Cain and Abel

Cain and Abel

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. I want to talk a little bit about H.G. Wells before we get started today. We're walking through the book of Genesis together, and I think this helps us kind of set up our time today.

H.G. Wells was an author who was born in the late 1800s, lived through half of the 1900s, and he wrote a lot of science fiction. He actually kind of envisioned in his writing airplanes, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television, and something resembling the World Wide Web. I don't know what that something was. I got that from Wikipedia, just trying to give you all background on H.G. Wells.

But he would always write about like a utopian future when he would write science fiction. We always got bigger and better and more wonderful and more amazing. And so this is a quote from his book. He wrote histories as well and kind of social commentary. And this is in a short history of the world. He wrote this in 1937.

Again, he lived in England. He wrote this. He said, Can we doubt that can we doubt that presently our race will more than realize our boldest imaginations, that it will achieve unity and peace, and that our children will live in a world made more splendid and lovely than any palace or garden that we know, going on from strength to strength in an ever-widening circle of achievement? What man has done? The little triumphs of his present state form the prelude to the things that man has yet to do. So he's saying he's looking at the world, he's looking at history, and he's saying, Isn't it just going to get better and better and better and more beautiful?

And the gardens and palaces we know now are nothing compared to where all of our children will live in the future. Now, if you're a student of history, you know that living in England in 1937, this wasn't about to be realized. World War II was about to plunge the world into conflict and pain and strife. And so this is a quote from his book that he wrote in 1946, which is the same year that he died, called A Mind at the End of Its Tether. And a tether is like a leash. So he's saying he's at the end of his rope.

He's about to become completely unhinged. And he says this, So in less than 10 years, this idea that everything would go on from beauty to beauty, and everything would get more wonderful. He sees the world plunged into World War II, and he just says, We're done. I can't believe that this is what humanity does. And as we're looking in Genesis chapter 4 today, and if you want to go ahead and grab your Bibles, it'll be in Genesis chapter 4. We're going to see how this continues.

So what we talked about last week was the fall of humanity, where Adam and Eve rebel against God, and sin enters the world. And we're going to see that it does exactly what H.G. Wells saw. That it goes from a beautiful garden, and it goes from God's good design, all the things that could be, and it turns into ever-increasing evil. That that's kind of as Genesis plays out, there's this two stories that run side by side. That we see that God designed the world beautiful, and all of a sudden there's this current of sin, and the world's descending into chaos, and evil, and hatred, and sexual sin, and violence.

And at the same time, God begins to weave next to that story, this idea that he is going to bring redemption, and he's going to bring hope. And that's what we're seeing beginning in Genesis, and it carries throughout the entire Old Testament. And so what H.G. Wells got to see on a massive scale, we're going to get to see kind of the beginnings of, on a personal scale, in Genesis chapter 4, as we study the story of Cain and Abel. And I have to go ahead and get this out of the way. I have an uncle named Abel, and he has messed me up on being able to call this Cain and Abel.

And so if that bothers you the entire time, I want to preemptively apologize. But I tried. I tried when I was working on this to say Cain and Abel, and I kept going back and forth between Cain and Abel. And there's no telling what's going to come out, but mostly it comes out Abel when I say it, and it's spelled that way, and my uncle talked me into it. So I can't not read Abel when I say it.

So let's pray for our time, and then we'll get started in Genesis chapter 4. God, we ask that as we get to study, in our brief time this morning, these two brothers, and this evil sin that tears this family apart, we pray that you would help us to see ourselves, see our sin, and have you intervene on our behalf before it gets out of control, and before we stand before you, covered by our sin rather than covered by Christ. And so we pray that you would help us to see this clearly today. And we love you, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Chapter 4, verse 1. It's on page 2. If you have one of the blue Bibles, it's probably very near to page 2 if you have any other Bible whatsoever. But if you don't own a Bible, we got these. We have a pile of them. We want you to take one home.

We want you to read it often. That's our gift to you. So it says, Now Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. Now this is really encouraging to be the way that Genesis chapter 4 starts because Genesis chapter 3 walks us through the story where Adam and Eve sin. They rebel against God. They're cast out of the garden.

And all of the good things that they had have kind of begun to erode and be broken and fall apart. And so it's beautiful to see that they, when Cain is born, she says, No, God helped me. That there's still some faith. There's still some connection to God in this family, even in the midst of sin, that Adam and Eve haven't completely run from God. But she, in faith, responds and says, No, I've gotten a man.

God's blessing me, and humanity is continuing with the help of the Lord. And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. So Cain does what Adam was told to do, which is tend a garden, cultivate, be one who works in the soil. And it says that Abel tends sheep. He's a keeper of sheep.

In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. I want to pause and just give you a little quick thing about the way that Hebrews write, the Jewish people write, when we're getting into these stories in Genesis. And we'll see this throughout. But the way we tend to write stories is we set the stage. We give setting. We give everything's in chronological order.

Or if you do it out of chronological order, when you mention it, you say, Now this happened prior to what I was just telling you about, but we always put it in chronological order. But they don't always do that. They much more often will explain things thematically, and they don't give you information that they don't think really applies to the story. So when it says, In the course of time, we have no clue how old they are, how long this has been. We're told later in Genesis that Adam and Eve lived for about 900 years, which we're going to discuss more because some of you are like, Wait, that sounds made up.

We're going to discuss more, but we believe they were designed perfectly, and that sin hadn't worked its way into the gene pool the way that it has now. So they were designed to live for eternity. They fall into sin, and then sin enters the world and begins to corrode, begins to destroy, but they don't immediately have the shorter lifespans that we see post-flood. So Spencer will get more into that next week. So they had a lot of children.

They had more children. We don't know how long it's been. That's all I'm saying, is that these guys could be like 20. It could be 250. We don't know, and that'll show up later as more characters get added in, and you're suddenly going, Wait, I thought there was just four people. It was Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel.

Abel died, so I thought the character grid got dropped to three, but then there's just other people showing up, and so I'm just trying to help you see like this has been an indeterminate amount of time so that it's less confusing later when we hit some places that are going to be a little confusing. So that was confusing, and I hope it helps. All right. In the course of time, this is verse 3, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. Okay, so we see worship. We see Cain and Abel worshiping the Lord.

They bring to him, and we don't know exactly how they brought it to him, where they brought it. If they can see him, we don't understand exactly how this worked, where God related to them, but they bring to him offerings, that there's this aspect of worship. There's this aspect of them coming to the Lord and acknowledging his place above them. So they bring him an offering, and Cain brings an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. That phrasing is going to be important in a second. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard.

So we're told that they both bring an offering, and that God appreciates, has regard for Abel and his offering, but not for Cain and his offering. And I've heard people try to explain this in different ways, as to sheep is better than fruit, and some different things like that. And I don't think that's actually what the text is showing us. I don't think that's what it's highlighting for us, because one of the things that we see is it doesn't say that God had regard for his offering, or his offering. It says for Abel and his offering, for Cain and his offering. The person comes first.

So that God's looking at the person, not just what they brought. He's looking at the inside. And one of the clues that we have in the text is that we're told that Cain brought some of the fruit of the ground. He brought of the fruit of the ground, but that Abel brought the firstborn and their fat portions. Meaning that Abel brought the best he had. That he, as soon as his sheep were born, he brought those to God.

The ones that you would be the most excited about. The first paycheck in the way it goes for sheep keepers. Like the first thing he could have gotten, he brought it to the Lord and said, this is yours. Like without you, none of this happens. And it just kind of says that Cain brought some of what he had. It says that Abel brought the fat portions, meaning the best of what he had.

And so in that, we're getting a clue kind of into Abel's heart and into Cain's heart. And we see that God looks at Abel and he accepts what Abel does. He has regard for what Abel does, but he doesn't have regard for what Cain does. And then we see that God's looking at their heart and we get a clue next as to the fact that Cain's heart is off. It's strayed from what it would seem with him bringing an offering. And I'll show this to you.

It says, verse six, oh, verse five, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. That means he showed it. Some of you, you have a poker face, you have the ability to be angry and look happy. You have the ability to be upset and frustrated. Some of you do not.

Cain did not. Some of you, something bad happens and your face turns bright red. One of the tricks that I've always had is to just always look angry and tell people that you're happy and you can get around it. So Cain's face falls. He looks visibly upset. He is, he's very angry.

He's furious. And so this is a clue as to Cain's heart. So let's just think about this for a second. If Cain was genuinely, I'm here to worship. I'm here because God is glorious. I'm here because he's valuable.

I'm here because he's holy. I'm here because I love him. And when he brought his offering, if God said, Cain, this isn't right. Cain, you haven't done this well. And we don't know exactly how he displayed that he had no regard for it, but he does. You would assume that Cain would be hurt, that he would be sad, that he would be mournful.

But that his desire would be for the relationship with God. His desire would be for this to work well. His desire, so it would draw him closer to God. But what we see is that he's livid. He's furious that this would happen. And so we get a picture as to Cain's heart and that it starts to seem as if Cain really, his offering wasn't a genuine love for God.

His offering wasn't a genuine respect for God, a holiness, holding up his worthiness, but that his offer was something else. That what he really wanted was something else. And actually, I think in Cain and Abel, we see the beginnings of true worship, true faith. We're actually told in Hebrews chapter 11 that Abel has true faith and religious worship, religious faith. And I'll explain the difference there because some of you are like, wait, I thought we were like a religion. The concept behind religion, as we talk about it often here, is I will do these things that God wants me to do and therefore God will love me, God will bless me, God will owe me.

That religion is this idea that I'm going to be a good person, I'm going to do what I'm supposed to, I'm going to show up on Sundays and if those people keep saying join a group, then I'll join a group, but God better make my finances work out, he better make my relationships work out, he better make my kids quit acting like their father. He better, he better, he better, he owes me. That's why when something bad happens to religious people, they'll get so mad. Something bad happened to Cain, he got furious and some of us have seen this in ourselves and in other people where something bad happens, you lose your job and you say, where are you God?

You owe me. How on earth could this happen to me? Because your belief is I did the stuff. I'm one of the good ones. I'm not like those other people that I'm one of the good ones. You owe me and that's what we see in Cain's heart.

I've heard a story to help kind of picture this and I really appreciate this image in my head. And so there's a king who has a beautiful kingdom and on different times he would allow people in his kingdom to come visit him and that sort of thing. And so they announced to him that there's a farmer who lives in his kingdom that's come to see him. And he allows the farmer to come in and the farmer comes in and he says, oh king, my king, I have a farm on your land and because of your kingdom I've been well protected and well guarded and free to farm. I wanted to bring to you this carrot. It's the biggest, prettiest carrot I think I'll ever grow.

I grew it. I was so excited. I just, when I was pulling it out of the dirt it just kept coming and coming and it was so bright orange and so carrot-y that I just wanted to share it with you. I just wanted to give it to you, my king, in appreciation for who you are and what you've done because I don't think I'll ever have another carrot like this one. And the king looks at the man and he sees his heart and he sees his love and he's touched by this and the king says, I actually know where your farm is and I own all the land around it and I want you to go speak with, and he tells him what official to speak with and he says, I want to double your track of land because we need more people like you in our kingdom and the farmer's just blown away.

That's not at all what he was hoping for. It's not at all what he imagined. Well, there's an official of the king who sees this entire interaction and he thinks, double your land for a carrot. So the next day, this official actually breeds horses and he brings in the stallion and he says, oh king, my king, I breed horses and this is the finest horse I think we'll ever sire. This is the finest horse I think I'll ever have. It's the most beautiful horse and I wanted to give it to you, my king, because you're so lovely and wonderful and amazing.

The king looks at his official and he can see right through him. He sees his heart and the king says, thank you. Please take that horse to my stable. And he just waits and the guy's frozen in place and he can see his face turning red and he's like, and the king goes, oh, is this about the carrot? You see, you're confused. The farmer was giving the carrot to me but you were giving yourself the horse.

See, the whole point of turning over the horse was just to receive back. It was just an investment. It was just for what he was going to be owed on the other end of it and I think we see that interaction playing out with Cain and Abel that Abel is overjoyed and appreciative towards God and so he brings his first fruits and he brings the best he has and he just says, God, thank you. Abel doesn't even talk in the story. We just see pictures of what he's like and that Cain was bringing the fruit to God but he wasn't really giving the fruit to God. It wasn't really appreciation for God.

It wasn't really a love for God. It was a desire to receive back, a desire to something. Something in Cain is for his own benefit to Cain's furious. And so we see how God responds. So God has no regard for Cain's offering but he cares about Cain.

So it says, so Cain was very angry and his face fell. Now verse 6, the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you but you must rule over it.

So God, as best he can, tries to intervene with Cain. And he says, Cain, if you do well, if you change, if your heart changes, won't this work? Won't this be beautiful? Won't this be good? And he says, but if you don't, if you don't do well, if you don't change, sin is crouching at your door. One of the things I want us to see very early on is that God expects Cain.

He says, you must rule over it. God believes that Cain can change. God believes that Cain can master his sin. God believes that Cain is morally responsible for his decisions and his attitude and his heart. We have culturally bought into the idea that this is what I'm like and this is how I was born and people all the time will say things like, well, you know, I'm just the type of person who, and so Cain can say, well, I'm just the type of person who gets really angry when things don't go my way and God steps in and looks and says, yeah, and you're the type of person who needs to change that. You're the type of person who needs to master that.

You're the type of person who needs to not be overcome with that. You're the type of person who needs to know that that will destroy you. Well, I'm Italian, so I yell and you're the type of Italian who needs to stop. Well, I'm this, I'm that, my family just always, my dad, well, you're the type of person who needs to change that, who needs to, who needs to, and God's inviting him to him. It's not just, do it on your own, it's not just be better, try harder, but it's Cain, come on. This can be different.

We can work differently. You can change. And I want you to see the seriousness of sin. He says it's crouching at the door. It's crouching at the door. I am, out my front door, the way it's set up, on a regular basis for a couple weeks there there was a spider, and he was pretty big, but he kept setting up a spider web right in front of my front door.

And I'm really intelligent, so I walked through this like 17 times. Like I just opened the door, and I'd be like, oh God, and I would see the spider the night before, so I'd be like, it's on me. You know, I'm like, I'm sure my neighbors thought there was something wrong with me, because there's nothing that makes you look crazier than you walking through a spider web other people can't see. You know, you open the door, and you're like, peeling at your face and stuff, and it's like, hey, it's good to see y'all. Y'all hunting to work? Me too.

But I can just imagine the spider consistently, like he's hanging out, setting the web up again, and his friend's like, dude, are you doing that again? He's like, yeah, I'm going to eat like a king. If I can just catch one of these things that keeps walking in and out of this house, I won't have to make a web again for years. His spider friend's like, you're an idiot. And it just never worked. He never got me.

But, that's what sin's doing. It's at our door, laying a trap to destroy us, and we think it's like the spider that actually can't get us. Let me tell you something, if that spider was the size of a tiger, I would have remembered that web was there and I wouldn't have been walking out there. And so often, we think that sin is so small, it's so little, it really can't get to us. But sin's desire is against us.

It's contrary to us. It wants to harm us. You ever watch a movie and there's been a bad guy the whole time and then something happens in the movie and they decide to kind of team up with the bad guy? They're going to work together for a little bit? And how many of us when we're watching that are like, hey, moron, that's been the bad guy the whole time. I don't think he's actually joined your team.

That's sin. That we're like, no, no, no, we're cool. We're friends. This will work out well. And it's like, no, it's desire is contrary to you. It wants to destroy you.

But too many of us think we can have sin as a pet. Too many of us think, yeah, well, I'm doing pretty good. I've got all this, but this one, this one, I don't really want Jesus messing with. This one is really kind of, I'm working on it, but you just say that, you're not. And you just kind of feel like, but sin destroys us. Y'all remember a while back when Roy, of Siegfried and Roy, got attacked by a tiger?

It mauled him. And everybody was shocked. But it's like, bro, that was a tiger. That's a tiger. They don't, there's a reason why you can't just have pet tigers. Because they can do that.

Like, the risk reward on owning a tiger is not worth it. I mean, some of y'all got a dog, and it's like a sweet little dog, and you're like, this dog's never bit anybody. It's like, that dog's got teeth. I had, you know how many, every time I've been bitten by a dog, it's been bitten by a dog that doesn't bite people. Helping somebody move, no, this dog never bites anybody. I turned my back on it, it bit the fool out of me.

I was like, I'm suing, everybody's going to penitentiary. And so many of us think we have this pet sin that we're cool with. And God grabs Cain as best he can, and he says, if you don't change this, sin's at your door, and it will destroy you, but you have to rule over it. And so many of you, I hope you can hear that this morning. I hope you can take the moment to see that in God's word and see God looking at you and saying, it's at your door. And if you don't rule over it, it is not your friend.

It is contrary to you. It will destroy you. Verse eight, Cain spoke to Abel, his brother, and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Cain spoke to Abel, his brother, and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Okay, so when it says Cain spoke to his brother Abel, the best we can guess is that the text put that in there to help us see the premeditation of this. That he was drawing him out.

There's some kind of, he was luring him. That he gets him in the field where nobody is and he just kills him. Now I want to show you something interesting we learn about religious activity. I want to show you something interesting that we learn about what happens when our approach to God is I want you to, I'm doing these things so that you'll love me. I'm doing these things so that we'll be good. Is that if you're approaching God not just for him but for you to be one of the good ones, do you know what that means?

You need some people to be the bad ones. If hard work is what saves you, then you need some people to be lazy because if everybody works as hard as you do, you're not winning. If religious activity is what saves you, then you need some people to be heathens and infidels. You need them. And so what, Cain kills Abel. He doesn't change his heart.

He gets rid of the competition. My offering will be the best offering if Abel doesn't show up. And I also think that for most of us we think this was a really quick turnaround. Cain's very angry and then he just murders somebody. But see, the text told us this is what sin does.

We do things that we don't think we would do quicker than we think we would do them. That we're actually more evil, more quickly than we believe is possible. Sigmund Freud, who will not get quoted often from this stage because he's a nut and most of what he said is slap crazy. There's a quote where he gets this really, really right and he agrees with the Bible and so since he agrees with the Bible we're going to read this. He says this in civilization and its discontents. Men are not gentle, friendly creatures wishing for love who simply defend themselves if they are attacked but that of a powerful measure of desire for aggression has to be reckoned as a part of their instinctual endowment.

What he says is there's actually aggression in them. They're not just kind. The result is that their neighbor is to them not only a possible helper or a sexual object but also a temptation to them to gratify their aggressiveness on him. To exploit his capacity for work without recompense that means to have slaves make them work don't pay them to use him sexually without his consent to seize his possessions to humiliate him to cause him pain to torture and to kill him. Homo homini lupus which is the Latin phrase man is a wolf. And then he says who has the courage to dispute it in the face of all the evidence in his own life and in history.

Without his consent to seize his possessions to humiliate him to cause him pain to torture and to kill him. Homo homini lupus which is the Latin phrase man is a wolf. And then he says who has the courage to dispute it in the face of all the evidence in his own life and in history. He says who on earth could stand up and say that this isn't true given how history works and how your life works. There is sin

In us that once Adam and Eve sinned they delivered it over to their children and that Cain and Abel were not sinless but that it was in them. I also want us to see that what happens with Cain is he has he has anger inside of him and then it leads to actions outside of him that he that he goes from an internal sin

To an external sin and so many of us will say to ourselves well this isn't that bad because I'm not really doing anything I'm just thinking about stuff. Sure I've sat at my desk for the last hour running through what the conversation would be like if I told my boss everything I think about him what he would say what I would say what his little face would look like his beady eyes when little tears came out of it

When he finally heard everything that was true about it like I sure I hadn't really been working I've been doing this I've been nurturing bitterness but I haven't actually acted on it I just thought about choking him I wouldn't ever actually choke him these are just fantasies I'm not actually cheating on my spouse it's all in my head and see it's when it was in his head that God grabbed Cain and said

Change because it goes from here to here way quicker than we think almost everybody who's done big unthinkable sins if you'd have stopped them prior to it and asked them at some point along that road will you ever do this they'd say no I'd never do that and then they do most of us if we're honest

Have things that we've done in our past that we don't fully understand why we did it and that we if you'd asked us beforehand will you ever do that you would say no I would never do that I'm not that kind of person but the truth is we are outside of God intervening on our behalf 1 Peter 2 11 says beloved I urge

You as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions that's desires or lust of the flesh which wage war against your soul James 1 15 says then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death I have two sons and I fight with one of them

The other one's an infant but I could totally take him if we got to fight him I fight with the three year old and if we ever got in a real fight like if he ever just you know pushed it too far and we had to really fight I think I would win you guys here's what James 1 15 just said it says we have desire that conceives and gives birth

To sin and then sin when it's full grown brings death now this is talking on a spiritual level that when we sin the end result of that is death that we deserve punishment but I think it also gives us a picture of the fact that some of us have some baby sins that right now would be way easier to get rid

Of some of us have little sins that are starting to creep up a little bit of bitterness towards somebody a little bit of anger a little bit of frustration a little bit of jealousy a little bit of and we're starting to tell ourselves well it's not that big a deal it's just a little bit I haven't really done anything

Yet a little bit of lust a little bit of temptation you see when it's full grown you're a slave and it's a murder the desire that the desires in us do not always lead us down the right path this is why when people will say things like well I prayed about it and I just don't feel like it's wrong

We'll be something we'll say hey do you see what the Bible says like that's a sin yeah I know the Bible says that I prayed about it I just don't feel bad it's like do you know how far that means you're

Disconnected from the Lord that proved nothing to anyone people are doing something simple and they say it just feels right it's like right because your passions are at war against your soul

Your flesh your desires are contrary to you that sin wants to own you that ultimately what is good for you is that you would have Jesus and that you would have holiness and that you would have love and peace and no sin and that our desires and sin's desire is to destroy

Us and to derail us and we're like it feels good can't be bad it's like that's cute it's not in the bible this is how someone goes from jealousy to lying from covetousness to stealing from anger to abuse to murder from lust to rape

To adultery this is why every time they interview somebody who's just done something ridiculous their friends and family say that wasn't the tina I knew no he was always so quiet and nice so often that happens and it's because sin is at work in

Us and it is growing and if we don't run to the Lord and seek to get rid of it all of us are capable of doing things we never thought we'd be capable of doing Tim Keller explains that one

Of the things that we do with children is we often develop fear and pride in them that we develop it in them that we'll say things to kids like well you don't want to be one

Of those bad people you don't want to be like them and go to the penitentiary and so what we've done right there is we've said we've developed pride you want to be one of and you pick whatever kind of

Little cut down thing you want to use to try to develop fear and pride but this is how we train children so often and he says that for a lot of us fear and pride are our primary motivation not worship

Not love for the Lord not God's grace but fear and pride and he said this is how somebody who for most of their life has behaved really well and been really a good worker suddenly embezzles thousands of dollars because they were operating

On fear and pride and fear and pride for a long time kept them in check but at some point when they were afraid of losing their job or when they were afraid of what was going to happen if they didn't have the money or they

Were prideful to let people know that they were failing suddenly fear and pride took over and led them so far into sin and so many of us have these things that we are just slowly letting grow and then at some point they tip

Over and we run headlong into sin so let's see how God reacts and this plays out so similarly to Genesis 3 and there's brokenness and God shows up to talk God shows up to ask questions and he does he asks questions here even though

God knows the answer it's like your mom when she found out that you snuck out last night or that you went to a different place from where she thought where you told her you were going to go and then she says where were you last

Night and you're like you know we were at Mark's house but where were you were you just at Mark's house oh well she starts asking more questions she already knows the answer and your story starts not making a whole lot

Of sense that's what we're going to have play out with God and Abel no God and Cain I forgot Abel died in the last verse 9 then the Lord said to Cain where is Abel your brother and he said I do not know am I my brother's keeper oh am I

In charge of Abel all of a sudden I thought you liked him better than me anyway now I'm the king of Abel am I my brother's keeper verse 10 and the Lord said what have you done the voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the

Ground and now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand seems as if Cain used his cultivating abilities and tools to bury his brother if not

At least his brother blood has drained into the ground and his body somewhere else 12 when you work for when you work the ground it shall no longer yield to you its strength you

Shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth Cain said to the Lord my punishment is greater than I can bear behold you have driven me today away

From the ground and from your face I shall be hidden I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on earth and whoever finds

Me will kill me real quick this is why I did that age stuff earlier who's going to find him and kill him there's two options

Anyone in the future he just thinks I'll be a wanderer anywhere I go anybody can come find me and kill me most likely he's

Talking about his own brothers his own father because there's been some time it's most likely his parents have continued to have children and

He's just saying I've harmed my brother and now that this is known someone is going to kill me I don't want us to

See the heart of sin here Cain is angry and God gives him a chance to repent God comes to him and says you

Need to change your attitude does he no so he's not willing to listen to God on the front end God comes to him

After it the action after he murders his brother and gives him a chance to come clean to be honest to confess does he

Know when does Cain speak up when there's punishment and what does Cain say this is unfair it's unfair what you've done to me

And don't you know someone might kill me Cain who just introduced murder to the world now says it would be unjust if someone

Would hurt me this is too much and doesn't Cain have a lot of children today we don't want to listen we don't want to

Repent when God is coming to us beforehand after we have sinned we don't want to repent we don't want to confess we just

Want to bury it and then when we see there's wrath coming for sinners we say who on earth does God think he is

A God of grace he doesn't have judgment I don't worship a God of wrath and it's like we do worship a God of

Grace but he does have wrath that's what the grace is for it's for his wrath it covers his justice too often all we

Care about is the consequences not our own actions not our own hearts we can't even see our sin so verse 13 and Cain

Said to the Lord my punishment is greater than I can bear behold you have driven me today away from the ground and from

Your face I shall be hidden I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on earth whoever finds me will kill me then the

Lord said to him not so if anyone kills Cain vengeance shall be taken on him seven fold and the Lord put a Mark

On Cain lest any who found him should attack him then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the

Land of Nod east of Eden so Cain says this is unfair and God says no your punishment is that you'll be a wanderer

Your punishment is that you'll be no longer attached to the ground and I'm going to put a Mark on you that if anyone harms you

His vengeance will be seven fold and God saying he'll carry that out which shows a lot of grace in the midst of Cain's sin

And in the midst of Cain's audacity to argue with God about what's fair and not fair 17 Cain knew his wife so now

This becomes important we don't know when he got a wife who his wife is Cain knew his wife and she conceived and bore

Enoch now some of you were saying okay wait a second some of you were fine with that and I'm about to make you

Not fine with that some of you weren't fine with that because you were like wait I thought there was Adam and Eve and

They had some sons where did this wife come from glad you're all sitting down most likely Cain sister you guys Adam and Eve

Are the only people and all the children come from them Cain married his sister now I want to make that a little bit

Better to talk about dogs for a second so all the dogs we have and all the dog breeds that we have just stay

With me don't don't start guessing what I'm going to say just wait all the dogs we have and all the dog breeds we

Have came from an original wolf like a big dog like there wasn't a bunch of little like chihuahuas didn't roam the wild that

Didn't happen you guys I know you thinking mine is mean enough to no it's not if you're not even paying attention to it

In your yard a hulk will still get that thing like you eliminating strands of DNA and types of DNA and we we kind

Of can whittle them down to make a certain type of dog so you eliminate genetic code to get a specific dog this is

Why purebred dogs have more health issues than mutts because the genetic code is smaller they have less to pull from they have more

Health issues this is why like if you go buy a $1200 to Adam and Eve were like wolves they were the original pair

That had all the genetic code their children weren't they did inbreed but they weren't inbred does that make sense like they didn't have

Small genetic code so actually later in the Bible it's going to say no you don't need to marry your cousin but that is

As they became a nation that had eliminated so God brought all peoples from Adam and Eve and it wasn't the way we imagine

It now I hope that helped it might not have but there you go okay verse 17 came to his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch

When he built a city he called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch to Enoch was born Irad and Irad father Mahujael and Mahujael fathered Methushael and Methushael fathered

Lamech and Lamech took two wives okay so the text just told us Lamech is changing things and it indicates to us that Lamech is pursuing he gives a full vent to his passion that's kind of what the text has shown us here

Because God originally made a man and a woman he brought them together and from this point on there was a man and a woman and we're following this one train through here and all of a sudden it says Lamech took

Two wives the name of one was Ada and the name of the other Zilha also for the record the Bible in Genesis doesn't always give us commentary of what's going on so it doesn't say he did this and that was wrong

It just tells us that it happened and this is the father of polygamy and polygamy never works out well in the Bible it happens all the time in the Bible it's never shown in a good light there's never like this was a

Polygamy a polygamous couple and it was great it's always a mess and some of y'all are like I'm married to one person and it's a mess we're not adding other people into this like imagine all of your arguments but now there's a third person who's in bed like that would

Be great we're gonna see it gets worse you guys when we get to Genesis later there's a lot of polygamous problems other Zilha and Ada bore Jabal and he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock he kind of had a whole people that lived

In tents and have livestock his brother's name was Jubal he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe so what we're seeing is that this line coming from Cain which is sinful still has beautiful things going on there's still culture coming

Out of it there's still cities there's still music there's still creativeness in this and it says Zilha also bore Tubal Cain and he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron the sister of Tubal Cain was Nema and Lamech

Said to his wives so we're going back to Lamech and this is to highlight what Cain's line became what it was like Ada and Zilha hear my voice you wives of Lamech listen to what I say I have killed a man for wounding me a young man

For striking me if Cain's revenge is sevenfold then Lamech's is seventy sevenfold and so it just shows that sin continued and that Cain rather that Lamech declares his own curse somebody just harms him he murders him and then he's just proud of it he doesn't hide it he announces it and he says

If anybody tries to harm me Cain who had a curse placed on him by God to protect him I get to place my own and it's better and bigger than God's and so the text is showing us that Cain's line has deteriorated and then it turns and it says 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 to Seth also a son was born and he called his name Enosh and the time people began to call upon the name of the Lord and so it kind of gives this redemptive idea here at the end through Seth that God's going to continue the promise he made that he's going to continue his offspring that he's going to continue to do this beautiful work of redeeming

In the middle of Cain's sin and his line God brings about Seth and begins to continue out the promise that he says he'll one day send a redeemer and that's who Christ comes through is Seth and I want to highlight one thing as we come to a close the band's going to come back up here we're going to sing and we're going to take communion but in verse 10 God says this to Cain says the Lord said

What have you done the voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground the Bible tells us that it was through faith that Abel spoke even though he was dead that it was his faith that declared his presence and who he was and what Cain had done and then in Hebrews 12 right after it says that it says this about Jesus and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks

A better word than the blood of Abel you see the blood of Abel cried out for condemnation all the blood of Abel could do for Cain was display his sin all the blood of Abel could do for Cain was call out for God's justice and God's wrath and condemnation for what Cain had done and so we have Jesus who gives us a better covenant and better blood so many of us have sins that are like Abel we have tried to bury them

And all they will ever do for us is cry out to God for condemnation for destruction for justice for wrath there is going to be a day when we stand before God and you are either going to have all of your past cry out like the blood of Abel condemn or you will get to stand in a new covenant with Christ where his blood cries out forgive that Jesus would come in the line

Of Seth that he would take the punishment for sin that he would die so that we could live that he would rise again that we might have hope and that those who place their faith in him are covered by his blood which speaks forgiveness and life and hope not condemnation so in a second church as we take communion together it's for all those who have placed their faith in Christ to remember

To appreciate to enjoy to take part in the fact that his blood cries out forgiveness and hope and life for us so that we take communion that we might celebrate that his body was broken his blood was shed and we've been forgiven and if you're not a Christian the blood of Christ does not cover you we would encourage you to not take communion but to sit and think about the fact that his blood can cover you

And that if you place your faith in him rather than your sin crying out condemn you'll have Christ crying out forgive and his blood speaking on your behalf let's pray God we thank you for your goodness and your grace towards us we pray that you would help us to trust in you that we might see our sin before it's too late before we've run headlong in it and that for those of us who feel like I'm on the other side

I've already committed my murder I've already done the unthinkable that we would know that God comes to us and he gives us a chance to repent and that he still has grace for us and that Christ's blood will shed for all those who do not deserve it not for the good not for the well behaved but for the sinner I pray that we would repent of our sin that we would partake in communion as those who are forgiven and free and who your blood

Speaks a better word on our behalf in Jesus name amen they're going to play a little music and as you pray and reflect when you feel led get up and take communion and then we'll sing together in a moment I'm going to open up two ahead how are you there you