that. I can say, hey, you're not going to have to deal with the things that I dealt with as a child. You're not going to have to see the things, hear the things, and go experience those things. You can at least start there, right, and give people a fighting chance in life to start out and, you know, you might end up with an Enoch of Seth's line. You might end up with that latter Enoch, you know, get that generation that lives for God. Righteousness can span generations too, and that's what we see here at the end, verse 25. And Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son and called his name Seth. For God said, He hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And to Seth, to him was there also born a son, and he called his name Enos. So he had an Enoch and he had an Enos, right, maybe that was the application I should have gone with. Are you going to be Enoch or are you going to be Enos? Because after Enos then began men to call upon the name of the Lord, right. You know, and if we go to Luke and look at the genealogy there, this is the genealogy of Christ. This is the seed from which Christ came, okay. And I'm not saying it was a perfect genealogy that all these people were just good godly people all the way through. There's sinners in Christ's genealogy too. Rahab the harlot is mentioned, right. But, you know, so take hope. You know, if you say, well I wasn't brought up that way or, you know, I got a late start in the Christian life. So what? You know, you could still pass on a godly heritage. But if you decide not to, you're going to pass something on one way or another. That's what you need to take away from the sermon. You know, I'm not trying to paint with a broad brush or, you know, just say, you know, I'm not trying to fence anybody in to make them feel like, well that's, you know, that's my background. That's what we were like, whatever, it's too late. Okay. It is a message of hope, okay. It's a warning tonight. It's certainly a warning. But it's also a promise, right. That's the way it is with God. You can sow the flesh or sow the spirit. The choice is yours. You will reap of both. Pick one, right. Which one are you going to follow in? God chooses the lineage of Seth to produce Christ, you know. What will come of us? What will come after us? That's what I'm getting at tonight. What's going to come after us? That's what we should be concerned with in this life. You know, what matters in this life are not the possessions that we have, the cities that we build, the things, right, the names that we make for ourselves. It's not the things that we possess. It's the impact that we make. What kind of impact are you going to make, right? I mean, even if we did leave some kind of earthly inheritance behind for our children, the Bible says, you know, a good man does that. There's nothing wrong with that. You know, but is that really what you're going to be remembered for? You know, dad left me, you know, a set of tools or something. You know what I mean, like some earthly inheritance. You know, even if you did that, it's the impact that you make upon the next generation. That's what they're going to remember. How you lived, what you did, how you conducted yourself in this life, the decisions that you made, your priorities. You know, children tend to, by and large, walk in the same path that their parents did, because that's what they know. That's what they've seen. That's what they're used to. What will come of us, right? Of Seth, you know, there came good. Of Cain, there came evil. You know, what's going to come out of us? What kind of impact are we going to make on the generations to come? You know, that's not foreordained. That's not something that, it's set in stone. Either way, you know. Don't think, well, I'm so good, I got it good so far, I've been doing right so far. Hey, you know, let him that thinketh he standeth think he lest he fall. You know, maybe we are doing good. Maybe we are bringing our children up and we're making a positive impact. You know, think soberly, as you ought to. Don't think that it's in the bag because, you know, we could mess that up. Or maybe we're not. Maybe things are going in the wrong direction. It's not too late to correct course and make the adjustments that we need to make. We can leave behind us a lasting influence. You ever hear stories about guys like this who are the grandchildren of great men of God, or great grandchildren? That's a powerful testimony. You know, it's a lot more powerful than being just some trust fund baby. It's like, when did my dad leave me? He left me millions. You know, I mean great, but it's like, what are you going to do with it? You know, hey my dad, let it be said of me that I left behind a godly influence on this earth. What's your testimony going to be? What are they going to say about you at your funeral? You know, he loved God. He read his Bible. He knew the Bible. He loved his church. He loved his brothers and sisters in Christ. He cared about the lost. He won souls. He cared about the things of God. Yeah, but what did he leave you? What earthly good? Was there a city named after you? Did you get, you know, did you have that inheritance? No, but I was taught to walk with God, and I have that testimony. You know, that's what my parents left me. That's what I want to be said of me. You know, not just I left things and stuff. And obviously there's more things in life that we teach our children beyond the spiritual. You know, we teach them character, hard work, those kind of things, but those are all biblical principles too. You know, the question is tonight, what are we going to leave behind? I want to leave behind good. I want to leave behind a good impression. I want to make a good impact, okay? Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, again, thank you for these stories in the Bible that are so meaningful, Lord. There's so many lessons we learned from them. Thank you for the testimonies, both good and bad, Lord, that we could be warned and we could find hope in these stories, Lord, throughout the Bible. Lord, help us to be people that leave behind a spiritual inheritance that make an impact for you upon this earth, and that we can live a godly life, and we can be blessed, and those that come after us, Lord, our physical children and our spiritual, those that we make an impact with the gospel upon, that we would change the direction of people's eternal destiny, and, Lord, that we would leave behind a great testimony for you and of your grace. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen. Amen. All right, we'll go ahead and sing one more song for you. Amen. If you could open up your song books to song number 343. We're in tonight's service on song number 343. Revive us again at song number 343. Lift up your voices, all of us. We praise thee, O God, for the Son of thy love, for Jesus to die in his town on the wall. Hallelujah, thy glory, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thy glory, revive us again. We praise thee, O God, for thy spirit of life, who has shown us our Savior and scattered our light. Hallelujah, thy glory, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thy glory, revive us again. All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain, who has borne our sins and has cleansed every stain. Hallelujah, thy glory, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thy glory, revive us again. Revive us again, fill each heart with thy love. May his soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah, thy glory, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thy glory, revive us again. Thank you. Thank you. Two more weeks. Hey, hey, bro. Just stay in touch with you. What's up? I'll hit you up. I love you baby.