Genesis 4
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Do you know what animal has killed more human beings than any other animal in the history of the world? Yeah, you got it too fast. I was going to play with you a little bit, but somebody said it. It's a mosquito. The mosquito has killed more human beings than any other animal in the face of the earth. More than dogs, more than crocodiles, more than ant eaters or zebras. More humans have been killed by mosquitoes, and it's not even close. I mean, you look at the numbers, and mosquitoes have killed millions and millions and millions of people throughout the course of history.
You know how they do it? It's not like a lion kills a human being or like an elephant kills a human being. That's not how they do it. No, what happens is that when that mosquito pokes his little schnoz into your hand, Millions and millions and millions, if that mosquito is infected, of parasites, malaria, go into your body. And you know what those parasites do? What they do not do is just sit still. They start to spread. They start to multiply.
They start to fill your body with more and more and more parasites until you become extremely sick. And if it's not treated, you have a very good chance of dying. Malaria parasites are tenacious, and they are deadly, and they do not sit still. I want to talk to you today about something else that is malicious and deadly and does not sit still, and that is sin.
We're going to be continuing our series through the first part of the book of Genesis today. Take a Bible if you have one. Turn over to Genesis chapter 4. That's where we're going to be. If you're using a Red Pew Bible, it's on page three of your Bible. You'll see a big number four right there in the middle of the page. If you're not familiar with the Bible, that big number four is what we call chapter four of the book of Genesis. And that's where we're going to be for pretty much the entire sermon today. I might jump somewhere else here and there, but you're not going to have to turn there. We're going to be right there in Genesis chapter four the whole time. If you look down inside Genesis chapter four, you're going to see little numbers, tiny little numbers at the beginning of more or less each sentence.
right? Those are what we call verse numbers. It doesn't have anything to do with music. It's just what we've called them for a thousand years, and it's just a way to kind of break up the Bible into little chunks so that I can say things like look down at verse 4, and you'll know that means chapter 4, sentence 4, right? And we can just all kind of follow along. So because Christians study the Bible, we've developed ways to study it more efficiently, and that's what those are. So we're in the middle of a series in which we're looking at the first 11 chapters of the book, which tell the story of everything that happened in the primeval age, meaning the very first age of humanity's existence. That's going to run all the way up to just before the call of Abraham. Last week we looked at the end of chapter three where God hands down curses against all of those who were involved in this great rebellion that happened against God. So he hands down curses first against the serpent, then against the woman, then against the man. But what we saw even in the midst of all that is that even in the middle of the wreckage, in the middle of the darkness and the cataclysm
and the total catastrophe, God still shows grace. In fact, he still makes a promise that was going to reverberate through the whole rest of human history, that one day there was coming another king who would do what Adam should have done at the very first, and that is crush the head of the serpent and cast evil out of the world. That's the promise that God made there in the middle of chapter 3. Today, though, we're going to be looking at chapter 4, which pushes the story on further into the future, several generations on into the future, in fact, and tells the story of Adam and Eve's first children, Cain and Abel. It's an incredibly famous story. It's easily one of the most famous stories in the Bible that comes up a lot here in these early chapters of Genesis. So my guess is you're probably aware of it. Even if you're not a Christian, you've probably heard of Cain and Abel and how Cain murdered his brother Abel. But as we read it, I want you to look for something in particular. I'm going to read the whole chapter here in just a second as we get ready to study it. But I want you, as I read it, to keep an eye out for what the author seems to be
saying most of all. And that is that even after Adam and Eve's rebellion against God, sin has now got its claws deep in humanity's soul. In other words, sin has infected humanity and it has no intention of letting go. In fact, the symptoms are going to get worse and worse and worse. Look for that in the story as I read it. Let's look at Genesis chapter 4. I'm going to start reading in verse 1. Now, Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man 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. 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 of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. 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. Cain spoke to Abel his brother, and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother? He said, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? 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. 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 the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me. And the Lord said to him, Not so. If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. And Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew 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 fathered Mahujael, and Mahujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other, Zillah. Ada bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah also bore Tubal-Cain. He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron, the sister of Tubal-Cain.
was Naamah. Lamech said to his wife, Ada, and Zillah, 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 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 at that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. This is a very famous story for a very good reason, because it's got both elements of both kinds of great story. You notice that? I mean, on the one hand, it's just epic in its scope. I mean, by the end, you've actually made our way through seven generations of Adam's descendants through Cain. So it's got this epic scaled look at the progress, if you can really call it that, we'll talk about it, of human history. But besides that epic scale of this story, it also gives us a very personal look at one of
the characters in the story, in particular Cain. And what we get to see is a little bit, and actually a lot, of what's happening in Cain's heart as all of these events take place, and even how that worked out in the minds of his descendants. What we see most of all here, though, even through all those generations, even in Cain's heart, through the whole thing, the point that the text seems to be making is that sin's got its claws in us as human beings. And that's what I want you to understand, to be the main idea and keep in your mind as we're talking about today. Sin never sits still.
It grows and it destroys. Sin never sits still. It grows and it destroys. There are three points to this sermon. We're going to be looking at the three main movements of this story. It breaks down really nicely into three different parts, I think. So number one, we're going to be looking at sin's dark heart in verses 1 to 7. Then we're going to be looking at sin's awful consequences in 8 through 16, and then sin's tragic legacy in 17 to the end. So three points, sin's dark heart, sin's awful consequences, and sin's tragic legacy. So point number one, sin's dark heart, looking at those verses 1 through 7. So at the end of chapter 3, of course, God had driven Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. They had rebelled against him, and so they suffered the consequences for that sin.
They're driven out of this idyllic Garden of Eden. An angel is placed at the entrance with crossed flashing swords to prevent them from coming back in and eating of the tree of life. It's just a bad situation all around, and yet what we saw last week is that even in the midst of all that, God shows them mercy. He closed them in animal skins. He even doesn't execute them immediately for their rebellion against him, even though that's what they deserve. So life begins in chapter 4, outside the garden. Chapter 4 opens with the birth of the very first baby in the history of the world. See that? Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain.
Now, at first glance, this is nothing all that extraordinary to us. We know how these things work, right? We expect it. It's happened billions of times in the history of the world. Man and wife know each other, and then they bear children. That's how this thing works. But think about it for Adam and Eve. They had never seen a baby in their lives. There were not billions of people on the planet. There were not hospitals built where Eve could go and find out what this bump is in her belly. This was the first baby that was ever born, and it was a wild, wild thing.
They may have seen animals give birth, right? But until now, they were the only two humans in the in the world. They've never seen a human baby. So there in verse 1, Eve naturally seems really excited to have this new baby, Cain, in her arms. But look at what she says in particular, because I think there's already a hint that all is not as glowy as it seems. Look at what she says. Probably your Bible, because I'm imagining most of you use the same translation of the Bible that I do, the ESV, probably your Bible says something like, Eve said, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. That's probably what it says. But that's not exactly what she says. In Hebrew, it's a lot less clear than that. For one thing, and the most important thing, is that the word help is not there in the Hebrew. That is being supplied to you by the translators of the ESV. It's not there. What it says is actually something more like, I have created a man next to God. I have created a man
next to God. Now, what does that mean? Well, it could definitely mean, which your Bible's kind of interpreted to me, but you don't have to think very hard to see something else in it. I have created a man next to God. It could mean, just like God did, next to God, I have created man. Now, it's a close ballgame, but I actually think that's what it means. I think that's what the story is saying. At this point in the story, Eve has not turned into a sweet, submissive worshiper of God. Far from it. I think it seems way more likely in the flow of the story that she is still kind of high on the thought that she can be like God so when life comes from her when she gives birth to this baby she doesn't say this was with the help of God she's not there yet she says this makes me a creator of life next to God now she's not going to stay in that place she's going to move through the course of the story and I'll show you that at the end but it's going to take a lot of tragedy for her
to finally see that, no, she's actually not like God at all. Well, verse 2 runs on very quickly to the birth of the second baby in world history, Abel, and then it immediately turns to focus on the relationship between him and his brother, Cain. Once they're introduced, the story is crazy fast. So look at verse 2. Again, she bore his brother, Abel, and look how fast it rolls. Now, Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 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 of their fat portions and the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering but for Cain and his offering he had no regard so Cain was mad now that's a pretty straightforward question but or story but it also raises questions doesn't it and chief among those questions the one that just kind of flashes red in in the middle of it is why does God accept Abel's sacrifice but reject Cain's okay so what do you think why do you think God accepts Abel's sacrifice but rejects
Cain's well I think there is an answer in the text even though it's not right there on the surface and when we see that answer it has a good deal to teach us let me show you what I think the answer is look at verse 3 in the course verse of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. Now look at four. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. Now the little phrase fat portions, again, it's a place where I think the ESV is kind of missing it because really all it says is Abel brought of the firstborn of his flock and of the fat ones. That's all it says.
It doesn't say portions, it just says the fats. That's what it says. And I think what it means is that Abel brought from among the fat cheap, right? He picked out the fattest ones and he brought some of those, right? I think that's what it means. So do you see anything different? Three and four, do you see anything different about the way those two offerings are described? Okay, let me give you a hint. In the Old Testament, in Israel, there were two main kinds of sacrifice that you could bring to the Lord.
You could bring an animal offering or you could bring a grain offering. Either one was fine. So it's not a matter of, you know, Cain should have gone out and gotten an animal and brought it to the Lord like Abel did. That's not the point at all. You could bring an animal sacrifice, that was acceptable. Or you could bring a grain sacrifice, the fruits of the land, and that was an acceptable sacrifice. But there were particular requirements on both of those and particular words that were used to describe those requirements. So for an animal sacrifice, what was required was that you bring the firstborn of the flock.
You had to bring the firstborn of the flock. For a grain sacrifice, you had to bring the firstfruits of the harvest. Those are the words that are used. The firstborn and the firstfruits, and that's what made them acceptable. Now look back down. What did Abel bring? He brought animals from among the firstborn. Not only so, he brought firstborn from among the fat ones, the best ones, the most valuable ones. In other words, he brought to the Lord the best animals that he had.
Now, what about Cain? What did Cain bring? He brought an offering of the fruit of the ground. Okay, what's missing there? What's missing is that word firstfruits. You see that? Abel did what he was supposed to do. what would later be codified in the law. He brought the firstborn of his flock, even the best ones. Cain brought some fruits, but not the first fruits.
You see that? Here's what I want you to see, though. Here's what I want you to see, though. The problem was not just ultimately the problem with the sacrifice, though there was one. The problem was deeper than that, because the reason that Cain did not bring the first fruits, becomes clear in the next few verses. What you see in the next few verses is that Cain doesn't bring the first fruits because his heart is bad. You see that in five? Immediately when God rejects Cain's offering, what do you get from Cain?
You don't get repentance. You don't get him seeing, oh God, you're right. You're right. I didn't bring you the first fruits of my harvest. I'm gonna go get it right now. No, he doesn't see that. He doesn't see that he's short-shrifted God. He doesn't see that there's any problem with what he's done. He just gets mad. He gets mad at God, and then he gets murderously jealous of Abel. And what's revealed in all of that is that his heart is full of poison. He's greedy, and he's prideful. And that results in him being miserly with his offering to God.
That's not surprising. It's always like that with human beings. It's just like Jesus said, what's in your heart will ultimately come out in your words and in your actions. And what's especially troubling about that is that you can trace from words and actions that are bad back down to a bad heart. That's true of you and me, too, in everything we do. That's true of me and you, including what we give to God in the form of offerings.
You know, people often ask me when we do membership interviews, and there's a time where you can ask questions of the elder that's doing the interview. And at least in mine, I will often get the question, is there any specific level of financial giving that's required for the church? Like, do you have to give a certain amount? Do you have to give 10%? Are there dues? How exactly does this work? And, of course, the answer that I give them is no, absolutely not. There's no particular level of giving that's required. And people seem relieved when I give them that answer.
But friends, you shouldn't feel so relieved at that answer. Because what that answer actually does is make it a much harder issue. Because it makes it a heart issue, not just a policy issue. You paying your phone bill, whatever amount they ask you to pay, is not much of a heart issue. what you give to the Lord and his work in the church is a heart issue. You see?
It puts the whole thing right square between you and God. It makes your giving to the church a matter of what's going on in your heart. And don't get me wrong here. It's not a matter of the size of the gift. I mean, Jesus makes that perfectly clear when he looks up and sees the rich people putting their huge gifts in the offering box in the temple. But then he sees this old woman putting in two little copper coins, And he praises her to the heavens. He says, this woman with her two little copper coins, which was, it amounts to 1 128th of a day's wages, a denarius.
So you do the math on that. It's not very much money that she's putting in that box. But he says, she has given more than all of those rich people over there because she has given out of her heart. Look, friend, you may be the biggest giver in the entire church. You may be the top of the list. And yet, if you were to ask God, your offering would be unacceptable to him just as much as Cain's was. Because that offering is coming from a dark, greedy, prideful heart.
And of course, the opposite is true, too. It might be that a stingy, miserly heart is keeping you from giving what you actually could. It's not for me. It's not really for anybody else either to come to an answer on that. But it's important to think about. Cain's offering to God was valueless because his love for God was cold.
So in light of that, what would you expect from God here? What kind of response would you expect? Cain, your love for me is cold, and therefore your gift is miserly. My response to you is this. What would you expect? Well, look what it actually is. Verses 6 and 7. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, well, then sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you.
It's to oppose you, to destroy you. But you must rule over it. I read those verses. I think they're just absolutely wonderful. Because do you see what happens here? God doesn't just thunder down on Cain for the sin in his heart. He stoops down and he reasons with him. He tries to get him to do a little self-reflection. Even warns him of the danger he's in. That sin is crouching at the door ready to destroy him. But he reasons with him. Just like he did with Adam and Eve. He tries to get Cain to see his own sin.
Why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? What's gone wrong here, Cain? Let's talk about it. See, that's God's way. It's why he says of himself that he's slow to anger and abounding in love and mercy. Friend, it's why he's waited 2,000 years since the ascension of his son to heaven to bring history to a close.
It's because he's waiting on people to come to him. I know there can be a tendency to think that when you come to God with all of your sin, with all of your baggage, that what's going to happen is that he's going to thunder down on you with all this judgment. Friend, he's not like that. He doesn't do that. Do you know when God thunders down on people for their sin? It's when they don't come to him. No, when they come, when they come, he welcomes them with open arms.
Go and sin no more. Your sins are forgiven. But I promise you, I promise you, if you'll do that, if you'll take him at his word and do that, he will forgive you and he will save you. How long are you going to wait? Sadly, Cain turned away. And so we see point two, sin's awful consequences. So very quickly, the sin of greed and pride in Cain's heart grows into outright murder.
And the text fairly rushes to get there. If you look at it down in verses eight, and well, just eight, I suppose. It's very fast. It's just, he spoke to Abel. Doesn't even tell us what he said, but it's probably something like, hey, let's go out in the field. Then they go into the field, and Cain rises up and kills his brother. And all of a sudden, the cursed ground of the earth is soaking up blood that has been spilled by human hands for the very first time. And you can already see, you can just see how the story is getting worse and worse and worse. Sin is deepening its hold on the human soul.
The virus, the parasite, is spreading and devouring. It's growing, festering, becoming more and more violent and deadly. God's response to this is, again, very much like how he responded to Adam and Eve in the wake of their sin. He starts by just asking questions. And you look at verse 9 there. Now, the thing to know here about that question is that God is not ignorant about where Abel is. He knows exactly where Abel is. Abel's blood is crying out to him, he's going to say in the next verse, out of the ground.
He knows where Abel is. He's just trying to get Cain to see the evil of what he's done. Just like his questions to Adam and Eve, his questions to them, where are you, doesn't mean that he didn't know where they were. What he meant was, Adam, Eve, I want you to see where you are. You're hiding from the God of the universe. Where are you? Same thing here. Where's your brother? But then look at Cain's response in 9. He said, I do not know.
Am I my brother's keeper? It's just a stunning response. I mean, look at it. You got two sentences there. Two sentences, and two things happen here that are just stunning. First of all, you've got the first human lie. Now, Adam and Eve have tried to shift the blame in various ways, but they didn't lie, right? They didn't tell a bald-faced howler like Cain does. But Cain absolutely knows where his brother is. He's dead right where he left him in the field.
And yet he says, I don't know. I don't know where he is. And then look at that second sentence. It's kind of even worse. Am I my brother's keeper? Why is that so, why did I say that's worse than a lie? Well, because for one thing, up until this point, God is the only one in the story who has asked questions. And all of those questions have been questions of judgment. They're meant to get the person he's talking to to own up to wrongdoing.
Questions are the things of a judge. But here, Cain tries to turn the tables. He questions God. And his aim in asking that question is to try to charge God with wrongdoing for questioning him in the first place. Why are you questioning me? Do I have any responsibility for my brother? You're wrong to confront me about this. Sains closer, sinking deep. I mean, by the way, it's worth noting that the answer to Cain's question, of course, is yes, you are, in fact, your brother's keeper.
You are, in fact, his guardian. And Old Testament law was going to codify that later on and make it unmistakable. The people of Israel were to guard each other. They were to keep each other because they weren't just a collection of individuals. They were a community related to one another. Well, friends, same thing is true of us as a New Testament church. When God brings us together as brothers and sisters in Christ, puts us in covenant together as members of Third Avenue, he very much makes us our brothers and sisters keepers. He makes us each other's guardians.
and that works out in a thousand ways in the life of our church it works out when we take care of one another's material needs I watched that unofficial list rocking right I watched that thing I have not blocked it in my email and neither should you you don't have to read everyone but at least you'll see man this church is caring for each other in these ways I even use that thing as a prayer list I see a name come through there and I just pray for him I don't even always read the thing, but I pray for them. Something true. We care for each other in prayer. We care for each other with our presence in hard times. We got some people in our church going through some really, really rough stuff. And so many times what I hear from them is, I'm just amazed at the way this church has rallied around me to care for me in this hard time. Well done. You guys are doing that really well well the story continues in 10 to 12 when God curses Cain for his crime look at
that the Lord said what have you done the voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground and now you're cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand 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 what do you think about that sentence from God and if you got to second guess it what do you think about that sentence from god you think of it like this what does cain deserve here when you think about it in those terms and this sentence is pretty light i mean yeah cain's gonna have a really hard go of it in life in life but at least he gets a life god doesn't just execute him right there, which is the law's usual penalty for murder. So even here, God is showing grace to a sinner. But look at 13 and 14. Look at 13 and 14. 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 the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me. God is showing Cain grace in the midst of his sin, and yet Cain is complaining about it. But he's not complaining about the grace, is he? He can't even see the grace. He's complaining about the fairly light punishment that God does give him.
Why? Why? Why does he complain about that punishment, which is in itself a form of grace? Why does he do that? because Cain doesn't see the enormity of his sin. He didn't see it. He didn't even think about the problem of his sin. All he sees is I'm getting punished and I don't like it. Now, what about you? Do you see the enormity of your own sin? Or do you tend to just kind of push it under the rug, tend to minimize it?
Friends, you know our society does that with sin literally all the time. They try to convince you that sins you've committed are not that bad at all. Or maybe even good. There may be some of you in here, for example, who have at some point in your life had an abortion. There may be some people in here who have had maybe not an abortion yourself, but maybe you've had a hand in encouraging someone else to get an abortion.
Or maybe even paying for someone to have an abortion. I wonder if you see the enormity of that sin. Or if you've been anesthetized by the world to think that that one doesn't matter. Friend, if that's you, you need to think about it. How does the blood of that little one not cry out against you just as loudly as Abel's blood cried out against Cain?
If you've had an abortion, you have sinned. If you've had a hand in encouraging abortion, you have sinned. And that blood cries out against you. But listen to me very, very carefully. There is another's blood who cries out even louder than that little one's. Even better than Abel's. You know whose that is? It's Jesus's. And you know what?
His blood cries out. We sang it. We sang it. It cries out, forgive them, oh, forgive. Forgive him, oh, forgive. Don't let that ransomed sinner die. Whether it's abortion or something else, we need to understand the enormity of our sin. We need to understand how it cries out to God for justice. Or we'll never understand what a marvelous thing it is that God said, I'm going to give him justice, I'm going to give him justice, but I'm going to carry out that justice on myself and shed my own blood.
So I can show them mercy. That's what God does for Cain. He shows him mercy even in the wake of this answer. Even in the wake of this complaining. Look at 15. Then the Lord said to him, not so. If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. So the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. And then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod. East of Eden. there's been a lot of ink that's been spilled trying to figure out what the mark was exactly that God put on Cain and I actually found one commentator who I think got closer than anybody else I read a ton of stuff on this and I found one guy who got closer I think than anybody else to the right answer so he started out he went through all the different options for this that have been suggested through history he pointed out all the pros and cons of all those options so was it a mark on his forehead like the angel puts on believers in Ezekiel was it maybe the first tattoo in the history of the world was it something about his skin or his appearance and after pages and pages and pages he gave his
conclusion and I think it's probably the right answer you know what that conclusion was we have no stinking idea and we're not supposed to have a stinking idea the bible not here not anywhere else tells us it just doesn't say so it's probably not super important that we know the point is that somehow God makes it clear that Cain isn't to be touched no one is to avenge his Abel's blood with him, nobody's supposed to kill him in response to his killing of Abel. Now that's a mercy to Cain, but if you think about it a little more deeply, especially here at the beginning, it's also a mercy to the whole human race, because it stopped the trail of blood vengeance that might have been unleashed if somebody decided to kill Cain as revenge for Abel.
It's God's own mercy to the whole world. Sin's claws are digging deeper and deeper into the human soul, and things are starting to even fall apart in human relationships, but God is working to mitigate the effects of that, to prevent sin and its consequences from being as bad as it could get. Friends, just by the way, that would be a great thing for you and I to pray for our nation right now. Sin is digging its claws into the heart of our nation. You can say in some ways sin has gotten deeper into our nation's soul than any civilization in history in certain ways, And it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon.
Maybe it will. I prayed for that in the pastoral prayer. We can pray for that. But if not, if we're on a long road of running away from God, we can also pray that God will in some way mitigate the effects of that sin, slow its poisonous effects, lessen its destructive force in our society. See, that's what he's doing here. He doesn't allow the worst effects of sin to take effect. And that's a mercy in itself. But that doesn't mean everything was well.
Far from it. Because we get number three, point number three, sin's tragic legacy. Sin's tragic legacy. So in 17, verse 17, we get to the third generation now from Adam. You got Adam, then Cain, and now Cain's son. Cain and his wife have a son named Enoch. That's what they name him. And where did Cain get a wife? People ask that all the time, and a lot of times that's taken as a kind of silver bullet against the Bible. Ha, ha, ha, isn't the Bible stupid, right?
There weren't any wives for Cain to have. All you've got is Adam and Eve and Cain, and where does he get a wife? So let's just close the whole thing up and go home. The Bible is dumb. But I don't want to spend a lot of time on it, but look down at 4, 5, 4, chapter 5, verse 4. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters. So lots of them probably. And Seth, or not Seth, Cain married one of them. Was that wrong? Not now in the story. It would become wrong later when God codified it in the law.
He married his sister. Anyway, look at the little detail in verse 1 there. Cain built a city. Cain built a city. So from this point, what's launching here is the beginning of human civilization. The development of society. I mean, one way, even this building of a city is Cain struggling against God's judgment of him, right? God said, you're going to be a wanderer all the days of your life. You're going to be a wanderer. He builds this city. Well, through verses 18 and 22, through 22, you get seven generations of Cain's family.
And they culminate in this guy named Lamech and his sons. There's several things that happen in those verses. And at first glance, all of it looks pretty good, right? So if you look down at, for example, verse 20, you get these people who are developing technologies and such. Music, technology, farming practices. Jabal, Jabal, father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 21, Jubal, father of all those who play the lyre and the pipe. Zillah bore this guy, Tubal Cain, named after his grandfather.
He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. Good instruments and probably bad ones also. So there's some good stuff happening there, but there are also hints that the disease of sin is still spreading, still working its way into the human race, even through these generations, as they do relatively good things. For one thing, for one thing, look at how all of these names, at least in 20, 21, 22, they all kind of rhyme with Abel.
Do you see that? There's Jabal, that's the closest one. But then you've got Jubal and Tubal, Cain. You know something else about this paragraph? All through these words of these technological advances, you have several words that have the sound in them in Hebrew of Cain, Cain. So as you read this, on the surface you're looking at, wow, they're developing humanity, they're developing civilization, there's all this technology. But as you read it, even what's being whispered in your ear is Abel, Abel, Cain, Cain, Abel, Abel, Cain, Cain.
It's reminding you of Cain's sin. Look at 19 also. Another hint that all is not well. Lamech takes two wives. Lamech takes two wives. Direct violation of God's institution of marriage back in chapter 2. Where he said, a man, singular, shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, singular. So polygamy here, in this case bigamy, it's a dire development in human history. And if you trace it through the Bible, Genesis in particular, which we're going to do as we study it, you'll see that it never, ever, ever brings good.
It only brings suffering. Which, friends, is always the case when you start meddling with and ignoring God's intentions for humanity. It's incredible, isn't it? Our society is learning that right now. In fact, our society is so hell-bent on violating God's command that somehow it rushed right past polygamy to things that Lamech never would have thought of. You've got to wonder sometimes if even Satan is amazed at his own success in the United States of America.
Well, the whole thing comes to a head in 23 to 24, which is sometimes called the Song of the Sword. Essentially, this is Lamech boasting to his wives. about his own capability for violence. You see that phrase, young man, there? That's a young man. That's a little bit of a gloss on it because the word just means child. Lamech is boasting that a child struck him somehow and he killed the child. And look at 24. And Lamech says he's going to multiply the revenge that he's going to take on someone if anybody hurts him, right?
So if somebody who hurt Cain was going to have judgment sevenfold poured out on them, he says, I'll pour it out seventy-sevenfold. But he's got it wrong, doesn't he? He's got it wrong. What was that promise? What exactly was it when God said, if anybody kills you, Cain, I will judge them sevenfold for it? What was that? What was it? It was a mercy of God given to Cain. It was not permission for Cain to avenge himself sevenfold.
And yet Lamech has messed it up. Lamech thinks that it was permission to Cain to avenge himself seven times if anybody just heard him. And he says, not only will I do that, I'll do it 11 times more. It makes you wonder, right? How did that get mixed up? How did a mercy of God to Cain that I will avenge you get turned into Lamech saying, well, it looks to me like permission for Cain to avenge himself? You got to wonder, did Cain through the hundreds of years of his life probably, did it get mixed up in his mind?
I have the right to take revenge. Did you see the point? I mean, what an awful legacy to leave. What an awful legacy to leave. Sin is pervasive and it is deepening. And friends, that is always the case. That is always the case. It's true in our society. It's true in your heart. That's why the Puritans said, you must always be killing sin or sin will be killing you. It does not sit still. You're in a mortal battle for your soul against sin.
And if you leave it unchecked, it will spread through your life like a parasite. Well, the chapter comes to an end in 25 and 26. And as is so often the case, even in the midst of the darkness, there's light. Adam and Eve have another son this time. Look what Eve says. It's so very different from what she said the first time. She said, God has appointed for me or given to me another offspring instead of Abel. For Cain killed him. See the difference? It's the difference between I have created a man next to God and God has given me a son.
Her heart's completely changed. And you got to wonder, you got to wonder if what happened is that Eve has been watching this whole tragedy unfold. She has seen her youngest murdered. She has seen her oldest exiled. She probably lived long enough to know Lamech. And her response to all of it is not defiance like Cain's. It's humility before God. Haven't you seen enough? Haven't you seen enough?
Haven't you seen sin's consequences enough in your society, in your own heart, in your relationships? What's your response going to be? To reject God like Cain did? Or to embrace him and cast yourself on his mercy and grace like Eve finally did. Last thing, look at that last sentence. To Seth also a son was born and he called his name Enosh.
And at that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. You see what's happening here? We're going to see it more next week. But you see what's happening here? There are two lines of humanity that are forming through the generations. Two lines. What are they? They're the offspring of Eve, who is a worshiper of God, the offspring of the woman. And then there are those like Cain, who are the offspring of the serpent.
Not literally, not biologically, but spiritually. You know, we humans like to divide up into teams. We divide up into teams all the time. right? We divide up into racial teams. We divide up into class teams. We divide up into national teams. We divide human beings in a million different ways. Do you know the only division of human beings that ultimately finally matters? It's whether you're the seed of the serpent or the seed of the woman. It's whether you're a person of Satan or a person of Jesus.
The New Testament tells us that's not a matter of lineage. It's not a matter of DNA. It's a matter of faith. It's a matter of coming to the king, Jesus. And saying, Jesus, if I'm united to the world, to Satan, to the flesh, I know I'm going to die and I'll deserve every bit of it. And so I'm coming to you. Because you alone, by your death, by your resurrection, you alone can save me. Let's pray.
Our Lord, we thank you and we honor you because of this good word from the Bible. We thank you, O God, that you have spoken to us in your word and not left us in darkness. But you have, even right here in Genesis 4, shown us the dire effects of sin in humanity. And yet you've also shown us your grace. That in Jesus Christ and because of Jesus Christ, we can be saved. even from the deadly awful effects of our own sin we pray oh lord that you would give faith to everyone in this room for those who already have the gift of faith we pray that you would fan it into flame and god we pray that there might even be some here today that you give that gift to for the very first time and they look up even from this prayer and know beyond a shadow of a doubt i believe in this jesus we pray you would do that and we pray you would do it for jesus's honor and glory and we pray in his name Amen