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A SOCIETY WITHOUT GOD
Genesis 4:16-24
INTRODUCTION:
1.
When a community, city, nation, or country leaves God out…it is bound to come to ruin.
And we see that in our nation today.
But it didn’t start in the United States of America…or in any other part of the modern day world.
It started with the line of Cain.
2. Cain murdered his brother Abel…left the presence of God & started his own society…but it was a society w/o God.
And what took place in Cain’s society & culture is no different than our society today.
NOTE: What we are seeing take place today is nothing more than what has already taken place in the beginning.
As the writer of Ecclesiastes said - “there is nothing new under the sun...”
3. So, tonight I want to share with you the characteristics of society without God.
1) A Rebellious Society
1. Cain had no regard for the Lord & he quickly “went out from the presence of the Lord.
2. Cain’s attitude reveals three rebellious characteristics about the society that followed him.
A. First, the society was seen to be running from God: “Cain went out from the presence of the Lord…”
The very context of this passage shows that Cain was rejecting God Himself and all who stood for God.
Cain was leaving, forsaking, and getting as far away as he could...
from the presence of God
from the community and neighborhood of the godly
from the place and altar where God was worshipped
Notice that Cain chose to turn and walk away from both God and his godly family.
He left and went into another country in order to live like he wanted, in order to be away from God and to do his own thing.
He deliberately chose—to live a secular and ungodly life, and to develop a secular and ungodly society.
Cain deliberately separated himself from God.
But think about this - God never told him to leave His presence: but that’s what Cain decided to do.
Cain made the conscious decision to run from God and to never return to the place of worship.
But before we’re too hard on Cain let us look at ourselves.
NOTE: We must beware of the myth that people seek God.
When a man begins to ‘seek’ God it’s only b/c God has begun to seek him first!
But until God seeks a person…that person is on the run from God.
And we see that in our society today…people are running from God.
Our culture is on the run from God.
B. Second, the society was seen to be restless as Cain “dwelt in the land of Nod…”
The name “Nod” means ‘restless’ or ‘wandering’.
James Montgomery Boice wrote, “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.”
When Cain ran from God he found himself in a restless place...He believed that running away from God would ease the curse on him but he soon learned that he was restless no matter where he was.
NOTE: Nothing has changed.
There are still those who run from God…and they try frantically to ‘fill the void’ with many of the things that they do...but at the end of the day, they are as restless as ever b/c they have wandered from God.
NOTE: No person or society will have true peace until it turns to God.
The person who lives only for this world & what this world offers will never experience peace & fulfillment.
This world may be able to offer some comfort, pleasure, & security…but at the end of the day, none of this is permanent.
When tragedy comes, the help of the world is limited…and it ends up leaving us w/o hope.
NOTE: 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.
C. Third, the society in Genesis 4 was seen to be rootless.
The land of Nod was “east of Eden.”
This statement is significant b/c it shows how Cain (and the society he established) moved consistently further from God.
In Genesis 11:1-2 we see society moving further east—further away from God.
In Genesis 13 Lot and Abraham separate...Abraham gives Lot first choice of where he would like to go and we read...
Once more, you see man moving even further from God...And as he journeys east he establishes himself in the region of Sodom and Gomorrah.
NOTE: It seems in Scripture that the further east man travelled, the further he got away from God.
The point I want to make is this - Cain no longer had roots in Eden and in his relationship with God.
He simply journeyed further and further from God and his descendants followed suit.
NOTE: When a person departs from God they depart from the root of a purposeful and fulfilling life.
When you move away from God…you move away from your purpose for living.
And as a result, you become rebellious & you end up doing your own thing.
You live for yourself instead of living for God.
1. Cain had a wife.
Who was she?
Most likely this is his sister or half-sister or distant relative.
2. Cain and his wife had a son and named him Enoch.
The name means beginner, dedicated, or initiated.
Apparently, Cain was hoping that his son would give him a new beginning—a new start—in life…but a new beginning w/o God.
3. Cain became a contractor and began to build a city.
This wasn’t a city like the modern cities of today.
It was probably just a few houses enclosed within a wall.
Apparently, as months and years passed, other families had forsaken God and they joined Cain and his family in the land of Nod.
4. But notice this - Cain built a city…and the fact that Cain named the city after his son reveals his attitude: it’s still all about Cain!
He’s still proud & arrogant…and still wants to do things his way.
He was out to glorify the name & works of his family.
He was now living only for the honor of this world & not for the honor of God.
NOTE: Doesn’t that sound like the world we live in today?
They want it their way…and it’s all about them & not God.
We live in a world where everyone wants to make a name for themselves…and leave their mark on society.
But just like Cain’s city & the world would be destroyed in the coming flood of Genesis 6…anything that isn’t done for God will not last.
NOTE: Only what has God’s name on it & God’s approval is going to last.
2) A Religious Society
1.
An amazing thing can be seen in the naming of the children in Cain’s line:
2. Notice that two of the names in this verse end with ‘el’.
‘El’ is the Hebrew word for God.
“Mehujael” means ‘smitten of God’ and “Methusael” means ‘the man who is of God’.
What we have here is a godless society naming their children after God!
This is a society “having a form of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).
NOTE: A society that has rejected the one true God doesn’t necessarily stop talking about God.
I would imagine that Cain may have set up his own ‘church’—an altar where he and his descendants could worship their god.
I can imagine that they would have had a form of set doctrine but it was simply tradition apart from godly reality.
And not much has changed.
NOTE: We are living in a day where people are more religious than ever.
In our day, people have all kinds of beliefs…and serve all kinds of gods.
In fact, in our society…there are those that believe you can be a homosexual & be a Christian...
There are also those that believe in universalism, which, means that everyone is going to heaven.
NOTE: In the USA, we may no longer be considered “one nation under God” by many…but we are a religious nation.
Everyone may not serve & worship the one true God…but people are worshiping their false gods.
A society w/o God is still a religious society.
3) A Reprobate Society
1.
Despite their desire to ‘Christianize’ their line, the family of Cain continued down the path of rebellion.
This is the first recorded instance of polygamy in human history: “Lamech took unto him two wives...”
In Romans 1, we read how God gave ungodly society over to a reprobate mind (1:18-28).
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