One of the most helpful principles that we encounter in the Word of God, it seems to me, is a principle that I enjoy calling the Banaya Principle. You may not know it by that designation, but I think it's a pattern that you will recognize as soon as you hear of it. I call it the Banaya Principle based on the name of one of the mighty men of David, whose exploits is recorded in Second Samuel chapter 23. Let me read the passage for you and you'll get the idea. Banaya, the son of Jehoeda, was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab's best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. Here we have, as elsewhere in this chapter, little echoes of David reflected in his mighty men, even as David killed a lion. So now also this Banaya did. Then it goes on to tell us and he struck down a huge Egyptian. What's that remind you of fighting a huge man? This is an obvious echo of David against Goliath but reading on. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Banaya went against him with just a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. Here then is the Banaya Principle that very frequently in the scriptures we find that the very weapon that the enemy would use against the people of God, the Lord in his great mercy turns against the enemy and is the cause of his undoing. It's a sign of divine retribution that the Lord is judging in such cases that he does this. In the book of Proverbs, for instance, we read about the man who would lay a trap for his neighbor by digging a pit but Proverbs says if you dig a pit for your neighbor, you fall into it yourself. You lay a trap for him, you yourself get caught up and so it's an evidence of God's justice that he causes these harmful intentions to recoil on ourselves, proof of his own justice. The Bible tells us of this same boomerang effect on many occasions where the enemy ends up killing each other rather than being successful in an attempt to destroy the people of God but supremely it's the principle of the cross, isn't it? There's the Banaya Principle, the principle of the cross where Christ defeated the enemy of our souls with his own favorite weapon, the weapon of death, the book of Hebrews chapter 2 tells us since the children have flesh and blood you and I. He too, Jesus too, shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. I'd like to argue in our moments together this morning that such also as God's strategy with respect to the city, to the city of man, to the cities of the world that seem to be from all outward appearances such proud edifices erected in rebellion against God. In fact, though in God's hand can be turned around use redemptively as his most effective tool for evangelism for reaching the world. It all begins, of course, back in Genesis chapter 4 in our text. If we had an opportunity we could see it in context and recognize that what we have set out for us in the book of Genesis is a history of two branches of humanity. A Genesis 3.15, God's pronouncement of judgment against Satan is the rubric for the entire book of Genesis. God says, I will put enmity between you Satan and the woman and between your seed and hers. Here then is irrevocably decreed by God this enmity, this otherwise inexplicable hostility that exists between these two branches of humanity. Of the seed of the serpent refers to those human beings that bear a spiritual likeness to Satan and the seed of the woman to that portion of humanity that bears a likeness to Eve. And of course, Eve is not the emblem of perfection you understand. Eve was hardly perfect, but she is the symbol of redemption. God's forgiveness extended to her now, shared with those who are her seed. And so as Genesis in the following chapters unfold, we jump back and forth. First, considering the seed of the serpent and Genesis 4, and then at the end of Genesis 4, the seed of the woman, and then Genesis 5, the seed of the woman, and then back to Genesis 6, the seed of the serpent. And so it goes through the book, tracing one genealogical line and pitting it over against the other. Given that background, then in our text, when we read how the city was the invention of the line of pain, an invention out of the apostate line, the seed of the serpent, that's the worst possible lineage you can imagine. I would say that's all I need to hear. I understand perfectly the world's first murderer was also the inventor of the world's first city. He invented it in the aftermath of his own sentence of judgment away from the presence of God. And so we see already intimated the spiritual heritage of the city as a pagan or secular answer to Eden. This is pain's answer to the paradise of God from which he's been expelled. St. Augustine in the 5th century was alert to this spiritual message about the origin of the city and saw a remarkable parallel with respect to Rome, the eternal city, the city which for a half a millennium had represented civilization, order, stability for all the people including Augustine there in Alexandria and the north a part of Africa. St. Augustine was living at the time and writing in the aftermath of the fall of Rome in 410. After a two-year siege in which the citizenry of Rome were reduced to cannibalism then the Goths and Aleric the king came into the city and for three days they murdered the people its inhabitants terrorizing them, looting whatever treasures were left burning all the buildings and so on. And of course the effect of the news of the fall of Rome can scarcely be overestimated. Jerome in Jerusalem the Christian Jerome when he heard news of the fall of Rome cried out if Rome can perish what can be safe. It would be like turning on the evening news and seeing reports about how some enemy nation has gone up the Potomac and taken over our nation's capital. Washington DC is now under siege or the capital is now being held by enemy soldiers and so on. Even if sometimes we feel it's some political removed from Washington and its values you can see how unsettling that kind of news would be we would wonder well now what's next what's to become of civilization Augustine responding to that crying anguish need of his contemporaries ministering even to the refugees of Rome that now had fled all the way to Alexandria and now in his parish wrote his magnum opus the city of God and he explains echoing the story of the founding of the original city by the world's first murderer he tells the story about the true spiritual nature of Rome and he reminds his readers of the legend of how Rome had been founded by Romulus after he murdered his brother his twin brother ramus. A Rome founded by a murderer who wanted to now keep all the glory for himself and eliminate the competition of this twin brother and Augustine then sees this as an apt symbol for the arrogance and savage buggery that underlies not just Rome but every human civilization the city of man wherever it is to be found and starting from that debased beginning Augustine then in his city of God records for us all the other evidences that rate under the outward pomp and glory and architectural wonder and all the rest of it of Rome lies a lethal sewage of moral and spiritual decadence just right under the surface here's the real history of Rome and so Augustine concludes though God's ways are inscrutable to us nevertheless if God allowed Rome to fall it was surely not an act of injustice that God and his temporal judgments had allowed this city finally to reap what it had soon Augustine knew that this was not the whole story of cities however although this explained the fall of Rome although it does justice to the original city the city of Enoch first founded by Cain it isn't the whole story because God has another purpose with respect to cities that comes clear as you read through Genesis and the later books of the Bible the city of man that begins with self love God redemptively is going to turn around he's going to launch a counter offensive and it will end with the love of God the Genesis chapter 4 if I had read on you would have realized that this is not the only cultural attainment recorded in attributed to the line of Cain as Genesis 4 continues we read about not only urbanization that starts with Cain but we also learned something about nomadism and its origin in the line of Cain and animal husbandry and then after that we read about the invention of the original musical instruments and finally even metallurgy technology in in the arts in all of their variegated manifestations coming out of the line of Cain and of course when we look at that list when we put it all together and see that cities are just among them then we get the point that it's not that cities are intrinsically evil in spite of the pedigree they're not intrinsically evil it's a matter of use and abuse it's a matter of what's the purpose that they are designed to serve and just as those musical instruments later on those very same ones invented here in the line of Cain will later on be used by David to sing God's praise so also the cities even obtain ultimately the cities of Cain and will be used in the sovereign purpose of God for his redemption what makes a city a city a why did Cain invent a city anyway I mean there wasn't you know like this massive population that needed to be accommodated you know they're interesting problems connected with this in the text other ancillary issues Cain's wife and so on Genesis five talks about how Adam and Eve had many other children and the implication of the text is that's that there is some population there for sure but that's not the real point that's not what makes the city a city what makes the city a city in terms of biblical language is that this is intended as a permanent settlement that's all a place where you get to reside rather than adjust the temporary encampment what makes this city a city what Cain's purpose in originating and founding this city is of course his answer to the curse of being thrust out from the presence of God into a world in which well anyone can kill you after all he himself saw this when he took his brother out in the field where no one's watching out beyond where the law might be felt out in the rural areas and wilderness beyond the perimeter of civilization as it were and so the invention of the city is really as a refuge from that danger that was so acute in the mind of Cain a refuge from his wandering and from his exposure a refuge from meaninglessness even many authors have noticed that the text tells us that not only does he found a city but he also has a son and it's set out in parallelism and in Hebrew there's a little play on words here a son Ben in Hebrew a son is called a son is called a Ben because you build him you may not feel like that you're having that kind of influence on your children but nevertheless they're the monument to your parental efforts and and so there's a kind of a parallelism here in Cain who has now murdered his wife suddenly aware of the brevity of life seems to be compelled a little bit by this insecurity and desire to achieve a self-made immortality make his mark and so he begets the son and he builds the city or he builds the son and he builds the city but that which is just hinted at in this text is reinforced as you read through Genesis and discover that surely is the motive for the building of other cities like the building of the city of Babel referred to in Genesis 11 and we continue to have the city of man described in terms of later cities like those cities of Sodom and Gamora that are mentioned in the book of Genesis but God's purpose is not just to enathmetize the city and say start up another program of perhaps a flight into the wilderness a monastic movement of withdrawal that's not what God intends for his people instead what the book of Genesis reveals is God's intention to give to his people that which apostate man is seeking in the city but will never find it they want security but they'll never find it there they want community they feel acutely lonely and exposed and alienated but it won't be found in the city of man but God has a city for his people Hebrews chapter 11 says of Abraham that by faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country he lived in tents as did Isaac and Jacob who were heirs with him of the same promise and what was the promise what was God's promise for he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God everything that men want and women want and families want and the earthly city is something God has for his people in the heavenly city in a city that can be ours and can be ours even in measure in this life God's intention for the cities of Canaan was not obliteration it was rather dispossession it was to go in and take those cities and bring them under new management liberating them from service to man to now service to the creator of men Deuteronomy chapter 6 tells us when the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your forefathers to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to give you a land with large and flourishing cities you did not build houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide wells you did not dig vineyards and olive groves you did not plant when he does that don't be ungrateful don't allow it to seduce you into a self-sufficiency recognize these good gifts as just tokens of his love and of course that text that implies the cities were not inherently evil they're good wonderful things to be used in the service of God and of course that's exactly what we then find elsewhere in the Bible even though preeminent city the Canaanite city Jerusalem is adopted and is made to become the city of God God's people took over this pagan city to turn it into a city in service of the Lord that's the paradigm now sometimes the paradigm can be described in that way one of dispossession taking over in other occasions it seems to be described in terms of invasion or launching a beach head within the city when Israel was later on sent out to Babylon in the Babylonian captivity they were removed from Jerusalem the city of God and sent out to Babylon surely the city of man but this is what God revealed through Jeremiah the prophet in chapter 29 this is what the Lord of hosts the God of Israel says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon what do you do in Babylon are you going to circle the wagons are you going to retreat into some kind of protected enclave so that you can somehow rather resist the temptations of the world and guard your children so that your values will not be assaulted or you roll up your sleeves and get involved what's your purpose in Babylon to survive or to take over to win over the neighbor including ultimately King Nebuchadnezzar himself as he's converted under the ministry of Daniel here's the word of the Lord Jeremiah 29 when you're in Babylon build houses and settle down plant gardens and eat what they produce marry and have sons and daughters fine wives for your sons and give your daughters and marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters brief fruitful and multiply increase in number there do not decrease and seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I carry you into exile yeah pray for the peace of Jerusalem pray for the peace of Babylon that's what Jeremiah 29 says pray for the peace of Boston or Paris Moscow whatever other city with which you identify and find yourself inhabiting seek the peace and the prosperity of the city to which I carried you into exile pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers you too will prosper it's a plan not for demolition but for conversion talk about the ultimate program for urban renewal you get in there and you're 11 in the community and you take it over we who do not have an enduring city in this life but are looking for the city that is to come as Hebrews 13 puts it of course this principle then is played out in the New Testament this is the backdrop for the urban strategy that we see described in the book of Acts for how the gospel turned the world upside down in just a few short years and the irony is the Baniya principle Alexander the great in the 4th century BC when he was conquering the known world the remnants of the Persian Empire right across Asia Minor down the Levant from Egypt all the way to the Indus 100 miles beyond when he did that everywhere he went he was not content merely to defeat the enemy he wanted to take them over and so he planted cities in what is called by many historians the first urban wave cities littered the empire cities that were going to be centers of propaganda to win the hearts of the people so they would learn the Greek language as they did and be wooed by the Greek culture in all of its occurrences by the theater and by the gymnasia and all the rest of it and they won it wasn't the military victories that were so impressive as this spiritual victory for Hellenism for the world and life view of Alexander and his successors Antioch was just one of those cities how you can go all the way to Kendaher in Afghanistan named after Alexander founded by him still bearing his name Alexander in Egypt the biggest city second largest city in the Roman Empire by that period of time founded by Alexander you just go right across the whole map and Antioch was the third city half a million souls by the New Testament a center for propaganda for Hellenism that's the epicenter for the gospel of Jesus Christ that's where God started his missionary church with the sending out of Paul and Barnabas there in that cross cultural community why because you see whatever is in the city automatically gets exported into the country you can help it if it's real and attractive it spreads like wildfire if it can make it happen in the city and so the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts later on we read in Ephesus Acts chapter 19 Paul just stayed put right in the city preach the gospel for two years so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord from there the gospel spreads like wildfire because there is constant commerce because every city is an international city just like Boston is even as we were reminded a few months ago and found 41 different nations represented in our morning worship service here at Park Street Church imagine if there's real transformation by the Holy Spirit in this body of Christ it will be unstoppable uncontainable the gospel rides the wave of the urban wave it did so in the first instance in the in the period of the New Testament the urban wave the second urban wave was no different when the cities of Europe were rebuilt and repopulated after the great the the black death the black plague that decimated all of Europe where one quarter of the population died 40 million people from bubonic plague and ultimately from other opportunistic diseases the cities of Europe were reduced to ghost towns but in the plan of God as those cities were rebuilt and as universities were built in them for the first time the 14th century more than 50 universities in Europe were constructed citadels of intellectual activity in the interests of the Renaissance initially to be used against the gospel but God using the baniah principle took the spear out of the enemy's hand and used those centers of learning to launch the reformation think of the cities of Germany most of them there were Protestant movements that were tremendously effective more than 200 of the cities and towns of Germany in the wake of Martin Luther's activity overwhelmingly Protestant all the largest cities became again epicenters for the spread of the gospel the same thing happened in the third urban wave in the industrial revolution the last century the cities of america and england were filled packed with people who were disenchanted with formalistic religion the desperation of their need drove them to settle for nothing less than a real gospel in the churches the formal churches weren't providing it and it was in the wake of that need that then the YMCA and the YWCA got started which we think of as just building muscles but then we're building souls on fire for Christ it was then at in the wake that Charles Spiny and Dwight El Moody converted Moody in the case of Moody right down here on state street thanks to the ministry of a congregational church on Mount Vernon street these men preached to over a hundred million people because they preached in the cities of america and england and transform them you and i are living in the wake of the fourth urban wave for the first time in all human history half of the world's population live in cities half of them all of them can be reached from the cities by the grace of god do we think of the city as a place of alienation and loneliness of broken families of fatherless children then you can be sure god loves the city because he's a father to the fatherless a defender of widows is god and his holy dwelling dwelling god sets the lonely in family Psalm 68 do we think of the cities as melting pots of diverse culture that often leads to the breeding ground of racial and ethnic tension then you can be sure god loves the city because it provides the ideal platform for what he loves about the church that it's across cultural multi-ethnic multi-racial international fellowship of believers in Christ whose citizenship is above do we think of the city in terms of its other needs of desperation of poverty well then we know Christ loves it because the greater the need the greater the compassion do we think of cities as susceptible to evil and corruption and moral decadence then we know Christ loves him because he said is it not the healthy the healthy who need a doctor but the sick i've not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance here then as our calling brothers and sisters in Christ he told us the master said that we must be a city on a hill the city of god planted smack dab in the midst of the city of man praying that the power of Christ the city be taken over for the one to whom it belongs may it be so through us let us pray our father in heaven we ask that you might make us ambassadors of the gospel of Jesus Christ may you help this church to make a huge difference by the power of your Holy Spirit may it be so Lord yes of course at Kingston House and among those who in material terms seem so needy but may it also be the case in the state house may no citadel no proud structure no boardroom in the financial district no flop house or halfway house be immune from the reach of the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ we pray through his name amen