Dale Partridge - January 19, 2026


Genesis 4_25-26 - The Appointed Seed and the Birth of Prayer


Episode Stats


Length

27 minutes

Words per minute

139.06674

Word count

3,772

Sentence count

218

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In today's sermon, we finish up Genesis 4 and look at the final two verses of the book of Genesis. We see a contrast between Cain and Seth, and how this sets the stage for the rise of a godless civilization.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Amen. Well, by God's grace, we will finish Genesis chapter 4 today, which will be a very
00:00:11.840 short sermon compared to, I've been trying to keep my sermons a little bit shorter, but this
00:00:16.340 one's going to be even shorter than that, because there was only two more verses left here that
00:00:21.240 aren't extremely complex. However, chapter 5 is going to be all one sermon together because it's
00:00:27.960 generally a genealogy with a little bit of content in there. But the good news is, is that by the end
00:00:33.960 of, or by the start of February, we're going to be moving into Genesis chapter six, which is the
00:00:40.480 beginning of the discussion around Noah's flood. Now, if you remember last week, I preached a sermon
00:00:46.960 on the perversion of polygamy and the rise of a godless civilization. Now, in that sermon,
00:00:55.060 we examined the development of a civilization that came from Cain that was apart from God.
00:01:01.780 So you had Abel and you had Cain. Abel was killed by Cain. And then Cain, it gave a little bit of a
00:01:07.320 narrative about a civilization that was being built apart from God. We also saw the presence
00:01:13.900 of God's common grace, even among pagan people, the introduction of polygamy or the perversion 0.89
00:01:20.700 of marriage and the disorder that polygamy has brought throughout the generations. And also,
00:01:27.220 we saw how all of this development of this evil generation was setting the stage for
00:01:36.200 the civilization that needed to be flooded. Essentially, Cain's line was the beginning of
00:01:43.960 this narrative around evil continuing to perpetuate in the world. Now, today, we turn
00:01:52.540 to the final two verses of chapter four. And just when evil appeared to have triumphed in the death
00:02:02.020 of Abel, I want you to just put yourself for a minute in the shoes of Adam and Eve. And just
00:02:08.640 when it appears that evil has triumphed in the death of Abel and you see the escalation of Cain's
00:02:15.880 line moving into this evil civilization, we see God's preservation of the covenant seed in the
00:02:24.480 birth of Seth. And so that's really the backdrop contextually that we need to understand as we look
00:02:31.880 at this passage. That is that though Cain murdered Abel, who was the godly seed that was promised
00:02:38.900 to Eve in the sense of that line, and it seemed to be cut off in the murder of Abel, we see that
00:02:45.280 God himself appoints to Eve another son, and that is Seth. So today, the text is really a contrast.
00:02:56.240 It's a contrast from last week's text where we're looking at Cain's line.
00:03:01.780 It's evil, polygamy, distortion, disruption, a godless civilization that is apart from God.
00:03:09.840 And this week, we're looking at the line of Adam and Eve that really sets the mark of a rise of people that are connected to God.
00:03:18.980 And so it's showing the contrast between Cain and Seth, the replacement for Abel.
00:03:27.080 And so let's go ahead and read verse 25 together.
00:03:29.700 It says,
00:03:30.880 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth.
00:03:37.680 For she said, God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.
00:03:45.300 Now, I'm not sure if the average Christian grasps the gravity and the moment of the sorrow that Adam and Eve must have had around the death of Abel, because they didn't just lose a son, they lost hope.
00:04:04.820 They lost hope.
00:04:07.020 You got to think when God had made a promise to Eve,
00:04:10.980 they didn't know the timeline of that promised serpent crusher
00:04:16.160 who would come and fulfill that promise.
00:04:18.400 They didn't understand that it would be many, many, many generations
00:04:23.240 down the road where it ends in Jesus.
00:04:25.680 They likely expected to see that promise fulfilled in their own lifetime.
00:04:30.540 And so the death of Abel was also, in a sense, a death of hope for them.
00:04:36.920 And so if Abel's death felt like the death of their hope,
00:04:40.060 Seth, in a very real sense, felt like the resurrection of that hope.
00:04:44.880 And this is kind of the passion behind Eve's voice here,
00:04:48.680 when she says, God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel.
00:04:53.660 Because she's connecting that reality to Abel as being this godly seed.
00:04:59.740 Cain having revealed himself as a murderer.
00:05:03.740 And Seth's name actually means appointed.
00:05:08.320 So when she says, God has appointed for me another offspring,
00:05:13.840 Seth's name means appointed,
00:05:15.620 which I think it just demonstrates that Eve has faith. 0.88
00:05:20.340 Again, I believe the first Christians are Adam and Eve.
00:05:22.740 I believe they have faith in God.
00:05:25.460 They have been redeemed.
00:05:26.700 We're going to see that they start calling upon the name of the Lord.
00:05:29.220 We also see here that Eve is attributing the sovereign nature of this birth to God.
00:05:38.080 She's trusting that God will fulfill the promise that he has made to her.
00:05:43.300 And so this is something that we need to remember as we look back through church history.
00:05:50.580 The early church is not Pentecost.
00:05:53.300 The early church is really the first saints of the Old Testament, which I would say is Adam and Eve.
00:05:59.220 Now, this also reminds us of a larger truth. Human events, human murders, human tragedies,
00:06:06.220 even tragic ones, they cannot thwart the plans of God. Now, you might go, that's a great statement.
00:06:13.900 How does this apply to me? Well, I'm going to tell you. Scripture repeatedly affirms this truth,
00:06:18.600 and it's very important because it'll be very practical for your own life. Job 42.2 says,
00:06:24.180 I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Isaiah 14, 27
00:06:31.180 says, For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who can annul it? Isaiah 46, 9-10 says, My counsel
00:06:39.640 shall stand, and I will accomplish all of my purpose. And one more, Proverbs 19, 21. It says,
00:06:48.260 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
00:06:55.280 Now, again, why does this matter?
00:06:57.960 Well, because Adam and Eve, like you and me, we have only the ability to see what's in front of us.
00:07:04.520 We have a limited understanding of how God might work in our lives.
00:07:09.260 And most of us can't think of a time where we could predict the future like a prophet.
00:07:18.260 Okay, most of us can actually think of a time
00:07:20.220 where the very thing we believed
00:07:23.420 that was necessary for our hope,
00:07:25.600 the very thing that we believed we needed,
00:07:29.780 a job, a relationship, a plan, a person,
00:07:33.460 a place, a house, a season of life,
00:07:37.140 all of it was taken away.
00:07:40.780 And yet God still fulfilled his purpose
00:07:42.960 through an entirely different plan.
00:07:46.040 And that's what we see here.
00:07:48.260 You have Adam and Eve, and they're been removed from the garden.
00:07:55.320 They have Cain and Abel.
00:07:58.680 Cain kills Abel.
00:08:00.680 And they have to be shattered with what's next.
00:08:06.920 Just imagine the moment that you find out that your son killed your other son.
00:08:11.340 and you knew that Abel might have been
00:08:17.400 or maybe from him became this promised serpent crusher
00:08:22.020 that would return them back to the presence of God.
00:08:25.640 And all of a sudden, this one's dead.
00:08:29.240 What are you thinking?
00:08:31.060 Have you lost hope?
00:08:33.320 And this is the point,
00:08:34.760 is that how many times has God fulfilled
00:08:40.000 his promises to us through a completely different and alternative path.
00:08:47.540 And what felt to us like an ending was in some way God being faithful to us in another way.
00:08:56.680 And why does God do this? Why does God do the twists and turns and the unexpected and the
00:09:03.560 counterintuitive. Why does God do that? If you remember earlier in this series, several months
00:09:10.460 ago now, when I started the book of Genesis, I said that we're going to repeatedly see God
00:09:17.920 allowing circumstances that require faith. That God essentially puts and plots an entire plan
00:09:28.760 that puts his people on the edge of their seat
00:09:32.780 and that twists and turns.
00:09:36.220 And right when you think
00:09:37.280 that you're about to fall off the cliff, he snatches you.
00:09:39.960 And right when you think you're gonna go one way,
00:09:42.000 you go the other.
00:09:43.100 And right when you think something's gonna happen,
00:09:45.240 something completely different happens.
00:09:50.680 Now, from our perspective,
00:09:51.960 this kind of stuff can feel harsh.
00:09:53.220 I mean, I don't know about you,
00:09:54.540 but I've had moments where I'm like,
00:09:55.940 the Lord brings a rescue for my plea
00:09:58.620 like eight seconds before I needed it to be done, right?
00:10:02.160 It's just, I'm sitting there waiting for months and months
00:10:04.620 in turmoil, Lord, please bring a solution.
00:10:08.100 And it happens like right before I feel like I'd crash.
00:10:17.680 Now, from our perspective, again, this can feel harsh,
00:10:19.840 but from the Lord's perspective,
00:10:21.320 it's one of the primary means to sustain and strengthen faith.
00:10:26.600 It is one of the primary means to sustain and strengthen faith.
00:10:30.120 Let me give you an example here.
00:10:31.720 If your goal was to raise physically strong children, if that's your goal,
00:10:38.280 well, you don't design a lifestyle of comfort and ease, right?
00:10:42.540 You would never design a life of comfort and ease
00:10:45.580 if you're trying to raise children who are incredibly strong.
00:10:50.080 No, what you're going to do is you're going to create one
00:10:53.460 that builds strength through resistance.
00:10:56.180 through difficult things, through weight.
00:11:02.140 And in a similar way, God consistently places his people in situations
00:11:07.960 that force them to strengthen their faith by relying on God
00:11:13.260 and not themselves in difficult and blinding situations.
00:11:19.160 So I don't know what situation you're in, what you're walking through right now,
00:11:23.980 but every time something is difficult to understand it's hard to see it's hard to trust
00:11:32.160 that is the very thing that strengthens your faith
00:11:35.380 i don't know about you but
00:11:39.240 this kind of pattern is very common for my life i just feel like the lord is always
00:11:47.860 forcing me to rely on him in a way that i would rather not honestly i would rather not in my
00:11:53.860 flesh. I'm always wanting clarity. I'm wanting confidence. I'm wanting a resistance-free progress
00:12:01.240 in my life. Would it just be something that would just come a little easier? By God's grace,
00:12:08.400 you have those moments where a few blessings come and you go, Lord, thank you for finally
00:12:14.840 opening this door? I actually know people who use kind of clarity and confidence and resistance-free
00:12:26.100 progress as the very metrics or the kind of the way they interpret providence. They say things
00:12:33.080 like, you know, we're just going to be faithful. And whenever the Lord opens a door or closes a
00:12:38.460 door, we're just going to take that as the Lord's will. And I don't really have a big problem with
00:12:43.800 that. It's just that I want to warn you that that cannot be a formula, okay? You can say,
00:12:49.600 yeah, you know what? I'm going to just be faithful and see what happens. And yes, you can kind of
00:12:53.560 interpret providence that way, but it's not a cut and dry black and white formula. It just doesn't
00:12:58.600 work that way. God is a God of plot twists. God is a God of counterintuitive outcomes,
00:13:05.900 delayed clarity all the time, faith-stretching paths, where very often obedience is required
00:13:15.760 before understanding. That is often the case. It's, in fact, you actually understand through
00:13:24.480 obedience. By obedience, you understand the reason to do these things. It requires faith.
00:13:32.540 And I think that's something that we're seeing here in the story of Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, and Seth.
00:13:40.600 Now, the second point is I want you to see how Seth connects not only to Noah, which we'll talk about shortly,
00:13:51.200 but also to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and David and eventually, obviously, Christ.
00:13:58.720 And so this is why the New Testament authors, especially Luke, we think that the genealogy of Matthew goes back to Seth.
00:14:07.840 It doesn't actually just goes back to Abraham.
00:14:09.680 It's Luke whose genealogy goes back to Seth.
00:14:14.300 Now, we know that because Seth is connected to Abraham, Abraham, it does connect all together.
00:14:20.080 But we need to look at Seth not just as some independent figure.
00:14:26.600 He is the appointed seed in which that seed would be traced again later through, you know, Abraham, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, you know, through Moses, through David, through all of these patriarchs and kings all the way until it ends in Christ.
00:14:45.080 So the appointed seed, yes, is Seth, but the truly appointed seed is Christ that's coming through the line of Seth, which is coming through the line of Eve and Adam.
00:14:59.600 And so it goes on to speak of Seth in verse 26.
00:15:04.260 It says, to Seth also a son was born.
00:15:08.080 So we know that Eve has Cain and Abel and Seth.
00:15:12.580 Now Seth is having children.
00:15:14.380 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh.
00:15:22.100 At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
00:15:28.560 Okay.
00:15:30.440 Had Seth not born a son, Adam's family would once again have faced this kind of apparent loss of hope in God's promise.
00:15:39.440 So they're all waiting constantly, right?
00:15:41.760 You have, okay, Seth was born.
00:15:44.160 Well, Abel was born.
00:15:44.920 He was killed.
00:15:46.140 Okay, Seth was born.
00:15:47.200 Praise the Lord.
00:15:48.720 Okay, Enosh was born.
00:15:50.000 Oh, praise God.
00:15:51.160 There's still this fulfillment of the promise that God made to us.
00:15:56.980 And the text tells us that at that time, at the time of Enosh's birth, at that time, people began for the very first time to call upon the name of the Lord.
00:16:11.060 Now, the word call can refer to naming somebody.
00:16:14.540 It could refer to reading.
00:16:15.940 It can refer to summoning.
00:16:17.700 It could refer to proclaiming, and it could refer to praying.
00:16:21.660 Now, I think here from my study, and I think the general consensus of the theological community,
00:16:26.940 is that this is referring to praying or proclaiming.
00:16:30.920 And I'm going to give you an understanding there.
00:16:32.080 One way to interpret this is that the people are still longing for the promised seed,
00:16:38.400 and they're becoming restless.
00:16:39.600 and they're waiting and they're going,
00:16:41.600 oh, when is this child going to be born
00:16:43.760 that's going to bring us back to the garden,
00:16:45.520 that's going to bring us back to our presence with the Lord?
00:16:49.880 And they become restless and they begin,
00:16:52.500 quote, calling upon the name of the Lord to do what?
00:16:55.820 To fulfill the promise.
00:16:58.220 Please, God, bring back this child that we're waiting for.
00:17:03.000 They probably quite literally went outside,
00:17:06.260 looked up to the sky and called out to Yahweh's name.
00:17:09.600 It's probably what they were doing.
00:17:11.840 It was the very beginning of praying, of worship, of proclaiming.
00:17:19.020 Now, another interpretation is seeing Enosh as the evidence of God's faithfulness to Eve and to Seth and forthcoming.
00:17:32.000 And essentially, it's more of a, wow, God is so faithful.
00:17:36.660 and for the very first time,
00:17:38.940 people start proclaiming the name of the Lord
00:17:41.940 to others and to one another
00:17:44.000 and to each other in a form of worship.
00:17:46.720 So those are the two common interpretations.
00:17:49.680 But in either case,
00:17:51.160 it marks a really sharp contrast
00:17:53.020 between the line of Cain,
00:17:55.520 you know, Cain's descendants are doing what?
00:17:57.500 They're boasting in violence, human achievement.
00:18:00.060 While over here, you have Seth's line,
00:18:03.080 which is really the continuation of Abel's line.
00:18:05.120 is that they're boasting in the birth,
00:18:09.800 the divine births of God,
00:18:11.340 and they respond in worship and prayer
00:18:14.300 and glory given to God.
00:18:16.740 And so it's this contrast between these two seeds.
00:18:19.280 That's what we're seeing.
00:18:20.260 And I want you to understand
00:18:21.300 because we're gonna be smart Bible interpreters.
00:18:23.960 We wanna be able to open up Genesis,
00:18:26.600 read the book and go,
00:18:27.760 ah, I know the general structure here.
00:18:30.000 I know what's happening in these passages of scripture.
00:18:34.960 Now, to give you, again, a bit of a genealogical perspective, Adam did not live in the days of Noah.
00:18:42.420 Adam did not live in the days of Noah. Adam did cross over with Noah's father and grandfather.
00:18:50.740 But Adam died before Noah was born. Seth died before Noah was born.
00:19:00.300 both of them however again lived during Noah's parents so there's somewhat of a connection there
00:19:07.580 but Enosh Enosh is a very unique figure
00:19:11.380 Enosh overlapped with Noah's life for approximately 84 years so Enosh and Noah were alive at the same
00:19:22.020 time for about 84 years and what this means is that Enosh personally knew Adam and he personally
00:19:29.960 knew Noah. Okay. So he personally knew Adam and he personally knew Noah. So Adam is his grandfather
00:19:36.460 and Noah is his fifth great grandson. And so in a sense, Enosh serves as this kind of
00:19:45.140 living bridge between creation and the flood. He has this contextual understanding of the garden
00:19:54.080 of Eden all the way to Noah who would be the one to escape the flood. And it also gives us just a
00:20:06.240 reminder of how compressed because of the age lengths redemptive history truly was in Genesis.
00:20:13.100 This is still not a short period of time, right? People are living for hundreds of years.
00:20:19.260 Now, I want to close here by drawing out two specific points.
00:20:25.400 First is, God doesn't always work through dramatic events.
00:20:29.740 God doesn't always work through dramatic events.
00:20:32.180 When I think about the Bible, especially we talk about with our children,
00:20:35.420 we think of the flood or we think of the 10 plagues of Egypt.
00:20:38.880 We think of parting the Red Sea or David chopping off the head of Goliath.
00:20:44.240 We think of the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Christ.
00:20:47.600 We think of all these big, intense moments, and those moments matter.
00:20:52.980 But far more often, what God does is he works his purposes through very simple
00:21:00.500 and very ordinary means of faithfulness.
00:21:04.560 And here we see that in that he preserves the hope of the entire world,
00:21:10.800 not through this judgment or spectacle or great miracle, but through a birth.
00:21:17.600 Very simple, he's just plodding through history,
00:21:22.560 being faithful in the birth and the line of Seth and Enosh.
00:21:30.100 The second thing I want you to pay attention to is this.
00:21:35.540 Do you call upon the name of the Lord?
00:21:42.000 This is again, what I would argue
00:21:44.640 as the first time we see prayer in the Old Testament.
00:21:48.820 In the whole Bible, first time we see it,
00:21:53.120 they're calling upon the name of the Lord.
00:21:54.760 And again, what are they doing it for?
00:21:56.440 They're calling on it for God to fulfill the promises
00:22:01.280 that he has made to them.
00:22:02.980 Now, here's the point.
00:22:04.100 God has made promises to his people and you are his people.
00:22:07.660 God has made promises to you.
00:22:11.060 God has made promises of forgiveness of sins.
00:22:14.640 God has made promises of peace that would surpass understanding.
00:22:20.920 He promises to give wisdom to those who ask for it.
00:22:25.060 To give strength to the weary.
00:22:27.560 To give perseverance to the faithful.
00:22:29.740 To give final redemption in Christ.
00:22:31.820 These are promises that have been made to you.
00:22:34.620 They are your inheritance.
00:22:37.980 So when you're anxious, do you call upon the Lord for peace?
00:22:41.480 When you're sorrowful, do you call upon the Lord for joy?
00:22:48.440 When you're uncertain, do you call upon the Lord for wisdom and understanding?
00:22:53.700 And if not, why?
00:22:59.640 Because you don't believe?
00:23:02.420 In fact, I would argue that it should scare you if you don't call upon the name of the Lord for these things.
00:23:07.100 it's an evidence of at least a struggling faith
00:23:12.860 we ought to be people who are constantly calling upon the name of god
00:23:19.100 whenever there's a struggle small things big things
00:23:24.240 i remember not that long ago i was trying to fix a zipper on one of my jackets
00:23:32.300 and I couldn't fix it and I sat there going, Lord, please help me fix this zipper. Okay,
00:23:43.080 it's small, right? And then we have the big things, the death of family, miscarriages,
00:23:52.420 chronic illness terminal illness car accidents the loss of jobs the plot twists the difficult
00:24:03.660 circumstances the counterintuitive realities the wearing down of tiredness
00:24:09.040 the loss of hope the loss of direction when you feel like you're not faithful
00:24:17.660 You feel like you're not connected to God.
00:24:20.400 Are you calling upon the name of the Lord?
00:24:23.700 Do not think that you can escape the ordinary means of grace
00:24:28.700 and solve your problems.
00:24:31.260 Do you know what the ordinary means of grace are?
00:24:33.780 It's praying.
00:24:35.580 It's attending church.
00:24:38.160 It's hearing the word of God be preached.
00:24:41.520 It's taking the sacraments.
00:24:43.300 All of these things is God's grace to you.
00:24:48.860 And so if you're feeling drained, if you're feeling tired, if you're feeling disconnected,
00:24:55.480 are you calling upon the name of the Lord?
00:25:00.000 Are you reading the name of the Lord in the scriptures?
00:25:07.520 What we learn from this text and from the whole of scripture is that God is faithful
00:25:12.480 even when we cannot see.
00:25:15.280 Again, God often puts us in these circumstances
00:25:17.680 that are really hard for long periods of time.
00:25:24.360 But he keeps his promises
00:25:25.920 even when things seem lost or confused.
00:25:32.700 But he calls his people in every generation
00:25:34.900 not to panic, not to boast,
00:25:38.080 not to seize control,
00:25:39.500 but to call on him in faith
00:25:42.940 to call upon him in faith
00:25:45.280 trusting that what he promised
00:25:48.980 will actually be true in your life
00:25:51.440 not in a prosperity gospel way
00:25:54.080 but in a Christian way
00:25:56.080 trusting that the Holy Spirit
00:25:59.080 can fulfill those things in your life
00:26:00.660 and so this week as we go forth
00:26:03.180 examine
00:26:05.180 in light of your own circumstances
00:26:07.240 and you want the substance of those promises
00:26:11.300 given to you in the scriptures
00:26:12.360 that we would call upon the name of the Lord.
00:26:15.600 Let's pray.
00:26:17.020 Father, we thank you, Lord.
00:26:20.560 And Lord, we ask that you would give us
00:26:22.480 that inheritance of faith.
00:26:25.600 Lord, that you would sustain us,
00:26:27.080 that you would give us that great sense of forgiveness,
00:26:30.140 that we would understand that there should be
00:26:33.260 no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
00:26:36.420 Lord, that we might have joy because it is a fruit of the Spirit.
00:26:39.980 That we might have peace because it is a fruit of the Spirit.
00:26:44.320 That you might give us wisdom if we ask.
00:26:47.980 Lord, we pray that you would teach us to live Christianly.
00:26:52.620 That we don't have to live detached from you.
00:26:56.640 But Lord, that we might call upon your name.
00:26:59.240 We pray all these things in Jesus' name.
00:27:01.260 Amen.
00:27:05.420 You