The First Murderer and the First Martyr

In this part of the sermon: Martin details Cain's two-fold reaction to God's rejection: an inward disposition of 'very angry' (burning within like a volcano) and an outward manifestation where 'his…

Cain's inner spirit is likened to a volcano of pent-up anger, ready to explode, illustrating the intensity of his inward disposition.

Our Bibles say, and Cain was very angry. More literally rendered from the Hebrew, it burned for Cain. His inner spirit became like a volcano, his inner spirit became like a volcano, his inner spirit became like a volcano, a volcano of pent-up anger ready to explode. It burned for Cain.

8:37 - 9:01 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details Cain's two-fold reaction to God's rejection: an inward disposition of 'very angry' (burning within like a volcano) and an outward manifestation where 'his…

The concept of 'body language' is presented as ancient, with Cain's fallen countenance demonstrating how the face mirrors the soul's inward disposition.

We think we're very smart. When in the 20th century we discover and write about what is called body language. My friends, it's as old as this plot of ground outside of Eden with the firstborn of Adam and Eve. For God not only tells us of the inward disposition of the soul, but he specifically focuses on the outward manifestation of that disposition, not generally in his body, but specifically in his heart.

10:55 - 11:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that your face often mirrors your soul, and be aware of what your countenance testifies about your inner state.

Martin describes different countenances he observes in a congregation while preaching – some eager and teachable, others skeptical or bored – to illustrate how faces reflect inner states.

And it's amazing how you see it when you stand before a group of people like this and you preach. Some, the soul is in a state of waiting, expectation, and teachableness. And it's mirrored in a countenance that has all of the appearance of a dry, thirsty sponge, ready to soak up every insight God will give as His servants expound the Word. Whereas others have a countenance that has the look of skepticism that says, Look, preacher, nobody else ever got to me and you're not going to get to me either.

13:23 - 14:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that your face often mirrors your soul, and be aware of what your countenance testifies about your inner state.

Martin recounts his experience as assistant to the Dean of Men in a Bible college, where he could discern students' spiritual struggles or repentance by the look on their faces.

And you know when I first learned that text? I learned it when I was assistant to the Dean of Men in a Bible college. And there would be guys who were students and I had a peculiar kind of pastoral responsibility to them. And when they were fighting the things of God, being in that context, where the Word of God was brought to bear upon them continually in the classroom and in the chapel and in the dormitory and everywhere they went, you could see the look of sullen rebellion or of seething hatred and discomfort with that whole environment written upon their faces.

14:18 - 14:55 Read in full sermon

Driving home: To tell a formalist God looks upon all of his religious deeds, his baptism, his church membership, his confirmation, his prayers, and all the rest as so much gilded sin is as now, so then, to cause a volcano of anger and…

John Calvin's commentary on Genesis is quoted at length to explain the innate pride of hypocrites like Cain, who rage when their self-righteous religious acts are rejected by God.

his confirmation, his prayers, and all the rest as so much gilded sin is as now, so then, to cause a volcano of anger and resentment to rise up within his breast. John Calvin hit the nail right on the head when commenting on this fact. In his commentary on Genesis he wrote, Moreover in the person of Cain is portrayed to us the likeness of a wicked man who yet desires to be esteemed just and even arrogates to himself the first place among the saints. Such persons truly by external works strenuously labor to deserve well at the hands of God, but retaining a heart enwrapped in deceit, they presen...

16:57 - 18:24 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If you do not well, sin couches at the door and unto thee shall be its desire. Now what do those strange words mean? If you do not well, that is if you will not go in the way of your brother, if you determine to go on in…

God likens sin to a beast of prey crouching at the door of Cain's heart, illustrating its menacing threat and desire to consume.

That's called the way of Cain by Jude. I warn you, God says, if you do not well, if you do not heed my appeal to repent, if you do not accept my offer of forgiveness and acceptance in the way of repentance and faith, if you do not well, you will be in the way of impenitence leading to the very conquest of sin over your life. And God likens sin to a beast of prey crouching at the very door of Cain's heart and life. If thou doest not well, sin coucheth, we would say in modern English, sin crouches at the door and unto you shall be its desire. It is there like a beast of prey. And if you go on in...

29:39 - 30:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin outlines God's three-part response to Cain: a probing question ('Why are you angry?') to inform Cain of God's knowledge and bring him to self-awareness; two sobering…

The children's story of the three little pigs and the wolf is used to illustrate that the wolf (sin) is not a harmless pet but a predator seeking to devour, not to be let in.

You children, remember the old story you learned when you were much younger than you are now? The three pigs and the wolf? Was the wolf just looking for a lap in the different homes of the three pigs? No, he was looking for a meal.

32:34 - 32:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not underestimate the power of sin; it is a devouring beast, not a domestic pet.

The devil's lie is that sin can be entertained as a domestic pet, easily controlled, but God's reality is that sin is a devouring beast of prey.

Nobody's going to touch me. Will you for just a moment, if you have any, any sense that maybe there's just a little element of genuine love in my heart and the hearts of God's people for you, won't you listen for just a moment? Listen, listen. The lie of the devil is that you, like Cain, can entertain sins in your heart and keep them in the posture of domestic pets.

37:20 - 37:51 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are enslaved by lust and pornography, confess your struggle to your parents and cry out to God for deliverance.

The progression from a first glance at a 'girly magazine' to enslavement to pornography in adulthood is given as a vivid example of sin as a devouring beast.

You young men, you come into puberty and all of a sudden you feel the roaring of these engines of your sexuality. You begin to experience almost a perpetual fascination with sex and then it isn't long before you get your first glance at a girly magazine and your conscience screams at you that sin that's looking to lust on a body that doesn't belong to you. Don't do it! And you ride over your conscience.

38:31 - 39:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of the sin of vanity and flirtatiousness, as it is a beast that will consume you and lead to the loss of virtue and dignity.

Martin shares a personal anecdote about having a face full of zits as a youth to connect with young girls' self-consciousness, before warning against vanity.

Oh, I know when you get a zit, you think you got the biggest one in the world. And wherever you go, the whole world's looking at it. And you can't quite get the clear sill on just enough to cover it and not make it so evident that it is covered and you put some on and take a little off and...

42:21 - 42:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be deceived by the 'little pussycat' lie about drugs; they are addictive and destructive.

The progression from trying 'a little pot' to becoming a homeless junkie with needle tracks is used to illustrate the deceptive and consuming nature of drug addiction.

That's all. Just a little pussycat. Just air in your lap when you want to get rid of him. Go find a junkie sitting homeless in New York tonight with needle tracks up and down his arm and ask him if he thought that's where he'd end up.

44:43 - 45:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that lying is an addiction to the soul; rule over it by God's grace.

Lying is compared to breathing for someone with emphysema, then to normal breathing, to illustrate how it can become an easy, natural, and addictive activity for the soul.

As surely as drugs are addictive to the psyche and to the body, some of them, and alcohol is addictive, so lying is a kind of addiction to the soul. And God speaks of those who breathe out lies. Do you have to work hard to breathe? Oh, if you have emphysema.

46:40 - 47:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Lust when it hath conceived brings forth sin. And sin when it is finished brings forth from the beginnings of the first stirrings of envy. Envy grows into anger. Anger into volcanic wrath and wrath into murder.

Bishop Hall's 'Contemplations' on Cain and Abel are quoted to describe envy as 'the corrosive of all ill minds and the root of all desperate actions,' linking it to Satan's envy and the progression to murder.

Bishop Hall's works that we're trying to get into the bookstore, his contemplations in which he meditates out loud through the scriptures, his section, all of it is pure gold, but his section on Cain and Abel, Abel is masterful. This is what he says, thinking out loud as he reads this scene. Oh, envy. The corrosive of all ill minds and the root of all desperate actions.

54:08 - 54:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Expect persecution if you mean business with God, even in Christian environments, as it is the lot of the righteous.

The Church of Rome is described as 'the whore of the seven hills, her skirts dipped in the blood of the martyrs,' to illustrate how religious formalists persecute vital, Abel-like religion.

And not by a Madeleine Murray O'Hare who was an atheist, but by a religious formalist. And there is more blood on the hands of religious formalists than upon atheists. The church of Rome, the whore of the seven hills, her skirts dipped in the blood of the martyrs. Formalism with its ritual, with its rubrics, and with its professional clerics, and its superstition, whenever there has been vital, able-like religion, with the seal of God upon it, Rome has come forth and shown her true colors. That's the lot of the righteous. You'll not only be persecuted by a world that hates God, but by religiou...

58:52 - 60:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Expect persecution if you mean business with God, even in Christian environments, as it is the lot of the righteous.

Martin states that any child in a Christian school who genuinely seeks to be righteous will suffer persecution from other kids, illustrating the universal principle of the flesh persecuting the spirit.

And this is not to fault the board. It's not to fault the teachers. It's not to fault parents. But Christian nurture and Christian education doesn't make Christians.

60:06 - 60:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Expect persecution if you mean business with God, even in Christian environments, as it is the lot of the righteous.

Abel's martyrdom is reframed as Cain merely 'chas[ing] his brother up to heaven early,' illustrating the invincibility of God's children and the ultimate inability of enemies to truly harm them.

But little did Cain know, all he did was chase his brother up to heaven early. That's all he did. Just chased him up to heaven early. Chased him up to heaven early.

61:11 - 61:21 Read in full sermon