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Spiritual Warfare and God’s Common Grace

October 19, 2025 No Comments

In Genesis 4, God spares and protects Cain even after Cain murders Abel. While this might surprise us, it is clear that God still has purposes even for Cain. A primary reason, God protects Cain is because in his good and sovereign purposes, God would use even Cain’s offspring to bring blessings to humanity. He protects Cain because God uses even the wicked to carry out his plans for the world. 

God uses the descendants of this murderer to bring innovations and discoveries and inventions into creation that would benefit all of humanity living in a fallen world.

These innovations come specifically from Cain’s great-great-great grandson Lamech’s line. The sons of Lamech advance discoveries in animal breeding, music, and metal-working (Gen 4:19-22).

  • Jabal was the originator of livestock breeding and trading.
  • Jubal made great advances in music.
  • Tubal-cain was the first black-smith, forging tools and useful items of bronze and iron.

These innovations are obviously not bad things. These are discoveries that we still benefit from today. These innovations would be carried on by Noah and his sons, and God’s people in the Old Testament would benefit from them. Abraham would dwell in tents and raise livestock. David would play the lyre. The Israelites would use bronze in constructing the tabernacle (Ex 27:1-8).

God uses the lineage of Cain, an offspring of Satan, to bring innovations into the world that would bless even God’s people.

This is what theologians call God’s common grace. God’s common grace is his goodness that all people experience. It’s “common” in the sense that it extends to the human race in common. In his common grace, God restrains sin in the world and gives talents and abilities that are used for good, even by those who reject God.

There are two wrong responses to God’s common grace.

The First Wrong Response: Denying God’s Common Grace

Since some of the innovations we benefit from were discovered or advanced by God-rejectors, we might wonder if we should reject them. Should we reject good innovations because they were produced by people who deny God?

The answer is no. That would be a wrong response because it denies God’s grace and sovereignty that can produce good even through sinful humanity. God uses even the ungodly to produce helpful discoveries in our fallen world. They are simply learning lessons from patterns God has woven into creation.

Therefore, we can wisely embrace good cultural advances and technological discoveries because we recognize God’s grace and sovereignty in them.

The Second Wrong Response: Presuming Upon God’s Common Grace

Lamech gives us an example of another wrong response to God’s common grace. He boasts to his wives about murdering a man. Lamech looks at God’s mercy to Cain and interprets it as a cover for sin. He thinks he can sin without consequences. He presumes upon God’s grace.

This is an evil response to God’s grace. The fact that God uses even the wicked to accomplish good things doesn’t mean that he will not judge their sin or that he condones their actions. Worldly blessings are no sign that God is pleased with you. His common grace is no cover for sin.

God retains complete control over this world. His common grace even to the wicked is not a sign that evil is winning! It’s actually a sign that the battle is the Lord’s.

Where the Battle is Waged

We should give thanks to God for his common grace that even our enemies experience. We shouldn’t be troubled by the reality that God-rejecters are at the forefront of many innovations in our world. That is not a sign that God’s people are losing the battle.

Part of the point here in Genesis 4 is that the spiritual battle is not won or lost based on earthly accomplishments and innovations. No, the battle is waged by living by faith in God’s promises no matter what.

The spiritual battle we face isn’t won or lost by achieving success in this world.

Cain’s sons may have had the innovations and discoveries. But the sons of Seth show us what matters most: calling upon the name of the LORD (Gen 4:26).

Cain may have had a longer life on earth, but Abel shows us who will win the battle: the Shepherd who offered a better sacrifice and was slain for his people.

Therefore, while the battle still rages around us, we persevere in our faith that Christ has won the victory, and his blood speaks a better word of mercy and grace for all who call upon his Name.

This post was adapted from the sermon below:

God’s Patience Toward Sinners

October 12, 2025 No Comments

In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve disobey God’s Word and try to hide from God’s presence. God seeks them out in the Garden and asks them a series of questions:

But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate. (Genesis 3:9-13)

It might strike you as odd that the all-knowing God would ask questions. If he already knows the answer, why does he ask Adam and Eve about their location and their actions? Why doesn’t he just come to them and hand down the judgment immediately? 

The Patience of a Father

God asks these questions as a patient father who wants his children to recognize what they’ve done and confess and own it. His questions show a gentleness and a patience with Adam and Eve. He’s like a father who catches his kids doing something wrong and he asks them, “What are you doing?”

God doesn’t come, seize Adam and Eve, and immediately hand down the punishment. His questions reveal a fatherly tenderness, gentleness, and patience with his people. He gives the man and the woman an opportunity to answer these questions and to own up to what they have done, come clean, and repent of their sin.

His Patience is an Active Seeking

God is the one to find his people who have sinned. He doesn’t just wait around for sinners to come to Him. His patience isn’t a passive kind of waiting. It’s an active seeking and an active questioning. 

God takes the initiative towards his people. He moves in towards them. He enters his temple to question the people he has made. In his active patience, he seeks the repentance of sinners. God’s patience was an opportunity for Adam and Eve to confess their sin and repent of it.

Counting God’s Patience as Salvation

God is never slow to keep his promises or deal with sin, but sometimes it seems like it. Even in Genesis 3, it seems like God slows down everything for a minute and asks these questions when he didn’t have to.

In our world today, we look out at the evil of the world, and we might wonder, “God, why are you being so slow in dealing with this world?” Why does it seem to be taking so long for Jesus to return, to rescue his people and hand down judgment upon the wicked? Why does a good God let evil go on in this world?

Part of the answer is to give sinners the opportunity to repent and turn to him. If God were to deal with all of the evil in the world, that would include you. Evil isn’t just something out there. It is deep within the hearts of all of us. God’s “slowness” is his patience toward you. 

Thus, if it seems like God is slow to judge sin, one reason is because he is patient and kind toward you.

God’s Word does expose our sin. God calls us to bring our sin out into the open and confess it and repent of it. All of this reveals his patience and his kindness.

Don’t miss God’s patience and his kindness towards you today. Don’t presume on it. Don’t take it for granted, but don’t miss it either. Repent of your sin and trust in Jesus Christ.

As Peter put it, count the patience of our Lord as salvation (2 Peter 3:15).

This post was adapted from the sermon below:

The Nature of Sin: Unbelief and Rebellion

October 5, 2025 No Comments

In Genesis 3, we read about the Fall, the Rebellion of Adam and Eve against God. It’s a sobering passage of Scripture, and it’s vital for us to understand if we want to understand the world we live in, the rest of the Bible, and the good news of Jesus. In this passage, we see what sin is and what sin does. Sin is a failure to trust and obey God’s Word. It’s rebellion against God’s good authority. Sin has shattered our relationship with God. 

Sin is a Failure to Trust and Obey God’s Perfect Word

First, we need to recognize that sin is a failure to trust and obey God’s perfect Word. In Genesis 3, the serpent enters the Garden as a tempter, questioning God’s Word and purposefully misquoting it: “Did God really say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” This is not an innocent question. It is a question that intentionally casts shade on the Word of God. It was intended to sow seeds of doubt that God’s Word isn’t perfect and good. 

Eve responds by trying to correct the Serpent. But her quotation of God’s Word is slightly off. First, she seems to downplay God’s provision of every tree in the Garden (compare Genesis 2:15 and 3:2). She also adds to God’s command and downplays slightly God’s Word of judgment (compare Genesis 2:16 and 3:3). She passes quickly over the promise, and then she adds to the prohibition, even while softening God’s Word of judgment. What she’s doing is beginning to play the serpent’s game. 

Eve’s example is meant to be a warning to us. At times, failing to trust God’s Word begins simply with failing to know God’s Word accurately. Problems arise when we come to God’s Word, and we downplay the good promises of God. We add to His commands and we soften His judgment. Satan wants us to have a fuzzy and inaccurate knowledge of the Bible. Even if it’s very small, it opens the door to more danger.

We need to know God’s Word accurately because it is our life. The serpent will come at us, and if we don’t know God’s Word, we won’t be able to fend him off. Our life depends on understanding and believing God’s Word. We should never become content with a fuzzy knowledge of the Bible. We need to read it, study it, believe it, and live it.

By the end of his conversation with Eve, the serpent comes out and simply denies God’s Word: “You won’t surely die.” He calls God a liar. Satan attacks the Word of God. He never actually tells Eve to eat the fruit. But he doesn’t have to. He attacks her faith in God’s Word. Once Eve’s trust in God and His Word crumbles, the act of sin just follows. 

At the heart of all sin is unbelief—a failure to believe that what God says is true. Whenever you sin, you can trace it back to unbelief in the Word of God. When you tell a lie, you’re failing to believe what God says about the truth. When you insult someone, you fail to trust God’s Word about loving your neighbor as yourself. When you covet something, you fail to trust that what God has given you is enough. From the very beginning in the garden we see that sin is failure to trust God’s Word.

Sin is Rebellion Against God’s Good Authority

Second, we should see that sin is rebellion against God’s good authority. The serpent not only tries to cause unbelief, he casts doubt on who God is—God’s character. His opening question is clearly intended to cause Eve to consider whether God is really good: God won’t let you eat from any of these trees? What kind of God is he? 

The serpent also lies about the reason God gave the command. He tells Eve that God doesn’t want them to eat the forbidden fruit because he doesn’t want humanity to be like Him. He essentially tells her: God and His authority are not good. He doesn’t have your best interests in mind. His authority is meant to oppress you, to withhold good things from you. He attacks what Eve believes about God in her heart. He wanted her and wants us to have bad theology, to deny the good authority of God. 

In her heart, Eve believes the lie about God. She looks at the fruit and believes that it will make her wise like God. She takes the fruit and she eats it. She rebels against God and His Word. What she is doing is trying to take God’s place. She’s trying to be God herself by determining and declaring what is good and what is evil. That is what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was all about. 

The seemingly “small” action of eating the fruit was treason against their good Creator. It shows us that every sin is an act of rebellion against God. Sin is not merely a mistake or an accident. It is high treason against our Creator, the God who made us in His image. It is rebellion against His good authority. It is a revolt against His goodness.

The Remedy

Therefore, in Adam, all of us are rebels. We doubt God’s goodness and love. This doubt leads us to resist God’s authority and look outside His Word for wisdom. We try to be God. We live by what we think looks right, feels right, and will make us look right. 

But the good news is that Jesus overcame temptation. He quoted God’s Word accurately when tempted. He believed it. He obeyed it. He stood firm against the serpent’s temptation and did not taste the forbidden fruit of sin. He tasted death on the cross so that we might be forgiven. 

Turn your back on your sin today, and trust in Jesus Christ. Believe and obey God’s Word. Enjoy God’s good authority. Rejoice in the work of Jesus that reconciles us to God. 

This bad news about our sin is the black backdrop to the bright light of the gospel of Jesus. We need to understand the bad news so we can embrace the good news of what Jesus has done.

This post was adapted from the sermon below:

Image Credit: ©hidesy on Getty Images Signature via Canva.com

Christian Marriage: Equality, Complementarity, and Mission

September 28, 2025 No Comments

Our world today is destructively confused when it comes to gender, sexuality, and marriage. In this context, God’s people must not simply follow what we feel is right, but what God says is right. The early chapters of the Bible make it clear that God created marriage. Genesis 1-2 especially lay an important foundation for our understanding of God’s design for marriage.

Genesis 2 shows us that God designed marriage to be a complementary union of husband and wife. In marriage, one man and one woman join together in a covenant relationship, and this is the only God-ordained context for sexual intimacy. 

Genesis 1-2 declare that man and woman are equal before God. The marriage union is a union of equals. God created both male and female in his image (Gen 1:27). Thus, husband and wife share an equality in dignity and worth. Neither can or should claim superiority.

At the same time, man and woman are not the same. They are equals, but also have differences biologically and functionally. Husband and wife are equals, but not equivalent. They occupy different roles in the marriage relationship, and this is part of God’s good design for marriage from the beginning—before sin ever entered the world.

The Husband’s Role: Leader and Servant

Genesis 2 demonstrates that God created the man to have a leadership role in the home and in the mission of God. Several key details suggest this conclusion. (1) God created the man first (1 Tim 2:12-13). (2) God gave the command to the man before he created the woman. Adam was to be a spiritual leader in the Garden. He was responsible to make sure he and his wife knew and trusted God’s Word. 

(3) God designated the man to protect the garden (Gen 2:15). (4) Adam names his wife (not vice versa), which shows love and leadership. God gave Adam the role of spiritual leader and protector as he lived with his wife in God’s Garden Temple.

Therefore, God calls husbands to be the spiritual leaders in their homes. Christian husbands need to step up and lead their wives and children spiritually. They should be initiating spiritual conversations and times of family worship in their homes. They should be praying with their wives and talking about God’s Word together. Husbands should be the first to prioritize gathering with the church and striving to set an example in pursuing holiness and confessing sin.

It is all too true that many men have abused this idea. Yet, the Bible’s teaching about the husband’s leadership is no excuse for any man to be domineering and controlling. Spiritual leadership is not about being served. It’s about serving and sacrificing. It’s about giving up other things you could be doing to seek the good of your wife. That’s God’s design for a complementary marriage. It’s not about domineering authority. It’s about loving service.

God’s design for marriage is for the husband to occupy the role of spiritual leader, servant, and protector.

The Wife’s Role: Helper and Partner

God created the woman to support the man and join him in the mission of God. The woman is indispensable and equal to the man. She has an irreplaceable role to play. She will be the companion and helper to the man and fill up what he lacks. Together, they were called to fill the world with God’s image. The woman will be the one to give birth to new little image bearers in the world.

This is no lesser role. We don’t need to follow the world and think that unless men and women are exactly the same in every way, there is inequality. The role God gave Eve in the Garden was glorious. She was to respect her husband’s loving leadership and be a loving partner in the mission of God. 

Matthew Henry put it memorably in his comment on God’s creating Eve out of Adam’s rib: “Not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”1

Marriage and Partnership in Mission

God designed marriage to be a complementary union of husband and wife as companions and partners in God’s mission. Husband and wife are partners in the mission God has given his people. Adam and Eve’s marriage wasn’t just about them. It was about joining together in the mission God had given them to proclaim his kingdom and rule creation as his son and daughter.

Christian marriages retain a similar purpose: to partner together for the sake of God’s kingdom in this world. Christian couples join a church together and strive to play their part in proclaiming God’s kingdom. If God gives them children, they faithfully teach their children about God and point them to Jesus.

Tim Chester writes in his book Gospel-Centered Marriage, “Introverted marriages eventually shrivel—they become small marriages with small horizons. Your family is part of a bigger family of faith that demands your primary allegiance (Mark 3 v 31-35).”2

Marriage is for companionship. Husband and wife should truly enjoy being with one another. But marriage is also for mission. Together, husband and wife take part in the mission of the church and share the good news about Jesus, starting in their own home. Their home becomes another little outpost for God’s kingdom, where those who enter sense that Christ is King here.

God designed marriage to be a complementary union of husband and wife as companions and partners in God’s mission. Marriage is God’s creation. It is a good gift. But we also must not forget that marriage is for God. Therefore, let those of us who are married seek his glory by living according to his design for marriage.

This post was adapted from the sermon below:

  1. Matthew Henry, cited in Gorden Wenham, Genesis 1-15, Word Biblical Commentary 1, p. 69. ↩︎
  2. Tim Chester, Gospel-Centered Marriage, pp. 20-21. ↩︎

The Significance of Gold, Onyx, and Bdellium in Genesis 2:12

September 22, 2025 No Comments

In Genesis 2:10, we read about a river that flowed out of Eden to water God’s garden. This river then divided into four rivers, and the text provides specific details about each of them. The first, the Pishon, is particularly interesting because Moses gives more information about it than the others.

We read several details about this river: it flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, bdellium, and onyx stone. What’s the significance of this? Why does Moses draw attention to these elements?

1. The Abundance and Beauty of Creation

First, this passage highlights the abundance and beauty of creation. Gold is God’s creation, as are beautiful stones and other elements. All the wealth and riches of this world belong to God, and humanity is simply a steward of them.

All the money we have, all the precious things we possess—God created them. We can give thanks, praise him, and enjoy these things, using them for his glory and praise. Genesis 2, mentions gold, bdellium, and onyx to highlight God’s abundant provision in the world he created. 

2. An Allusion to the Tabernacle

A second reason Moses mentions gold, bdellium, and onyx stone may be that they point to the Tabernacle and the Temple. The construction of both the Tabernacle and the Temple took a lot of gold. Gold overlays almost everything. It is a part of the Ark of the Covenant and other elements in the Tabernacle.

In Exodus 25:1-9, the Lord tells Moses to gather a contribution from the people for the Tabernacle. Included in this contribution was gold and also onyx stones. These items were to be used for the priests’ ephod and breastpiece to “make a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst,” (Ex 25:8). The mention of gold and onyx stone in Genesis 2:12 may be another allusion to the reality that Eden was God’s dwelling place with man. 

Now the reference to bdellium is a bit more difficult. Bdellium is a kind of yellowish resin. In Numbers 11:7, manna is compared to bdellium in its appearance. There is also some debate whether the Hebrew word refers to this resin or another precious gem (the NET Bible translates it as “pearls”). 

If it is referring to bdellium, since this resin may have been used in incense, it could be another allusion to the worship of God in the Tabernacle. Otherwise, the comparison to manna may allude to God’s provision for his people. This is a bit less clear, but at the very least, the mention of bdellium is a reference to God’s abundance and provision, and there may possibly be a connection to the Tabernacle as well.

Genesis 2:10-12 continues to highlight that God created this world with abundance and beauty. He created this world, and the Garden specifically, to be his dwelling place, where humanity could know him, hear his Word, and serve and worship him forever. In Adam, we lost that. But Jesus regains it for us so that we might one day dwell with God once again and serve him in his temple.

Video version of this post:

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