Welcome to the Willow Ridge Sermons podcast.
This is where you can find audio from Sunday morning messages and more.
Make sure you're subscribed so that you don't miss future episodes.
And thanks for listening.
Well, good morning.
If you've got your Bibles going to open up, the Genesis chapter four is where we are going to be this morning.
I'm excited about this.
This was a chapter as I looked kind of leading into that, was really nervous about it.
And then this week, God really stretched me.
I feel like taught me a lot personally through this, and I hope we can journey through this together.
And so we are going to look at Cain and Abel and we are going to look at our first genealogy that we see here in Genesis, chapter four.
So a couple of things as we kind of go into this genealogies are a thing in the Bible.
There are about 25 different genealogies that are listed in the Bible.
And this is probably the most common question that I get asked, or two questions.
Question number one is Bo, when I'm reading my Bible, can I skip genealogies?
All right, the answer is no, don't skip them.
Question number two is, well, what do I do with it?
And here's the answer.
It is probably the most difficult part of Scripture to really wrestle with, but all Scripture is purposeful.
So my encouragement when your genealogy comes up and your one year read through the Bible journey that you're on, or if you're there in a book, is don't skip it, don't wear yourself down and maybe try to spend three months in the genealogy.
But they are purposeful.
And I hope that you will see some of what God is trying to teach us in this little brief genealogy that we get in chapter four, because all of chapter five is one big genealogy that we'll do next week.
All right, I do want to give this warning.
When we read the old testament and we've talked about this before, but there can be a tendency in bible teaching there can be a tendency in bible interpretation to, when we read the old testament to view the stories of the old testament as simple moralistic lessons, where the end goal is this be more like this person.
Be less like this person.
And so I want to caution, there is some value right in learning and seeing through.
Jesus teaches us that in the parables that he teaches us, we can gain some of these things from that.
But if we walk away from the end of this and just say, well, I need to be more like this other person who was born with sin, struggles with sin, and less like this person, then we can miss.
And so we'll see those.
But we're going to try to, especially at the very end of this one, to bring this together so that it goes beyond this moralistic lesson that oftentimes the story of Cain and Abel can be because the story of Cain and Abel is not a simple story of sibling rivalry.
But the story of Cain and Abel is instead the continued story of the destruction of sin that we saw last week.
We see in the story of Cain and Abel the generational effect that sin has.
And we see in that whether we are in the midst of the middle of the sin or standing on the opposite side of that, our desperate need to be saved, and that salvation is.
Only going to come from God.
And that's the story that we're going.
To find in the story of Cain and Abel and that we will see in genealogy.
So here's what I want us to as we look through this, right?
Sin has been introduced in Genesis, chapter three.
We walked through this several weeks ago, before our Easter series.
And now we're progressing to what we're going to see is the generational effect of sin, of what sin does.
And I like to think of sin as like this sin snowball that we see in our life and in the lives of those in Scripture.
This sin snowball that becomes a sin avalanche.
And here's why I say sin snowball that becomes a sin avalanche, because let's understand some things about sin.
Sin moves.
Sin has a path.
And sin is active in your life and in my life and in the life of the people that we are going to read about.
Sin is moving.
It has a path and it is active.
As sin move, sin grows.
Sin is like cancer.
And when it is in the body, it does not stay as a small molecule, but it grows, it expands, it consumes as it spreads.
That's what the Bible teaches about sin.
And sin is deadly.
Sin is deadly.
Sin seeks to destroy your life.
Sin seeks to destroy your relationship with the Lord.
And then beyond that, sin destroys relationships, finances, health, countries, people.
We see the ramifications we live in, the effects of sin.
Sin moves.
Sin grows.
Sin is deadly.
And you and I cannot be passive about our sin and passive about sin.
We have to understand and agree before we desperately understand that we need a savior.
You and I have to say yes to how destructive and how deadly sin is.
But instead, oftentimes we embrace it, we.
Excuse it, and oftentimes we celebrate it.
I just pulled a handful of passages this week that I want to read, three different passages from the New Testament to talk about sin, to kind of lay some groundwork for us as we move forward in looking at the destruction that sin brings in the life of Cain and Abel.
James 114 through 15 says this but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, then desire, when it conceives birth, conceives gives birth to sin.
And when sin is fully grown, brings forth death.
Colossians three, five through ten put to death therefore, what is earthly in you.
Sexual morality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, covetousness, which is idolatry.
Verse six.
On account of these, the wrath of God is coming.
In these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away.
Anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator.
So when sin is fully grown, it brings forth death.
And on account of sin, the full wrath of God is coming.
One john three four through six.
Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.
Sin is lawlessness.
You know that he appeared in order to take away sins.
And in Him there is no sin.
No one who abides in him keeps on sinning.
No one who keeps on sinning has.
Either seen him or known him.
And in the story of Scripture, sin.
Is so offensive to God.
Sin so stands at the contrast and.
The nature and the character of who.
God is that he sent Jesus to die because of it.
Before we begin to talk about and minimize our sin, let's look at what Scripture tells us about sin.
The wrath of God is coming.
It brings death.
And Jesus came to die because of it.
And this is what we see.
And it's what we've seen as it progresses in the story of Scripture.
Last week, sin came and creation found itself broken.
Adam and Eve out of the garden.
Adam and Eve, the fracture within their.
Relationship, adam and Eve even more so.
Broken in their relationship with God.
All because of sin.
And then when we pick up here.
In chapter four, in just a moment, we're going to read verses one through eight.
The snowball is gaining momentum.
The snowball is building and it's building and it's building and it's building.
And what we're going to find in.
Genesis, chapter four is those areas in the life of this first family that.
They would have assumed probably the same thing we assume.
No, not my family, no, not my boys, no, that's not my story.
The snowball of sin builds and builds and builds and the avalanche comes.
So let's look at Genesis, chapter four.
Starting in verse one, read one through eight.
Now, Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I've gotten a man with the help of the Lord.
And again she bore his brother Abel.
Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.
And in the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground.
And Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.
And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard.
So Cain was very angry and his face fell.
And the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry?
And why has your face fallen?
If you do well, will you not be accepted?
And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.
Its desires is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.
And Cain spoke to his brother Abel.
And when they were in the field.
Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
And here we see that.
Lanch so why?
Why?
Well, because of sin.
But why?
Why do we see within this first family of scripture, why do we see this moment that on the surface is just bringing an offering to end in a bloody field where one brother takes the life of another?
Seems like an overreaction, but it's the snowball.
It's the snowball that becomes an avalanche.
And here's what I want us to see in this, in the why is this, is that sin is the matter of the heart.
Here we see two brothers, one a shepherd, one a farmer, both needed.
Cain is the first born, Abel is the second, and they both bring an offering.
Now, there's some thoughts about this and I want to kind of speak to that.
There's a thought that one's offering is acceptable because it was from the animal and one was not because it was from the land.
And I disagree with that.
And here's why I disagree with that, because we're going to deal with a heart here in just a moment.
But it doesn't say sacrifice.
The word in the original language that is used here is the offering.
And so I think on the surface, their offerings were both good first fruit or first born.
There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the offering.
So the question then is why did the Lord reject Cain's offering?
Because God wasn't looking at the offering.
God was looking at the heart.
God's looking at the heart in a positive context.
When God looks at the heart in one Samuel 16 seven, and I apologize for this not being on the screen, is that the Lord anoints David as King and here's what he says in one, Samuel 16 seven.
But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.
For the Lord does not see as man sees.
Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
So here is what I think is happening in Genesis four.
God does not look at the offering, but God looks at the heart of Cain.
And then that is where the offering is rejected.
And what we see here in this moment, it is the danger in the warning for us today.
The danger and the warning.
For Cain then is sin cannot be caged.
Sin cannot be caged.
Cain's sin started not in the murder, not in the offering, but in the heart.
Before Cain's, sin started somewhere between verse one, when God gave them the Son.
And that moment there it was in him, it was growing in him, it was spreading through him.
And so Cain murdering Abel was a revelation of the heart prior to the offering.
That's why God gives us in Proverbs 423.
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life.
Guard the heart, not guard the sin.
Guard the heart.
Don't guard the sin.
Don't excuse it, don't leave it alone.
Don't try to ignore it, don't try to sweep it under the rug.
What did we just read?
Put to death, cut off the head, attack it with a ferociousness as.
It is someone who is pursuing at you, trying to take your life.
Meet this in the moment where you grab ahold of it and say, no, not you, not on me today.
But that's not what Cain did.
So let's look back.
Pick up at verse nine through 16.
Then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother?
And he said, I do not know.
Am I my brother's keeper?
And the Lord said, what have you done?
The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.
And now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from the land.
When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength.
You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.
Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear.
Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground and from your face I shall be hidden.
I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.
And whoever finds me will kill me.
And then the Lord said to him not so if anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him.
Sevenfold.
And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
In these verses, what I want us to look at is embracing, brokenness.
You and I, we have sin.
Maybe right in this moment you are sinning.
And in the future what we know is that we will sin on this side of eternity.
You and I do not live in the perfected, completed life.
But there's this process, there's a process called sanctification that we are going through where we become more and more like Christ, gaining more and more victory over our sin, embracing more and more repentance of what that means, being transformed into his likeness.
Until that day when we step foot from this life into eternity from next when we experience the perfection that we're promised in Christ.
So what do we do?
What do we do between here and there?
And I would argue with you, what we embrace here is not, well, I'm going to sin, so I might as well just do it.
We don't embrace the excuse, well, I'm.
Going to sin, so I might as well just go ahead and think of all the reasons why I'm going to sin, right?
It's because my mom and dad and have you seen the temper they got?
Have you seen the broken house that I grew up in?
We embrace the excuse of, well, have you met my boss?
And do you know the things that they do?
Have you met my coworkers who gossip about me?
They blame their neighbor.
Well, have you seen how they live.
What they do, how they influence me?
We can embrace the excuse or we can embrace brokenness.
And as we go through here, I.
Think we can learn some lessons about this.
Now, I like this.
It's very interesting.
But we begin in verse nine.
What we see here is God starts asking questions.
And so far in Scripture, what we've seen in Genesis, chapter three is that when God starts asking you questions in Genesis three and in Genesis four, it's not that you've done well, right?
This is what we see.
The first question, where is Abel, your brother?
That's got to be bad, right?
It's like that moment when your parents come home a little bit when you were younger and you had that list of chores and they walked in to walk past the dirty dishes and they walk up to you sitting on the couch.
So did you do the dishes?
You got a choice.
What do you do?
Tell you what I did.
I did do the dishes.
And here's what miraculously happened.
A group of needy people came by and they needed to be fed.
And so I fed them and they dirty up the dishes, right?
No, we don't do that.
I didn't do the dishes.
What does he do?
He lies.
I don't know.
Question number two.
God says, what have you done?
What have you done?
Not what were you influenced to do?
Not what were you, a victim?
So you did what have you done?
And what we see from this is from Cain's.
Sin is going to come.
Cain's consequences.
The reality of this world is this even for us who live in Christ, our sin has consequences.
It affects us.
Our sin affects those around us because we live and experience the grace of God and we live every moment in his beautiful, wonderful mercy does not mean that we are free from the consequences of our sin.
But what comes from that is going to heavily mark who you are and what you do.
From your sin comes consequences.
And from your consequences, from this wonderfully, beautiful moment of your sin and the consequences that come, there will be this thing that can happen and take place in your life through the power of the Holy Spirit, where from your consequences you can embrace brokenness or you can embrace bitterness.
You can embrace brokenness or you can embrace bitterness.
Look back at verse 13.
What does Cain say?
My punishment is greater than I can bear.
And I want to talk about this for a moment.
A lot of people think that this statement that Cain makes is in rebellion to the Lord, that he's shaking his fist at God.
This is unfair.
The punishment does not fit the crime.
Who are you to do this to me?
I don't deserve this.
And I don't think that's what's happening here.
The word here for punishment is the word that is used in the Old.
Testament for sin, but particularly in a.
Description that carries with it the idea of received guilt from conscious wrongdoing.
So I think what we see here is Cain feels in this moment the depth of his sin due to the reality of his consequences.
And it hits him.
It hits him in this moment.
He's a liar, he's a murderer, and the pit of his heart is filled with sin.
And now what he's saying is this sin, that my consequences are greater than I can bear, that Cain is acknowledging that he alone cannot bear this burden.
He says in verse 14, behold, you have driven me today away from the ground and away from your face, I shall be hidden.
He's seen and he knows this.
What did God do with Adam and Eve?
Away from here, away from my presence you will go.
I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.
What we see here I believe in.
These two verses are Cain's spiritual rock bottom in this moment where he says, I'm separated from God.
My evil is great and I deserve death.
Admit that you're a sinner.
But I do some wrong things from time to time.
No, our evil is great.
Admit that you're a sinner.
But everybody does it.
But my sin means that I deserve death.
Admit that you're a sinner.
But God loves me.
But your sin separates you from God.
I think what we see here is this rock bottom.
I don't think Cain is complaining at all.
I think he's embracing the brokenness for what he's done.
And look at God's response.
God's response to his brokenness displays his kindness.
Let's look back verse 15.
Then the Lord said to him, not so.
Not so.
If anyone kills Cain, vengeance should be taken on him.
Sevenfold.
And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
And then Cain went away.
From the presence of the Lord, we see the goodness and the kindness of God.
Friday night, a group of 17 of us gathered up here for secret church.
We met over there.
If you're not familiar with what that is, come talk to me afterwards.
I'll share with you.
It was great.
And those of you who weren't able to go through and be a part of that, there's actually a way now that you can journey through that if you would like to, and I'll share that with you.
Come talk to me afterwards.
But David Platt is the guy who does this.
And so he gave this quote that when he said it, I was like.
I've heard this before.
And a guy by the name of Tully and Chavekian said this quote years ago in a book that he wrote.
And here's the quote said this god's capacity to forgive is greater than our capacity to sin.
God's capacity to forgive is greater than our capacity to sin.
God's goodness is greater than our evil.
And that's how he won on calvary the goodness of God.
And this is what we see.
And so Cain, god allows Cain to live with his consequences, but not without God's grace and mercy.
And it's there.
And I say this to you this morning.
Maybe where you find yourself is living in the brokenness of your sin and living in the consequences of your sin.
Your consequences has affected your marriage.
I'm sorry.
Your sin has affected your marriage.
Your sin has affected your family.
Your sin has affected your job.
Your sin has affected relationships.
Your sin has affected your health.
Your sin has affected many different things in your life.
And you are living with the consequences of your sin.
And it could be easy to take the step back and shake our fist at the Lord.
How dare you?
But in the midst of that, don't miss God's grace and mercy because of your sin.
Because he is good and he is holy.
So let's look at verse 17.
Everybody get ready.
It's our first little mini genealogy in the first time where I'm going to say names and hope that I get them right.
All right?
I had a pastor one side note, side note.
I had a pastor one time that would just go and as he was reading, he'd say like, bob, Tim, Ted.
Like he just would go through I thought about that.
All right?
I thought about it.
We're not going to do that.
Cain knew his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch when he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.
To Enoch was born Irad and Irad fathered mehua.
And MAYHUA fathered methuselah.
And methuselah fathered Lamek.
And Lamek took two wives.
This is why we read Genealogies.
Lamek took two wives.
The name of one was Ada and the name of other was Xyla.
And Ada bore Jabil and she was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.
And his brother's name was Jubil and he was the father of all those who play the liar in the pipe.
And Xyla also bore Tubal cane and he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron.
And the sister of Tubal Cain was NEMA.
Lamek said to his wives Ada and Xyla hear my voice, you wives of Lamek.
Listen to what I say.
I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.
If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamek's is 77 fold.
So we see the generations of scripture continue.
We see cities built.
We see culture begin to be defined.
What had once started before with a.
Farmer and a shepherd we now see careers take place.
We see musicians.
We see architects.
We see those who work with metals.
We see society evolving.
We see comforts of this world come into play.
We see all of these things happen.
But while society evolves, the sin of man remains.
And what we find is this.
Rinse and repeat.
Here we go.
Polygamy, violence.
This is where we find ourselves.
But we got bronze, but we got iron, but we've got tents.
But we've got cities.
But we still have the depth of depravity of man.
And as we read through this story of Genesis we're going to see more and more of society, of culture, of technology and its basic forms begin to grow and blossom in ways.
We're going to see things get easier.
We're going to see tools developed.
We're going to see these things that happen and blossom from this evolution of society that we see in scripture.
But the story of Genesis is not going to be the story of man getting it right or the story of man getting it better.
The story of Genesis is going to be a brutally honest telling of the heart of sinful people.
But who are.
Also sinful people who are saved, used.
And blessed by God who's holy, who's good and who's filled with love.
But we'll also see the story of Genesis is the story of people who experience God's wrath.
You ever heard the phrase, I'm just trying to make the world a better place?
You probably use that phrase.
I've probably used that phrase.
That phrase is an admirable phrase.
That phrase is an admirable goal.
You and I, we should live to strive to do good, to bless that people can live a better life because of the things.
And we celebrate that.
We celebrate how far technology has come.
We celebrate how wonderful the medical world has progressed through and that we see these things.
We celebrate the fact that in this world we can get on a phone and see and talk to people from the other side of the world.
We can celebrate the fact that I was having a conversation with a young man last night who's going to college so that he can build robots to.
Do surgery in areas where the hands of man cannot go, mankind cannot do.
We can celebrate that.
But folks, the decorations of the world may be getting better, but the condition of the world isn't.
And if we think the hope of the world is going to be given through medicine, through technology, through agriculture, culture, and through architecture, we've then defined the idols that we seek, because the only hope for this world is Jesus.
That's it.
Go and make the world a better place.
Go and start charitable organizations.
Go bring water and food to those who don't have it.
Go bring medicine to those who can't access it.
Go bring literacy to people who are illiterate.
Go bring good and do good.
But if you walk away from that moment thinking that they are now saved and you are their Savior, you are your idol, and the only hope of this world is Jesus.
And that's going to be the story.
Of the last two verses.
So let's look verse 25.
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth.
For she said, God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.
And to Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh.
And at that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Look at the power of this, folks, in the world in which we live, or in the consequences in which you find yourself.
Sin does not stop the plan of God.
Cain killed Abel, but God blessed with Seth.
25 different genealogies.
There's one in Matthew, there's one in.
Luke, in Luke 323.
Both of them give the genealogy of Jesus, one through Mary, one through Joseph.
Luke 323 says, this Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about 30 years of age, being the Son, as was supposed, of Joseph, the son of HeLa, and then we're not going to read all the names.
I cut myself some slack, gave myself some grace on this one, right?
But if you jump down to 338.
The son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God, the bigness of God, the beauty of God, the hope of God was not found.
And can man get this right?
But was found in the plan and purpose and in the sovereign will of God, and people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Let me close with this, some dangers in reading this passage incorrectly, now that we've gone through this some dangers, don't walk away this morning and say, Cain is this person and we are able, we've been unjustly hurt by their sin.
Don't, don't walk out of here with that.
Don't walk away with Cain as society.
And culture, and we are able and we are attacked for properly worshipping God, please don't, don't even walk away with this.
Don't walk away with.
Don't be cain.
Be able instead.
In the celebration of the Lord and who he is.
Understand this.
We are Cain.
And our sacrifice apart from Christ, our offering, apart from Christ is displeasing to God.
Because apart from Christ, it's marked by our sin.
And we are guilty.
And what we produce is sin and death.
That's who we are apart from Christ.
But Jesus, jesus is the greater able.
Jesus is the greater able.
His sacrifice alone is perfectly pleasing to God.
He innocently died as a result, and he's greater, so he died for the payment for our sin.
Jesus is greater because Abel died, and in the ground he remained.
But Jesus is greater because he died and he rose again.
And there were none, not one.
Who.
Would be born of able, but because of sin.
And in spite of sin, you and I, we can be born again through Jesus Christ alone.
Jesus is greater.
Would you bow your heads as we pray?
God, I thank you this morning for your word.
I thank you for the truth of what you meet us with and the truth of what you point us to, of the depravity of our heart in our desperate need to be saved.
Got to pray this morning we would.
Walk out of here understanding and admitting who we are as sinners.
And what.
Our sin causes and what our sin creates.
And we would believe.
That because of.
Our sin, what we need is a Savior.
And that this Savior is Christ.
Who died on the cross.
And his sacrifice was not marked by.
Sin because his sacrifice was perfect, because.
Jesus lived a completely sinless life.
And that God, that you, your capacity to forgive us in his perfection is far greater than our capacity to be offensive in our sin to you.
And so we believe that Jesus Christ is the hope for this world and the hope for our life.
And then as a result, Lord, we.
Would confess Jesus as Lord.
And seek.
To obey Him in every area of our life, allowing the Holy Spirit to work and to move within us, transforming us into not a better version of us, but transforming us into Jesus.
So we reflect Him into this world, who needs him.
And their only hope.
Would be found.
In Jesus and in Jesus alone.
So, God, may we go from here and be a blessing.
May we go from here and do good.
May we go from here and seek to love those less fortunate, those who are different than us, those who are struggling.
But may we do so under the banner of Christ, carrying the Gospel and sharing the hope of Jesus.
May that be the story of our life.
God, I thank you that in spite of my sin, you give me Your.
Grace and Your mercy.
Lord, I don't deserve it, but I so desperately need it, and I thank you.
And it's in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Thanks again for listening, and be sure to check back next week for another episode.
In the meantime, you can visit us@willowridgechurch.org or by searching for Willow Ridge Church on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
You subscribe.