Scripture reading this morning is found in the book of Genesis chapter 4 beginning at verse 25 Hear the word of the Lord And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth For God has appointed another seed for me instead of a ape who came killed and As for Seth to him also a son was born and he named him Enoch Then men began to call on the name of the Lord And this is the book of the genealogy of Adam in that day that God created man He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them and called them man kind in the day They were created and Adam lived 130 years and he got a son in his own likeness after his own image and he named him Seth After he begot Seth the days of Adam were 800 years And he had sons and daughters So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died the word of the Lord Thanks be to God Let us pray together Father, we pray this morning that you would by your spirit Be moving in our midst continue to move in our midst that you might display your glory That we might get a glimpse of all your majesty and splendor That it might thrill our souls Might inflame our hearts That we would be reminded this morning of your great love for your people of your great love for us So that your glory doesn't scare us because you have removed The dread that will come upon people who do not know you Do the cross of Christ So be pleased now Lord to reign in our midst through your word Bless these words I speak bless your word and may we receive it as it is is the word of God and not as the word of men So we pray for your blessing now in Christ name the title for this sermon is Kiwitate D.A. and the reason for that is because when you ask a rookie preacher to Give a sermon title early in the week and he doesn't know what the sermon is You know completely how it's gonna work out you throw out a Latin phrase some less people won't know what it means anyway Kiwitate D.A. means the city of God and actually the sermon has a whole lot to do with the city of God I'm gonna I Remember having a few courses in seminary difficult courses at eight o'clock in the morning and they required great focus and I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you all to work hard this morning with me as As I unpackaged God's word Craig gay in his book the way of the modern world Strikes at the heart of what the Bible refers to as worldliness or the world I'm gonna read a lengthy quote and it's going to take Some work on your part to follow along his line of reasoning But to understand what gay is saying in this quote is to grasp the disease of the canites of the city of man Not just the symptoms and the primary way in which God's people are the Sethites When we are going to examine this morning differ from unbelievers Craig gay states If we are conservative we have probably tended to think of the world and hence worldliness and when you hear those words world and worldliness Think of the canites the line of cane in terms of temptations to various kinds of dissipation to personal and particularly sexual immorality if we are liberal in Disposition we have perhaps can see the of the world in terms of Socials structural structural evils such as racism or oppressive political economic systems and of worldliness as complying with these evils Now both of these views are certainly correct Personal immorality and socio-political injustices are indeed worldly evils to be condemned and avoided But what if it can be shown that both the conservative view and the liberal positions while partly correct actually Actually miss the heart of the matter What if the essence of the world and hence worldliness is not personal immorality and or social injustice as such But it's instead an interpretation of reality that essentially Excludes the reality of God from the business of life One of the purposes of our study is to argue just this point and to contend that the world that Christians are called to be in but not up Is in effect an interpretation of the realm of human affairs that places far too much emphasis upon human agency and far too little or far too Little if any upon God as we shall see such an interpretation is very very deeply embedded in contemporary political technological economic and cultural Institutions indeed a kind of atheism Has been literally built into the central institutional realities of modern societies While the reasons for this will be explored in some detail later the point to make here at the outset is simply that the most Insidious temptations to worldliness today did not necessarily come in the form of enticements to sexual dissipation Or even to complying with socio-political oppression But rather in the form of the suggestion that it is possible and indeed normal and expedient to go about our daily business giving much thought to God Under modern and now postmodern conditions in other words the world is an interpretation of human life that is largely void of The living God and worldliness is characterized by practical atheism Living life as though God does not exist The problem with Canes line is not primarily that they indulged in socio-political evils Which they did is characterized by both Canes and Lamics and murders in Genesis 4 Nor is the problem primarily that Canes line committed acts of sexual immorality Again, these were mere symptoms of the disease called sin that Mike unpacked for us last week Rather at the heart of sin is unbelief a radical Practical atheism that drives sinners to live as though God does not exist Practical atheism the Canites go about their business in the world as though God does not exist And as though they will never stand before his tribunal They live life without reference to the one true God and thus default to making a name for themselves The banner over their lives is homomens or a man the measure of all things Thus they live a life that does not correspond to ultimate reality The reality that God is That he's all together glorious and that is worthy of all praise Adoration and glory because of the supremacy of his being In stark contrast we see the line of Seth in our text today The line of Seth God's elect people is characterized by humble dependence Submission and worship of the one true God who is Yahweh God is their ultimate reality and this corresponds to the way things really are in the world God is The Sethites identity, security, purpose and destiny are all wrapped up in their acknowledgement of Yahweh as the fountainhead of life Now let me give you a key to unlocking the meaning of this morning's message When you hear me say Sethites or the line of Seth you must equate these people With those who profess to be Christians today or another way to phrase it would be this Sethites Christians come of age or a better one might be the church Sethites come of age repeat that with me because I want that to be in your mind on three is the church Sethites come of age one two three the church Sethites come of age Okay, we're set now For the Sethites were God's people at that time in history Where did they find their identity in what or whom was their security what was their sense of purpose or meaning in life and What was their destiny? Let's buy let's begin by taking a closer look at the source of the Sethites identity In our text one cannot help but notice the omission of the development of culture that was highlighted in the canite lineage as Mike said last week the development of culture is a human endeavor and as an image bearer of God and There is no doubt that God's people were engaged in these vocations of the development of culture One needs only to look at David the musician the poet the military strategist the government established under the mosaic covenant The Jewel cutters carpenters are Keesons and gold and silver from Exodus 35 who helped to fashion the temple Boaz the farmer and civic leader Solomon the philosopher and scientist we could go on culture was being developed Amongst the line of Seth, but the point of the omission of the development of culture with the line of Seth is that they were people that were Primarily defined by their relationship to God and not the work of their hands This is highlighted in verse 26 then then began to call upon the name of the Lord And this is a phrase in Hebrew that carries with it a whole lot more than a shallow acknowledgement that God exists The phrasing compasses the worship of God allegiance to God prayer to God and a pervasive obedience and and love for God that pervades the whole of a man's life So you see the identity of the Sethites is centered on their worship of Yahweh There are two other things in our text that we should highlight about the identity of God's people First notice the name of Seth's first son Enoch and Hebrew the basic meaning of Enoch is man is in mankind Most commentators agree that this is a word that has its verbal roots in a Enoch Which literally means to be weak sick and frail the basic emphasis of the name Enoch would mean frailty or weakness So what is another identity Characteristic of the Sethites or God's people their lives are characterized by weakness and technology a Acknowledgement of weakness and frailty of utter dependence upon the Lord second Our identity as Their identity is also wrapped up in the name Yahweh the name Yahweh properly translated means I am who I am And Qil and Dillich two old testament scholars are quick to point out the following concerning the name of Yahweh The name Yahweh points out that the divine being is on the move pervading history and manifesting himself in the world moving with unlimited freedom This movement of the person of God in history, however has referenced the realization of the great purpose of that creation That is the salvation of men Jehovah therefore is the God of the history of salvation This is not so much shown so much in the etymology of the name, but in its historical expansion in other words When men began to call on the name of the Lord it was for their deliverance and salvation The Sethites knew that salvation was found in the Lord alone and in no ability and This was also an indelible mark of their identity and in this we see the gospel in Genesis 4 and 5 an Admission of weakness human frailty other dependence upon God and and looking to the Lord as the source of salvation the Lord alone So the identity of God's people is therefore wrapped up in the worship of God the The acknowledgment of human frailty and humble reliance upon the Lord alone for salvation Consider the radical distinction Of where the canites identity was found In place of the worship of God was the worship of self Seeing and building cities and naming them after their sons instead of an acknowledgment of human frailty You see pride and arrogance has seen in lawmax actions and declarations to heed his voice Finally in place of reliance upon the Lord alone for salvation the seat of Cain depended upon the arm of the flesh Lamek I have killed a man for wounding me even a young man for hurting me Now let's take a look at the security Where was the Sethites security found? Security is defined as being relieved from exposure to danger our freedom from fear and anxiety The righteous seat of God has already seen its first martyr in the godly man able What are more properly who is going to protect them from further bloodshed at the hands of wicked men? The source of the Sethites security is seen in two central things in our passage First it is seen when Eve states in Genesis 425 for God Elohim if you look at your Bible you'll see the word for God There is God which is translated from the word Elohim the name Elohim and Hebrew is a derivative of Allah Which means to fear Hebrew etymologists tell us that this name signifies all the object of fear the highest being to be feared and it's Intensive sense Elohim depicts the one true God as the infinitely great and exalted one who created the heavens and the earth and Who preserves in governs every creature? Now consider the subtle but theological significant difference when compared to Eve's first pronouncement of Cain's birth in Genesis 4.1 Take a look at it Now Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived in Boracane and she said I have acquired a man from the Lord from Yahweh Did you catch it? Why did Eve and one birth announcement invoked the name of Yahweh and Elohim in the other? accident or coincidence No way. This is the word of God Eve's hope is in the all Elohim that he will protect her and her seed now and throughout all generations to follow God is the all-powerful one and his purposes cannot be thwarted by wicked men like Cain or his seed Even when they slay the righteous God is a strong tower and all might ultimately the security of his people He is the sovereign one of Daniel 4.35 when he states all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth no one can restrain his hand or say to him What have you done? The security of the Sethites is found in the sovereign one. He is the one to be feared and Jesus of Nazareth and do not fear though is who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul Rather fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul and hell Matthew 1028 Elohim is able to do that Second the Sethites security is found in the appointed seed or Zera of the woman the promised headcrusher of the serpent from Genesis 315 the promises of God stand but but they are not going to be realized through Cain's line It is through the righteous set who replaces the righteous able that this promise will will be realized What comfort and security there is in knowing that a champion will arise and strike a blow that will destroy their enemies forever how different it is for the wicked for those of the line of Cain his literal And spiritual descendants and he's security that they believe they possess as a Mirage an Image that appears for but a moment in his gone Now let's turn our attention to the Sethites purpose in the world God is determined to bless the Sethites his people so that his name might be great in all the earth The Westminster shorter Catechism question one reads and well, she'd know this by heart by now What is the chief end of man? Well, man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever and John Piper's book the pleasures of God He altars the question and answers ever so slightly and he poses this question. What is the chief end of God? Answer God's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy and Forever, you know, this is at the heart of what the Bible teaches God is the most important person in the universe He is altogether lovely And the fact that God loves us the source of our blood and our hope is that God is all glorious It's not that God has this tremendous love for us which he does, but his tremendous love for us Is based on the fact that he has a tremendous passion for his glory and a love for himself Consider Isaiah 48 9 and 11 it highlights this aspect of God's character For the sake of my name I delay my wrath and for my praise I restrain it for you in order not to cut you off Behold I have refined you, but not as silver or I have been the furnace of affliction for my own sake For my own sake. I will act For how can my name be profaned in my glory? I will not give to another Yahweh the divine warrior on a move pervading human history does so Ultimately for his own glory own name sake and he will not give his glory to another The glory of God made manifest in all the earth is the overarching theme of the whole of human history This is in fact the purpose of all human history and the set-ites are calling are being called to participate in this greatest of dramas Question Have the global purposes of God to put his glory on display in all the earth failed because of the fall Answered no way Question have the global purposes of God to put his glory on display in the all the earth failed Because of the murder of the righteous seat able answer not a chance Psalm 2 he who sits in the heavens laughs The Lord shall hold them in derision Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion declares the Lord I will declare the decree and the Lord has said to me You are my son today I have begotten you ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possession You shall break them with a rod of iron you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel He laughs he laughs when men think in their pride and arrogance that they can thwart his purposes No, God's original design and purpose information will not and cannot be thwarted. They will be realized through Seth Genesis 5 Verses 1 through 3 and this is the book of gene of genealogy of Adam and the day when God created man He made them and the likeness of God He created the male and female he blessed them and named them man in the day when they were created When Adam had lived 130 years he became the father of a son in his own likeness according to his own image and named him Seth Now the purpose of the Sethites is found in fulfilling the original design of creation which was to glorify God in all the earth While the omission of the development of culture is striking in the genealogy of Seth Justice striking is the omission of the creation mandate in the canine genealogy the point Seth I have loved came I have hated God has rejected the line of came the Sethites are the objects of God's affection and through them will God manifest his glory to the nations It is in this high calling that the Sethites find their purpose meaning and dignity in life For there is no higher calling in life other than to worship the one true living God Life has purpose for the Sethite when he fulfills this primary calling We see this in the paradigmatic Sethite Enoch and not to be confused with skeinsun Enoch In Genesis 524 we read an Enoch walked with God and he was no more for God took him Purpose in life is found in walking with God is Enoch the righteous Sethite did The hardest boss comments about it what it means to walk with God Enoch is related to have walked with God and this means more than that he led a pious life For the customary phrases for that are to walk before God or to walk after God But to walk with God points to supernatural intercourse with God in other words God spoke to Enoch God revealed himself to Enoch through his spoken word and there was a sort of relation Well there was a relationship of intimate communion So the Sethites purpose in life is all wrapped up in the fact that God speaks to them And they listen and respond accordingly in obedience which fosters intimate communion What a contrast with Keynes line in Genesis 414 we see that came will never again be hold the face of God No more communion no more discourse no more intimacy no more blessing no more purpose The Keynites had become like a Boeing 747 still in flight that has permanently lost its hydraulics and navigational equipment Out of control with no sense of direction and headed for a certain destruction Finally, let's turn our attention to the destiny of the Sethites Our high school youth group is called 24-7 and that stands for loving God and others 24 hours a day 7 days a week and We engage on this event yearly called coast to coast And what coast to coast is we meet at 4 o'clock in the morning in some dark deserted parking lot Some central location around winter park and we pile into vans And we get ready to head on our 18 hour of adventure And what coast to coast is is we drive over to the east coast of Florida to catch the sunrise And then we make our way across the state and catch the sunset on the west coast of Florida And This may sound like torture to some of you to pile into vans with a bunch of teenagers at 4 o'clock in the morning Have but it's actually a lot of fun. We enjoy considerably And actually you know this is this this event has evolved into one of our more reflective meditative events We we begin the day Watching the sunrise with a service of worship and then as we make our way across the state we have strategic stops um, and if these strategic stops um, they're geared Uh to think of creative ways to get the teenagers and the adults to think about their relationship with God And one such stop was at the Orlando International Airport Now you got to picture this all 38 of us pile out of these vans. We're making our way through the the airport to the departure arrival terminals and you can just imagine the scene it looked like that scene in Cecil B. Demille's The Ten Commandments when they're coming out of Egypt. It's uh, I don't know people running all over the place and After a brief intermission with air port security, we finally made our way to the terminal And after we got there and after the mood it settled back down uh, I pose this question to the students What do all these people have in common? These folks that we see uh, at these gates the departure gates arrival gates And after a few minutes of reflection, I said well they all have a destination And the follow-up question was closely related What is the common destination of all men? And after a few more minutes we arrived at the answer death death Now you think that's kind of a party killer The mood became real sober as we talked about the fact that all men die That George Bernard Shaw agreed with our conclusion at OIA that morning in a witty fashion In his own witty fashion unequipped The statistics on death are staggering one out of one person dies Genesis 5 could appropriately be titled the death chapter Verse 5 records the death of Adam and he died Verse 8, Seth and he died verse 11, Enoch and he died Verse 14, Canaan and he died Verse 17, Mahalo and he died Verse 20, Jared and he died Verse 31, Lomac and he died And he died and he died He's all recorded the common destiny of the Sethites And where is the hope in that? That the Sethites die Well, there is hope in it And the hope is this in this That God is preserving a people for himself throughout every generation To manifest his glory to the nations And this is no small thing But it does not bring me much personal comfort If after I run the course of my life For the Lord's new and I passed on The baton to the next generation To know that my life is going to be snuffed out in death Where's the joy in this? Well, such knowledge of my destiny enabled me to persevere And serving the Lord throughout this life I don't think so If this is all there is I will live like a practical atheist who lives by the create eat drink And be married for tomorrow we die But for faithful Sethites The grave is not their ultimate destiny It is a reality a reality that is harsh Well, deserved and a reminder to keep things in proper perspective However, the Sethites great hope And ultimate destiny is also found in the person of Enoch Notice the death pattern is broken in this text in Genesis 5 For every descendant of Adam it is recorded and he died But not for Enoch Verse 24 And Enoch walked with God And he was not for God took him Yes Yes In this record lies the great hope and destiny For the faithful Sethite Enoch never pasted death Yahweh Elohim The great God who is all powerful Who pervades history has moved in And has the ability to rest you men from the teeth of death And grant them the eternal life promised to our first parents in the garden
Kill and deal it says this Enoch and Elijah were translated into eternal life With God without passing through disease death and corruption For the consolation of believers And to awaken the hope of a life after death What a destiny Eternal life with the most resplendent, majestic, glorious being that exists God Himself Consider Paul's spin in Isaiah 64, 4 is recorded in 1 Corinthians 2 But as it is written I has not seen nor ear heard Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him Destination Kiwi Tate D.A The city of God And now I saw a new heaven and a new earth For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away And there also was no sea Then I John saw the Holy Seisted New Jerusalem The Kiwi Tate D.A coming down out of heaven From God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying He behold that the tabernacle of God is with men And he will dealt well with them And they shall be his people God Himself will be with them And be their God He will wipe every tear from their eye There will be no more sorrow and more crying There shall be no more pain There shall be no more death For the former things that passed away Then he who sat on the throne said Behold I make all things new and he said to me right For these words are faithful and true What a destiny God has prepared for the faithful set-ite Are you a faithful set-ite
This was a similar question that Moses posed to the Israelites as they made their way from Egypt to the Promised Land They were called that they struggled with unbelief in various ways That they struggled with wanting to go back to Egypt and fearing the giants in the land and complaining and grumbling about their present conditions And you know the Bible tells us that not all of them made it That Paul tells us this in 1 Corinthians 10 He says more over brothers I want you to be unaware that our fathers were all under the cloud They passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses and the cloud and the sea They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual rock They drank from that spiritual rock that called them and the rock that they drank from was Christ But with most of them God was not pleased For their bodies were scattered around the wilderness But with most of them God was not pleased for their bodies were scattered around the wilderness Now these are not good percentages with most of them 51 percent I don't know who knows But beloved These words Should sobre us The core of our being These folks were no different than us in many ways. They began with the Lord Get many of them did not finish the race The stakes are high The enemy fears and the pilgrimage grueling Are we aware of our identity purpose security and destiny to the point that we will persevere to the end
What are the specific temptations that we face in the late 20th century It still is the late 20th century
Well, I think some of them are as follows Let's think about our identity for a moment We live in a world That is proud and arrogant That is much that is are the descendants of King spiritually Is what defines us the worship of God the acknowledgement of human frailty and a humble reliance upon the Lord for salvation Or are we caught up in the pursuit of making a name for ourselves in business athletics family scholastic achievement possessions the list goes on Paul ends that section about most of them perished in the wilderness He ends it with a exhortation saying flee from idolatry We need to flee from my idolatry What is your your view of time what is my view of time is it my time or is it God's time How do we view our money? Jesus said where your pocketbook is there your heart is Are your possessions idols you worship or tools that you use for building God's kingdom Is our identity being forged by being a people on pilgrimage or by seeking a comforts and security security and leisure of Egypt Paul tells us that God destroyed many unfaithful suffice in the world wilderness because they complained and exactly What was it they were complaining about you name it life in general they complain about their living conditions the food on their place The difficulty the fact that they didn't get a car when they turned 16 basically the whole deal They complained They developed a bad attitude and God will not allow an ungrateful people into his kingdom Sethites these Sethites forgot the truth revealed in Psalm 139 16 your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed and in your book They all were written the days fashion for me when yet as one of them came to be God not only saw their plate. He ordered it up He's sovereign So when they complained and grumbled and showed a generally bad attitude They were railing against the Lord This is true of all God's people today who fail to give thanks and all things and spur in the Lord's kindness It is the Lord who orders up your circumstances beloved and do not forget it So the next time you are tempted to complain and grumble you see it as despising The good purposes of God in your life It is tough living for God
But don't think That God is a guy who scatters the body of the unfaithful people in the past for their idolatry And that he is going to let ours go unchecked I want to close with reading a statement by Dr. John Piper He gave an address at a CMA conference a few years back And I believe it describes the practical atheism that is so prevalent in our culture and of what we need to guard ourselves against Dr. Piper said we live And if there are any vapas in the room this is a quote by Dr. Piper So blame him for what he says in here We live in an unbelievably naive and superficial age And that's the last thing that most people would think to say about it What I mean by superficial is something is superficial when the treatment of it involves everything you can say about it except the main things As a scholar you can say many things intelligently about many things and if you leave out the main connections In reality you're treating it superficially Therefore I conclude that media communication in America are all superficial I conclude that the educational enterprises in our universities are superficial I conclude that virtually all news reports are superficial I conclude that virtually all history books are superficial I conclude that virtually all public education is superficial And I conclude that virtually all editorial news commentary is superficial For one very simple reason that a child can understand It's because of the incredible, unspeakable and unimaginable disregard for God in it all God is the main reality in the universe and is the main connection, purpose, ground, and sustaining power of everything that is And therefore anytime you treat anything without relation to God You are superficial and the fact that that sounds odd to us shows how infected the CMA, the Baptist General Conference and all American Evangelicals are With our God neglecting God belittling and increasingly God despising age If you watch enough TV you can't help but forget God He isn't there and the sheer absence of God is blasphemy That was Gabe's point at the outset That is the heart of the city of man
Is God at the heart of our discourse Is God the one in whom we live and move and have our being
Christian We have a great destiny The Lord Jesus Christ has come God the Father has sent him in the world for his name sake to glorify his name the Gentiles My glorify God to the expression of his mercy We are safe in Jesus But let us not live like the Canis Let us lay hold on the one who has called us, who has redeemed us And who is glorious Who is worthy of the Lord of their lives That's great
Father, thank you that you have sent Jesus Thank you that you have put your glory on display in creation And as you've moved from your people throughout history And then the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for the cross of Christ And thank you that we have an identity in him We have security in him our purpose is wrapped up in him And we have a great destiny because of what he's done for us We praise you and we love you this morning And ask that you'd seal these things to our heart and Christ name