And the Lord said unto Cain,
Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I
my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done?
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened
her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou
tellest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee
her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt
thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the Lord,
My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast
driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy
face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond
in the earth. And it shall come to pass that
every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto
him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken
on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon
Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. Cain went out from
the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod on the
east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, as she
conceived and bear Enoch. And he built a city and called
the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. Let's pray. Our Father, which
art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Bless us this morning with
thy presence. Bless us with the spirit of worship. Arrest our attention. Enable
us to set our hearts on things above, where our Lord sits at
Thy right hand. Enable us, Father, to, as much
as possible, let the troubles of this life go and set our heart
on You. Help us to listen. We pray for
those, Father, in this congregation who are under heavy trials and
heartaches, sickness. Father, you know, you know every
one of them. We pray for them. We know thy
grace is sufficient. And while we pray for ourselves,
Father, we pray for all your people throughout this world.
Pray for the missionaries. Pray you'd bless their ministry.
Pray for this country. Lord, we pray that you would
give the leaders of this country wisdom, and if at all possible,
to keep it as you've given it to us. Keep it free. In Christ's
name we pray, and amen. Now in this chapter, we have
true religion and false religion laid down side by side. It's
like laying a straight stick down beside a crooked stick. And that's what we have in this
chapter. And we see in this chapter that God received Abel's sacrifice
because it represented the Lord Jesus Christ. the sacrifice and
the blood. He rejected Cain because Cain
was nothing but works. It was the work of his hands
and God did not tell him, he did not command him to bring
the offering that he brought, but he brought it anyway. He
was so proud of his works, he brought that to God for acceptance
and not what God had required. And I have no doubt it was very
clear No doubt, it was very clear how God was to be approached. No doubt, there was no mistake
how God was to be approached. But Cain, he approached God as
he wanted to approach God. It's like I'll approach him however
I want to approach him. That's the attitude he had. And
we see the effects of Adam's sin. When sin is conceived, it
brings forth death. And Cain ended up, as we know,
murdering his brother. But now we see the indictment
here against sin. And the title of this lesson
is, What Hast Thou Done? I couldn't get away from that.
What hast thou done? And God said, in verse 10, and
God said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood
crieth unto me from the ground. The first thing that jumped out
to me, looking at this again, was that there was no fear of
God in Cain. Cain had no fear of God whatsoever. The scripture says in Romans
3.18, there is no fear of God before their eyes. And he's not
talking about a fear of God's gonna take this from me if I
don't do this. I'm gonna lose the, I'll lose my job. No, that's
not the kind of fear. It's a reverent fear. It's a
fear, listen, that's born of love. That's born of love. And where this fear is absent, so is respect. It's gone out
the door, but that's absent. Cain had no fear of approaching
God by the works of his hands, which also tells me that he was
totally ignorant of the character of God. He was not ignorant of
the existence of God, but he was ignorant of the character
of God. You know, it says over in Romans chapter 10 that they
went about to establish their own righteousness, being ignorant
of the righteousness of God, they were ignorant of the righteous
character of God. And when a person is ignorant
of the true righteous character of God, that person will believe
and think that they can produce a righteousness that God will
accept. And that's what Cain, Cain was, this is what sin had
just, sin makes a signature of God, of his true character. And Cain thought that by the
works of his hand, by bringing the fruit of the ground, that
God would accept it, it didn't matter. He didn't realize and
understand the true character of God's holiness and God's righteousness. God demands the death of the
sinner. And in that sacrifice is represented
the death of Christ, and the death of Christ is our death.
It's our death. One of the first evidences that
Cain did not fear God was the way he approached God in worship. The way we approach God in worship
says a whole lot about us. It says a whole lot about our
knowledge of God, our relationship to Almighty God. But here's the question. What
hast thou done? What hast thou done, I thought,
my first thought was this. What hast thou done in thy heart? This was premeditated. I believe Cain had premeditated
he was going to do something to Abel. He's going to kill his
brother. The scripture says, out of the
heart proceed evil thoughts, adultery, murders. It starts
in the heart. That's where it starts. Cain hated God. We see back over
here how he got angry with God. We have no reason ever in our
life to be angry with God. He got angry with God, and he
took that anger out on his brother. He couldn't get to God. So what
he did, he got to his child, and God led him, the Lord led
him. But what hast thou done to thy
brother? Not too long ago, we went through
1 John. How many times, going through
1 John, do we read, love one another? We are to love one another. We are to take care of one another.
We are to prefer one another before ourselves. What have you done to your brother?
And then what has thou done to God's justice? You made a mockery
of it. Just like your father Adam, you
made a mockery of it. God gave Adam one command and
he made a mockery of it. Cain knew, he knew how God was
to be approached and he made a mockery of it. Sin, sin is always against God. It's always against God. David
said in Psalm 51, against thee and thee only have I sinned and
done this evil in thy sight. Now I may sin against my brother
as Cain did against Abel, but the first one I sin against,
every time I sin, the first one is God. It's God Almighty. He's the first one. And we never
have, I thought this morning, I wrote this down this morning,
we never have a foundation or a reason to sin. I never have a reason to sin.
I sin, but I never have a reason for it. I can never justify it.
I can never justify sinning. I can't do it. What hast thou
done? And then another thing that's
gonna be made clear here And we need to let this ring out
loud and clear in preaching. God will punish sin. We just sang that song. I believe
that's in Psalm 130. Lord, if thou shouldest mark
iniquity, who shall stand? Who shall stand? But now listen. God does mark iniquity. God marks
iniquity down to the very thought and motive. Why we do what we
do. He marks it. And it will be dealt
with. Now here's the good news. The
good news is, if I'm in Christ, If Christ is my substitute, every
sin, every thought that I have had or ever will have was marked
on Jesus Christ. It was marked on Him. Not one
of them was passed over. Not one of them was winked at. He suffered. For everything that
I have ever thought, said, or did, and am, everything that
I am, I am sin. It was such a complete and thorough
marking that after God finished with him, there was nothing else
left to mark. There was nothing left to mark.
It's over with. It's over. It's over. But God will punish sin. No sin
will go unpunished. God would not be God if he let
it go, now would he? He would not be God. And I'm
telling you, we don't want a God who lets sin go. We would just have another devil
on our hands. We would have an unjust God and
he wouldn't be God. The scripture says, he is of
purer eyes than to behold iniquity. He can't tolerate it. He can't
tolerate it. Don't think God has let something
go because he has not quickly brought judgment on it. Don't
think that. No one gets away with anything. No one. No one gets away with
murder. I know you've heard people say,
well, he got away with murder. I know when that OJ Simpson trial
was going on, he got away with murder. I promise you, no one
gets away with anything. God will judge and mark absolutely. I mean, since you completely
forgot about when you were just a young one. If I'm not in Christ, they'll
all come back to roost. They'll all come back to roost.
If I'm in Christ, they're all gone. Did you hear what Jesus
said to me? They're all taken away. Now God calls Cain to account
for his brother's murder. We see here that sin leads to
death. as it did with Cain over Abel. The thought that Cain had in
his heart broke out into action. God allowed it to happen. Cain couldn't touch Abel unless
God allowed him to. But what a lesson you and I have
here. What a lesson. What a gospel lesson we have
in this story. Well, let me point out some things
that sin leads to. Sin leads, first of all, to a
cover-up. They're always trying to cover it up. You're trying
to cover this sin, then you try to, it always leads to a cover-up. And then sin leads us to lying,
even to God. Where's your brother? I don't
know where my brother is. Well, you just buried him. It always leads to a cover-up.
It leads us to lying to God. It leads us to trying to justify
ourselves. As I said, we never have a reason
and never have a foundation to sin. There's never a justification
for me to sin. And then sin leads to more sin. It never stops at one. That's
that commercial, that potato chip commercial. Bet you can't
eat just one. I bet you can't just send one time. You know
why the thief gets caught? Because he's got to do it again.
He's got to do it. This is what's amazing. I've
been watching one of these Westerns, you know, and they're robbing
these banks. And I've said, and I know I've said it to Vicky
once, I said, you would think, you would think that if a guy
robs a bank and he gets a couple million dollars, that he'd go
home and sit down. You'd think if he had any brains,
if he had enough sense to get in and out of the rain, that
he would stop, he's rich, but he can't do it. He's gotta go
knock off the next one, and the next one, and then he finally
gets caught. When the thirst of sin comes
back, we have to drink it. Unless God removes the power
of sin, we have to drink it. Man drinks iniquity, it says,
like water. He just drinks it like, he gets,
he has such a thirst. By nature, we have such a thirst
for sin, we have to drink it. Unless the Lord breaks the power
of sin. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. And the only reason it does not
have dominion over you, he says, you're not under the law, you're
under grace. And he breaks that power. We sing the song that
breaks the power of canceled sins. And then notice here, he says,
your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. Justice
has a voice. Justice has a voice. And it demands
the offender receive a just recompense. It says over in Numbers 32, 23,
but if ye will not do so, this is God speaking, if you will
not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure
your sin will find you out. Be sure your sin will find you
out. In verse 11, and now. Now comes judgment. First, the
indictment. God exposes to Cain his sin. He shows to Cain, your sin's
not hidden. He didn't ask Cain where his
brother was because he didn't know where he was. God knew where
he was. He's with the Lord. He's with the Lord, but he's
bringing, he's making Cain face up to his guilt, which is, which
is a terrible thing when there's nothing to put it away. If there's
no blood, no sacrifice to put away my guilt, I've got to face
it. I've got to deal with it, and
I've got to face the punishment for it. And now, now comes judgment.
This world is in for a rude awakening. Judgment is coming. They can
laugh. They can make fun of, I had a
man make fun of me when I was, after I'd heard the gospel, I
was in my 20s, I had a man just, a young man, he and I went to
school together. Laughed at me, he laughed at me. Over this thing
of salvation and being saved and judgment. He just, he literally
just, in the shop we were doing machine work, he just laughed
at me. Judgment's no laughing matter,
judgment's very real. It's very real. The scripture
says, he cometh to judge the earth, and his judgment will
be a judgment of righteousness. And it says here, and now art
thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive
thy brother's blood from thy hand, the earth that you made
to drink innocent blood. He said, you're cursed from it.
You know, when Adam sinned, the earth was cursed, and here Cain
is cursed from the earth. And he said, he goes on down
to tell us here that it's not gonna yield her strength to you
anymore. Whatever you put your hands to, it's not gonna prosper. It's not gonna prosper. The earth is not gonna work for
you no more. I thought of this Sin destroys
the very fruit of our labor. It's not that God's against me,
it's sin. Sin destroys what I do. Eventually, it'll destroy everything
I do. Sin will. And I thought of this. I thought, why, when I was looking
at this yesterday, Why did God not kill Cain? Why did, at that time, did he
not kill him? He just seemed to be so long-suffering
toward him. But you know, there's a scripture,
and I'm just, I'm gonna just, I think this has an application
here. There's a scripture that says, where no law is, sin is
not imputed, and the law hadn't been given yet. Even though what
he did was just as wrong, And he did eventually die, but
the law was given 2,000 years later, thou shalt not kill. And
after that was given, then it was also given that if a man
shed blood, by man shall his blood be shed, a capital punishment
was given. I believe that's why the Lord
didn't kill him right there. But he says here in verse 12,
when thou tellest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield
unto thee her strength, it's turned on you. That beautiful
garden, that beautiful fruit that he had grown before, took
it before God as an offering. He said, it's not gonna do that
anymore. It's not gonna yield her strength anymore. A fugitive
and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. God is not gonna let the earth
yield her strength to Cain anymore. The very thing he took pride
in is the very thing God's gonna destroy. And Cain said to the Lord, my
punishment is greater than I can bear. No, no it's not, Cain. Hell is greater than you can
bear. God's eternal wrath against sin
is greater than you and I can bear. Just by him saying this
tells me and shows me his ignorance again of God. Cain said, my punishment is greater
than I can bear. He was only concerned about his
punishment. He was not concerned about, do
you hear him asking for mercy? Right here. Here's the opportunity,
Cain. God is exposing your sin. Sue for mercy. He doesn't do
it, does he? He doesn't do it. You know why?
Here's why. Repentance is the gift of God. Repentance is the work of God. It's a gift of God. If God leaves
me or you alone, we will never, ever repent after a godly sword. It's like that rich man in hell,
he was only concerned about this place. He said, go warn my brothers,
send somebody back, he's talking to Abraham, send somebody back
and warn them about this place. Why didn't he say, send somebody
back and warn them about God, meeting God? My brothers have
got to meet God. This is what false religion does.
It warns about a place, not a person. Almighty God. The Lord said in one place, don't
fear them who can destroy the body. I will tell you who to
fear. Fear him who can cast both body
and soul into hell. That's who you fear. Not a place.
Not a place. He said, Behold, thou hast driven
me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face
shall I be hid. Sin hides God's face from us. It separates us from God. Listen
to Isaiah 59 too. But your iniquities have separated
between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from
you that he will not hear." He will not hear you when you
call on him. He will not hear you. Someone said, hell is the absence
of God. It's the absence of God. Cain said, my punishment is greater
than I can bear. No. Oh, Cain, you haven't met
punishment yet. Because he goes off and builds
a city and his life goes on and has family, has kids. But here's what he's worried
about. Cain is not worried about mercy, forgiveness, being right
with God. He's not concerned about, you
know what he's concerned about? The earth's not gonna yield to
me. People are gonna wanna kill me,
and I'm gonna have a tough life. He was more concerned about the
life he had to live than the life after this one. He never thought When he was,
and this is, we know this by experience. We know this by experience.
When he killed his brother, he never thought about the consequences
of it. Do we ever? Do we ever really sit down and
think about the consequences of our choices? If they're bad
choices, especially if it has anything to do with out and out
sin. Do we really think about the consequences of it? No. He said, I'm gonna be a fugitive
and a vagabond. A fugitive is someone trying
to elude justice. That's what a fugitive is. It's
someone fleeing from an uncongenial situation. Instead of fleeing
to God, he went away from God. And he says here in Genesis 4.15,
and the Lord said unto him, And here is the long-suffering of
God. God could have killed him at that time. Even though no
law had been strictly given, God had every right to kill him. But we see the long-suffering
of God here. We saw it when God said, sin
lies at the door. If you do right, if you do well,
shall you not be accepted? God could have killed him then.
He'd have a right to kill him then. And the Lord said unto him, therefore,
whosoever slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon
Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. But my first thought when I read
this was this, vengeance, God said, vengeance belongs to me. God set a mark on him and said,
don't any of you out there touch him. He's mine. Vengeance belongs
to me. I will repay, saith the Lord. And Cain went out from the presence
of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
I wrote out from that verse, and Cain went out from the presence
of the Lord willingly. He was willing to leave his presence. He was ready to get out of there.
But he went out from the presence of the Lord willingly. Jacob
said, I'll not let you go till you bless me. Wouldn't that have
been a different outcome if Cain had done that? If Cain had said,
Lord, instead of saying, my punishment's greater than I can bear, he'd
say, Lord, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. Save my soul. Save my soul. Cleanse me, as
David said, cleanse me thoroughly inside and out. There in Psalm
51. It would have been a different
outcome, but he didn't have, he had no heart for mercy, because
he had no heart of repentance. The Cain knew his wife, and she
conceived and bear Enoch, and he built a city, called the name
of the city after the name of his son Enoch. What I see here,
Cain went on with his life without God, without hope, and without
Christ. And then he perished. And now
his punishment is greater than he can bear. What hast thou done? Doesn't that make you want to
flee to Christ? It does me, because I'm just as guilty. We'll see
not this Sunday, but next Sunday, the Lord interprets his own law.
He says to hate your brother without a cause is murder. He said it's murder. All right.