God's Day in Court with Cain

Introduction: The First Murderer and Martyr

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, March 29, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. I urge you to turn with me in your Bibles to the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 4.

0:24 And for the benefit of those visiting with us, tonight is the fourth in a series of studies in the life of Cain and Abel. The first two children born of our first parents, Adam and Eve. And tonight our attention will be directed to the paragraph beginning at verse 9, immediately following Cain's horrible, cold-blooded murder of his brother Abel. We read in verse 9, And Jehovah said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?

1:03 And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? And he, that is God, said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.

1:21 And now cursed art thou from the ground, which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee its strength. A fugitive and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth.

1:43 And Cain said unto Jehovah, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the ground. And from thy face shall I be hid. And I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth.

2:01 And it will come to pass that. Whosoever findeth me will slay me. And Jehovah said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And Jehovah appointed a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should smite him.

2:28 These two men, Cain and Abel, shared the same womb. Before they ever saw the light of day. They were nursed at the very same breasts. They were nurtured by the same loving, caring parents named Adam and Eve.

2:55 They were both guided by the same parental influences into their respective callings in life. One to the task of a farmer. And the other into the task of a herder. Both were obviously given the same religious instruction.

3:15 So that when they came to years, we find them in the preceding paragraph with no explanation. Offering sacrifices unto God as a matter of course. Indicating that they were now as grown adults. Simply reflecting the patterns graciously imposed upon them by parental instruction and guidance.

3:40 However, in spite of sharing the same womb. Nursing at the same breasts. Being developed under the same parental nurture. There was a universe of difference between these two men.

3:56 And the differences do not come to the surface until they are old enough to express their own deepest religious experience and perspective. It is then, and only then, when each brings his offering on his own to God, that it is clear that God accepts the person and the offering of Abel, chapter 4 and verse 4. And that God does not accept the person and the offering of Cain. And this discriminating response, on the part of God, sets in motion a series of attitudes and actions which eventually produce what we called in our previous study the first murderer and the first martyr. The firstborn son of Adam and Eve becomes a cold-blooded murderer. The secondborn becomes the first martyr who seals his...

5:10 his faith with his own life's blood. And already in this early part of chapter 4, the prophecy of chapter 3 and verse 15, that two seeds would emerge from the human race. One whose alignments would be with the serpent. And one whose alignments would be with the seed of the woman.

5:38 And here in these two, first children born of Adam and Eve, we find the seed of the serpent coming to expression in the disposition and person and actions of Cain. And the seed of the woman ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ coming to expression in the person, the disposition, and the actions of Abel. Now as we pick up our study tonight at verse 9, the obvious key to the structure of this section is found in the dialogue that is carried on between Jehovah and Cain. Abel is now out of the picture. He looks upon the face of Jesus. He is in the presence of the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. The first martyr has gone into the presence of the Lord in whom he trusted.

6:40 And has entered in to the glorious face-to-face vision of the Redeemer and of his heavenly Father. And so it's only Cain who is left here upon earth. And the focus now falls upon God's dealings with Cain. And as I say, the key to the passage as to its structure is this dialogue between Jehovah and Cain.

The Structure of God's Dialogue with Cain

7:10 More precise, we have two couplets of that dialogue. God speaking to Cain and Cain's response. A second couplet in which God addresses a second issue and Cain's response. And then the passage closes in verse 15 with God having the final word.

7:31 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.

8:09 God's Day in Peace. God's Day in Peace. God's Day in Peace. God's Day in Peace.

8:10 God's Day in Peace. God's Day in Peace. God's Day in Peace. Cain the murderer.

First Couplet: Jehovah's Interrogation and Cain's Shameless Response

8:14 Notice then with me the first couplet. We have Jehovah's interrogation of Cain and then Cain's response to that interrogation. Jehovah's interrogation of Cain, verse 9. And Jehovah said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?

8:38 God takes the initiative. here as he did with Adam and Eve. He doesn't wait until Cain, under the pressure of a terrorized conscience, cries out to God. But Jehovah comes to the murderer Cain and he interrogates him. And the essence of his interrogation is very simple and straightforward. God asks Cain to tell him where his brother Abel is. Where is Abel thy brother? Now the essence of that interrogation is clear and so also is the purpose of it. God's purpose in interrogating Cain is not that God needs some information. For the scripture tells us that the eyes of

9:32 the Lord are in every place. Beholding the evil and the good. And God's eye beheld the murder that burned in the heart of Cain. God's eye beheld him speaking to his brother as he brought him into the field.

9:50 God beheld him as he raised whatever the death weapon was. God beheld Abel in the final death twitches. God saw his head dropped. God saw the last signs of life. God saw the last signs of life expire. God saw Cain go back to someplace in secret perhaps to wash his hands of his brother's blood. God saw it all. And so the purpose of his interrogation was not to give God information. But it was to awaken the conscience of Cain to face realistically what he had done and the knowledge that almighty God had done. And so the purpose of this kind God was fully aware of every aspect of his deed. That was the purpose of God's interrogation. It was calculated to bring Cain to that first step in any sinner receiving the mercy of God. And you know what that first step is? Looking your sin straight in the face with

10:58 judgment day honesty. Not a person in this building tonight will ever know the mercy of God until you're prepared to be honest about your sin. And that's why God's interrogation, simple and straightforward, where is Abel, thy brother, should have brought forth from Cain the response, O Jehovah? O Jehovah God, he lies dead in a field where I with these hands killed my own brother.

11:38 O God, have mercy upon me. When I saw the life go out of him, I shook him. I breathed into his mouth. I spoke to him. I pleaded with him. But I could not bring him to life again. O God, I've taken away the life of my brother. Have mercy upon me. God's interrogation of Cain was calculated to awaken his conscience to own his sin that he might feel his desperate need of the mercy of the living God. But then God's interrogation is followed by Cain's response to that interrogation. That's the last part of the first couplet, 9b. No sooner does God say, Where is Abel, thy brother? But Cain is ready with a very flip answer. And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? Cain's response to God's interrogation

12:50 is twofold. First of all, he responded with a shameless lie. He said, I know not. Now that was nothing.

13:02 Rather than a bald-faced, stinking, rotten, calculated, shameless lie, he had the audacity to think that he could calm the all-seeing, all-knowing God of heaven and earth. And he said, I don't know. Can you just see the look of innocence? A bald-faced lie, a shameless lie, thereby now manifesting he's a full-blown son of God.

13:34 And his father, the devil. For in John 8, 44, Jesus said to the Jewish leaders of his day, Ye are of your father, your devil, the devil, and the lust of your father. It is your will to do. 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 father, to whom he had aligned him.

14:05 He himself, by his sin, when he murdered his brother Abel, now the murderer becomes the liar and fully reflects the image of his spiritual father, the devil.

14:20 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.

15:08 Lie. I know not. He then says, am I my brother's keeper? And the way it's arranged in the original places the emphasis on the concept of the keeper, not so much on am I my brother's keeper, but my brother's keeper am I. I thought he was your pet, God. You had respect unto him and to his offering. He's your pet. Certainly you can take care of your pet. You can take care of your pet and your favorite. And you never came to me and appointed me to be his full-time nanny. You see the insolence? He's saying, in essence, God, why are you hassling me about the whereabouts of my brother? He is none of my concern. The impudence to tell

16:02 God. You've got no right to ask me a question. It's not in my job, this rich. I'm a keeper of the ground. And my brother is a keeper of the ground. I'm a keeper of the ground.

Second Couplet: Jehovah's Indictment and Temporal Punishment

16:14 Is she? But I'm not the keeper of my brother. What are you hassling me with such a question for? So in the first couplet, we have God's interrogation of Cain and Cain's response with an outright lie and with brazen insolence. Now then, we have the second couplet. And in that, we have Jehovah's indictment and temporal punishment of Cain. For his sin. And then Cain's response to that punishment. All right, let's look at the first part of the second couplet. Jehovah's indictment and punishment of Cain, verses

17:02 10 to 12. And he said, that is Jehovah, now not a question but an exclamation. What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood cries unto me from the ground.

17:18 And now cursed art thou from the ground, which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee its strength. A fugitive and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth. First of all, we have Jehovah's indictment. And then we have the temporal punishment. And then we have the temporal punishment. The indictment is, what have you done, Cain? Your brother's blood, literally, your brother's blood, probably referring to the fact that it was spilt and spattered blood. The many stains made on the tilled earth are crying to me from the very earth that has absorbed.

18:19 And the imagery of its mouth is used. Its mouth has opened to swallow your brother's blood. And now it is crying to me for action. It is crying to me to intervene on behalf of the brother whom you so callously and wantonly and coldheartedly have slain. Cain, while you may have hardened your heart to your brother's cry. Cain, when you first began to rain blows upon his head to kill him, to plunge the knife into his bowels to kill him, you may have been deaf to his cries for mercy. But I am not deaf to the eloquent cries of his blood that spilt at your hand. God indicts him as being guilty of spilling innocent blood.

19:20 Cain, when you first began to rain blows upon his head to kill him, you may have been guilty of spilling innocent blood. God indicts him as being guilty of spilling innocent blood. Cain, when you first began to rain blows upon his head to kill him, you may have been guilty of spilling innocent blood. God indicts him as being guilty of spilling innocent blood.

19:25 He tells him in the form of the participle means that it was a persistent and a continuous cry as though God's own rest in heaven was disturbed by the voice of that blood crying up, crying up, crying up, crying up until God comes down to silence his voice. So the indictment that is brought down upon Cain is the indictment that God knows so well what he has done. And what he has done is to slay his brother, to spill innocent blood. And then God imposes, and I want to make it plain, and this is why I've used the word at this point, temporal punishments upon Cain. We'll look elsewhere at the close of the message for the worst part of his punishment, but here we have the temporal punishments that God imposes upon Cain. Cain, when you first began to rain blows upon his head to kill him, you may have been able to see that. Cain imposes upon Cain. And notice, first of all, that the object of the curse is Cain

20:29 himself. Verse 11. And now cursed art thou from the ground. If you're familiar with chapter 3, you'll remember that after the fall of our first parents, God pronounced a curse upon the serpent, and he pronounced a curse upon the ground for man's sake. And he pronounced a curse upon Adam and Eve in their persons. But now the curse comes down directly upon the person of Abel. And now cursed art thou. The curse will come upon Cain himself in terms of various forms of temporal punishment. And while God sovereignly dispenses upon Cain,

21:23 and with capital punishment and spares the life of Cain, he sovereignly imposes specific difficulties that will attend him all of his days. Notice what the source of that difficulty will be. Cursed art thou literally away from the ground which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee its strength. A fugitive and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth. You notice the focused emphasis upon the ground in conjunction with his temporal punishment. And there are two basic words used in this section of Genesis for the earth or for the ground. One referring to the earth, Eretz.

22:25 The general word for earth. And the other for the till, the arable, the more fruitful land for production for someone who, like Cain, was a farmer. And God is saying, from the very source which has absorbed the blood of your innocent brother, the arable land, that land which you have known to be your friend as you tilled. Tilled the land. As you nurtured your various plants and as you saw them bring forth and from which you even brought your offering to me, cursed are you from that very ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood. And there will be two particular things that the earth will not give to you, Cain. It will not give to you the provision that it would ordinarily give to you. It will not give to you the provision that it would ordinarily give to you.

23:25 Nor a place of settlement on which to live. There will be an intensified unyieldingness in the earth. When you till the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto you its strength. Now a curse had already been pronounced upon the earth after man's fall. You remember what God said to Adam in chapter 3.

23:54 He said that the earth is cursed because of you, and this is what the result will be. Verse 17 of chapter 3. Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

24:10 Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field, and in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread till thou return to the ground. But in addition to that generic curse upon, this earth, cursed for man's sake, because of man's sin, God intensifies in the case of Cain, and in a way that is not revealed to us, that no matter what he did, no matter how much fertilizer he put upon it, no matter how much he cultivated and weeded and nurtured that soil, because it absorbed the blood of his brother, it will hold a greater power than the blood of his brother. And so it will be. And so it will be. And so it will be. And so it will be. And so it will be.

24:54 And so it will be. And so it will be. And so it will be. And so it will be. And so it will be.

24:54 And so it will be. And so it will be. And so it will be. And so it will be. And so it will be.

24:54 That is what God says, when you kill the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto you its strength. Oh, yes, it will yield. But no matter what you do, Cain, it will be reluctant earth, because it is earth you stained with the blood. And then the second thing he says, that he would lead an abnormal nomadic life.

25:27 And a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth, just as the earth will say in essence, I have a grudge against you, Cain, because you spill your innocent brother's blood upon me. I will reluctantly yield my fruit, but never, never to the full extent of my power. And it is as though any place he would pitch his tent with permanence said, I too hold a grudge against you, and I will not allow you to remain long upon that part of the earth where you would like to dwell and carry out your preferred career of being a farmer.

26:15 And it's not without significance that in the next part of this chapter, when the history of Cain unfolds, the emphasis falls upon him being a builder of city. Very significant. The ground opened up its mouth to swallow the blood of his brother, and now that ground will be the very instrument of fulfilling the temporal punishment of God for his sin. And intensify.

Cain's Response: Self-Pity, Despair, and Paranoia

26:48 Unyieldingness and an abnormal nomadic life. Now in the last half of the couplet, what is Cain's response to this pronounced punishment? Verses 13 and 14. And Cain said, you see now how the structure is found in this dialogue? Jehovah says, Now Cain said unto Jehovah, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold! Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the ground, and from thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth, and it will come to pass that whosoever findeth me will slay me. From lying and from insolence, he now moves to self-pity, despair, and paranoia.

27:47 Notice first of all his cry, of self-pity. And for some of you who have studied this passage, you are aware that there are alternate translations. Some suggest, as the marginal reading of the 1901, that Cain's response was not, My punishment is greater than I can bear, but my iniquity is greater than that which can be forgiven. And it was a cry of despair of one who would fain be forgiven, but now he comes to the realization, I've sinned too greatly.

28:21 I've put myself beyond the pale of the grace of God. And having examined the arguments for that rendering, I feel that they are inconclusive, and I'm convinced that the context and the overall analogy of Scripture does not warrant that rendering at all. But rather, the translation as it is found in the 1901 does reflect what Cain said. My punishment is greater than I can bear, My punishment is greater than I can bear, it's nothing but the wail and the whine of carnal self-pity.

29:01 No cry after being indicted by God, given the temporal punishments of God, O God, I now see, that the earth should open its mouth and swallow my brother's innocent blood, was a horrible cry, and O God, can there be pity in your heart? Can there be forgiveness for such as I, who have slain my own brother? My sin, my sin, my sin, O God! No, he says, my punishment is more than I can bear.

29:42 In other words, God, you're excessive in bringing upon me such madness, sinful, temporal consequences for my sin. It's interesting. He later on indicates that his own conscience was telling him he should have been killed for his sin.

30:04 He said, anyone who finds me will kill me. How did he know that? His own conscience was accusing him. And here God tells him that he's going to live, and live out many years, a fugitive and a wanderer as you shall be in the earth, and instead of falling down, saying, O God, my conscience tells me, you should kill me here on the spot, and yet you're going to spare me.

30:28 O God of mercy, God of grace, your punishment is lenient.

30:36 But like every hardened sinner, all he's concerned about is, God's given me more than I deserve. My punishment is greater than I can bear. No concern about his sin. In all of its ugliness before God, ugly in its essence, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is, sin is.

30:57 Only concerned about the consequences. Only concerned that he got caught, and God slapping his hand, and he says, God, you slapped too hard, and you left a red mark on the back of my hand. He responds with a cry of self-pity, and then, secondly, with a complaint of the specifics.

31:25 He understood God well, and now he gives back to God, back to God. He's going to detail to God all the things God's done to him. And he says four things in his complaint of the specifics. He says, I'm deprived of the productive soil.

31:42 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the Adama, the arable, the tilled land. You're driving me away from the place where I make my living, the place where I put bread on my table. God, have you no heart? Don't you know that I must eat? And later on in the chapter when it says he knew his wife and bore a child and bore children, the assumption seems to be that at this stage he was already a married man. So he may in essence have been saying, God, have you no pity for my wife and for my children? Here you're telling me that the land is going to be unyielding to me. God, have you no heart of compassion?

32:27 Self-pity merges into a complaint of the first specific. I'm deprived of the productive soil. Secondly, I'm cut off from the place of your special presence. Look at the text.

32:38 Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the ground and from thy face shall I be hid. Apparently there was still a special presence of God outside of Eden where Adam and Eve had been banished. For verse 16 says, Cain went, Out from the presence of Jehovah and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And he said, It's not fair. Here's a man whose heart is set against Jehovah and yet he's fearful of being utterly cut off from every last remembrance of the presence, the worship, the existence and the blessing of Jehovah.

33:29 And he complains about it. And thirdly, he says, I'll have no settled dwelling. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. I'll not have a place to call my own. If what you say is true and I'm a man given to farming and I need arable land and tillable land and productive land and you've told me that no such land will be productive to me, then I'll have to be a constant fugitive and wanderer trying to find a place where I can eke out a living. Or eventually settle and give up my career as a farmer and become something else. And then fourthly, he says, I will be a man marked for death. Notice his language.

34:17 And it will come to pass that whosoever findeth me will slay me. Now where did he get that notion?

34:26 I say he got that notion from the fact that it is written on the very conscience of man, that whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. And if you look at the chronology, verse 25 of this chapter, Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth. And how old was Adam when Seth was born? Verse 3 of chapter 5, Adam lived 130 years, begat a son in his own likeness after his image, and called his name Seth.

35:05 So if Seth was born when Adam was 130, and we have reason to assume that Cain and Abel were born in the time period when in this genealogy most people began to bear children somewhere in the 60s, who can tell, who can tell how many hundreds or thousands of the extended family of Adam and Eve, were already inhabiting the earth. And since the only means of communication was word of mouth, and it was all one extended family, we are, yes, but in a way that we cannot tie together all the bands as they could, having such longevity, and one generation after another being born, while the first generation still lives, so that there could be accuracy of transmission of facts. He said it will become known throughout the whole earth what I've done, and I know that as my conscience tells me, whoso sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, so the conscience of everyone who hears of my deed will tell him that I ought to be slain. Oh God, whosoever finds me will slay me. I'll have to live in the shadows.

36:23 I'll never be able to show my face in public. I'll be a fugitive and a wanderer with no settled place of dwelling. I'll never be able to show my face in public. I'll never be able to show my face in public.

36:32 I'll never be able to show my face in public. I'll never be able safely to go out and show my face in public. My brothers, my cousins, nephews and grandnephews, and all of the extended family will know that I'm a marked man. Isn't it amazing how differently he views his sin now?

36:53 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.

37:21 And he welcomed it in not as a beast of prey, but a little pussycat. Oh, has he found out that God was not indulging in excessive rhetoric. God was not indulging in excessive rhetoric. God was not indulging in excessive rhetoric.

37:36 God warned him that outside the door of his heart was a beast of prey, not a pussycat. He let in the beast of prey. And now he's reaping the fruit of his folly. Well, we've looked at the first two couplets.

Jehovah's Final Word: Divine Threat and Sign of Assurance

37:59 God speaks, Cain responds. God speaks, Cain responds. And now we look at Jehovah's final word to Cain in verse 15. And Jehovah said, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.

38:22 And Jehovah appointed a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should smite him. What is Jehovah's final word to Cain? It's a word that comes, first of all, in verbal expression, and then a word that comes, in an object, lesson, or a sign. First, there is a divine threat with respect to the preservation of Cain's life.

38:52 Cain is gripped with this fear that whoever finds him will slay him, that they will have more conscience than he had.

39:01 They will not be so abandoned as he was. And God puts a divine threat to preserve Cain's life and says that he, that Jehovah is committed to this principle that anyone who would slay Cain, vengeance should be taken upon him sevenfold. That's a Hebraism that means to the full extent.

39:29 And that word became known because later on, Lamech, that wicked descendant of Cain, says in verse 24, After slaying a man for wounding him and a young man for bruising him, if Cain shall be slain, Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech, seventy and seven. So God makes it plain that this word is a word that Cain is free to let people know, Jehovah who indicted me, Jehovah who has cursed me and the ground because of my sin, no matter what I do, it will not yield as it yielded before. This Jehovah who is keeping His word, so that no matter what I do to the earth, it doesn't yield to the full. No matter where I seek to settle, I must pack my tent and move on. This Jehovah who means what He says, has promised, if you take my life, He will avenge you to the full measure. So God gives him a gracious word of promise, saying that although your life will have its miseries, your miserable life will yet be spared by a covenantal pledge on the part of Jehovah that will protect him from any of the extended family taking vengeance.

40:57 And then God does a second thing in His final word. He gives not only a divine threat with respect to preserving Cain's life, but a divine sign to assure Cain of the validity of that promise. And the rendering in 1901 is accurate. I was speaking to Pastor Lamar before the service in looking up this word sign.

41:23 I know of no other place the Hebrew word oath, not our English word O-A-T-H, but the Hebrew word pronounced in the Hebrew oath is a word which only here is translated as in the authorized version, a mark. Everywhere else, everywhere else, the word for mark is two or three other different Hebrew words are used in the Old Testament, but this word is almost invariably translated sign, and it means what we've come to know the word sign to mean. For example, when Moses is commissioned by the Lord at the burning bush and is told, go down and be the deliverer of my people, and Moses said, well, how will the people know that I'm your messenger? God says, you'll throw down your rod and it will turn into a snake. This shall be a sign. An oath. A sign.

42:15 And you remember when God came to Gideon. Thou mighty man of valor, the Lord is with thee. You're going to deliver the Midianites. And he says, O God, give me a sign.

42:24 And he puts out the fleece. That's our word. Sign. It's the word in the familiar promise in Isaiah.

42:30 The Lord Himself shall give you a sign. The virgin shall conceive and be with child and bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel. It's the standard word for some supernatural act of God that has a divinely ordained significance either to validate a messenger of God. That's why apostles could say, Paul could say, the signs of an apostle were wrought in me.

43:00 Signs and wonders were validations of the unique authority and position of apostles and in some cases of the prophets. And God is saying that Cain would either be given here a once for all supernatural manifestation of God to seal to his heart the promise or that wherever Cain would go, whenever anyone would seek to slay him, God would grant a sign that would remind them, I mean what I threatened. Whoso slays Cain, I will bend, my vengeance sevenfold. There is nothing in the Hebrew text to lead to the idea that God put a mark upon Cain and wherever he went, people saw him and went, oh, he came. Won't even get close enough to kill him. What a silly notion has been built upon a poor translation from the original.

44:08 What God does is to encourage this wicked murderer that he will be faithful to his own word to protect his life. That's what God does. That's not a novel opinion of Albert N. Martin, but a Hebraist of the stature of not our president, George Bush, but a George Bush of another age whose works have gone through reprinting because of their worth, commenting on this.

44:39 He writes, the Hebrew, the Lord appointed a sign to Cain. The original word employed, oath, often signifies a sign, a token or a memorial by which something is confirmed or brought to remembrance. And then he quotes some of the text I have quoted to you. As to its being a visible mark, brand or stigma affixed to the person of Cain, there is no ground whatever for such an opinion.

45:14 And then a more recent commentator, Leupold, the Lutheran commentator, again, a man very much at home in the structure and in the field for the Hebrew language, writes, now when the question is raised wherein did this sign consist, it's usually regarded as a mark set upon him. But this assumption overlooks the fact that the text does not say God set a mark in or on Cain, rather, he caused a sign or pledge or token for Cain. And then he gives the parallel passages. God let this sign appear therefore for Cain in order to reassure Cain. There is therefore no ground for supposing that Cain went about as a marked man all the rest of his life. Anyhow, the Hebrew word oath, never means mark. End of quote.

46:19 Now why do I say that? Well, for a number of reasons, not the least of which, there was a time, even in the Christian church, when people were so desperate to justify the oppression of blacks, that this was one of the texts they forced into service. That the mark of Cain was the blackness of his skin. And one of the reasons I say that is to show how desperate the human heart will be to justify its own wickedness.

46:50 No, this sign was with respect to Cain himself in order to assure him that God was not speaking empty words when he promised to preserve him. Well, that's what the passage teaches to the best of my knowledge and the fruit of my labors. Two couplets of dialogue. God speaks, Cain responds.

Crucial Lessons Concerning Sin

47:18 God speaks again, Cain responds. And then God gives the last word. But now, what are we to learn from this fascinating account of God's day in court with a man called Cain? Well, as I have wrestled with the burden of the passage, there are so many dimensions of truth, but I want to limit it to three crucial areas as I conclude the message tonight.

47:49 What are the vital lessons of this passage? And here I trust you'll gird up the loins of your mind and listen with all the energy of your soul. First of all, it contains some crucial lessons concerning sin. Secondly, some crucial lessons concerning an obstinate, unhumbled sinner, and some crucial lessons concerning the mercy of God to unworthy sinners.

48:14 Crucial lessons concerning sin. What are the passages, what are the things this passage teaches us about sin? We live in a day when people make a mock at sin and God calls them fools. When the word sin has become the brunt of jest to poke fun at, quote, fundamentalists who believe in moral absolutes.

48:41 Well, what does this passage teach us about sin? Well, the first thing it teaches us is this, that sin has a frightening power to master the sinner and to make him like the devil. Sin has a frightening power to master the sinner and to make him like the devil. Eve held Cain in her arms and she exclaimed, I have gotten a child with the help of Jehovah.

49:17 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, marked out by the curse of God upon his person, a curse that would be seen in the unyielding earth, in the unsettled nature of his life, and only God's constant protection preserving him from dying violently at the hands of others. How in God's name did he get from that precious bundle of life that brought forth this exclamation, I have gotten a man

50:45 with the help of Jehovah, to where no doubt she wept herself to sleep many a night. I tell you, it's a picture of the frightening power of sin to master the sinner until it makes him just like them. First of all, it was just a little twinge of envy when he saw his brother's lifestyle under the smile of God. Then the envy began to burn into resentment when his brother's person and offering are somehow by God attested as acceptable and his own rejected.

51:26 And from the little twinge of envy to burning envy and to resentment, it says, it burned unto him until Cain is consumed with a burning anger, an anger that moves his hands to slay his brother. But that's all treatment to men. Now, God enters the picture and he lies looking God straight in the eye. And then he's insolent and says, God, what are you hassling me about my brother for?

52:02 That's not part of my job description. And then he's a vagabond and a wanderer. How in God's name did it all happen? It's when he thought he could set limits upon sin.

52:19 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 that early you would come to know that you were born with a sinful nature, that you were born in connection with Adam, condemned and lost, doomed and damned, and had the potential to become a vile creature like Cain. And they watched you grow and develop and they rejoiced and they laughed and they thanked God. But tonight, their hearts begin

53:47 to be full of fear because they see you as a young person in your stupid, sinful folly, thinking you can set limits to your sin. You can say to sin thus far, no further, enough sin to give me pleasure, but not enough to bring me shame and grief and heartache and make me a vagabond in the earth, make me one who lives with a tortured conscience. But 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 worst murder of all, that of trampling underfoot the blood of the Son of God. You don't believe it.

55:03 You say, I can say no to the overtures of the gospel. I can say no to uprightness and honesty and I can set limits. No, you can't. Cain couldn't and he had no bad companions.

55:18 He had no television. He had no wicked society. He had no hell music blaring in his ears. He had none of the helps you have to make you a full-blown son or daughter of the devil and yet he became that.

55:36 Oh, dear children, in God's name, I beg you, I plead with you, learn the lesson of Cain and Abel. Sin has a frightening power to master the sinner until it makes him just like the devil. And there's only one person who can protect you from its power and that's the Lord Jesus. If you get to Jesus and give yourself to Jesus and be wrapped up in Jesus, the scripture says, he that is born of God overcomes the evil one.

56:16 The evil one, the devil, toucheth him not. Not that he does not tempt, but he cannot touch so as to possess and make us into his image bearers. When Christ is ours and we are his and he is making us into his image. But then there's a second crucial lesson about sin in this story.

56:43 And it is this, that sin will certainly be discovered and punished by God. Sin will certainly be discovered and punished by God. God says in Numbers 32, 23, be sure your sin will find you out. Could words be more simple?

57:10 Be sure. Want to be sure of something? It's a little word that used to be used. You come up to someone and make small talk.

57:18 What do you know for sure? I'll tell you what I know for sure. Be sure your sin will find you out. Have you ever wondered what Cain thought when out in the field he saw his brother Abel in the twitches of death and his head dropped to his side and if he died with his eyes open there was the blank stare.

57:39 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.

58:15 The indication seems to be he was back at home. Some commentators suggest it may have even been the return of another end of the days when it was time to bring sacrifices. And he may have even been in the act of bringing some more of the fruit of the ground. And God says how come you're alone this time and not with your brother?

58:42 Maybe he had begun to think no lightning, no angel with a flaming sword, no earth opening up its bowels to swallow me. Why? Maybe my conscience is playing tricks on me. But a moment came when the voice of God pierced his ear saying, Cain, where is Abel your brother?

59:11 Cain's alive and I know what you've done. Cain, be sure your sinner will find you out. And once God tells him I've found it out, I'm marking it, I'm punishing it. Cursed are you from the ground.

59:38 God was saying as he said to Adam and Eve in the day that thou eatest dying thou shalt die. God is saying be sure your sin will find you. My friend young or old I care not what the sin is. I care not how long and how cleverly you have covered it.

60:04 God may allow it to be covered till the day of judgment but found out it shall be. For Jesus said the things that are done in secret shall be spoken from the housetops. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and nothing hid that shall not be made known. Yes, that quarter you stole from your mother's wallet.

60:32 That five dollar bill you took from your dad's wallet. Yes, that magazine that you sneaked into your bedroom. Yes, those lies that were told and the incident has long been forgotten in the home. Be sure your sin will find you out.

60:55 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. That's the lesson of this passage. God comes as the inquisitor.

61:21 God comes as the interrogator. God comes as the representative of the district attorney's office. Sin will be discovered and punished. The third great lesson concerning sin in this passage is this.

61:41 Sin will always become a haunting voice in the chambers of your own conscience. Sin will always become a haunting voice in the chambers of your own conscience. This is why in complaining about his lot he puts as the apex of his concern in verse 14 it'll come to pass whosoever finds me will slay me as we've already indicated. Where did he get that notion?

62:13 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.

62:55 That voice that your headset and your walkman and your rock music can't drown. Because there comes a time when the batteries wear down and you've got to change the tape and in those few moments of silence speaks the lie the stealing the cheating the illicit sexual contact between someone of the opposite sex with whom you're not married is stepping over the bounds of Christian propriety not fleeing fornication but playing with it toying with it. Conscience thunders long after the nerve endings have died down. And conscience thunders. Cain he could leave his brother's body in the field.

63:58 He couldn't leave his conscience in the field. He carried his conscience back to his house. He carried it to his bed. He carried it to the field.

64:09 And he'll carry it right on to the day of judgment and he'll carry it into hell. Where that will be the worm that dies not and part of the fire that's never quite. Now do you see why the Bible says fools make a mock at sin? All this we learn about sin from one little paragraph.

Crucial Lessons Concerning an Obstinate, Unhumbled Sinner

64:30 A frightening power to master the sinner and make him like the devil. It will certainly be discovered and punished by God and it will always become a haunting voice in the chambers of your conscience. But very quickly now two crucial lessons concerning an obstinate unhumbled sinner because that's exactly what Cain is here. He is an obstinate unhumbled sinner and in that he becomes the paradigm.

65:00 He becomes the model of every unhumbled obstinate sinner. Two things. It will always it will always seek to deny the reality of his sin. An unhumbled obstinate sinner will always seek to deny the reality of his sin.

65:21 Where is your brother? I don't know. You liar. You do know.

65:27 Do you think he really had actually just about convinced himself? It's amazing what the human mind can do when it tries to block out reality. And the mark of an obstinate unhumbled sinner is that he covers his sin with shifting and rationalizing and denial and lying and a host of other things. But here's the word of God.

65:53 He that covers his sin shall not prosper. He that covers his sin shall not prosper. God will have to vacate his throne before any obstinate unhumbled sinner will ever prosper while he still denies the reality of his sin. The second mark of an unhumbled obstinate sinner is he'll complain about the temporal results of his sin but never be concerned about the sin itself.

66:23 I punish these for that I can bear. Boo hoo. Pity me. My parents.

66:31 They're cruel. They've told me I can't do this because I broke some of their silly rules. I'm grounded for three weeks. My punishment's more than I can bear.

66:45 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.

67:06 You want so bad. To become a slave of your lust that you're always carrying on a pity party when you get with your peers even in this church and in the hallways of this church. And you know adults aren't listening to you. You're grousing.

67:20 But why in the world do you have to be in this place? Why in the world do I have to have parents that don't want me to go to hell? Gotta take me to church and hear preaching and all this other stuff. My punishment's more than I can bear.

67:34 Oh dear young person. It's a terrible thing to see a man probably a hundred years old maybe older an obstinate hardened sinner but I tell you it scares the liver out of me when I see it in some of you teenagers. It scares me. You've been brought up with such light.

67:56 Some of you heard more gospel in one year than some of us heard in two decades growing up. And I fear that God may make some of you monuments of his righteous justice and his judgment to let someone become so hardened before he sees his twentieth birthday that you become an irrecoverable hardened obstinate sinner who may as well be in hell. What a horrible picture. That's the picture of Cain.

68:27 That's why Jude says they've gone the way of Cain. It's a pattern of denial self pity resentment of God's gracious intervention. They've gone the way of Cain. It's a pattern of denial self pity resentment of God's gracious intervention.

Crucial Lessons Concerning the Mercy of God to Unworthy Sinners

68:51 But then finally and thank God that the gospel is found everywhere in the Bible. There are not only crucial lessons concerning sin crucial lessons concerning an obstinate unhumbled sinner but crucial lessons about the mercy of God to sinners. And here are two of them. He is often long suffering and patient to the most brazen of sinners.

69:14 He is often long suffering and patient to the most brazen of sinners. Think of it. In cold blood he rose up and slew his brother. God could have justly slain him on the spot.

69:28 God could have told Adam and Eve your firstborn has been a murderer who so sheds man's blood by man should his blood be shed in my name go out and slay your son as an act of capital punishment to vindicate my justice and to underscore the sanctity of God. He comes to Cain to talk to him to awaken his conscience to get him to own his guilt and instead of seeing the overtures of God's mercy he stuffs a lie in God's face and then sticks his tongue out at God. And what does God do? He doesn't strike him dead.

70:12 He just imposes some temporal punishments. There is not a word here about any spiritual punishment. He imposed some temporal punishment upon his family in the name of Jesus. But the way God works is that He does right what He has to do in the spirit of God who gave His Son for His Son and He did what He and unjust. What a merciful God Jehovah is. God speaks and says, no, I'll allow no one to slay you. I'll extend your life for lengths of days. You'll have the joy of parenthood

71:08 and the joy of seeing your children and grandchildren. What a marvelous picture of the long suffering and patience of God to the most brazen of sinners. The scripture tells us, account that the long suffering of God is salvation. That's what Peter says. Paul says in Romans 2, do you despise the goodness and the forbearance of God, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Oh, dear children, young people, adults who've heard the overtures of God's mercy times without number, aren't you a living monument of God's long suffering and patience? To the most brazen of sinners. What a gracious God our God is. And then the second thing

72:04 we learn about His mercy is that He often comes in the overtures of mercy to sinners while they neither seek it nor desire it. He often comes in the overtures of mercy to sinners while they neither seek it nor desire it. This whole passage begins with God. Taking the initiative, no indication that Cain was seeking out Jehovah with a conscience screaming and a heart broken, but God comes to him when he least expected it. And oh, my prayer tonight was, oh God, as men and women come to this service, some of them unconverted, some of them determined that they will not, they have no intention this night, that they will allow the word to get to them and the gospel to get to them. And I'm going to tell you, in the arms of Christ stretched out to embrace them, my prayer has been, oh God, come in the overtures of mercy to sinners when they least desire it and seek it and arrest them and surprise them and send them home saved when they came here determined

73:20 to go home lost. Oh, that God would do that tonight. Because in the gospel He stretches out His hands to you, children, young children, young children, young children, young children, young people, teenagers, adults, whatever your pattern of obstinacy and stubbornness has been. And you came here tonight neither desiring or seeking salvation. This God comes saying, I'm the God who promised that there would be a seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. And though one of Adam and Eve's son, their firstborn, their firstborn, becomes a full-blown son of the devil. Remember, though Abel's out of the picture here, he's very much in the picture up there. And the overtures of God's mercy in the case of Abel were embraced. And he saw and owned himself to be a sinner. And

74:23 he owned and embraced the mercy of God promised to Eve and the promised seed. And the scripture says that as a man of faith, he will be a man of faith. And he will be a man of faith. He offered his sacrifice. And as a man of faith, he became a righteous and a godly man.

Cain's Eternal Destiny: A Warning

74:39 First John 3.12. But now, after all of that, you say, well, there goes Pastor Martin thumping and hollering and trying to get to me. But I got through it again. I want to close tonight by telling you where Cain is now. Turn to the book of Jude. This is our last text. He complained that he was going to be a sinner. He complained that he was going to be a sinner.

75:07 He complained that he was going to be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. He has a far worse wandering now. Jude, the last book before the book of the Revelation. Verse 11. Woe unto them, for they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the air of Balaam for higher, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. Here he focuses upon formalism in the case of Cain, covetousness in the case of Balaam, rebellion to constituted authority in the case of Korah. These are they who are hidden rocks in your love feast when they feast with you. Shepherds that feed, fear feed, without fear feed themselves. Clouds

76:00 without water, carried along by winds. Autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Cold waves of the sea foaming out their own shame. Now here's the phrase. Wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. Cain in his self-pity said, my punishment's more than I can bear. I'm going to be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. He's now a fugitive and a wanderer from the presence of God.

76:45 Wandering like a black star across the trackless spaces of outer darkness. He complained, I am driven away from the ground, driven away from your face. I'll be a wanderer and a fugitive in the earth. He's now a wanderer and a fugitive from the face of God forever. And he'll be a wandering star in the blackness of darkness. God help you if you choose. To be Cain's companion in the vast universe of wandering stars forever in darkness. If you join him, these hands are clean of your blood. You won't point your finger to me in

77:44 the day of judgment and say, pastor, you didn't tell it like it is. But I don't want just to have clean hands. I want to have full hands and bring you with me to glory. Go to Christ. Go now. Leave the monster that crouches at the door. Run to the gracious Savior who says, him that comes to me, I'll in no wise. Our Father, what can we say before the weighty truths of your word? We feel that our own frail humanity cannot hold them, much less speak them as they ought to be spoken. Take, we pray, the efforts of your servant and honor your word. Oh God, may we not have spent our

78:53 strength in vain, but may this night many flee to the Lord Jesus, leave the society and the companionship of Cain and join the ranks of Abel the righteous. Oh Lord, hear our cry for Jesus' sake. Amen.