WEBVTT 00:00:00.959 --> 00:00:01.600 Hello, friends. 00:00:01.679 --> 00:00:02.799 This is Pastor Creighton. 00:00:02.959 --> 00:00:06.080 Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast. 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:13.359 At Newsong Church, we want to see Jesus lifted high in Port Perry, Ontario, as we worship, grow, and serve. 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:18.800 You can learn more about us and find contact info at newsongportperry.ca. 00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:26.879 The first lesson is taken from Genesis chapter 4, verses 17 to 26. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:33.039 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:39.600 When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch. 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:52.560 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mahujael fathered Methuzael, and Bethusael fathered Lammach. 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:55.759 And Lamak took two wives. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:00.880 The name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other Zillah. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:03.759 Ada bore Jabal. 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:08.640 He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:12.319 His brother's name was Jubal. 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:17.439 He was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:20.879 Zillah also bore Tubal Cain. 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:25.760 He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:29.040 The sister of Tubal Cain was Naema. 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:35.840 Lammoch said to his wives, Ada and Zillah, hear my voice. 00:01:36.159 --> 00:01:39.680 You wives of Lamac, listen to what I say. 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:45.439 I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:52.239 If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamk's is seventy-sevenfold. 00:01:53.599 --> 00:01:59.680 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth. 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:07.519 For she said, God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:13.360 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:18.000 At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord. 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:20.240 This is the word of the Lord. 00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:22.000 Thanks be to God. 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:31.680 If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamac's revenge is seventy-sevenfold. 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:33.759 Let's pray. 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:45.840 Gracious Lord, we come to your word today with hands open. 00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:57.199 We pray for the guidance and illumination of your Holy Spirit to guide us through such a difficult and honest text as this. 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:11.280 And we pray, Lord, that as we encounter your word, we would also encounter your power and your hope and your promise and be drawn to our Savior Christ. 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:13.759 So would you open up this word to us? 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:15.759 We ask in Jesus' name. 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:16.719 Amen. 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:18.800 Please be seated. 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:30.479 Anger and hate are seeds that germinate war. 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:35.599 Forgiveness is a seed for peace. 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:40.240 It is the ultimate act of self-healing. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:46.639 This word healing is an important one. 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:49.039 It's related to the word salvation. 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:52.479 Salvation has its root in the word salve, healing, right? 00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:56.240 You think of a salve that allows for healing. 00:03:56.719 --> 00:03:59.759 Forgiveness is the ultimate act of self-healing. 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:03.759 Maybe we could say it's the ultimate act of salvation. 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:09.439 But I wonder how the servant in our gospel reading would respond to that. 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:17.040 When the same servant who was forgiven by his master went out, he found a fellow servant who owed him a hundred denare. 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:22.079 Maybe a substantial debt, but not nearly as substantial of what he owed his master. 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:24.399 He seized him, he choked him. 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:26.639 He said, Pay what you owe. 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:36.160 And no matter how the servant pleaded with him, he refused him, put him in prison until he exacted his revenge. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:46.240 See, for this servant, violence, oppression, retaliation, that's the way to salvation. 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:49.600 That's the way for me to secure myself. 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:52.319 That's the way for a better life. 00:04:52.639 --> 00:04:58.560 This servant, we might think, lives in a lamic kind of world. 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:01.199 The world wasn't always a lamic world. 00:05:01.279 --> 00:05:08.399 We've been traveling through the first 11 chapters of Genesis, arriving in chapter, the last half of chapter four today. 00:05:08.639 --> 00:05:14.639 We saw in Genesis chapter 1 and 2 that God designed all of creation for our flourishing. 00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:21.839 He made us in his image to cultivate and partner with him in this work of creation. 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:29.279 God desires our flourishing in accordance with his wonderful and divine design for us. 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:34.079 But in Genesis chapter 3, we saw where things went off the rails. 00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:44.480 Through self-interest, through self-rebellion, our first parents turned their back on God's good will for them and instead turned to their own. 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:48.800 And we see everything start to come off the rails from there. 00:05:49.439 --> 00:06:00.720 But not without a word of promise, because at our lowest moment God speaks this promise in Genesis 3.15 that He will work salvation through a promised offspring. 00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:08.319 That the head of this deceiving serpent will ultimately be crushed by someone who will be dealt a lethal blow himself. 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:12.959 There is hope for deliverance from a world corrupted by sin. 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:16.720 We've yet to fully see what that's going to look like. 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:19.759 And so Genesis 3, things are going off the rails. 00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:21.920 Nevertheless, God is committed to his world. 00:06:22.079 --> 00:06:24.639 So we see Genesis chapter 4. 00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:28.560 Corruption begins to be perpetuated in the next generation. 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:33.680 Cain resentfully turns against his brother Abel and kills him. 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:44.639 And ever since Genesis 4, we've lived in this tension, in a world of tension between God's grace and sinful corruption. 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:50.399 It's like we're at war with one another on the outside and on the inside of ourselves. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:54.639 We live in this tension of God's grace and sinful corruption. 00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:59.279 And I think that's exactly what we see in this last half of Genesis chapter 4. 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:11.199 It's almost as if what happened on this personal scale between Cain and Abel is playing itself out on a much wider scale as sin spirals and perpetuates, it grows like a fungus. 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:16.160 Nevertheless, God's grace is still at work. 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:21.120 We live in the tension between God's grace and sinful corruption. 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:23.439 So pull out your Bible, pull out your order of service. 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:26.000 Let's have a look at Genesis chapter 4. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:29.680 There are two things primarily I want us to see in this text today. 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:32.639 I think it's important for us to see in this text today. 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:37.759 One is we live in a world where God's grace is perpetually at work. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:41.600 Common grace allows humanity to flourish. 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:44.800 We have not forfeited human flourishing. 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:47.839 God is still committed to his creation. 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:55.839 But even still, we should also see that human disintegration and corruption and cruelty remain. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:01.920 It's almost like these two tracks are in perpetual tension with one another. 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:07.040 God's grace is still at work in Genesis chapter 4. 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:08.959 Let's look at verse 17. 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:14.639 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:20.800 And when Cain built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch. 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:22.639 To Enoch was born Irad. 00:08:22.879 --> 00:08:28.720 Irad fathered Mahujael, and Mahujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lammach. 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:31.519 And boy, that was a tongue twister there. 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:35.440 Kudos to Susan O for just nailing that, by the way. 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:38.320 So a couple of things we can glean here. 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:41.200 One, a common question is where does Cain's wife come from? 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:42.080 Is it his sister? 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:43.759 Is it a distant relative? 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:46.879 You know, the text doesn't seem hung up on this question. 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:49.279 I suggest we we ought not to be either. 00:08:49.519 --> 00:09:00.559 I wonder if this is meant to be a suggestion that what's been happening, God's work with this immediate family, is starting to branch out and become a wider human story. 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:05.679 There's something about others being invited into this story and participating in it. 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:08.720 So Cain builds a city. 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:15.279 No longer is this merely kind of a nomadic existence or simply a kind of agrarian existence. 00:09:15.440 --> 00:09:21.120 The Bible envisions a city is being built and civilization begins. 00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:23.759 Cities are not evil. 00:09:23.919 --> 00:09:33.120 Sometimes we conclude, based on a reading of Genesis, that, you know, the garden and country life, that's all good, but cities are nothing but filth and sin. 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:36.960 And that by no means should be the conclusion we we draw here. 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:47.840 In fact, what begins in a garden of Eden, the Bible ultimately concludes will be realized fully in a city, in the new heavens and new earth. 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:55.440 Cities aren't evil, it suggests that civilization and mutual dependence and security is starting to develop. 00:09:55.600 --> 00:10:00.159 God's at work even in the fabric of society as it's being built. 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:04.559 Civilization finds strength and mutual dependence. 00:10:04.639 --> 00:10:08.559 It's not an independent living, it's depending on one another. 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:10.879 So we see Lamech took two wives. 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:12.720 We'll return to that in a second. 00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:21.120 The name of one wife was Ada, and the other was Zillah, and Ada bore Jabal, and who was the father of those who dwelt in tents and have livestock. 00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:26.320 His brother's name was Jubal, and he was the father of those who play lyre and pipe. 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:29.360 Zilla also was bore Tubalcane. 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:33.039 He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:35.440 And the sister of Tubalcane was Na'ama. 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:38.559 So a couple of things we should see here. 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:44.720 From one generation to the next, we're starting to see specialization happen. 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:50.720 We're starting to see the facets that make up civilization and society develop. 00:10:50.879 --> 00:11:00.000 We see Jabal becomes the father, so to speak, of building shelter instead of just having a nomadic existence or seeking out caves. 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:03.440 He's he's building tents and he's breeding animals. 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:08.080 Resources and cattle and the earth are starting to be used and developed. 00:11:08.159 --> 00:11:11.120 And Jubal, his brother, develops music. 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:23.679 And Tubal cane, metalwork, and metallurgy, these things that civilization depends upon are the very things being realized in the history of this biblical family. 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:26.960 So there's strength and mutual dependence here. 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:32.879 And this is not just for this family, but it's for all of humanity. 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:38.000 See, God's grace is the sort of grace that reigns on the just and the unjust alike. 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:54.480 Whatever state for this city, God wills they're flourishing, and we're starting to see civilization take shape through the arts and through these professions and trades, these things that build up a stronger society. 00:11:54.639 --> 00:12:09.600 That's why church reformer John Calvin observes that the invention of arts and other things which serve to the common use and convenience of life is a gift of God, by no means to be despised, and a faculty worthy of commendation. 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:20.320 It is truly wonderful, he says, that this race, who has most deeply fallen from integrity, should have excelled the rest of the posterity in Adam in rare endowments. 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:27.360 He concludes the excellent gifts of the Spirit are diffused through the whole human race. 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:34.559 So one thing I think this should suggest is that Christians ought not to despair of the world. 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:40.559 Sometimes I wonder if we posture ourselves towards despairing of world that's going to hell in a handbasket. 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:49.200 There are times we should recognize hell at work in the world, but we ought not to despair of the world completely as if there is no good in it. 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:55.200 Because to deny that there's good in the world is to deny that God is at work in the world by his grace. 00:12:55.440 --> 00:13:02.399 These are common gifts that God is giving to all humanity, and we should recognize God's grace at work in the whole of creation. 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:06.960 God is working his common grace through as civilization begins. 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:11.679 Common grace is enabling humanity to flourish. 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:19.360 Even on this side of the fall, we see that God mercifully oversees human flourishing. 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:31.519 But even still, with God's flourishing and grace, we still see human disintegration and cruelty remain. 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:36.320 So we see Lamech took two wives in verse 19. 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:39.440 Polygamy is introduced for the very first time in the Bible. 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:42.639 It's something that'll run especially through the Old Testament. 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:45.360 It raises many questions in our minds. 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:48.240 Here's one thing I think we need to. 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:57.440 Well, I think it's significant we should observe that the first mention of polygamy is in relationship to one of the most violent men in early scripture. 00:13:57.679 --> 00:14:01.120 So this is not something that is meant to be a godly development. 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:05.840 This is a disintegration of the human condition, of what God has instituted. 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:11.200 In fact, it's it's a complete reversal of God's ideal in Genesis 2, verse 24. 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:24.960 God has spoken to, or pardon me, the narrator interjects into the story to say, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:31.600 God's design for marriage is to be a spiritual and physical union that generates life. 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:38.480 It is a mutually flourishing partnership for husband and wife, but now it's being overturned. 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:47.279 Now Lamak has made marriage into something where he and a partner are not co-equals, but there's domination, there's competition. 00:14:47.759 --> 00:14:57.519 And any time we see polygamy play itself out in the Old Testament, even amongst those we consider heroes of the Old Testament, we never see it work out for human flourishing. 00:14:57.600 --> 00:15:00.480 We only see it work out for human disintegration. 00:15:00.879 --> 00:15:08.799 So even though God is at work by his common grace, we're starting to observe in the fabric of our relationships, things are fraying at the seams. 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:16.559 And of course, that's most fully realized in Lamech's act of violence. 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:21.919 Lamech says to his wives, Ada and Zillah, hear my voice. 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:25.519 You wives of Limech, listen to what I have to say. 00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:27.919 He's saying, This is really, really important. 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:33.120 It's remarkable, this is the one line of dialogue we have from Lamech in the whole Bible. 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:35.759 This is what we ought to know about this fellow. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:42.879 He says to his wives, I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:49.759 If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's revenge is seventy-sevenfold. 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:57.120 So this could mean one of two things, or combination of the two, I wonder. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:07.360 Either Lamech is saying that, reflecting on his ancestor Cain, he's saying that Cain exacted a sort of sevenfold revenge on his brother Abel. 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:14.480 And so if Cain enacted a sevenfold revenge on Abel, Lamech is saying, I'm going to take it to the nth degree. 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:16.000 I'm going to go even further. 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:20.159 What was sevenfold is going to become seventy-sevenfold. 00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:29.759 So one commentator can say that Lamech's taunt song reveals the swift progress of sin, where Cain had succumbed to it. 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:32.480 Lamech exalts in it. 00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:34.320 This is a point of pride. 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:36.720 He wants his wives to know this. 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:55.919 So either it means Cain's exacting an even greater revenge than, pardon me, Lammock is revec exacting an even greater revenge than Cain, or it could mean that Lammoch is turning God's promise to Cain on its head. 00:16:56.159 --> 00:17:00.320 If you remember, earlier in chapter 4, God makes a promise to Cain. 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:05.119 Even having murdered his brother, God still shows grace and mercy to Cain. 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:06.799 And he makes Cain this promise. 00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:09.039 Cain is so fearful for his life. 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:10.640 Doesn't matter that he just killed his brother. 00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:12.799 Cain is fearful for Cain. 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:15.440 But God makes him this promise out of his mercy. 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:21.440 If anyone kills Cain, God says, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold. 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:27.839 And the idea here is that God is saying to Cain, I am guaranteeing your security. 00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:32.720 I am the greatest guarantee of your protection that there can be. 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:46.079 But I wonder if Lamak is reflecting on God's promise to Cain and saying that he believes that he can exponentially protect himself even better than God can. 00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:58.000 It's like, God, if you can protect Cain sevenfold, I think in my act of brutal, ruthless violence, I can protect myself 77fold. 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:09.119 It's like dethroning God, as if to say, my violence and retaliation and domination and oppression, that's the real means to salvation here. 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:17.680 But either way, either way you look at this verse, in Lammock's world, I think we conclude, might means right. 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:27.039 The thing about Lammock's world, this might means right kind of world is not something that just lives in a forgotten past, is it? 00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:41.119 One particularly pivotal figure in history who inspired a generation to overcome economic depression and national guilt and disgrace. 00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:45.920 He says this as he's coming to influence, coming to power. 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:56.640 He says, I desire a violent, domineering, fearless, and ferocious upcoming generation. 00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:03.039 It must show no signs whatsoever of weakness or tenderness. 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:09.440 The free and magnificent predator must once again glint from their eyes. 00:19:09.759 --> 00:19:11.440 Can you guess who that was? 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:13.680 It was Adolf Hitler. 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:17.839 Lammeck's world is not something that lives in the distant past. 00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:26.640 Lammeck's world shows itself wherever might makes right, wherever weakness is liability to be crushed by strength. 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:28.799 That's the way to salvation. 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:35.839 We hear it echoed in Vladimir Putin's words in 2004, the weak are always beaten. 00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:41.119 It's as if the strong have permission to beat them by the sheer fact that they're strong. 00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:46.799 And on this side of the fall, humanity remains corrupted. 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:53.680 Violence and retaliation so often does seem to be the way of self-salvation. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:57.440 This is how I trust to find my security. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:06.720 And so we live in this tension of God's grace for flourishing in the world, but sinful corruption that lends itself to a world coming unhinged. 00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:18.480 And we might wonder, especially in our moment of particular anxiety, will God's common grace always be challenged and corrupted by the Lammocks of the world? 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:24.720 Is there hope for anything better than Lammock's world of retaliation? 00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:30.799 I think we start to glean hope as we conclude our passage here. 00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:42.960 Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him. 00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:48.319 To Seth also was a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. 00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:54.319 And at that time, the narrator says, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. 00:20:56.160 --> 00:20:57.839 And that's really significant. 00:21:01.119 --> 00:21:09.519 Here we have an echo of that promise in Genesis chapter 3 that a coming offspring will be the deliverance for sin. 00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:11.599 That's not been forgotten. 00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:13.759 It's being carried forward. 00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:23.359 Adam and Eve have hope for their son Seth that he might bring forth this chosen offspring. 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:28.240 But people began to call upon the name of the Lord. 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:42.240 Even from within Lamech's world, corrupted by sin, characterized by so much violence and retaliation, people begin to look beyond and call out for the mercy and grace of God. 00:21:43.839 --> 00:21:47.839 See, in Lamech's world, salvation means having the biggest stick. 00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:51.680 But in God's world, things are turned upside down. 00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:59.759 Calling out to God is to find salvation not in retaliation, but in forgiveness. 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:02.720 And through forgiveness. 00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:09.440 Andrea Tom writes that forgiveness does not mean forgetting or excusing egregious acts. 00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:16.160 It does not insist that reconciliation be immediate or return to its previous form. 00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:20.640 It does not remove any legal consequences that may apply. 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:34.720 However, forgiveness does cost us deeply because through it we choose to lay down our right to have our offender owe us. 00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:56.799 It asks us to extend love and kindness, even when it's undeserved, to trust God to avenge our situation instead of ourselves, and to use life's conflicts as opportunities to display God's character. 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:04.799 Forgiveness, for Andrea Tom, is not weakness. 00:23:05.759 --> 00:23:17.599 Forgiveness is strength that overcomes hatred and violence and retaliation by refusing to participate in them, by refusing to perpetuate them. 00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:22.400 I began with a quote about forgiveness. 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:26.319 This is a quote from Eva Moses Korr. 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:34.160 She was an Auschwitz survivor, subjected to the very worst sort of experimentation under Dr. 00:23:34.319 --> 00:23:35.119 Mengele. 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:55.279 For decades she experienced the trauma, the anger, the devastation of having experienced the full horror of a violent, domineering, and ferocious generation. 00:23:57.279 --> 00:24:07.519 She struggled for decades, but Eva was driven by a desire to experience peace and inner healing. 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:14.079 And therefore she endeavored to unburden herself of the hatred and anger that she felt. 00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:25.119 In 1995, during the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Eva publicly forgave the Nazis for what they had done to her and to her family. 00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:36.880 And in 2015, Eva took the extraordinary step of publicly embracing and forgiving a former SS guard who worked at Auschwitz. 00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:43.039 Eva says, anger and hate are seeds that germinate war. 00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:47.680 Forgiveness is a seed for peace. 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:52.400 It is the ultimate act of self-healing. 00:24:53.200 --> 00:25:00.240 Forgiveness for Eva is not weakness, it is salvation. 00:25:00.799 --> 00:25:04.000 This is an extraordinary kind of forgiveness, isn't it? 00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:05.200 Certainly it is. 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:10.240 None of us, I'm sure, know what it means to forgive on this sort of scale. 00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:21.440 But I'm willing to bet that you and I both know what it is to be struck and wounded in Lameck's world. 00:25:22.480 --> 00:25:30.079 To feel the hardness and bitterness of anger well up in our hearts and plant itself there. 00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:34.400 Maybe what starts small starts to grow over time. 00:25:35.599 --> 00:25:40.880 And suddenly we discover ourselves living, as it were, captive to our own unforgiveness. 00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:46.319 There's perhaps more of Lammock in us than we would first like to admit. 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:49.039 We can be a little like Peter. 00:25:49.279 --> 00:25:56.480 Peter, living in Lammock's world, comes up to Jesus and said, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? 00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:01.039 As many as seven times, which bear in mind that seven is the number of completion. 00:26:01.200 --> 00:26:05.359 So Peter's like, seven is a pretty exceptional number to forgive someone, right? 00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:13.680 And Jesus says to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. 00:26:13.920 --> 00:26:17.200 Or some translations say seventy times seven. 00:26:17.359 --> 00:26:18.480 The idea is the same. 00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:20.640 It's to the nth degree. 00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:33.680 To the degree to which we live in Lamech's world of seventy-sevenfold retaliation, Christ is calling us to live in the kingdom of seventy-seven-fold forgiveness. 00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:38.319 Jesus has turned Lamach's world upside down. 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:49.440 He understands that there is no sin committed that isn't outmatched by God's grace to the nth degree. 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:55.680 This is the seventy-seventh-fold forgiveness that we see at the foot of the cross. 00:26:56.240 --> 00:27:18.960 Here is where Jesus, taking on our human condition, entering into Lammock's world of violence and corruption and retaliation and sin, bears the full consequence of Lamech's world upon himself, a victim of violence, wounded on behalf of sinners, struck for our iniquities. 00:27:20.319 --> 00:27:28.000 But it's the fullness of God's grace in Christ on the cross that overcomes Lamech's world of sin. 00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:41.440 And now through Christ's resurrection, we are promised that newness of life animated by the Spirit, releasing our hearts from an endless cycle of retaliation in Lamech's world. 00:27:41.599 --> 00:27:47.920 And it frees us from the demands of retaliation and calls us to trust in God's justice. 00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:54.720 True flourishing is made possible only through the cross and resurrection. 00:27:55.119 --> 00:28:02.559 That's why scholar David Atkinson can write that in Christ the law of retaliation is forever set aside. 00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:12.160 As a lamb before its shearers is silent, so when unjustly accused, Christ did not open his mouth. 00:28:12.400 --> 00:28:15.680 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. 00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:24.400 When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he trusted to him who judges justly. 00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:28.640 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. 00:28:28.799 --> 00:28:35.359 In him the sin is covered, in him we are given a new name, a share in his name. 00:28:35.839 --> 00:28:40.640 In him the fear can be cast out, the anxiety removed. 00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:51.039 In him the homesick prodigal can hear a welcome back home and begin again to learn how to love his brother. 00:28:53.039 --> 00:28:57.920 It's through the cross and resurrection that a new world opens up to us. 00:28:58.480 --> 00:29:11.680 A world where salvation is not found in retaliation, where might means right, but a new creation, where salvation is experienced in and through forgiveness. 00:29:12.720 --> 00:29:18.240 We look forward to that day when that is fully realized at Christ's coming again. 00:29:18.960 --> 00:29:27.920 But here we are, living in the tension of God's grace at work in the world and Lamech's world of retaliation. 00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:37.440 Maybe the question we ought to ask ourselves is this: where is there unforgiveness in my own heart? 00:29:38.559 --> 00:29:43.200 Where do I believe that retaliation will mean salvation for me? 00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:50.400 Does Lamech lurk in the nooks and crannies of my heart today? 00:29:53.119 --> 00:29:56.960 See, we live in the tension of God's grace and sinful corruption. 00:29:57.279 --> 00:30:30.400 But in the midst of this tension, we're invited to take our burden to the one who was struck and killed for our sake, to come to the cross and by grace be enveloped in the 77-fold forgiveness and an exhaustible grace of our Lord Jesus, and to discover new and deeper freedom, peace, and healing by God's grace and in his kingdom. 00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:44.720 So if in this world Lamak's revenge is 77-fold, and we live in this tension, we know that we're called in Christ to live a life of 77-fold forgiveness. 00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:54.880 And when we do so, we anticipate a greater world to come that will answer the violence and injustice of our present world. 00:30:55.200 --> 00:31:05.519 For in Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. 00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:07.039 Amen. 00:31:09.200 --> 00:31:10.880 Thank you for listening today. 00:31:11.039 --> 00:31:16.559 We worship a generous God who calls us to follow him in giving willfully, cheerfully, and sacrificially. 00:31:16.720 --> 00:31:23.200 Newsong Church's mission and ministry is 100% funded by the generous gifts of those worshiping and journeying with us. 00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:30.960 If you'd like to offer a gift towards Newsong's ministry, please visit Newsongportperry.ca slash giving for more information on how to do that. 00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:34.240 May God bless you and keep you today and every day.