Turn with me to the book of Genesis
chapter four. While you're turning there, I
was looking at that first song that we just sang, More Love
to Thee. And I especially was struck again
at that third verse. Let sorrow do its work. Send
grief and pain. Sweet are thy messengers. That's
the grief and pain, the chastisement that the Lord sends his people.
Sweet, their refrain. When they can sing with me, more
love, O Christ, to thee. You know, Paul said that all
of the trials that we go through, they're grievous for the moment.
But what they do is they work an eternal weight of glory. The Lord never sends trials just
for the sake of sending them. There's a reason that the Lord
sends them. And for that, we are exhorted
to be thankful. So, a good song. Genesis chapter four. I'd like to look at verses 16
to 26, finish this, But just as a reminder, last
time when I was in this book, we looked where Cain had killed
his brother in verse 8. The Lord had confronted Cain
about his sin and Cain lied to the Lord before the God that
Every man is gonna take his stand in the day of judgment. And Cain
then did whatever man except for the grace of God, except
the Lord keep him. He did whatever man will do. He left. That's what verse 16
says. And Cain went out after hearing
the judgment of God that God had put on him. He said, you
know, the earth is not going to yield its strength to you. You're going to be a vagabond,
fugitive, verse 12, throughout the earth. And God put a mark
on Cain. Nobody really knows what it is.
You can speculate. It doesn't matter. Spirit of
God didn't tell us what it was. But everybody knew. That's Cain. God said, if any man kills Cain,
I'm going to deal with him sevenfold. And Cain went out from the presence
of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. Now, Cain did what every believer
fears doing. and praise will never happen. He left. He walked away. When Jacob wrestled with the
man, the Lord, the Lord said to him, let me go for the day
breaketh, that's Genesis 32, 26. And Jacob's reply was, I
will not let thee go except thou bless me. Moses concerning the Lord's commission. to lead the children of Israel
into the land of promise. This was before Moses disobeyed
the Lord. Remember the first time the Lord,
when the people chided with Moses, said, we don't have anything
to drink. And the Lord said, you take it, and I'm going to stand
upon this rock. And you strike that rock. There's a picture
of God striking the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the fountain
of life, from whom flows the rivers of living water. He said,
you strike it. And he did, and water came out. Next time, they got mad at Moses
again, and the Lord said, now this time, you speak to the rock.
By one sacrifice for sin, the Lord has perfected forever them
that are sanctified. He said, now, you speak to the
rock this time. And Moses, in his anger against
the people, struck the rock again, and the Lord said, you will not
enter into the promised land. You can see it, but you're not
going to lead the people in. And so whenever the Lord before
that had said that he was going to tell Moses to lead them into
the promised land, and here's what Moses said, if thy presence
go not with me, carry us up not hence. Lord, if you don't go,
don't send us. God's people are fear being apart
from the Lord. David said, Psalm 51 11, cast
me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. And Peter, when all the others
left, and the Lord said, Peter, will you go too? He said, where
are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life. So
no believer in the Lord Jesus Christ being kept by the power
of God through faith, desires to leave or can leave. He can't leave. He don't want
to leave and he can't leave. Why? He's kept by the power of
God. If I could leave, If I had the
power to take myself out of the hand of God, then I'd be stronger
than God. And he said, no man could take
my sheep out of my hand or my father's hand. That included
us, me, individually. But Cain did whatever man and
every woman will do if God leaves them to themselves. He left the
Lord, he dwelt in the land of Nod, the scripture says, on the
east of Eden. I read about what he did. You
know, he had gone out there with his brother, Abel, to offer a
sacrifice. And it appeared as though, in
his action until he actually brought the sacrifice, that he
was doing what his brother was doing. Going through the motions,
he was doing everything, but that's what those stony ground
hearers. Stony ground hearers, they receive the word anon at
first with joy, or they appear to. But when persecution comes,
whenever his sacrifice wasn't accepted, he realized that God
wasn't pleased with his sacrifice. That's when you found out what
his real character was. And he lied. And then he left. And he went to a place called
Nod. Now, that word Nod, that land,
it means to wander, to be a vagrant, to be in exile. It's actually
a word that means restless or banished. So the name of that
place was actually describing the character of Cain, uneasy
in his own spirit and content to be separated from God, isolated
because of his sin. But what was so telling also
is where this land was. It was east of Eden, somewhere
distant. from the place where Adam and
Eve, his family and religious family, they were the only ones
there, but in the vicinity of where the cherubim was placed.
It was east of Eden, in the eastern part of Eden. So here he was
in a place where providentially the Lord put him there because
the Lord worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
He didn't just go wherever he, you know, God controls everything. But he was placed in a place
where he would be constantly reminded of his rebellion. And scripture says in verse 17,
and Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and bare Enoch. And he builded a city and called
the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. Now, here we see a continued
resentment arrogance of a man left to himself. Cain had a son
and he named his son Enoch. Now listen, this is not the Enoch.
We're going to deal with that Enoch, Lord willing, next time.
But that Enoch that walked with God, this is not that same Enoch. This is different. His name does
mean dedicated or trained up. That's what Enoch means. But
we're reminded, when it says trained up, we're reminded of
that scripture that tells us train up a child in the way that
he should go and when he's old he will not depart from it. I preached on that out of Proverbs
22.6 a while back and I said then that's a proverb that perplexes
many a parent, all of us, all of us. What perplexes us is that
we read that and take it as face value for ourselves and applying
it to ourselves and we find ourselves desiring to do that which we're
admonished to do only to be very often disappointed. Now listen
to the work, train up a child the way he should go And if it
would say, and Lord willing, when he's old, he won't depart
from it, well, we could readily agree with that. Yeah, Lord willing.
But that's not what it says. You train up a child in the way
he should go, and when he's old, he will not depart from it. The truth of that passage is
only found to be consistently true when we consider it in the
light of the Lord. training up his children by the
Holy Spirit in regenerating grace. And this he does for every one
of his elect. They're all made willing in the
day of his power. And when God trains up one of
his children, they're trained. And he keeps them, and he teaches
them. By grace and by power, it's true. They will not depart from, again,
they're kept by the power of God. But concerning Cain, naming
his son Enoch. Cain, the scripture says, knew
his wife, and she bare this boy. And the scripture says that he
was building, that is, Cain was building a city. And it does
say built it. And he built it, a city. But
the actual literal, and I read this, then I looked up the words
to make sure. It means building. He was building a city that is
a city that was never completed. Now you can imagine, here's a
man resentful, rebellious against God. He goes out and he has a
son. He names him Enoch, means to
train, train up. And he's out there and he's building
a city for himself. Surely, I mean he had been banished
from the Lord, and he said you're going to be a vagabond, a vagrant,
and people are going to be, knowing who you are, you're going to
be marked, and they're going to be, you know, no telling what anybody
kills you. I'm going to deal with them, but he went through
this world, a marked man. So what he's going to do is he's
going to build, he's going to be building him a city, but it's
a city that's never completed. You know, God's people like Abraham
are looking for that city that hath foundations. A city that
is built by the builder and maker himself who is God. Here was
Cain trying to build himself a refuge. A place of protection. Get some walls around it. but
it's never completed, it's never finished. Man's works are never
done. Only the Lord Jesus Christ could
truthfully say before God, it is finished. So he's out there,
he's just continually striving, he's restless and just never
able to come to any conclusion. Scripture says that he built
this city and he named the city after the name of his son Enoch. Turn to Psalm 49.11. This is
what men do. He didn't name it Cain after
himself. His name was Mud, but he's going
to name it after his son. And with his son getting the
glory, well then really Cain was going to get glory too. That
was his thinking. But look at Psalm 49, 11, talking
about the foolish. Their inward thought is that
their houses shall continue forever and their dwelling places to
all generations and they call their lands after their own names. They're always wanting to give
themselves the glory and the honor and the praise. It didn't
matter to Cain that he was banished. He still saw himself as worthy.
He's like Nebuchadnezzar. Look at this great Babylon that
I built while the words were yet in his mouth. God took his
mind away from him. Flesh produces flesh. That which is flesh is of the
flesh. Like produces like. God created Adam. in his own image. Cain begat
a son in his own image, flesh. And it takes a miracle of God's
grace to create a man in righteousness, true holiness. Job 14.4, who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Only the Spirit of God can take
a poor, polluted sinner and wash that sinner clean in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ and make that sinner, the scripture
says, to be whiter than snow. Only God can do that. Cain could
have a son and train him up in the ways of Cain. That's all
Cain knew. Always building a city, going
to build him a place, going to build him a high tower, a rock
in which to find some rest and some safety. Name it after his
son, after what he's done. But it's never completed. Look
at verse 18. And unto Enoch was born Irad,
and Irad begat Mahujiel, and Mahujiel begat Methusiel, and
Methusiel begat Lamech. Now, I looked up these words. You know, the scriptures, we
see all these, this lineage and stuff, and these are the ones
we usually skip over. You know, you just can't hardly
pronounce them, so we skip over them real quickly, you know.
But Methuselah, now this is the lineage of Cain. Listen to the
meanings of these words. Irad, that was the first one.
It means fugitive, townsman, and fleet or quick as a wild
ass. Boy, now there's a name for you.
That's what his name was. Methusiel, smitten of God. Methusiel, man of God or man
asked of God. And Lamech, which we're gonna
look at a few things about Lamech in a couple of these verses next.
Powerful or strong youth. Now, the thing that amazed me
is some of those names were pretty obvious that they were of the
lineage of Cain. That was their smitten of God,
fugitive townsman, fleet as a wild ass. But then you had some like
Methuselah, man of God or man-ass of God. And you ask, well, how
did those names, they had some names that seemed to be good,
honorable. But the thing about it is that
a good name or one that has a name that also is possessed by a man
that is a just man. It doesn't necessarily mean that
just because somebody's name something that has a good name
that he's blessed of God. I was looking in Luke 6 16 and
where the scriptures was named the Apostles of Christ. And here's
what it said. It revealed two of the people.
It said Judas the brother of James and Judas Iscariot, which
also was the traitor. So there's a lot of names that
may sound as though that they've got some consistency to them,
but that's not necessarily so. It's just what has God done for
them. So here's a group that's got some good names from the
lineage of Cain, but none of them are ever mentioned again. They're just there. I'm gonna
show you something specific on that topic right there in just
a few minutes. But there was a man named Lamech. Look at verses
19 to 22. And Lamech, took unto him two wives, the
name of one was Ada, the name of the other Zilla, and Adoc
bare Jabal, he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and
of much as have cattle. And his brother's name was Jubal,
he was the father of all such as handled the harp and organ,
And Zilla, she also bare tubal cane, an instructor of every
artisopher in brass and iron, and the sister of tubal cane
was Naima. Now, Lamech, here we are, we're
still in the lineage of Cain. Lamech married two wives, Ada,
which means ornament, and zillah, which means shadow or shady. And this is the first recorded
origin of polygamy. Still in the lineage of Cain.
A violation of the sacred law of marriage given by God. Genesis
2, turn back to Genesis 2 verse 24. 23-24, Adam said this is now
bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman
because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave
his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife and
they shall be one flesh. Now let me ask you something.
What did God say the honor of marriage is made up as? is between a man and a woman. Marriage between a man and a
woman represents the sacred bond between the Lord Jesus Christ
and His chosen bride. But man's corruption and distortion
of that sacred bond is contempt, really, for God's sovereign right
to love, to choose, to redeem, to regenerate, and to keep from
falling the bride of his precious son. That's a marriage. Paul said in the book of Ephesians
5, I speak a great mystery, talking about a man and his wife and
responsibility. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the
church. Wives, submit yourself unto your own husbands as unto
the Lord. I speak a great mystery, but
I speak of Christ the church, his bride, the marriage of the
two. So here was a man in the lineage of Cain, cursed of God,
had a son that he was building a city and named the city after
his son, after what he could produce, after exhibiting what
his will and his works, his hands could make, trying to make himself
some security. had these people that was born
into his lineage and the names and nothing's ever mentioned
to them, even though there were some of them that did have good
names. You know, a call of God and a
man of the Lord and stuff. But there's a lot of people down
in Mexico, their name is Jesus. Jesus is what it looks like,
but that doesn't mean they have the character. of our Lord or
a believer, it doesn't mean anything. But here's a man named Lamech,
and he married these two women, and he was disobedient to God
in the marriage, married two wives. And from these two wives,
the Scripture went on to say even what their kids did. Now
this was still an amazing thing to me. Here was from these two
wives of Lamech, we behold an amazing truth that shows you
how much a man can know and how ignorant he truly is by nature. These were men wise in the things
of this world, but ignorant concerning the things of heaven. Here we go, Ada, verse 20, bear
Jabal. And here's what Jabal was, the
father, the first, the preeminent, the beginning of, such that dwell
in tents, and such as have cattle. Now here was a man, he was the
father, he was a famous shepherd. and tent dweller, who delighted
not only in keeping cattle, but devising methods of raising cattle
to the best advantage and instructing others to do it. You know, you're
talking about the father. He was the father of the airplane. They were the Wright brothers.
They're the ones that credited with the construction of it. And then Jabel's brother was
named Jubal. And concerning Jubal, the scripture
says, he was the father of all such as handled the harp and
organ. This man was a famous musician. I mean, he probably could just,
you know, especially it says he handled the harp and the organ.
Now, whatever those instruments were, he was able to make them
and play them And just, you know, the father of what we would consider
the music. I mean, he was just talented. And then Zillah had another wife,
verse 22, and she bore Tubal Cain. His name means, thou wilt
be brought of Cain. Thou wilt be brought of Cain.
And what he did, look what he did. An instructor of every,
I think I'm saying this right. If I'm not, that's okay. artisopher. He was a metal worker. He was
an iron worker. He was brass and iron and I mean
this, he was a famous silver, I mean metal smith. Working and
just making stuff, being able to, I mean, figuring out how
to get the metal and how to put the fire to it, you know, and
bring it out and work it. Man, anvil or whatever he had,
but the thing is, these guys, they were skilled. They were
skilled men to teach, you know, agriculture, music, metal work. But the scripture doesn't say
anything about them having any knowledge of the Lord. Yes, these
guys, man, can you build a shield? Can you build me a spear? Can
you make me a sword? Yeah, yeah, I can make that.
How can a man be just with God? Oh, I don't know. I don't know
anything about that. These men were wonderful when
it came to the things of this earth, but it's all fading. That's
all they had. It was nothing. It was nothing.
And they had a sister named Nehemiah. And her name means the beautiful
or it means pleasantness. But nothing is said concerning
us having any indication that she was blessed of God concerning
the beauty of being robed in the righteousness of Christ.
for having the beauty of the Lord upon her. His righteousness
was not found here. That beauty of this earth, here's
what, it's going to fade. It's not going to be what it
used to be. It's here for a while and it's
gone. It just vanishes. And Lamech, himself that married
these two women, he was one that exhibited the false thoughts
of God's justice and man's self-righteousness. Let's look at verses 23, 24. And Lamech said unto his wives,
Ada and Zillah, hear my voice, you wives of Lamech. Hearken
unto my speech. for I have slain a man to my
wounding and a young man to my hurt." Now in my margin it says,
I would slay a man in my wound or in my hurt. Now I've read
numerous commentaries on what this man was saying, and his,
well let me read verse 24 too. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. Now, of all the accounts that
I've read, and I think this is the one that I truly believe,
this is the heart of what he was saying. He was an arrogant
man, very haughty, talking to his wives, you know, didn't exhibit
that spirit of love that the scriptures exhorts a man to have
for his wife. And when he was speaking to him,
he said, you hear my voice, you wise Lamech, you hearken to my
speech. And Lamech, based on what he
said concerning Cain, which was about four generations before
him, If what he was saying, and this is what I think he was saying,
this was it, in his arrogance and self-righteous, and his arrogance
toward the justice of God. He was arrogant against God's
justice, and he was self-righteous in himself, thinking himself
he was something when he was nothing. Basically, here's what
he's saying. He said, God, well, no, if I killed a
man, if I killed him, for whatever reason I killed him, if I killed
a man or if I killed a son, a young man that was trying to hurt me,
did something to me, he said, this is what I know would happen. He said, if Cain was avenged
sevenfold, if he would have been killed by somebody, if he would
have been avenged by God sevenfold, truly, Lamech, It would be seventy
and seven fold. If I have killed a man, God would
see that I'm not as bad as Cain. This is what he's saying. Cain
killed his own brother. Now if I killed a man, for whatever
reason, at least it wasn't my brother, And if God promised
sevenfold vengeance upon anyone that killed my great-great-great-grandfather
and said that he would invoke sevenfold vengeance on him because
of my innocence, because of my not being as bad as my great-great-great-grandfather's
where he killed his brother, murdered If I did it, if I killed
a man that was trying to do something to me, God would avenge me 77
fold. Because God protected Cain and
he'll protect me. God wasn't protecting Cain, it
just appeared as though. that God was protecting him,
that he was being left and kept in this world. God was going
to put out vengeance on anybody that killed him. That was punishment.
And here's this arrogant man saying, I'm telling you, I wasn't
as bad as he was. Now, I might have killed a man,
killed his brother, killed his son, or something like that.
And I've done it. Whatever. If he tried to hurt me, I'm going
to kill him. That's what he says. Let's read it again. I read these
two verses of scripture so many times. Lamech said unto his wives,
Ada and Zillah, hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech. Hearken to
my speech, for I have slain a man, or if I slew a man, to my wounding. If he tried to do something to
me, and I kill you, I'll kill you. You try to hurt me, I'll
kill you. That's what he was saying. I'll kill you. If there's
a young man that was trying to hurt me, you try to do something
to me, I'm going to get you. I will get you. He said, because
here's the thing. I wasn't as bad as my great-great-great-grandfather. He killed his own brother, murdered
him. I just killed somebody because
they was trying to hurt me, probably for self-defense anyway. And
if my great-great-great-grandfather was avenged sevenfold, God would
avenge me 77 fold. I'm not as bad as somebody else.
I may not be perfect, but I'm not as bad as everybody else."
That's what he was saying. He was arrogant against God's
judgment. He misunderstood the justice
of God and he misunderstood self-righteousness. And then the scripture in closing,
verse 25-26. And this, these last two verses
is where I actually came up with the name of this message, Mercy
in the midst of wrath. Out of the family of Cain, we
find nothing but just turmoil and arrogance and resistance
and worldliness. That's all that was there. Cain
was Adam and Eve's son, and that's what happened. Adam and Eve had
one other son that was named. There were many others. We'll
see that. I'll show you that in Chapter
5. But there were many other children
born to Adam and Eve. Cain and Abel were just the first
two that was mentioned. One of them was a vessel of God's
mercy and the other one wasn't. After Cain killed Abel, the scripture
says, and now here we are, we're gonna get away from Cain's family
in these last two verses, and we're going back to Adam's family.
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son and called
his name Seth. For God said she hath appointed
me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew, and to Seth,
To him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos. Then began men to call upon the
name of the Lord. Now here again, this is where
I came up with mercy in the midst of wrath. All of that that was said about
Cain and his family. And now here we are considering
not the lineage of Cain who murdered his brother and God's rejection
of him and his posterity, but now back to Adam and Eve, surely
shaken, you know, with the thought of what had happened to their
son. I mean, it just, you can't help but think concerning what
they had done, they knew what they had done, They were like
David, you know. Have mercy upon me is what David
said. Against thee, the only have I sinned. And I say, you
know, take not the Holy Spirit from me. Adam and Eve, they were
aware of what had happened. They knew that they had disobeyed
God and they knew that. The only thing that you're going
to think is whatever the Lord's pleased to do, it's the Lord.
Let Him do what's best, you know, in His eyes. But the Lord was
pleased to send them another son. His name was Seth. And Seth means settled. Settled. A son that was appointed
to Adam and to Eve instead of Abel. That's what the scripture
says. Adam knew his wife, she bare a son, called his name Seth,
for God said she has appointed me another seed instead of Abel.
whom Cain slew. And to Seth there was born a
son. His name was Enos. It means,
actually his name means man. It means man, weak, frail. That's what it means. And it
was a representation of what all men are by nature. But the
amazing thing about it is found in the fact, turn to Luke 3. I want to show you something
in closing. Luke 3. Luke chapter 3 and this
blessed chapter, I had the best time when I was in Genesis four,
flipping back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back
to Luke three, just seeing, seeing this. Look in Luke three, verse
21 to 23. It says, now when all the people
were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized
and praying, the heaven was open, And the Holy Ghost descended
in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from
heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved son, and in thee I
am well pleased. And Jesus himself began to be
about 30 years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph,
which was the son of Heli. And they start going, which was
the son of this, the son of this, son of this, this, this, this,
all of these. And I want you to look at verse
38. It's going all the way, starting
at the Lord, and going back, all from the Lord himself, this
one begat this one, begat this one, look at verse 38, which
was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the
son of Adam, which was the son of God. And so going back to
Genesis 4, you find out that Cain and Abel that was born to
Adam and Eve had their son Abel murdered. He's gone. He's gone. And their son Cain
that killed him, he's cursed of God. I got a dead son and
a cursed son. The only two I've mentioned.
They had many sons and daughters. Again, I'll show you that in
chapter 5. One murdered, and one outcast. But God gave them
two more. Seth, and from Seth was born
a son, Enos. And those two men were in the
bloodline of Christ. Traced all the way back. Lord
willing, if we go back and look in Luke 3, you see him all the
way starting at the Lord, and he went right on back, just as
was supposed to be Joseph, and then back, back, back, back.
all the way back to Adam, whose father was God. It went from
Adam to Seth to Enos. And when we get into chapter
5, you start looking at all these other names over here, and we'll
look at those, Lord willing, next time. And you'll see them
there right in the line, right in the line of Christ. So here
was Adam and Eve, a husband and his wife. Broken, broken. Murdered boy, outcast son, Cain's
posterity, wickedness, wickedness, wickedness. But God gave him
another son and blessed him. The Lord said, I'll not forsake
you. I'll never leave you, I'll never
forsake you. And I think, what mercy that God would take even
this man that in the garden had disobeyed God. And that man that
had been promised of God, he said, in the day you eat, you're
gonna die. From that man, Adam, the whole world fell into sin,
the whole world. born dead in trespasses because
of Adam, Adam. One man, Adam. But God was pleased
to remember mercy in the midst of wrath. Oh, I thought to myself,
Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, don't leave me to myself. Lord, I see what happens. I see
the resentment that the world has against. I saw what Cain
had resentment against Abel. And the Lord said, you'll be
hated. for all men, for my name. The world hates you. The world's
gonna hate you for what you believe. And it's true. And if God leaves
me to myself, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna be just like
Cain. That's what I'm gonna do. And I'll leave. I'll leave. And
I'll go out of this world forsaken of God, outcast. But if God's pleased to show
mercy, I've got some hope. Lord, have mercy on me. Have
mercy on us here for Christ's sake. Amen.