Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction:

Remember, Genesis 4:1-6:8 is dealing with the ungodly and the godly seed (descendents) of early history.

We have already studied how the ungodly and godly seed began:

            A.

The First Children, Cain and Abel: False Vs.

True Worship—the Beginning of False Worship, 4:1-7

            B.

The First Murder, Cain Kills Abel: The Undeniable Truth of Judgment—Sin Cannot Be Hid, 4:8-15

            Now, Scripture shows us how the ungodly line branched out and developed into an ungodly civilization and society.

This is the Development of the First Ungodly Seed or Descendents.”

!! A.           A society that was secular and ungodly.

!!! 1.            “Cain went out from the presence of the Lord…”  (v.16).

!!!! a)            Cain left God’s presence (v.16a).

!!!!! (1)           Remember God had confronted Cain for his sin in murdering his brother, God pronounced judgment, but the Lord also reached out in mercy to Cain (4:8-15).

!!!!! (2)           But Cain’s response was /“He went out from the presence of the Lord.”/

(v.16).

!!!!! (3)           We have other passages of Scripture where people left the presence of the Lord:

*Remember when Adam and Eve* "Heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

(Genesis 3:8, NASB95)

*When the Lord told Jonah to go to Nineveh, *"Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord."

(Jonah 1:3, 10 NASB95)

The cry of David in his repentant prayer to the Lord after his sin of adultery and murder was "Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me." (Psalm 51:10-11, NASB95)

!!!!! (4)           This means more than just physically leaving the presence of the Lord.

Cain was leaving, forsaking, and getting as far away as he could...

!!!!!! (a)           from the presence of God.

!!!!!! (b)           from his godly parents, Adam and Eve, breaking their hearts even more.

!!!!!! (c)           from the community and neighborhood of the godly (Adam and Eve had other children by this time, cp.

Genesis 5:4).

!!!!!! (d)           from the place and altar where God was worshipped.

!!!!!! (e)           from the land where people were living godly lives.

!!!!! (5)           So Cain decided to walk away from his family and God, going to another country in order live like he wants.

Our character should always be godly no matter where we go to live

!!!!! (6)           So here, we see that Cain was the one who physically left the presence of God.

But I want to look at a NT passage that reveals something on a larger scale *(Revelation 3:20)*.

!!!!!! (a)           People who want to separate themselves from the presence of God now, will be separated from God for all eternity:

*Paul said in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1* "For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10, NASB95)

*Revelation 20** says* "This is the second death, the lake of fire.

And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

(Revelation 20:14-15)

!!!!! (7)           Cain was the first person who launched the permanent seed of the serpent upon earth (1Jn 3:12).

!!!!! (8)           Do not let it be true of you that you “went out from the Lord’s presence.”

Flee to him, and find in him the One you have needed all along.

!! B.           A society that was rootless and restless.

!!! 1.            Cain dwelt in the land of Nod (v.16b).

!!!! a)            The loss of roots of a person.

!!!!! (1)           The verses that are the focus for this study, speak of Cain building a city and of the resulting civilization.

!!!!! (2)           But to understand this civilization we have to go back to the previous verses in which Cain is said to have become a wanderer as a result of his sin.

!!!!!! (a)           We find it in God’s words of judgment: “You will be a restless wanderer on the earth” (v.

12).

!!!!!! (b)           We find it in Cain’s complaint: “I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me” (v.

14).

!!!!!! (c)           We even find it in the name of the land to which Cain goes, for Nod (“the land of Nod”) means “wandering.”

!!!!!! (d)           The point obviously is that Cain remained a wanderer at heart even when he attempted to settle down.

Having rejected God, he had severed his roots and was condemned to restlessness.

!!!!! (3)           Adam and Eve suffered something similar, for they were cut off from Eden.

But their roots were in God, and they remained close to the presence of God.

!!!!! (4)           It is far worse for Cain.

He had rejected God and was therefore restless and rootless

*Paul was telling the Ephesians in chapter 3 to* "to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love" (Ephesians 3:16-17, NASB95)

*Paul exhorted those in Colosse on this very issue by saying *"As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude."

(Colossians 2:6-7, NASB95)

 

!!!! b)            The loss of roots of society.

!!!!! (1)           This is the way our society is today.

It thinks its happy and doing well and satisfied with all that the world has to offer but we need to remember this world has the *god of the world in it.

*

!!!!! (2)           The person or society that turns away from God will always be restless and rootless.

No person or society will know true peace until it turns to God.  

!!!!! (3)           The reason is this: a person or society who lives only a secular life—who lives only for this world—has only what this world has to offer which is, pleasure, money, position, recognition, honor, and security.

But none of this is permanent.

!!!!! (4)           The things of this world can never satisfy the soul of man.

The soul was made for God; therefore, the soul can never rest nor be rooted until it rests and is rooted in God.

*Solomon knew this and that is why he wrote *"For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun?

For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest.

This also is vanity.

Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor.

This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.

For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I? For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to him who is good before God.

This also is vanity and grasping for the wind."

(Ecclesiastes 2:22-23, NKJV)

*Isaiah said *"There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked" (Isaiah 48:22, NKJV)

*The Lord says in Isaiah 57 that* "The wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt” (Isaiah 57:20, NKJV)

 

 

 

\\ !! C.           A society who honored and gloried in themselves (v.17).

!!! 1.            “Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch…”  (v.17a).

!!!! a)            Cain had a wife.

!!!!! (1)           Who was she?  His sister or half-sister or distant relative?

Scripture is clear: Adam and Eve had other children.

In fact Adam lived to be 930 years old (Genesis 5:4-5).

!!!!!! (a)           There must have been many children, and of course the children of each generation would have given birth to many other children.

!!!!!! (b)           The potential population during Adam’s life is staggering.

(i)             James Montgomery Boice, expositor, points this out:

if only one half of Adam’s children lived, and if only half of the living got married, and if only half the married had children, then, even at the three half-rates, the population would still number more than a million at Adam’s death

!!!!! (2)           There was no danger of deformity or harmful genes due to intermarriage for two reasons:

!!!!!! (a)           This was the way God planned and purposed the human race to grow.

!!!!!! (b)           This was the very beginning of the human race.

What I mean by that is, Adam and his immediate family stood at the head of the stream of human life.

!!!!!! (c)           The stream of human life—just like the stream of a river—was not polluted at the head or spring.

It became polluted as it flowed downstream.

!!! 2.            “Cain’s wife conceived and bore Enoch…” (v.17b).

!!!! a)            Cain and his wife had a son and named him Enoch.

!!!!! (1)           The name means beginner, dedicated, or initiated.