God's Day in Court with Cain

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains the structural key to the passage is the dialogue between Jehovah and Cain, consisting of two couplets of God's address and Cain's response, followed by God's…

Martin references Matthew Henry's outline of the passage as a courtroom scene (arraignment, plea, conviction, punishment) but chooses a different structural approach for his sermon.

I must confess I was tempted to follow the track set out by Matthew Henry who outlines this section as a courtroom scene. He says we have Cain's arraignment, Cain's plea, Cain's conviction, and Cain's punishment. And while I say there's much that's attractive in that outline, I believe we can be a bit more true to the actual structure of the text if we consider it in the framework of these two couplets of dialogue and God's final word. And if I were to give a title to the sermon, it would be God's Day in Peace.

7:31 - 8:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth. He is a liar and the father of it. Two things he says about the devil. He's a murderer and a liar. He had begun to reflect the image of his spiritual fathe…

Martin distinguishes between modest disrespect (ignoring a greeting) and brazen insolence (a rude gesture in response) to illustrate the nature of Cain's reply to God.

So his response is first of all a shameless lie, but then he responded with what I'm calling brazen insolence. Insolence is bold disrespect. There's a kind of modest disrespect, but that's the kind of disrespect some of you show when people may pass you, particularly some of you young people, and they say hello and you act like you didn't hear. That's disrespect, but it's not insolence. But if when someone passes you and says hello and you turn around and go, that's insolence. That's bold, audacious disrespect. And notice the insolence in the response of Cain. It's not enough that he should.

14:20 - 15:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Cain responds to his punishment with self-pity, complaining his burden is too great. He details his specific complaints: deprivation of productive soil, cut off from God's…

Martin recalls God's warning to Cain that sin was a 'beast of prey' crouching at the door, which Cain welcomed in as a 'little pussycat,' only to reap its destructive fruit.

When God spoke to him as we saw two weeks ago, when he came to him when his anger was burning in his breast and had not yet moved his hands to the deed of murder, and said to him, Cain, Cain, sin is couching at the door. It's like a beast of prey. Its desire is to consume you, but you need not let it consume you. You, in my strength, may rule over it.

36:53 - 37:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Hear me, dear children, I beg you, hear me. Sin is crouching at your door and it has one intention. That's to make a full-blown son or daughter of the devil out of you, to make you into a murderer and a liar and the wors…

Martin contrasts Eve's initial joy and exclamation ('I have gotten a child with the help of Jehovah') at Cain's birth with her later sorrow and weeping over his banishment and curse, illustrating sin's frightening power.

And she names him Gott, as we saw when we dealt with their names. The Hebrew verb, I have gotten, takes the language or the word structure of that verb and makes a name and gives to her child this name, Gott, that whenever she would look upon him, she would think of the goodness of God in giving me this son. I have gotten a child with the help of Jehovah. And now her firstborn that she nurtured in her womb and nursed at her breast, dandled upon her knee and trained and taught in conjunction with Adam and had the delight of seeing him grow into manhood, Eve must now see him exiled, banished, ma...

49:17 - 50:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Hear me, dear children, I beg you, hear me. Sin is crouching at your door and it has one intention. That's to make a full-blown son or daughter of the devil out of you, to make you into a murderer and a liar and the wors…

Martin draws an analogy between Eve's initial hopes for Cain and the prayers of contemporary parents for their children, warning young people against thinking they can set limits on sin, which can lead them to become 'full-blown sons or daughters of the devil'.

And God knows as I sat at my desk last Sunday, thinking I'd preach this Sunday night, as I've sat at my desk this week and this afternoon and early this morning and yesterday, and I look out and knew I would be looking out in the faces of many of you children who just a few short years ago, your mothers also said, I have gotten a child, a son, a daughter with the help of Jehovah. Your mom and your dad prayed you into conception, prayed for you while you were nurtured in your mother's womb. No doubt your dad may have laid hands upon your mother's swelling tummy and pleaded for that unborn life ...

52:19 - 53:47 Read in full sermon

The point: My friend young or old I care not what the sin is. I care not how long and how cleverly you have covered it. God may allow it to be covered till the day of judgment but found out it shall be.

Martin speculates on Cain's thoughts after the murder, wondering if he expected immediate divine vengeance (angel, thunder, earth swallowing him) and his subsequent false sense of security when it didn't happen immediately, illustrating that sin will eventually find you out.

And he may have pushed down his lids instinctively but he must have felt like and wondered will almighty God send an angel of vengeance with a fiery sword and cut off my head? And he looks and he sees no angel, no thunder, no lightning, no angel. Maybe the earth will open up and swallow me and he begins to walk and it doesn't open up and swallow him. I wonder if God let him go a few days.

57:39 - 58:15 Read in full sermon

The point: That planned meeting with that young man where you turned your bodies into a playground and nobody knows the eye of God beheld your uncleanness. Be sure your sin will find you.

Martin describes conscience as the 'most horrible companion next to the devil,' a 'haunting nagging voice' that eats away pleasure and cannot be drowned out by music, emphasizing that sin always becomes a haunting voice.

He got it from the thunderings of conscience in the chambers of his own breast. And I tell you the most horrible companion next to the devil is a haunting accusing. I don't care what quote fun you have in sin. You know as I know the worm that eats away its pleasure after the sin is committed is that haunting nagging voice of conscience in the deep chambers of the soul.

62:13 - 62:55 Read in full sermon

The point: You're whining because they ground you. Because you broke some of the reasonable rules that are trying to hedge you up to a life of purity. You want so bad. You want so bad. To become a slave of your lust that you're alw…

Martin uses the example of teenagers complaining about being grounded for breaking 'silly rules' as an illustration of unhumbled sinners complaining about the temporal consequences of their sin rather than the sin itself, which is often designed to protect them.

All they're trying to do is to keep you from becoming a slut and a whore and a lecher and a whoremonger. And you're whining because they ground you. Because you broke some of the reasonable rules that are trying to hedge you up to a life of purity. You want so bad.

66:45 - 67:06 Read in full sermon