Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Decline of God’s Design for the Family  (Family Foundations, Part 8 – Gen. 4:15-26)*

 

Last week we talked a little about the most famous wife in Scripture whose name we don’t know: Cain’s wife.

Ken Ham, who heads up the Answers in Genesis ministry has said he ends up spending more time answering questions about Cain’s wife than he gets to talk about his own wife!

Far more important subjects often get missed.

Maybe you’ve heard the story told by Carl F. H. Henry, one of the more famous Christian theologians and thinkers of the 20th century.

He speaks of a time doing outdoor preaching ~/ evangelism

Henry: “In one of my last street meetings, during my college years, a heckler kept shouting, ‘Where did Cain get his wife?’

“When I could ignore the disturber no longer.

I replied, ‘When I get to heaven, I’ll ask him!’

“‘Suppose he isn’t in heaven?’ parried the disrupter.

“I retorted.

“Then you can ask him!”’[1]

I am not recommending you follow that example necessarily in that way, but the point we saw is that people get hung up sometimes on various questions and they miss the far more important and bigger subjects in this chapter.

One of the points we didn’t have time to develop last week I want to pick up: notice how merciful God is to murderous Cain.

In v. 13-14 Cain who deserved to die complains against God that He is unjust in His judgment (Cain ironically ignores his cold-blooded callous crime to his blood-brother who died /undeservedly unjustly/)

 

15 So the Lord said to [Cain], “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.”

And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain [NKJV “set a mark on Cain”], so that no one finding him would slay him.

Cain is as far as we can tell still utterly unrepentant for his hatred or his homicide, deserving of Divine judgment and execution, but instead he receives Divine protection.

God could have put Cain to death on the spot or at least allowed Abel’s blood relatives to do the job, but instead God makes sure no one will do to Cain what he did to his brother.

It is obvious and clear to me that this is amazing undeserved mercy!

Yet many writers gloss over this clear and major point and argue about a much more minor question that’s not as clear – what the mark on Cain was in v. 15 (suggestions include a tattoo, a bright-colored coat, a dog, a horn on his forehead, etc.).

*Major Point #1: Gods Grace is Available Despite our Greatest Sins *

 

In the text of Genesis 4, one of the great lessons is that the Lord’s grace is still there for Cain despite his greatest sins.  2 weeks ago I ended with another story of two sons told by our Lord: A father of two sons, one who was a prodigal sinner but came back humbly  repentant, the other son resentful and proud.

It illustrates God’s love which also was available to Cain if he would have repented and come humbly to the Father for mercy.

The original readers of the Torah, Genesis-Deuteronomy, would have been well-familiar with another story of false worship, another story of two sons.

Leviticus 10:1-3 (NASB95) 1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the Lord spoke, saying, ‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.’

” So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.

God instantly consumed these men for worshipping in a way not commanded (again many argue much about exact nature of man’s “strange fire” when the focus should be on God’s fire consuming sinners).

So in reading Gen 4, when God didn’t consume *Cain* for his displeasing offering, it’s amazing grace!

Perhaps that should shock us more than Cain killing Abel.

What should shock us more than Cain killing is that Cain /was not killed by God Himself for his false worship/, for Cain’s response and rejection of God’s grace, for Cain’s premeditated first-degree murder of his own brother!

Really anytime we don’t die upon our sin is truly amazing grace by God who alone has the sovereign right to delay justice if and when He so pleases.

And God who in Genesis 9 makes clear that murder in particular deserves the death penalty, and as Jesus made clear, hatred in our heart is as serious as murder, when Cain does both in this chapter, God is amazingly gracious!

In Gen. 3 Adam and Eve deserved to die instantly when they ate the forbidden fruit, but God was amazingly gracious to them.

And God is amazingly gracious to us.

We don’t deserve it.

We can’t presume upon it or assume it will always be there.

Genesis 6 shows when God’s gracious patience on humanity came to an end and He destroyed the whole world except for Noah’s family in the ark.

And God’s longsuffering patience will come to an end again, as 2 Peter 3 says, when he destroys the entire universe in the future, which that chapter compares to Genesis 6.

 

R.

C. Sproul writes: ‘It was the God who destroyed the world by a flood who pours the waters of His grace out to us … [Yet] the most brutal act of divine vengeance ever recorded in Scripture … is not found in the Old Testament but in the New Testament.

The most violent expression of God’s wrath and justice is seen in the cross.

If ever a person had room to complain of injustice it was [not Cain in Genesis 4 but] Jesus.

He was the only innocent man ever to be punished by God.

If we stagger at the wrath of God, let us stagger at the cross.

Here is where our astonishment should be focused.

If we have cause for moral outrage, let it be directed at Golgotha.’[2]

It would be fair, it would be just, for God to destroy the entire world and save none – that would be justice.

But amazingly we are all alive here this evening!

/Is that fair?

No.

Is it grace?

Yes!!/

 

Hebrews 12 gives a God-inspired application to the story of Cain and Abel.

It speaks of the death of “righteous Abel” as Jesus called him, the first relatively innocent man slain by his unrepentant hateful brother who 1 John 3 says killed him ultimately because Abel was righteous and Cain was evil.

Heb. 12 compares that with the death of the only truly innocent Man ever, also put to death wrongly by His unrepentant brethren who hate Jesus for being righteous.

Christ’s blood speaks, too, but not from the ground or the grave, which He rose from; Jesus Mediates from heaven itself:

 

Hebrews 12:24 (NASB95) 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to *the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than /the blood /of Abel.*

Abel’s blood rightly called out for vengeance and punishment.

But the blood of Jesus shed for sinners shouts forgiveness to all who come humbly to Christ.

Remember the man on the cross next to Jesus receiving the due penalty for his crime, death, all the while insulting the Lord.

Luke 23 says he later repented and said “we’re getting what we deserve, not Him.

Lord, please remember me.”

In Genesis 4 we see the original criminal in Genesis leaves paradise and the presence of the Lord because of unrepentant sin, but the criminal on the cross is promised Paradise in the presence of the Lord.

And all sinners like him who trust in the cross work of Christ alone and plead for His grace can receive the grace of Jesus if we repent, grace that is greater than all our sin.

But Cain didn’t come in repentance.

He went away:

16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

* *

*Point #2: Common Grace Extends Even to the Most Ungodly*

 

In Genesis 2, 3, and 4, we see the covenant name /LORD/ 30x.

It appears roughly every other verse or so except for in two notable places:

Genesis 3:2-7 (Satan and Eve’s conversation)

Genesis 4:17-24 (Cain’s history after leaving the LORD)

 

Notice “LORD” in chapter 4, verse 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 13, 15 (2x), 16

 

If you add in pronouns referring to the LORD, my English translation has 20 references to the LORD in the other 18 verses of this chapter, but none in verses 17-24.

The life and line of Cain from here on out is a godless story of the ungodly who as Jude 11 says went “the way of Cain.”

Cain was the one who could first sing “I did it my way.”

Cain goes his own way away from the Lord, not repentant, not remorseful, not bowing before God’s sovereignty or even thanking His mercy.

He is his own man.

He is Captain Cain, and he was also the first to embody the poem lines:

            /It matters not … how charged with punishments the scroll/

/            I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul/

 

Cain and his descendants are the perpetual epitome of the ungodly, even in NT writings, but I want you to notice that God’s common grace extends even to them doing their own thing apart from God.

 

17 Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.

18 Now to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael became the father of Methushael, and Methushael became the father of Lamech.

19 Lamech took to himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah.

20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and /have /livestock.

21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.

22 As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

God’s common grace is defined as His grace that is common to everyone, to all humanity despite their sinfulness and rebellion.

It is seen in creation, as Jesus said, even the sun rising and the rain falling on both just and unjust people.

God’s common grace is seen in the conscience of man, in God restraining evil from its fullest measure by instituting government in society and through circumstances.

Common grace is seen in physical blessings experienced by many of the ungodly.

In OT times, God allowed nations and peoples besides His elect nation Israel to prosper and advance in many ways (Egyptians, Romans, Greeks made great progress in ways that still benefit the world to this day).

Outside of God’s elect people in OT times and in church history man has seen and continues to see outworking of God’s common grace, which is different than His special grace, His saving grace, His sovereign grace reserved for those God has initiated a covenant salvation relationship with.

God’s common grace is the true source of human advancements that come through the unredeemed.

For example, medical and other technological advancements that improve the lives of both the redeemed and unredeemed, and all things that benefit common man are initiated by common grace.

God’s common grace is what we see in verse 17.

Cain is able to enjoy the blessings of family, and the joy of children, even one son in particular who was successful in building the first city (that word can refer to any permanent settlement or civilization).

God is by nature gracious from the beginning to the end of the Bible even though He is very displeased with sin and will deal with sin.