And if I pause and stare into
space, ignore it. Very tired this morning. But the good thing is, is that
God only needs my mouth, and He doesn't even need that. He'll
use whichever mouth is available. So I have to be careful how I
think about my role and my call. I am not necessary, but am an
instrument of grace. We've learned a lot and we will
continue to learn more. And we saw Cain and Abel last
week in an attempt to get about 16 different thoughts out of
my head at the closing bell, if you will. I put Enoch in Cain's
line as a descendant, or Noah as a descendant of Cain, and
that was incorrect. And I could tell I said something
wrong because some of y'all were going, I don't think that's right. Anyway,
so brother, I thank you for coming up afterwards and going. I think
you made a mistake. Doesn't matter. The point I was
trying to make is that the reason God established Cain is to perpetuate
human existence, to continue the human race, that through
his sovereignty, he would have his elect people and his non-elect
people living in the earth. And I have some thoughts about
how that might interchange and interact as we continue. I want to ask a question. I started to do this more poetically,
and I thought, if I do that, I'll have everybody freaking
out in the first three minutes. But have you ever been in a place
in life where you honestly said, I can do no more? I can do no
more. I mean, we've been there. Some
of us may be there now. Some of us may be there in the
future. I promise you, you will experience it. Whether it be
pain in your body, whether it be pain in your heart, whether
it be pain in your mind, your relationships, your church, your
automobiles, your children, your pets, the weather, It's funny
how sometimes other people complain and we go, you don't really have
anything to complain about. But for them, it's bad. And for
us, it's terrible. And we complain and somebody
else goes, well, it's not really much to complain about. Because
if we were to really kick the can all the way back down the
road, I've had in the last year especially, but since the pandemic
started and things radically changed for me and my family,
things radically changed. How we think, how we process
information, how we interact in the culture, how we do ministry,
how we provide for each other, how we provide for our home,
all sorts of things change for us. We have a lot of loss. A
lot of loss, a lot of loss. The most loss I've ever experienced
cumulatively in my entire existence in one year. Loss of life, loss
of life, lies to you. So we've experienced a lot. And
then yet, I can find myself bitter, cynical, fearful, frustrated,
angry, broken, sad. You know, it's like the candy
man at children's camp. Reach in there and get a surprise.
You never know what you're going to pull out, but you're going to
pull out something sour. Always sour. And I think, when am I
ever going to be through it? The Bible doesn't teach us we're
going to get away from it. The Bible teaches us that this
is part, as Brother Jesse prayed this morning, part of our experience
in the faith is that we're to suffer. And that's insanity. It's the
discipline of our loving Father. It is our great Papa teaching
us His sufficiency. teaching us His ability, showing
us His power. Because let me tell you, the
greatest sin in the life of the believer, I believe, is self-sufficiency,
which ultimately boils down to self-righteousness when it comes
to salvation, right? We have our own ideas, we have our own
prescriptions, we have our own opinions, we have all sorts of
things, and it's conjecture, typically, because my experiences
create my wisdom, and if you just do like me, you'd come out
on top, right? Isn't that how we think? That's
how we think about the guy driving in front of us. That's how we
think about the person cashing us out at the store. That's how
we think about the attitude of the young people today. Not that
you need to read works of antiquity, but if you ever read Cicero about
what he thought about youth, you'd think he was living in
2021. I mean, if I could quote him, you'd go, I could have wrote
that last week. Yep, he wrote it. So there's
always somewhere that we could find a reason to complain, but
the complaint The complaint platform in the economy of grace does
not exist. Except that we can take our petition
to our father and then leave them there. Beloved, this is
the hardest thing that we'll ever do. It's the hardest thing
we will ever do. It is all we can do sometimes
just to get up on the Lord's day and assemble together. And
when we come, what do we do? We're not coming with anticipation
and excitement a lot of times. We're coming with angst and frustration. I gotta get up early. Next week
the time changes, we get an hour. So everybody should be early,
right? I've been working on that for two weeks now, and this week
I have gone three nights with no sleep. I'm like, this is destroying
my plan. If the Lord wills, you will get
your sleeps correct. You know, James wrote that. But we get
to the place where we're coming to worship together. We're not
anticipating joy. We're fighting against frustration. We're fighting against the things
that are going on in our lives, the things that are going on
in the world because that is one of the most amazing opportunities
for the Lord to sovereignly permit the enemy to invade our minds
and to put obstacles in front of us because He knows that if
He can win in this little game of temptation, that our joy will
be stomped underfoot and we will spurn Christ. With all good justifiable reasons
to not assemble, I have them also. Unless I'm disqualified, I have
an obligation to be with you all and to prepare for this day
for our joy and our instruction and most of all for the sake
of God's glory. How am I going to do it? But then when we are when we
are submissive to the prescription of God and submit in our little
teeny weak flesh, by His grace, to the things that He has established
for us, there is a supernatural work of God within us. When I
am through preaching today, I will sleep till tomorrow morning,
I promise you. I will sleep, and I will sleep,
and I will sleep, and a hurricane could fly. Now that would probably
wake me up, but anything else Anything else but thunder, I
would sleep. And nothing's going to change
that. But today, God will give the grace needed for His Word
to be taught and for His church to be instructed. And then when
that's over, who knows? Cain. We saw what Cain did. Cain worshipped God according
to the prescription given to him. in chapter 4 of Genesis. We saw Abel worship God according
to the prescription given him. We saw this temple-like Eden,
this experience where the first families, the first family now
growing, are able to experience the relationship with God outside
the garden with a promise of mercy through Messiah because
the temple experience, the experience of truly being in the presence
of righteousness, clothed in the righteousness of God, when
the creature was given any type of volition, any type of freedom,
he always was tempted. We always fail and we fail well. We do a really good job at failing
even when we're succeeding Sometimes we win in the context of our
own ability rather than submitting to the reality that God has granted
all of this for us. And this first family is worshiping
according to the prescription of God. Moses is not here to
teach us theological things and to instruct the people about
these things. He is here to show the narrative
of God's sovereignty in creating and separating light and darkness
and promising redemption and then creating man and woman and
then they separating themselves from God in rebellion, not trusting
his promises. Then he promises the good report
of the seed of the woman who is Jesus Christ. And then they
are, according to their kind, producing more. people according
to the decree and the providence and the sovereignty of God and
His purposes. And even in that relationship and that brotherly
affection, we see that the flesh is tempted to do that which the
flesh does, and that is to be self-sufficient and not believe
God. So here is Cain worshiping eloquently and from a perspective
of obedience adequately. But because God does not have
favor for Cain in this context, Cain does not understand and
approach the worship of God as a sinner, as one who is an instrument
of mercy, but rather Cain approaches worship from a position of professionalism
or piety. God's going to be impressed with
my piety. You know, we went through this last week. Trying to get
my head right back where I left off. Cain will be the father of David
by the time I'm through with the sermon, probably. But see, Cain, according to the
apostles, killed his brother because he hates righteousness.
And to hate righteousness is, in fact, according to the teachings
of the New Testament, to hate Christ himself, for he is the
righteousness of God. Ironically, Paul is emphatic
about the truth that we are also the righteousness of God. How
is that so? Because Christ's righteousness
is credited to us. So when we are called the righteousness
of God, it is not because of us, it is because we are Christ's
body. imputation, getting credit for
something else. That is God's grace to his people.
This is what God does in the vehicle of mercy, the opposite
of which would be justice, merciful love, kindness, grace, justice,
wrath, indifference, hate. Some people don't like definitions.
And when I said indifference is the opposite of love, I got
a lot of backlash. And I just decided to ignore
it because I don't need to listen to goatee language. I don't have
time for it. I have a family and a flock and
a whole bunch of frustration. I don't need that. And you don't
need that. Let us have our fear and reverence in the Lord and
sit at His feet as children to a Father who loves us and will
never condemn us and will never destroy us and will never throw
us away. But He does instruct us to treat
others likewise. See, Cain hates righteousness
by imputation. The scripture as we saw there,
we'll just read this to get it back in our heads, but I'm in
the same text that I was last week. Let's see, the Lord said
to Cain, well here we go, we'll just start there. Now Adam knew
his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have
produced, or begotten a man, Yahweh. And again, she bore his
brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of the
sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time,
Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and
Abel also brought the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions.
And the Lord had regard for Abel in his offering, but for Cain
in his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his
face fell. The Lord said to Cain, why are
you angry? And why is 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 desire is contrary to you,
but you must rule over it. Cain spoke to Abel, his brother,
and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother
Abel and killed him. In Jewish tradition, if you will,
mythology says that he hit him with a rock. The Bible doesn't
say that, but mythology says that. 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 your hand. 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. 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. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived
and bore Enoch. And he built a city. Cain built
a city. He called the name of the city
after the name of his son, Enoch. Te'init was born Erod, and Erod
fathered Mahujuel, and Mahujuel fathered Methuzel, and Methuzel
fathered Lamech, who's also a different Lamech
than some of us think of. And Lamech took two wives, and
the name of one was Adah, and the name of another Zillah. And
Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who
dwell in tents and have livestock. His life, his brother's name
was Jabal. He was the father of all those
who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah bore Tubalcain. He was
the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister
of Tubalcain was Nammah. Lamech said to his wives, notice
he has two Adon Zillah, hear my voice. Listen to this. You
wives of Lamech, listen to what I say. I have killed a man for
wounding me and a young man for striking me. If Cain's revenge
is sevenfold, then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold. And Adam knew his wife again,
and she bore a son and called his name Seth. For she said,
God has appointed for me an offspring instead of Abel. for Cain killed
him. To Seth also was born a son,
and he called his name Enosh. At that time, people began to
call upon the name of the Lord. There's a lot there, and it's
narrative, and it's brief narrative. It tells a lot, it doesn't go
into detail, it doesn't even explain itself, and commentators
are really creative. Let's just read it, get the gist
of it in the context of the creation account and what we're trying
to see in the context of the gospel. So here we're going to
see two specific things displayed. We're going to see the sin of
Cain and we're going to see the grace of God. So we're going
to see humanity and we're going to see the gospel. We're going to see the sovereignty
of God on this side and we're going to see man's nature on
the other. We're going to see, in the end
of all of this, two different peoples. And it's ultimately
going to show us who Cain is. Now, if you were to think about
Cain and what you know about Cain and what we've learned about
Cain throughout our lives and even recently, some of us would
be able to say, you know, I know somebody sort of like Cain. I
mean, I don't want you to raise your hand because you might be
in trouble because the person that you're thinking of might
be sitting to your left or right. But either way, you might say, I know somebody
like Cain. And most of us could say, yeah, there's some Cain-like
folks in my life. But let's think about it. What
is the sin of Cain? The sin of Cain is that he hates imputation
of righteousness. He hates it. Why? Because in
Cain's view of himself, when he looks in the mirror of Cain,
he says, this man worships God well. This man works well. This
man produces well. Look what I have done. Thank
you, God, that I am able to do these things so well for you.
Now, some of us would say, well, what's wrong with that type of
attitude? Well, Jesus specifically teaches that that type of attitude
is pharisaic. That it is someone who hates
imputation of righteousness. In other words, they don't want
credit for someone else's well-doing and goodness. They want to be
credited for their own. That's what it means. See, self-righteousness
is extremely deceptive. Of course, there are always going
to be the ones who, Brush off the old dust and say, look at
this guy, how he's living. But they're a dying breed in
today's society. You can find one in a thousand.
Self-righteousness is usually so subtle that we come to the
place of thinking that we're thanking God for the greatness
that we've become. And then humbly recognizing that
we're still sinners, but by the grace of God, there go I, in
comparison to someone else. The beloved is deceptive. And
that is why God has orchestrated and ordained and commanded the
assembly of the saints. We walk together, when we hit
a brick wall, we stop, we deal with it, we keep walking together
in the gospel. You are here today in attendance,
not to see and participate in some spectator sport, but you
are here today because you agree with the gospel as preached from
this pulpit, and you and I and all of us together are in one
accord in Christ Jesus this morning. and what He has done to credit
us. Does that mean we are always walking in the same direction
or that we're always so lovey-dovey? No, as a matter of fact, the
opposite is often true. Why do you think the New Testament
teaching continually instructs on how to resolve conflict and
deal with problems? Because that is what we do. That is what we do as people.
We are the problem. And I'll leave the pop culture
references out of that one. We have problems, and we're most
of the problems. So Cain hates imputed righteousness. He wants credit for himself.
Cain hates instruction. Because God says, if you do well,
would you not be received? Would you not be approved? And
what is with the doing well? We saw what that was. By faith. By faith. The obedience of faith
is believing in the promises of God. To the level in which
God's word reveals the truth, all believers know the truth
of Christ and what He accomplished for His people. But the depth
of which they may comprehend the ins and outs of these things
or the theologies of these things is irrelevant. We grow to understand
those things. But never ever should a believer
ever get a pass in any type of self-righteousness. We should
say, This is Christ. This is why we do the Lord's
Table every day. This is why I think that we have suffered
so much in our intimacy is because we haven't been doing the Lord's
Table like we are commanded. Because we're reminded about
what Christ has done for us and who our righteousness is. And
that all of us are in the exact same hands, the hands of redemption,
the hands of grace, the hands of our loving Father. No Christian
is greater than another. Because we are all recipients
of mercy. But Cain's hate instruction. They don't want to be told what
to do. They don't want to hear God say,
if you just rest in me, your offering is acceptable. They don't want to hear that.
They don't want to hear, you've got a problem with the way I've
prescribed, or you've got a problem with your brother, then listen
to me, Cain. Conversation with God, I mean,
it begs, it stands to reason, really, that Cain had a problem
with Abel to begin with, much like Joseph's older brothers.
Of course, Joseph was a braggart. Yeah, I had a dream y'all were
gonna bow down and worship me. Yeah, I had a dream I was gonna rule
over you. I had a dream, you know? I think I'm gonna be in
charge around here when Daddy dies. You know what? Runt. So Cain hates instruction. Cain
hates being corrected. He worked hard for that. You
ever done something in life, you ever produced, let's say
like a party or a meal or a paper or any kind of project or you
did something nice for someone and you just worked hard, you
spent your time, you spent money maybe, you gave your talent.
It was a labor of love and you present it and you're thinking
everybody's just gonna swoon and they just gobble it all up
or receive it or take it and no thank you, no nothing. See, I have that problem sometimes
when I renovate things. It's real ugly and real nasty
and dilapidated, and then when it's all said and done, it's
all pretty, it's just normal to everybody else. Look at this! Yes, Bill, appreciate it. Floor,
toilet, hallelujah. We're all pooping in the offering
plates. I mean, you know, kids are paying attention now. And it hurts our feelings. That's what Cain was like. He's
like, I did all this and God just, eh, whatever. Whatever. God, do you see how long you
see what I stand for? You see how I work for you. You
see what I do in the ministry. You see, you see, you see, you
see, you see, you see. Cain hates being corrected. Because
Cain hates being wrong. He can't stand it. I don't like
being wrong either. But I'd rather be correct at
being wrong than think I'm right and be wrong. Correction is biblical if it's followed according to
the Bible. That's what something, if you want to say, is that biblical?
Are you following the instructions to a T according to the Bible?
Then it's biblical. And then nobody, when everybody
gets upset, when Cain gets mad because God spoke, I mean, who's
ever going to speak back to God? Cain. Cain rebuked God. Cain talked
back. Listen, I nearly murdered all
my children twice for talking back. And my older children, they brought
it to my attention a couple of months ago, you know, Dad, I
don't hear you say a couple of things that you used to really
nail us for. And there are two things that they brought up.
One is when they come running into the room with their mouth
open, I said, ho, ho, you come into the room with your what?
Ears. Mouth, you don't have a mouth
when you come into the room with adults. You understand me? Come
into the room with your ears, and when you hear the pause of
a finished conversation, not a breath, and then your mouth
can open, you know. I was stern on that. Well, not
now, you know. Got eight years between the last two. And the
other one is, I forgot. I'm so sleepy. Oh, goodness. I'll think about it in a minute.
It didn't matter. The point is, I hate being wrong. Canes hate being wrong. We don't
like to be corrected. We don't want to be instructed.
We don't want to continue to hear that what we've done is
not what we should have been doing. And at the end of the
day, the flesh hates it. And at the end of the day, the
flesh hates those who have favor. And Cain hated the one who had
favor because he worked hard and he should have favor too.
You see the difference in self-righteous versus imputed righteousness.
We're approved, blessed by God because he credits his righteousness
to us versus we doing well in our own lives, thus making God
happy. Now, do we please God as believers
in our works? Yes, we do. Why? Because we are
in Christ. Do we displease God with our
sin? Absolutely. That's why there's so much instruction
about how we speak and how we talk and what we should put in
our eyes and ears and how we should approach each other and
what gentleness and patience and long-suffering and kindness.
I mean, these words are hammered. These commands are hammered to
the New Testament church. Love, first and foremost, is
always about being a slave. And secondly, it's always about
being silent. Coming in with your ears long before we open
our mouths. Cain can't do that. Cain wasn't
listening to God. He just came in with his mouth.
What am I supposed to do? Keep up with my brother? Oh,
that was it. The second thing. When my children
talk back to me when they're younger and I have not asked
them a question, but I am talking, I would interrupt them and say,
did I ask you a question? No? Then I don't want to hear
your mouth. And I know that seems harsh, but when you've got five
children and they're all wanting to jaw and tell you how to parent
and tell you what you're going to do, You either nip it in the
bud or you terminate the issue. And I did not ever desire prison
ministry, you know. So Cain hates those who have
favor with the Lord. Cain hates those with patience. Cain hates
the reconciled worshiper, the one who is reconciled to the
Father. Cain hates worship, actually, because what is worship but a
transliterated word through the centuries that means worth-ship. The worth of God, He is due what?
The scripture says all glory, all honor, all wealth, all power,
all dominion, all authority, because He is Elohim. He is the
highest of all things. That's what the word God means. That's not His name. God is not
a name. That's who He is, the highest
of all things. So Cain does not like worship.
Cain likes self-worship. But it's disguised, it's deceitful.
See, Cain thought he was worshipping God, but ultimately in the end
of it all, it's like I said many years ago, to a group of leaders
in a particular ministry, who were bragging and bragging. Have
you ever seen those newsletters, the ministry newsletters? You
know, you got the ministry newsletters that can praise the Lord, and
they're usually a page. and they're gospel-centered,
but you've got these 12-page newsletters that tell everything,
share everything. There's always something to say,
and now people don't do newsletters much. They just videotape everything
they do and put it on social media. Look at how I shared the
gospel today. Look at it. And I'm not gonna
indict people just for doing that. I'm just saying I have
seen that type of response in a way that it's not God-honoring,
it's self-honoring. We've all seen it, and quite
honestly, we've probably all done it. We've all participated
in it, sometimes in ignorance. But Cain hates those who have
good worship. Cain hates those who have the
joy of Christ, the joy of the Lord. Abel joyfully gave of his
first fruits. He joyfully gave it. Abel found
joy in his presentation rather than the sacrifice. Cain hates those who have endurance,
who are able to stand under trial. How do you know all this? Well,
the scriptures teach us about Cain. And the instruction of
the apostles to the church deal with Cain as sort of the poster
child of what not to be. Because there's an ultimate end
of Cain's sin, and it's a primary motive of self-love disguised
as worship, disguised as affection for the Lord, disguised as service
and ministry, and that's murder. A murderer. And the murderer truly hates grace,
unless it's a technical form of grace. See, Cain hates grace,
but he loves the technical form of grace. The technical form
of grace is God is gracious to me, and now He's not. What did I do wrong? But that's another sermon. Because
ultimately, in the end of it all, we have a gospel picture
here. We have a gospel picture, and
it's real easy to say, okay, you know, Abel is the elect,
Cain is the reprobate. But the Bible doesn't teach us
that. This is a narrative about a sin of which the Scripture
would say that everything in the law would call for the death
of Cain, right? Kill Cain. I mean, my goodness,
you could just about be stoned for spitting on the dirt. By the time Moses was around,
I mean, Moses wrote this, remember. And so, I mean, you know, don't
spit in the dirt on the Lord's day, on the Sabbath. It's not
the Lord's day. Don't spit on the dirt on the
Sabbath day because that's a work. Your saliva merges with the soil
and you've done some agriculture. That's how they did it. Don't
spit. I guess where the spit tombs
came from. But there's a gospel picture beyond that distinct
separation. Because Moses is not trying to
teach us about the descendants of Seth and descendants of Cain
in the context of this line of reprobation, this line of election.
That's not the point. Matter of fact, the scripture
would not even agree with that. So people who says everyone who
was ever descendant of Cain is reprobate, they don't know what
they're talking about. They're just, that's conjecture. Matter of
fact, that is technical theology. That is to say that which God's
Word has not said. So let's see the Gospel picture.
Abel is blessed and approved by God by the will of God. I
will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I will harden who I want
to harden. I will deal with accordingly
whom I want to deal. Does the clay have the right
to the potter to say, why have you dealt with me this way? Why
have you made me this way? No. God will do what He desires
to do, with whom He desires to do it, when He desires to do
it, without any interaction, without any permission, and without
any consideration of the creature. That's what it means to be the
highest of all things. You do what you want to do. And He's
not in the Adam's family. So Abel is righteous according
to imputation because he is approved by God. Cain then is a picture
of the flesh, of the flesh of humanity. Born of a woman, sinful
to the core. Abel also sinful to the core.
They're in the same boat. But Cain hates righteousness
in all forms. Instruction, he hates righteousness
in living. I mean, think about that for
a second. Sometimes we see a group of people and we see kings of
the world and they seem to love the imputation of righteousness
or grace in a technical sense from a theological standpoint
or from a historical standpoint or from an academic standpoint.
But when it comes to living out that grace according to the command
of God Almighty, they stomp their feet and refuse to do it. What
do we do with those people? Call them canes? No, say, hey,
don't be like Cain. That's what the scripture says.
We don't say, you're Cain. We don't even say, hey, you're
a reprimand. Don't be like Cain. See, my daddy taught me from
a very young age, boy, you will always have my name. Mess it
up, you won't have it anymore. It'll be on a tombstone somewhere.
And those aren't his words, but that's the sentiment. That's the sentiment. So Cain
hates righteousness and desires to murder the righteous one.
Whoa, you see the gospel picture all of a sudden. Jesus is the
righteous one. Abel is a picture of Christ.
That's why Abel's blood has always been a shadow of the blood of
Jesus. Cries out to the Father for vengeance. Cries out for
justification. Cries out, cries out. And we
can see John's apocalypse. We can see the revealed things
to John where Jesus tells him to write these things. And he
talks about the picture in heaven where the martyrs are crying
out for justice and vengeance, saying, How long, O Lord? How
long, O Lord? Beloved, I'll tell you. If I
could just be a pretextor, that means not use the full context,
but take pieces out as suited my fancy, I'd love the scripture
that says, vengeance is mine. I will repay. But I have to accredit
the full context. Saith the Lord, saith the Lord. Dearly beloved, do not avenge
yourselves. But just the first part, vengeance
is mine. I will repay. Give me them laser beam eyes,
boy. We'll go for it. Cain murders Abel just like those
spiritual people of the day of Jesus murdered him. And beloved, murder is a terrible
thing. We'll talk about the heart of
Cain's murder in just a moment. I've been studying James for
a few months now, and boy, when we get to James chapter 3 and
4, he gets... The Bible, especially
the New Testament, is a very practical writing. You need to
understand, it's theological writing, it's historical, it's
very practical for the believer. We want to know what God expects
of us? Very practical. The Word of God is the measuring
rod for the believer. Are we honoring God in what we're
thinking? Does the Bible say? Are we honoring God in what we're
saying? What does the Bible say? Not are we earning His respect,
earning His salvation. No, no, no, no, no. We have that.
We're confident of God's mercy in Christ Jesus alone. That's
what saving faith is, and that's a work of God itself. So we're
resting in the finished work of Christ, but then we're learning
to live together as a picture of Christ's likeness. And James and Paul and Jude and
others will say, do not murder with your mouths. And it's amazing that even when
you teach that which you are studying in the context of Scripture
that applies every day, all the time, the canes of the world. And I have to be very careful
what I'm saying here. People will accuse me that the
Cains of the world will hate the instruction of Christ. And sometimes, as we've been
sitting here for so long thinking about who we know who are Cain,
why don't we look in the mirror? Because we're all Cain. And that's
what this narrative teaches us. If Abel is a picture of Christ,
then Cain is a picture of me. So then point the finger. We
got three more, unless your thumb's bent backwards. Point it back
at me. That would hurt. Wow. You can
do it sideways. We are Cain. That's what humanity
is all about. That's what the flesh does. That's
what human nature is all about. That's what depravity looks like.
We are sinners. And if God grants us through
the prescription of the boundaries of intimacy in the local church,
an oversight and intimacy of working through our faith and
learning and growing and debating and coming out on the other side
together. If we stand and God tarries and
He continues to grow us, we will mature and our flesh will become
less active in its power, but it will never become sinless.
That is why glorification is such a dream Because I cannot
fathom what it would be like to approach the Bible without
sinfulness. What it would be like to hear
the Scripture. I want Jesus to read John's Gospel
to me. And say, I think that would be
pleasant. I'd rather just see Christ, you know? Why do you
want to read John's account? I'm here, buddy. You know? I want to hear the Word of God
without a sinful nature. And I can't focus on that a whole
lot because I won't ever leave the chair. Vocal murder is vile no matter
the justification for it, no matter the pretexting, no matter
the approach, no matter the cultural distinctions. Cain murdered his
brother. And then all through the New
Testament, James and others and Paul, they would say, don't murder
your brothers. They aren't talking about stabbing
them with a knife or hitting them with a rock. They're talking
about speaking of them, talking about them when they're not listening
in any way. And we've all done it. What is brother read out of first
Peter today? What is it Peter says about Christ?
He spoke not a word. Abel could not speak, but his
blood speaks. And you cannot fathom the fact
that we cannot fathom the fact this is spiritual. This is literal
warfare. Warfare is not us being soldiers
in the world. Warfare is Christ the victor
in the spiritual sense. God is not looking for well-prepared
soldiers. God, according to Paul's teaching
to the elder Timothy, It says, be a good soldier, be a slave
to your sergeant. And your sergeant says, when
you're reviled, keep your mouth shut. Do not answer. You do not answer. Because then
we run the car, not off into the ditch, we run it off the
bridge, into the depths of the sea, and then the light is no
more. Jesus never said a word. Well, he had something to say
to the Pharisees. He is God Almighty and only He knows the hearts
of those people. And we can read Jesus' words
and learn from them, but we can't cleanse the temple without being
sinful. Unless you got a bathroom brush.
Go for it. Or a mop. God is glorified in the death
of Abel. It was God's plan. God did not
make Cain do it. Cain did it out of his own wicked
flesh. So God points us in this death,
in Abel to his son. and then shares that when we
identify with Christ, we too shall also suffer as Christ suffered. So God is showing us the gospel. Our flesh will desire to give
in to itself, but the spirit within us will keep us with all
the other saints in the spirit of life. For God has made us
fit. He has qualified us, Paul says
at the Church of Colossae, to be inheritance, to be sons and
daughters, to inherit eternal life in Christ Jesus. Now I'm
going to use some language here that's necessary because it is
exactly what God has done. God should have killed Cain,
but in God's eternal purposes, He did not kill Cain, and so
He stayed his wrath. patience. Some people call it
mercy. So instead of giving Cain what
the law would say Cain deserved, God listened to his complaint,
or if I could say to his prayer, not because the prayer was effectual,
it's because it's what God was going to do all along. God did
not answer Cain's plea. Please don't do this. I'll die.
It's too harsh. I can't handle it. Oh, I'll be
a wanderer. Oh! Can you see it? Make a good Nickelodeon
cartoon character. A ridiculous villain. But God was merciful to Cain
in his judgment, in his wrath, as a stay of execution, if you
will, for his own purposes. And if you read the Bible enough,
and you'll see you get over there, even past the flood and up to
the flood, you see Cain's people were known as wicked people,
and we already see that here. There's a lot of things I could
talk about here. They were wicked people. They were known as evil people.
But yet some of them could possibly be elect. How many children did
Cain have? We don't know. Dozens and dozens
and dozens and dozens. He lived, what, 600, 800 years? 700 years? I mean, some of us
aren't even, you know, aren't even 50 and we got a lot of kids.
I mean, could you imagine? We don't know that all who carry
the blood of Cain are not loved of God. To say that is ignorant. But they were known as evil people,
even though some of them could possibly be elect. Abel's descendants
through Seth became all the way up to Noah. We understand that. But after the flood, we see a
group of people called the Kenites. And there's not much there, there's
not much to say, but some people would suggest that those are
some descendants of Cain. How did some of Cain's people
survive the flood? Well, is it very possible that,
you know, Cain and Abel's wives were indeed their sisters? I
mean, Seth wasn't born until, how old was Adam, 130 years old? He was 130 years old when Seth
was born. How many children were living? How many families were
started in these, maybe one of, Well, who knows? Maybe one of Seth's daughters
ended up marrying some of Cain's sons and vice versa. Because
not everybody's going to stay at the house. I mean, Cain's
an adventurer. He's a wanderer. He's cursed
of God. Sounds pretty fun. Let's go to
Sodom. Let's enjoy it. That's what the
flesh does, right? So this suggests that possibly
Cain's children married Seth's children. Either way, Cain was
a victim in his own eyes because God's word came to him with the
gospel. Yet he was unwilling to submit and indeed he was unable
to submit. I asked myself some questions when I was preparing
this and asked myself this question, where is my mind today in relation
to this truth? Am I listening to the whole counsel
of God's Word? Or am I picking and choosing
what I want to hear? Am I a theological hobbyist? Or do I truly seek to know Christ
and worship Him? When did I come to understand
the depth of God's patience with me? Have I been patient with others
as God has been patient with me? Have other people been patient
with me as God has been patient with me? And then I realized that God,
according to the revelation of His Word, is the author of life,
the creator of life, the creator of truth. He is the truth. He
is the power unto salvation. And so He will make a way for
His people, and He has done that. And He does not need our good
intentions or our zeal or anything else. You've heard me say that at the
heart of my sinfulness is murder. And beloved, when we act on that,
it marks us forever. God marked Cain that he might
be known as a murderer. Sometimes you can't wash it off.
Even when reconciliation and repentance and all these special
churchy words have happened and everybody's loving one another
again, there's always that odor. Always that smell. Always that
suspicion. That's a murderer. I know he's
good now, but what if he flips? Murder marks us forever. Gossip
marks us forever. Hatred marks us forever when
we exercise it. It carries death to a place that
we can never imagine. It destroys all hope of peace. It eliminates the efficacy of
reconciliation. Murder mocks forgiveness. It
blasphemes our prayers. We can't pray when we're murderous. It provokes wrath. It violates
the teaching of Christ and the doctrine of Christ. It promotes
a false gospel. It makes God a liar. It sounds
pious in our own ears because we are to hate that which God
hates. And ultimately, it ignores the
point of living and it does not preserve life for the sake of
God's glory. So Cain escapes death. in fear
by mercy, which is a stay of God's wrath. The wages of sin
is death. And in the picture, Cain was
all, I'm so sorry. Don't do this to me. It's too
much. But this hubris of Cain is quickly established. His humility was fleshly. It wasn't repentant. It wasn't
God-granted change of disposition. Cain could not live amongst other
men. But when God said, I will make sure no one kills you, he's
like, oh, I'm going to build my own city. I'm not going to
be a nomad. I'm not going to live out here
in the wilderness. I'm going to build my own city. If I can't
be a part of other people's city, I'll build my own city. Yes. Look at all the children I have.
Look at the hundreds and thousands of people that have come through
my blood. I got you, God." And this is
the hubris of depravity. This is what we do as human beings
when we see God's wrath, like Pharaoh, and we go, oh, we've
got frogs no more. And God takes it away and we
go, all right, my slaves have got this cleaned up. God, I'm
not going to put up with this anymore. Cain remembered his fears, though.
He didn't call the city Caneville. He thought, ah, Caneville. Then
they'll know. Then God will find me. Enoch Town. Hey, son, you got
a city. Thanks, Dad. Can you imagine
growing up in a town named after you? In a city? He remembered his fear, so he
named it after Enoch, and came, then became bold against the
curse of God, and he sort of showed God that he would do as
he wishes, thinking that God's patience was grace. It was not. It was divine forbearance. Patience is not ignoring things,
but it is the nature of God to establish His purposes and then
the instruction of God for us to be patient. He will produce
it in His timing. Oh, beloved, if I could learn
patience perfectly, we would be the greatest family of faith
that ever existed. But then some of you wouldn't
have very good patience. It would throw it all in the trash. Patience. God does not ignore evil when
He is patient with it. Scripture demands that elders
endure evil with great patience and teaching and instruction. Why? Because sometimes the vilest
of murderers are our brothers and sisters in Christ. And sometimes
the vilest of unbelievers will soon or maybe one day be our
family. We cannot cut off our nose to
spot our face and then enter beauty pageants and say, well,
I used to be pretty. We are not to destroy people. Cain lived a long life and bore
a lot of children, and his progeny filled the earth. And by all
appearances with the world at large, Cain's family prospered
and became great. But they weren't great. They
were still not approved by God. He was not blessed. He was cursed. And then he has a son named Lamech,
or Lamech, or Lamech, however you want to say that, if your
throat's itchy. And he says some landish things.
First, he takes two wives. It's the first mention of polygamy. He takes two wives and he tells
his wives, I love how that's phrased, hey, you wives of Lamech,
listen up. I'm the man around here and I'm
one bad dude. If somebody hits me, I killed
him. You ever heard a guy like that?
See, there's no evidence that any of this ever happened. He's
just bragging. Somebody insults me, I'm going to kill him. What
is that but the heart of his father? A hater of righteousness,
a hater of life, a hater of those who are approved by God, and
the evidence of those who hate the beloved are those who are
murdering them. And beloved, don't forget that
we are Cain. We all have done it and all can continue to do
it if we're not listening to the instruction of the word together
and at peace, walking in humility. This conjecture here, then he
says, if the wrath of Cain was seven times, wasn't the wrath
What is that? Then the wrath of Lamech shall
be 70 times 7. My daddy was a bad guy. He could
kick butt and take names. You ought to mess with me. See
how far away from what God had said now was being taught to
the people of Cain? I'm a defender of the truth around
here. The truth was conjecture. The conjecture became habit.
The habit became truth, which was a lie, and people believed
it. What is conjecture? Making an
opinion about something of which you know nothing of and do not
have 100% of the information. It's a wicked, vile sin, especially
when it's coupled with gossip, slander, libel, even in the grist
of intentions. We cannot always judge the heart
of someone when we sin. Sometimes we're trying to help.
Sometimes we're trying to do what's right, but we just step
in it. Oh, what's on my shoe? You see
what I mean? I don't have no other way to say it. The heart of man
gets to write his own story, then he believes it. The evil
and the depths of ignorance and the hubris can acquire such confidence
over a short amount of time. But God doesn't leave the story
there. We think, oh, look at this. And then we're, oh, we're
Cain now. Oh, great. This isn't the point
of this narrative. It's to show us that that is
true. However, don't forget the blood of Abel that cries out
from the ground. Don't forget that God granted favor to Abel
in his worship. Why? Because there's an imputation
of righteousness there, a picture of Christ. Christ would then
suffer by murderers who thought they were doing God's work and
die because it is the will of the Father that He may save a
people for Himself in all justice and righteousness. for all glory,
that we would be numbered amongst the people of God who are approved
by Him, not amongst those who live in the world who are dead
in darkness, but have been called out of light, that even in the
greatest of darkness, as John would say, alluding to the very
text that we've been going through, the darkness shall not overcome
the light of Christ. This is the gospel, 25 and 26,
those verses right there. 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 in the place of Abel,
for Cain murdered him. Verse 26, for Seth also was born
a son and called his name Enosh. And at that time, people begin
to call upon the name of the Lord. You see? God's people will
not be destroyed. God's salvation will not be thwarted. He will not fail. He did not
fail. He cannot fail. We are here. So what is the point of all this?
The body of Christ is broken. The blood of Christ is shed. And we rejoice because we're
not having to be like Cain. We're not going to be counted
for being sinful like Cain because Christ put that sin on Himself. Christ became guilty of murder
having never murdered. Christ became guilty of gossip
having never gossiped. Christ became guilty of adultery
and fornication and lying and maliciousness and covetousness
and anger and frustration and fear having never sinned ever
in any way in His humanity or His divinity, never doing anything
that was ever contrary to the righteousness of Himself, who
is God Almighty. And so we can rejoice, because
God has created a people for Himself, and even when we murder
the righteous, Christ Murder satisfies the wrath of God for
us. So this is the picture that we see in the Cain and the Abel. So what do we do today? We honor
Him by remembering Him, the command. I said it last week, we haven't
done the Lord's Table in such a long time. I just wanted to
teach more every few weeks, to teach more and more and more.
It is a commandment of God that we remember Christ. Why? Because
He's worthy of remembering. There's a lot of elements going
into experiencing this, but the primary point in which it is
commanded is that we do it out of obedience to Christ because
He said, remember me. Don't forget me. Think about
me. Why? Because when we think about Christ,
we know who we are. When we think about Christ, we
know what He's done. We think about Christ, we know
who He is, and He's worthy of all honor, and worthy of all
glory, and worthy of all wealth, and worthy of all power. He has
done all the work of redemption in Himself. He has purchased
us with His blood, so we are to remember Him. That's first
and foremost. That's the primary point of the Lord's table, is
to remember Christ. It is a personal opportunity
to worship individually, to remember Christ, knowing that our sins
are forgiven. Period. Now, there are some other
implications. Because we are like cane in our
flesh and we get murdered, we get frustrated. But taking the
Lord's table washes that away because we remember what Christ
has done for us. We remember who we are and we
realize, you know what? I can forgive. I taste and I
remember God's forgiveness in Christ. I can forgive. This is for the sake of Christ. and to disobey the commands of
Christ is to suggest that we don't believe them or that we
don't think that they are, that we're worthy of that or that
we think that we don't need them, that we don't need Him, but we
need Him every day. Christ obeyed the Father and
suffered in His flesh. So shall we also suffer being
found in Christ in this life. Beloved, let us rejoice. Rejoice. It is the hardest thing to do
and it is absolutely impossible in our present circumstances,
whatever they may be, for any of us, but beloved, in Christ,
remembering Him, tasting and seeing that He is good, we can
rejoice. And that should be the anchor
of our faith, that should be the anchor of our soul, that
should be the anchor of our worship, is Jesus Christ, who has not
let us be like Cain. but has dragged us out of the
domain of death into everlasting life. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord, for this
truth. We thank you, Father, for loving us, unlovable people. But, Father, in your wisdom and
mercy, you have loved us everlasting love, with an everlasting love,
with an eternal love. Long before we were, you first
loved us that we would also love you. And, Father, we do a very
poor job of loving you. Because your word tells us to
love you is to obey your command, and the commands are very simple,
is to put you above all things in affection and honor and obedience
to loving each other as Christ. As we love Christ. As we love
ourselves. So as we take the table this
morning and remember what Christ has done, let us rejoice in our
spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's prepare.