Tell with me your Bibles please
to Genesis chapter 4 we're gonna look at verses 16 through 22
tonight God has placed the curse on Cain
Set a mark on him so no man will harm him And sent him out of the garden And Cain went out from the presence
of the Lord and and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of
Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she
conceived and bear Enoch. And he built it a city, and called
the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. And unto
Enoch was born Erod, and Erod begat Mahujel, and Mahujel begat
Methusel, and Methusel begat Lamech. And Lamech took unto
himself two wives. The name of one wife was Ada.
The name of the other was Zillah. And Ada bared Jabal. He was the
father of such that dwell in tents, and of such that have
cattle. And his brother's name was Jubal.
He was the father of all such that handle the harp and the
organ. And Zillah, she also bared Tubal-ke, an instructor of every
artificer in brass and iron. and the sister of Tubalcain was
Nehemiah. Let us pray. Our Father, we come
in the blessed name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is King
of kings and Lord of lords, who is the master, the sovereign
Lord, the Lord over all, the Lord of the living and the dead,
He of whom all the prophets gave witness. He who is the sum and
the substance and subject of this grand book that you have
left us. Father, we thank you that we can call upon you through
him. For we know that we are accepted
in the beloved because of what he did on Calvary Street. Bless
us this hour to consider him who's worthy of all praise, the
chiefest among 10,000. Help us to remember those who
are sick and going through trials, especially those who we mentioned
before the service tonight. We pray your help for them, your
strength for them. We know that only you can help. We bow to your wisdom, your will
in these things. You know what our desire is.
Let our desire be, thy will be done. Help us tonight, Father,
as we consider the things of Christ that cause us in our heart
to worship Him in spirit and in truth. We pray in His precious
name. Amen. Now this passage of scripture
relates to the expulsion of Cain from the presence of the Lord
and his life and his lineage that followed. And the gist of
this is the representation of a collective desires of the depravity
of man It is the story of humanity without God and man's efforts
to remedy that void on his own. Man was made to worship God in
the manner in which God had ordained and commanded. And Cain had sought
to change that. He'd sought out an invention
to worship God rather than worshiping God as God had said, this is
how I'll be worshiped. And he offered to God the work
of his hands rather than the blood of the sacrifice. His lack
of repentance and his ultimate charging God with his sin brought
about the curse of God upon him. And his curse was to be a vagabond
and a fugitive, and he was forced to vacate Eden and wander the
earth. That was his curse, representative
of all humanity without God. Now our passage begins in verse
16, declaring that Cain went out from the presence of the
Lord. It doesn't say that Cain left
God, or that he left the Lord. Well, the presence, when you
see the word the presence of the Lord, that means something
specific, especially in the Old Testament. But to think on that
just by itself, when out from the presence of the Lord, those
who have tasted the grace of God are immediately struck with
the fearful gravity of this statement. Much like Paul said to the Galatians,
If you seek to be righteous by the work of your hands, Christ
is dead in vain. Christ's death means nothing
to you. And those are some of the scariest words that have
ever been spoken. Cain had great privilege. He had conversed with God. He
had been directed by God concerning the manner in which sin was atoned
for. Now he will never hear that voice again. You'll never hear
the voice of God again. The presence of the Lord is more
than geography and proximity. There was one place where the
presence of the Lord was notably evident. That one place was where
he dwelt between the cherubim above the altar at the east of
Eden. The word there is Shekin for the flaming sword, and the
word Shekin we get our word Shekinah glory. There's where the presence
of the Lord dwelt, His Shekinah glory. And His Shekinah glory
was there to keep the way of the tree of life. And there the
gospel was kept and defended against any effort of man to
gain entrance without the proper sacrifice. His presence was tied
inextricably to the substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in
human flesh. To go out from His presence is
to go out from His glory. To go out from His presence is
to have no sacrifice to atone for you or to propitiate God
for you. Because God said, if you're going
to commune with me, If you're going to commune with me in Exodus
25, if you're gonna commune with me, I will meet you at the mercy
seat. And that's the place of sacrifice.
That's where the sacrifice was made on the day of atonement
for the people. Throughout scripture, the word propitiation in the
New Testament is translated mercy seat. God says, I will meet you
where propitiation has been made, where I've been satisfied for
your sins. That's where his Shekinah glory
is, and his Shekinah glory we know is Jesus Christ in human
flesh. Cain, in this case, represents
and is the first reprobate. The first reprobate. Now a reprobate
is one who cannot be recovered and who will not be recovered
by God. He is done for. There is no mercy
for it. But the reprobate is not an irreligious
man. He's not necessarily a profligate.
A reprobate is the religious man who refuses to acknowledge
God as he is, and knowing the judgment of God cannot refrain
from his religious evil. This is how he's described by
Paul in Romans chapter one. Romans chapter one. I read where a Danish lady senator
or something quoted this verse before or actually wrote it down
and sent it in an email and she was cast out of the Senate for
hate speech. So I guess this is the new hate
manual if you're in men's thinking today. But in Romans chapter
one in verse 21, it says, because that when they knew God, that
is, they knew the existence of God, they knew how God was presented
and how he presented himself in scripture. When they knew
God, they glorified him not as God. That doesn't say they didn't
glorify him or they thought they were glorifying him or they tried
to glorify him in their own way like Cain did. But they glorified
him not as God, neither were thankful. Which means they had
not tasted grace, they had not been shown mercy, therefore they
had nothing to be thankful for. Because that's what we do as
children of God. Our vocation and our avocation
here on this earth is to offer praise, the sacrifice of praise
and thanksgiving from our heart unto God for what he's done for
us. So God hadn't done anything for them, he's done some things
against them. Neither were they thankful because they were vain
or empty or void in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.
Now go, he was on to explain what happens to reprobates after
that. But I want to call your attention
to verse 28. It says, and when they did not like to retain God
in their knowledge, but actually that means they did not like
to acknowledge God for who He is. To acknowledge Him for who
He is. God gave them over to a reprobate
mind. Reprobate, the word is adakimasu
in the original language, and that means without hope. No hope. No hope. Reprobate mind
to do those things which are not convenient. Now you would
think that with this clear representation of what reprobation is, you would
think it would have some effect on the reprobate. At least he
would shut up about God, but he can't. He's a religious man. And what he does, even if it's
perversion, it is a religious act to him. It has to do with
religion. And it says in verse 32, who
knowing the judgment of God, They know that what they're doing
is going to be judged by God. They will be under the judgment
of God, not under His mercy, not under His grace, but under
His judgment. Knowing that the judgment of God, or who knowing
the judgment of God, that they who commit such things are worthy
of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure and do it.
That's one of the most astounding verses in all the scripture.
And I just saw this, but this last year, just dawned on me,
the amazingness of that scripture. They know God's gonna judge him
because the Bible says he will, but they can't stop themselves.
And this is Cain. He's the first reprobate. He
knew God said, this is the way to worship me. And he wouldn't
do it. He knew it was wrong to kill
his brother, but he killed him. And when God confirmed him, he
said, I'm my brother's keeper. Refused to acknowledge God for
who he is and as he is. This is what going out from the
presence of the God means. This is what it meant in the
Garden of Eden. It is declared that he dwelt
in the land of Nod, which was east of Eden. What does that
mean? Well, it's not an actual geographical
country with borders. It is simply wherever Cain placed
his feet. Placed his feet. Nod means aimless
wandering. That's all it means. That's what
it means, aimless wandering. But the root word means shaking
or trembling, which may have two applications. First, it may
refer to Kaine's state of mind. The word fugitive in the original,
as it's used in this context, means to shake or to tremble. to shake or to tremble. That's
the state of mind, and that is revealed in the last phrase of
verse 14, when he said this, that everyone that findeth me
gonna slay me. He's scared, he's afraid, he's
shaking, he's trembling. He lived a life of fear and trembling
and paranoia. This is common to humanity and
is revealed in how often in scripture our Lord told his children to
fear not. Our flesh fear is fearful. Our
flesh is fearful. Religion without Christ is a
fearful thing. It's the worst of things. Men
think so little of the sacrifice of Christ that they walk in fear
of God as if he's just waiting for them to do something so he
can bring calamity upon them. Secondly, the concept of shaking
is in scripture, the manner in which God removes all things
that men have confidence in. That's how he describes it. Haggai
chapter two in verse six and seven. Want to know where that's
at? That's right after Zephaniah
and right before Zechariah, so it's toward the end of the Old
Testament. You have a Cambridge Bible, it's on page 1,093. Haggai
chapter two in verse six. And thus saith the Lord of hosts,
Yet once more, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens,
and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land, and I will shake
all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, speaking
of Christ, and I will fill his house with glory, and the Lord
of hosts." Now, when Paul was writing to the Hebrews, in Hebrews
chapter 12, he quoted from Haggai, in Hebrews chapter 12, and he
said the same thing, except added to it some understanding. In
Hebrews chapter 12, in verse 26, he said this, whose voice then
shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, yet once more
I shake not the earth, but also heaven. And this word yet once
more signified the removing of those things that are shaken
as the things that are made that those things which cannot be
shaken may remain. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
that cannot be moved or cannot be shaken, let us have grace
whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear
for our God is a consuming fire. He said, I'm gonna shake it up.
This is what he's talking about. This is what happened to Cain.
He was a shaking man. He was a shaking man. Cain lived
a life of seeing what he had confidence in, being ripped from
his grasping fingers. And this is the life of humanity
in this world without Christ. No matter what you lay hold of,
no matter what you hold dear, no matter what you have confidence
in, in this temporal universe, in this temporary existence,
no matter what you have confidence in, it's going away. It's going
to disappear. It's gonna be vaporized. That's
why life is called like a vapor because everything you touch
vaporizes. It vaporizes. This is how Cain
lived. This is the life of a person
who is put out from the presence of Almighty God. Then in verse
17, back in our text, begins with the story of the progeny
of Cain. Verse 17 said, and Cain knew
his wife, And she conceived in Bear Enoch and he built a city
and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch,
Enoch. There are two Enoch's here, one
Cain's son and another named Seth's son and his end is a whole
lot different than this boy's end is. Cain, and no need to
be speculating as to where Cain found his wife. I read people
fuss about the silliest things. Because the fact is, how much
time had passed is not known, and neither the extent of humanity
in the population at the time of him is known. So it's no use
to wonder where he got his wife. Had the origin of his wife been
important to our understanding of sin and salvation, the Lord
would surely have told us in this book. But he didn't. This
part of the passage is about the generation of Cain. He and
his wife produced a son who he named Enoch. That name simply
means this, trained up. Trained up. But we can be sure
that he was not trained up in the ways of God, because Cain
had been out of the presence of God. There'll be another son
of the same name, born to Seth, whose end is marvelous, and we'll
get to that later. But this Enoch, who will pass
off the pages of Holy Writ, never to be mentioned after this chapter,
showed himself to be trained up in the way of Cain. Cain built
a city. Is that important? You better
believe it's important. Cain built a city, a visible
fortress on the cursed earth, a place to grow in number and
gather together in safety, a refuge on condemned ground. From whom? From God. From God. What does it say of the children
of God concerning a city? They look for a city by faith,
whose builder and maker is God, not the products of man's hand.
You see, Cain believed something, as all humanity does, that the
collective was synonymous with success and with power. And naturally
speaking, it is. The more people you can get involved
in something, the greater the genius involved, the greater
the inventions. All those things. Religion believes you can train
up men and women into the kingdom of God. Spiritually, it is a
pipe dream, the way of men who have not the presence of God,
seeking comfort and presumed power in the world without God.
Numbers mean things to people. They mean something to religion.
I can't tell you how many people find out I'm a pastor of a church
and the first thing they ask me is, how many people you got?
Because they believe the more people you've got, the more power
you have, the more influence you have. And naturally speaking,
that's the case. But our Lord said, where two
or three are gathered, there I will meet with them. And when
he meets with you, all the power of the universe is meeting with
you. He named his city after his son, Enoch, trained up, trained
up. In Enoch's progeny, he tells
the story of the religious man existing out of the presence
of God. His first son was named Erod. His name means wild ass's
coat. Wild ass's coat. Job had something
to say about that in Job chapter 11. In Job chapter 11 in verse 12,
he says this, for vain man, that is empty man, that is empty man,
would be wise, though man is born like a wild ass's coat.
like a wild ass is cold. Now what that's talking about
is one of them wild, crazy bull roves that roam the deserts in
different places in the world. We have them here in this land.
We have them in the east, east, east too, and they are wild.
You can't tame them, but they're the toughest thing there is.
They can kill anything. They ain't afraid of nothing.
They'll kill dogs. They'll kill big cats. They'll
kill coyotes. They're tough, and you can't
be tamed. They're a wild-ass as coal. That's his first name,
his son, Erod. Now, Erod's son was Mahujel. His name means smitten by God. And Mehujel begat Methuselah,
and his name means man of God or mighty man of God. And Methuselah
begat Lamech, and his name means powerful or mighty. You can almost see the progression
of man's carnal theology here. The type of theology I was taught
pretty much as a kid, from a wild ass's coat to powerful. That's
why we end up, and without the presence of the Lord, how readily
carnal religion speaks of man as a wild smitten of God, but
he can become a mighty man of God because he is powerful. What
kind of power does he have? He has the power of his will.
That's the language. Then in verse 19, it's about
Lamech's progeny. It said, Lamech, he was the first
recorded bigamist. He had himself two wives, kind
of trying to mess up the order of things. He took two wives,
and since he was powerful, I guess he could do that. He lived up
to his name. Their names were Ada, meaning
ornament, and Zillah, meaning shadow. And you can let your
own mind wander over those two names. You can go up to But these
born of Ada and Zilla became the fathers of nomads, of artisans,
and inventors. One son named Jabal, whose name
means stream of water, was the father of those whose life meant
finding water for their herds and cattle, going where the water
was, but never finding the water of life. Jubal, whose name meant
stream also, was the father of musicians, but they never sung
the songs of Zion. They are described later in scripture
as whales. without water, wells without
water. These were Ada's sons, Zilibar's
son and daughter. The son's name was Tubal-Cain,
Tubal-Cain, whose name means thou will be brought of Cain. Now think about this, Cain was
the one that brought all the trouble, but now he's the hero.
He's a hero, he's exalted, the son of Cain. Evidently time had
sloughed off the curse attached to his name. This is indicative
of carnal religion. Nothing's wrong anymore. And people who are detestable
are raised up high in high places. People forget what they were
and suddenly they become heroic. It's amazing, I can name a few
but I won't. time sloughs off the curse. Why? Because the lack
of immediate judgment upon sin causes men to act in a certain
way. Because sin isn't immediately
judged. I've often wondered and it's
been written so I didn't want it on my own. I saw it in books
years ago. I wonder what the angels thought
when Adam sinned against God and he wasn't slain. Those Angels
that rebelled against God were cast out of heaven, never to
return. How come Adam wasn't slain? Because
the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. That's the only
thing that kept him from being slain. That's the only thing. But when
sin is not punished, and the reason it's not punished today
There's two reasons. First, men are in the hands of
a mediator. But sin also has its own course, according to
James. Sin, when it's conceived, brings forth death. It's enticing
and it brings forth death. Something about sinning causes
something in us to die. It brings forth death. Sin has
a natural course that it takes. It doesn't seem anybody's following
that natural course these days. Why? Because there is no more
sin. little by little that which is good is being called evil
listen to what men are saying and that which is evil is being
called good now you have a responsibility as a child of God to look in
this word and when the world says this is good this is okay
this is a reasonable practice this is okay you need to look
at the word of God see if it's okay if God says it's not okay
then it's bad it's that simple it's that simple You either believe
God's Word or you believe the world. You follow the course
of the world. It says in Ephesians chapter 2. What do men do when they finally
see that judgment has not come? Remember those in 2 Peter chapter
3 who put off that awful day. evidence of His coming. He's
not coming. He hasn't come yet, so He's not coming. He's not
coming. They mocked at those who said
He was. Paul said, don't you understand that one day with
the Lord is like a thousand years? And a thousand years to God is
like 24 hours. You can't put a time on God because
time was His invention. It's not ours. Time was His invention. But men mocked. They said, He's
not coming. Paul said, yeah, he is. Or Peter said, yeah, he
is, he's coming. He's coming, and when he does,
he's gonna come instantly, and he's gonna make this whole thing
on fire. And everything's gonna melt with
the fervent heat. Everything. And it says the children gotta
look forward to that day. They look forward to that day.
Because they know their own flesh will be destroyed, but their
spirit will live forever. They know that. in Ecclesiastes
chapter 8. How do men respond to this? Well,
just think about what's going on in this world today. How do
men respond to the fact that judgment doesn't come upon people
who openly rebel against God? Verse 11 of Ecclesiastes chapter
8, and this is the wisest man saved for the Lord Jesus Christ
that ever lived. He said, because sentence against an evil work,
verse 11, he is not executed speedily. Therefore the heart
of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. That's a
simple equation there. And it said for two bouquets.
was the father of those who forge metal, they make weapons of war
and such. Our civilization it seems. None
of these occupations are of themselves evil. They are not. They are not. But the underlying
principle that's set forth here and the intent is to make somehow
this cursed, condemned, doomed earth a place of comfort and
protection without the presence of God. That was the intent behind
the whole thing. That's why that city was built.
That's why it was built. And then we have this last character
that I spoke over in verse 22, Zilibarab's daughter. Her name
was Nehema. Her name means beautiful and
pleasantness. And somehow doesn't seem to fit
into this scheme whatsoever, does it? Beautiful and pleasantness. Although it's only conjecture,
but many have conjectured, a lot of Jewish historians say this
is so. She may be the first link to the coming flood the flood
of Noah. Some have said that she was Noah's
wife. Others say that she was the wife of Noah's son, Ham. It is interesting to consider
because two not too far hints in our reading, the world will
be destroyed by water, by the flood, and the only thing that
could be considered beautiful and pleasant among humanity of
those eight souls safe in the ark. riding high and secure upon
the waves of God's wrath and judgment. The judgment fell upon
the ark. Don't ever get it wrong. Don't
ever get that wrong. The judgment was rain. The judgment
was the flood. The rivers of the deep opened
up. Forty days and forty nights it rained and it took over a
year for the water to run off. Where was Noah? He's right in
the middle of that judgment. Right smack dab in the middle of that
judgment. That judgment was all around him. He was floating on
it. But he was unharmed. Why? Because he's in the ark.
He's in the ark. Some years later the true ark,
the meaning of the ark, the man, the ark, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the judgment of God fell on Christ, but not a hair was harmed upon
anyone who was in him, put in him since the foundation of the
world by God's elect and grace. Nehemiah, pleasant and beautiful. Was she on the ark? I don't know. But whoever was in that ark was
pleasant and beautiful because they were safe from God's wrath. Father, bless us to understand
Him. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right. Good night.
God bless you.