Genesis 4, “Who Are You With?”, Dr. John Carpenter

Genesis chapter 4 be meeting the entire chapter. I hear the word of the Lord Now Adam knew his wife

Eve and she conceived and bore Cain saying I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord and Again, she bore his brother

Abel now Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground in the course of time

Cain brought to the Lord in offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel also brought to the firstborn of his flock and Of 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.

His desire is for you But you must rule over it Cain spoke to his brother and when they were in the field

Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him Then the Lord said to Cain Where is

Abel your brother? 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 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 when he built a city He called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch To Enoch was born

Erod and Erod father Mahu Jal Mahu Jal fathered Methuselah and Methuselah fathered

Lamech and Lamech took two wives The name of the one was Adah and the name of the other Zillah and Adah bore

Jebal He was the the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.

His brother's name was Jubal He was the father of those who play the lyre and the harp Zillah also bore two ball

Cain He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron the sister of two ball

Cain was Nama Lamech said to his wives Adah and Zillah. Hear my voice you wives of Lamech.

Listen to what I say I have killed a man for wounding me a young man for striking me if Cain's revenge is sevenfold then

Lamech's is 77 fold And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name

Seth For she said God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel for Cain killed him

To Seth also a son was born and he called his name Enosh At that time people began to call in the name of the

Lord And the Lord had his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, who are you with?

Now sure do you belong to somebody some larger group after all people crave to belong

To belong to a family or a group of friends some some groups

Identified with someone in some countries maybe to a tribe or to a clan

Chinese have what they call clan associations of distantly related people or a shared Maybe they come from a shared village back in China or a shared dialect

Nantian Mike's and Joyce's and Tina's all of the same dialect Fukienese, which is similar to Mary's which is hockey in So they could start a clan association

But they would have to not allow Jesse in because she speaks a different dialect. So there would be division That's the way it works

You divide make a group keep some people out based on something people of similar origins or clans

They gather they like to socialize I got a visit about dozen Chinese churches in North America and I saw that for some that the church acts as a acts like a clan association of Venue a place for Chinese immigrants

To socialize because they feel so different from the rest of the society urban youth

That is youth and cities big cities sometimes drawn into neighborhood gangs was often the only distinction between their gang and someone else's gang is that they aren't the other people's gang and then they'll just fight with The other gang really for no reason just people have make divisions and then they got to reject somebody

Like college kids might join a sorority or a fraternity just so they can feel like they belong to a group

We can have a circle of friends This is my circle maybe meet every Saturday at some place and have breakfast or whatever

Some people like to join clubs like country clubs or the ruritans or the Rotary Club The Masons are a kind of cross between a club and a religious group with a little pagan touch to it

Sam's Club Doesn't count. Sorry. That's not a club. It's just a this is a store On larger levels of society.

They're even larger groups They're tribes that divide society in Singapore to the Chinese the Malay the

Indians Tamils there maybe in Virginia is it divided between the tech?

people in the wahoos University of Virginia Someone once told me that now that I live in North Carolina.

I have to choose between the Tar Heels or Duke To which I say go state That's innocent enough

I guess but it does show this human tendency to gather groups and Draw dividing lines some people are in some people are out that you have to be with someone race used to be a significant dividing line and that was convenient because almost at first glance people could see

Who belonged to one group or the other whether they get to sit in the front of the bus or have to go to the? back but biologists and anthropologists tell us that the differences between the races are so Minor that they're biologically insignificant

We're actually taught to see race and to draw lines We see that they're in my race or maybe they're not in my race and it's really all based on very minor

Differences like complexion. I believe it's possible. We could get to a day in this country in which race is considered so Minor it's no more important than whether you are a blonde or a brunette the meaning of Race is in the eye of the beholder

Now when Mary and I were in Ethiopia, we discovered that our Ethiopian language tutor young lady named mulat

Didn't know we were of different races. She couldn't see the difference. So we explained I'm Caucasian.

She's Chinese We try to point out the differences Can't you tell and she squinted and look closely at us for a while?

And finally she concluded that yeah, I guess I can see some differences I'm still not sure whether she was just being polite not want to disagree with us, but the same tutor

Could look at a fellow Ethiopian and see which tribe he came from which region of Ethiopia He or she came from a part of the country

Those are the differences that mattered to her Now some imagine that Christian and the

Christian and the civilized position is that all such divisions between people?

They should just be eliminated should be ignored. We should just all be one big happy global family

The Unitarians beginning in the late 18th century and the later the 19th and 20th century liberals taught that Christianity stood for the

Universal fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man all people are brothers and sisters all big one family

They believe that all dividing lines are bad Genesis chapter 4

Teaches a very different story here. We see that there is indeed a Division that runs through the human race now that division has nothing to do with race or ethnicity or citizenship or wealth

In fact the two tribes of humanity Come from the same parents

What divides humanity is that God approves of one? but none of the other and those whom

God does not approve of Rather than reforming their hearts they seek to destroy those

God approves of When we when there were just two brothers one was accepted by God the other was rejected and the one who was accepted is

Not the one the world Such as it was at this point esteemed

Eve gave her firstborn son the name Cain that name is derived from the word to get and Eve even uses a form of that name in verse 1

I have gotten a Man with the help of the Lord and so Cain is celebrated and well thought of he's the one that's been gotten by From the

Lord by Eve the second sign on the other hand is named Abel Which means vapor or vanity to be about hovel

In Hebrew, it's the word that we were talking about when we were in Ecclesiastes. Remember not long ago all is vanity hovel

Abel Well, the names are ironic. It was the son that he believes so much in Who became vain and it was the one she apparently didn't think much of because he named him vanity

Who please God who still speaks today? That brings us to the sacrifices.

What was it about the sacrifices that caused God to accept one and reject the other? A lot of people think it must be because of Abel's sacrifice that it was done better something about it was right

It's different from Cain's Abel must have kept some kind of sacrificial law Big Cain broke but look carefully at the passage the passage actually tells us why the passage merely says that the two brothers was one a shepherd

Keep a livestock one just shepherd and the others a farmer tend to the field that grows crops Both offered sacrifices the

Lord then notice what it says at the end of verse 4 the beginning of verse 5 and the

Lord had regard for literally means he looked to The Lord looked to and implies in a favorable way.

He sees he's liking what he sees He have regard for looking at Abel and his offering but for Cain and his offering

He had no regard literally he didn't look at it didn't pay it any attention He didn't care for it

Look at that carefully both for what is there and for what's not there as the NIV puts it the

Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor

The immediate question is why? Why did the Lord accept Abel's offering but not

Cain's? Why did he see it as Abel's offering is good? But I see

Cain's Reverses not because Cain violated some instructions for the Lord on sacrifices that Abel kept

There weren't any instructions Some want to say that Cain's offering was rejected because it was not a blood offering

There's a lot of people out there that say that Cain gave just crops and not supposed to do that It's just gave grain.

God was pleased by Abel's blood offering That's made the difference but in Leviticus chapters 2 and 6 and numbers chapter 7 and 28 and 29

It describes and it gives instructions for grain offerings grain offerings were perfectly acceptable to God Just like Cain gives then there's logical that a farmer would bring his crops and a herder his animals but if there's no laws about sacrifices that one obeyed and the other didn't and if God could accept grain offerings which again

Then why was Abel's sacrifices accepted and Cain's rejected why? I'll look at the passage again

Last part of our verse 4 the beginning of verse 5. The answer is right there in the sentence

We read twice the Lord looked with favor on Abel in verse 4.

It's how God saw Abel Notice that it doesn't just say that God looked with favor on his sacrifice

In fact, even the question I asked earlier. What was it about the sacrifice that caused God? That's not that's a poor way of asking the question

It wasn't that something about the sacrifice caused God to like Abel.

That's not the way it's put. Is it first? The Lord look of favor on Abel Understand the difference.

It's not as though God liked the work and therefore accepted the person It's the other way around God liked the person and therefore accepted the work

So God gave grace to Abel in other words first it was the person whom God accepted and in the case of Cain rejected and noticed that about Cain that it says that the

Lord did not look with favor on him and Then the action the works are mentioned second for when a person pleases the things he does also

Please well all things are displeasing if you dislike the person who does them And don't we know this?

From the way we accept people and the things they do And how many times have you seen some video maybe on social media

Some little kid doing something and just normal boring and you wonder who's gonna watch that video

Who cares about that video little kids always toddling around who cares? The baby's crawling great

Don't matter me, but of course to the parent or the grandparent who posted the video the child is adorable

Pleasing every silly little thing. The kid does is pleasing to him and people please us

Because we've accepted them first. They're part of our family. They're part of our group our clan

They're one of us and the closer they are to us. The more we are often we are pleased by the things they do

We are pleased by those We have already accepted Here God was pleased first with Abel with him.

God looked with with grace on him It was able to person the

Lord look with favor on and then he looks with favor on his sacrifice What was right about the sacrifice?

Well, even if we only had Genesis 4 we can confidently state that it was not because of rule keeping that Abel's sacrifice was accepted

There were no rules that had to be kept the law hadn't been given yet But we aren't merely left with Genesis 4 Hebrews chapter 11 verse 4 tells us precisely why

Abel's sacrifice was accepted by faith Abel offered

God a better sacrifice than Cain did by faith He was committed as a righteous man when

God spoke well of his offerings and by faith He still speaks even though he is dead

Likewise Cain sacrifice is rejected first because Cain the man is rejected.

The Lord did not look with favor on Cain Because he didn't accept the man. He didn't accept his sacrifice as with Abel There are no rules to keep or to break.

He simply didn't have faith and remember from Romans chapter 14 verse 23 Whatever is done without faith

It's sin he wished to appease God came to try to buy him off as if he were discharging a debt paying a debt that he owed by rituals without offering himself as a sacrifice

If he had brought the shell of a nut as an offering It would have been pleasing to God if it were done in faith

God does not have regard for either the size or the quantity or even for the value of the sacrifice but simply for the faith of the offerer

Now notice how Cain reacts His reaction tells us a lot about what kind of person he was and about how the world always treats

God's people Cain is here. He's the world Right. There's not many people in the world.

He's he's the world now Sure, he's religious, but that doesn't mean he's part of the church. The church is made up of Abel's of those

God looks graciously on whom he regards From all kinds of people now the world may be immoral

May be irreligious or the world might be like Cain religious

Cain is religious after all here. He is offering a sacrifice. He's worshipping the Lord sort of outwardly

Ritualistically now if he were with us today, he'd be a churchgoer he'd be in church every Sunday morning

He'd be offering sacrifices offerings giving money and time and doing stuff He's just not a believer

Cain sacrifices rejected Now this could be a great opportunity for him to step back and ask himself.

Why doesn't the Lord look with favor on me? What's wrong with me that the Lord is not favoring is not regarding How he responds to rebuke tells us a lot about what kind of person he is

He should submit himself to God to God's judgment and in faith

Ask that God create in him a new heart a heart that trust in God instead in the second half of verse 5

He gets angry his face fell It's a typical Hebrew way of being concrete about you could see him.

He was upset could see it on his face And verse 6 he gets the best pastoral counseling anyone could hope for the

Lord himself speaks to Cain The Lord himself is here intervening in Cain's life counseling him and He asked

Cain. Why are you angry? And we're usually angry when someone does something to us that we don't deserve somebody bad and we didn't think we deserve that bad thing

But here Abel doesn't hasn't done anything to Cain and why is he angry It's God who was disappointed him by turning down his sacrifices faithless sacrifice

But he can't hurt God, can he? Of course if he could hurt God He would wouldn't he

We found out later in the Bible exactly what unbelieving people like Cain Will do to God if only they can get their hands on him

But since he can't get his hands on God he'll have to settle for getting his hands on one of God's people

God first has Cain in verse 6. Why are you angry? Why are you angry?

The Lord is telling Cain that he has no right to be angry. There's no basis for your anger Cain That's what you've been deprived of something you deserve

It's not your place Cain your place sitter To make

God Give you what you demand It's your place

Cain your place sinner To conform to God's ways not to seethe and rebel when

God does not conform to us But Cain reeks of that attitude that is behind the original sin

Remember that attitude that what I want and what I am and what I do is right that I am the standard of Rightness once again, we see the essence of that original sin pride

And the Lord tells Cain in verse 7 that if he does well if he gives a sacrifice by faith literally there verse 7 it's

In the English ESV is he will be approved of you'll do well But it literally it's your face will be lifted up his face has fallen when he's angry if you do

Well, your face will be lifted up. You'll have a smiling face You'll have joy and then the Lord warns him in verse 7 that sin is is crouching at the door

It's waiting to ambush you like a lion waiting to pounce The sin craves him

To master him and verse 7 here is very similar the phrase there

God uses Is very similar to what God told Eve in verse in chapter 3 verse 16

Your desire is for God told Eve remember your desire is for to rule over or contrary to your husband

And he shall rule over you here sins desire is For you

Contrary to you to rule over you and you shall or you should rule over it

It wants to overcome you and then the Lord challenges Cain you must master it

You must rule over it you must practice self -control and put the sinful impulse down You must say no

To your anger to your self -righteousness Humble yourself and admit that the

Lord's judgment is right The Lord has brought something into his life that he hates

But he needs to admit it's right That the Lord can have mercy on whomever he wants

But Cain is devoured by sin He's a slave of sin and this story shows that even the with the best counseling

Sinners cannot master the sin to which they've sold themselves into slavery

Sin is the master If we are consistently mastered by sin, it is our master and our first need is it to try to muster up more willpower

To try harder next time make a better choice next time our first need Is to get a new master

Sin is crouching at the door God has been warning Here Cain has had the best pastoral counselor one could hope for God himself and yet Cain lures his brother

Away notice verse 8 Cain deceitfully hypocritically spoke to Abel who knows what exactly said, but something nice Let's go out see see my crops.

The crop is doing great Putting up a pretense of niceness as religious hypocrites usually do all to murder his brother in verse 8

He rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. He was challenged to do right, but instead he chose to do wrong

To the one who was right Sinners do not want to change

They want to be accepted as they are and if they don't get that They'll destroy the one

Who is accepted? They want God's favor to be available how they think best they want to be the one who is free and God Dependent on them on what they do as before rather than seeking

God for forgiveness The sinner tries to avoid God just like his parents right remember Evading God he would even deceive

God if that were at all possible in verse 9 the Lord to ask him Where is Abel your brother? He's not asking to elicit information

He's asking to elicit a confession Cain shrugs off God's question for dinner. He doesn't know

Lying to God how he's figured out that God knows everything. I don't know but he doesn't know it He's lying to God that he doesn't know says he

I don't know where he is When he knows perfectly well where his brother is and then sarcastically asked

God am I my brother's keeper? No You're your brother's murderer and the

Lord asked what have you done? God knows because Abel's blood is calling out from the ground for justice

Abel's blood is speaking Listen Cain can't you hear has your conscious become so hardened already that you don't hear

Abel's blood Crying out for justice, of course. Yes, his conscious is that hardened already

Abel's blood is calling out But Cain is deaf to it So God punishes him by expelling him from his presence in verse 11 expelled from the land

That drank his brother's blood and his farming is cursed So he'll be a wanderer a nomad in verse 12 a hunter -gatherer

Something like that Cain complains in verse 13 that this is too much. He's thrown out of the pleasant land

They were already expelled from the garden In chapter 3 now, he's expelled from Eden Eden was the region where the garden was and now he's out of there

Eden meant pleasant place remember so he's out of the pleasant place and He'll be an easy target for someone who's seeking revenge for Abel and then

God is exceedingly kind to Cain He does not immediately wipe him out He could have in chapter 9 here right in Genesis God will explain that murderers should be executed

But here God protects Cain stating that if anyone kills him that murderer of Cain will get vengeance sevenfold

Seven times the punishment in verse 15 and then God puts a mark on Cain of some kind I don't know what and so everyone knows that he's not to be touched

God here is showing us an important principle about the two peoples on earth the two tribes the two humanities and How we as a church are to treat the lost humanity that other tribe that persecutes us

When they get a chance Cain was not killed because until God restores all things

We always have the wicked in this world. The Lord Jesus makes this clear in the parable of the weeds remember that one the children of the devil are mixed in among it's like a farmer and the enemy comes in and Sows weed seeds and with his crop and he's saying this is what the world is like The children of the devil are mixed in among God's people in this world.

We shouldn't even try removing them from the world We can't do it. We'll do it wrong if we try we shouldn't try

That's the meaning of the parable They should be separated from the church from God's people, but we will be mixed in with them in the world

Even when they persecute us scornful men see the church soar oppressed

They oppress us and still God will even protect the wicked for a time and he shows them

Theologians call common grace Sending his rain and the sunshine even on the wicked for now just as here

God protects Cain's life, even though he deserved death He showed common grace

God did to him and he does that to the world even now Giving life and other blessings to wicked unbelieving people

Now the world misuses and misinterprets God's grace Sometimes interprets it as approval for their sin use it to build a city even though he had been told, you know

Go wonder the earth again. He disobeys God and founds a city without God the city of man named after his son in verse 17

Lamech Several descendants later went out with even further starting verse 19

He was the first man not to be content with one wife as a helper. He was greedy for two

Sin distorts marriage he apparently murders a man and then takes it upon himself to use

God's protection of Cain as Something to boast about to claim for himself in verses 23 and 24 says if Cain's revenge is sevenfold

Then Lamech's is seventy sevenfold. Well says who you know? Only this time is

Lamech the things he could declare that himself on his own authority as if he is a law unto himself

Lamech uses the grace of God as a license to sin. That's how the world misuses

God's grace Who are you with a?

dividing line separates all humanity You're there in one camp or the other you have to choose who?

You are with you with the world The civilization or with the church with God but what makes it confusing is

That some of those who appear to be in the church who look religious are in reality part of the world

The Lord Jesus said as much in his fiery sermon in Matthew 23 He tells the Pharisees says you're guilty of the blood of Abel as if you had murdered

Abel That blood from Abel cries out for the ground for justice justice against you

Why because like Cain they did religious works without faith when they did things for God They did it to appease

God to buy him off as if it could be bought off with rituals and sacrifices without any intention of Dedicating their willful hearts to God giving their lives as an acceptable sacrifice in the meantime

Though there is Seth in verse 25 one group with Seth and another with Cain Cain is going his own way

Building a city bearing sons who live in tents become ranchers Invent music playing the lyre and the pipe in verse 21.

They learned to forge metals civilization is developing first from the descendants of Cain and These things are bad the things they listen to here coming from Cain's descendants.

They're not bad We need them gonna live in this world. We should and as long as we did we should try to transform them transform civilization

Transform the arts and particularly music to glorify God We've been commanded in Psalm 33 to use the liar invented by Cain's descendant

Jubal To praise the Lord use it use civilization

Civilization can offer us some temporarily good things good music good literature good art good jobs good houses

But civilization doesn't bring Salvation being a cultured person who can play the piano has all the best manners right calligraphy

Respectful is polite just polished Quote the right the best quotations articulate

Able to earn lots of money all of that is some benefit in this world It's worthwhile spending some time and energy getting it, but it won't make you one of God's people.

It won't quiet the blood of Abel Crying out for justice

Salvation does not come through civilization Civilization starts with Cain and his descendants salvation comes through Seth Seth's name is related to Hebrew word for appointed

Seth is appointed by God To carry on that promise in the previous chapter from chapter 3

Carry on the promise of the seed of the woman Eve speaks for the last time in verse 25

Lamenting that her choice of death, you know eating of the tree that gave death. What's that resulted in?

It didn't take very long is now killed her own son but also believing the promise has been appointed

God hasn't she says God has appointed for me another offspring literally seed

God's promise that the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head is appointed to be fulfilled through Seth another seed through Seth comes

Christ comes to the church with Seth's son Enos whose name means weakness

They call on the Lord Interesting they name him weakness Cain and his people are building civilization.

They're so proud of themselves. Look at these things. We're making the music the Swords the medals we can make but grace humbles

God's people. They know that they are weak That they need to call on the

Lord. They know that their sins cry out for justice for punishment So they cry out

For mercy in verse 26 they begin to call on the name of the

Lord. Who are you with? Two humanities two cities two tribes two clans two kinds of people when city is built by Cain a

Murderer who is expelled from God's presence who is supposed to wander like a vagabond but rebelliously build a city

Named after his own son without calling on the Lord. That's the city of man the secular society

It might tolerate a little religion But it hates table. It hates those

God has called those who have real faith in the Lord the other city is the city of God and It's not here on earth

Completely yet. It's coming but not here completely. It's coming in his fullness later It is the city founded on Christ the seed of the woman the

New Jerusalem Descended out of heaven to earth It's the church

Who are you with The dividing line is stark There's the world that hates

God and the church that is called by God. There is no middle ground

Who are you with the world with his tantalizing civilization Cannot give you salvation to have salvation

You must follow the way of Abel Even if it means being hated and having your blood spilt like his to be with the

Lord with all the Abel's We must trust in the blood that speaks a better word

Than Abel's blood Hebrews chapter 12 verse 24 says Jesus's blood speaks a better word than Abel's The world hated the

Lord Jesus too and spilled his blood and his blood Jesus's blood like Abel's it still speaks

Abel's blood cries out still for justice the blood of Jesus Provides justice

Justice for our sins the blood of Abel told God that Cain must be punished

Still cries out that sins must be punished the blood of Jesus tells

God that sins have been punished that the penalty has been paid and that's a better word

If you don't believe that You're not accepted no matter how religious you are

If you believe that Trusting and what he did for you that seed of the woman

You are then seen with favor by God like Abel you are accepted a

New creation and you give your life as an acceptable sacrifice so Who are you with?