This evening we're going to be looking at a text that I'm sure is quite familiar to most of you. And we always run the danger of looking at a familiar text, thinking that we can't find anything new in there. But I think God's Word, it continues to amaze us. As we look and we study it, and we see its depth, and its glory, its presentation of our Lord and Savior. So, we will look at it, and as we go through, I'll be showing us some of the context that is especially important. But let's read our text. Genesis 4, verses 1 through 16. The account of Cain and Abel. Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man. Later she gave birth to his brother, Abel. Now Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering. But on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it. Now Cain said to his brother Abel, Let's go out to the field. And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is your brother Abel? I don't know, he replied. Am I my brother's keeper? Remember, the Lord said, What have you done? Listen, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence. I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me. But the Lord said to him, Not so. If anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over. Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Now at the beginning of our text, since we're familiar with the story, We know who Cain is, or what he turns out to be. But we need to remember what he represented for Adam and Eve. What expectation there was in his birth, as he was born. What they thought he was going to be. And I think rightly many have seen in Eve's words right at the beginning, I have produced, I have brought forth a man with the Lord. That in that she is looking back to the earlier chapter. That she is looking back to God's promise to them. God's promise that is stuck in amongst the curses. In Genesis 3.15, as we have the serpent having deceived Adam and Eve, God saying, I am going to make a division, a division between this serpent and between you, Adam and Eve. He says, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. And so many people think that Eve thinks this is the one. This is the seed. This is the one to come who will crush this serpent. The serpent that had deceived them. The serpent that had led them astray. And so there's great joy there. And it's a little odd in the phrasing. I've brought forth a man. Not a baby. A man. This is the seed. This is the one that they are maybe looking forward to. And so we need to see that at the beginning, their eager expectation in this, this their firstborn. And Cain, we read later, right? He seems to be a good member of the covenant community. He is there. He's going about his task, working the soil. And not only that, we see there in verse 3, what is it in the course of time? He brings forward an offering to the Lord. He brings some of the produce of what he had worked so hard to get out of the ground as a consecration to the Lord. And so he could say he seems to be this member in good standing in God's church. That he is going according to what they think of him. And yet, we're struck then as God discerns something else in Cain. As God discerns something else. Because we have Cain bringing his offering and Abel bringing his offering, but God looks with pleasure. He regards Abel's offering, but he does not regard Cain's. And commentators have often scratched their heads. Why is this? Why doesn't God do this? Why does he look with favor on Abel and not on Cain? And some say, well, he's just arbitrary. There's various things that are put out. One very good possibility that our text brings out is even Cain's heart can be seen in what he brings. And I think this is what we ultimately need to rest on, that God sees his heart as he brings his offering. And his heart was probably shown as we get the contrast there. Verse 3, it tells us of Cain's offering. He brought some of the fruits of the soil. But what did Abel bring? He brought from his firstborn, from the fat portions. He brought the choice pieces for God. But I don't think we should push that too much. That very much there is a little bit, God saw something that Adam and Eve couldn't see. that wasn't shown immediately in the offerings as they're brought forth. That God saw his heart. God saw in what spirit he brought this offering. That he gave it grudgingly. He gave it not out of love for his Lord, but just because he was supposed to. Just because it was commanded. And I think we should look at ourselves in this light. That Cain, a good member of the church, bringing his offerings, what more could God require of him? Isn't that enough? I think we need to be pressed. We need to be pressed on what it is that God requires. As he comes to Israel and says, just give me my due, and I'll let you be. No, he comes to Israel and he says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength. God wants it all because God gave it all. God will not be satisfied with anything less. God will not look with favor on those who do not come and give him all. And so God comes to Cain. Because what happens, we see this occurs, and of course Cain shows his heart as he becomes angry. I enjoy the Hebrew idiom, it was hot to him. We can understand that very much. Something happens, your brother gets something that you thought you should get, and it's pretty hot to you. It bothers you down deep. This is something that shouldn't be. So it was hot to him, and his face fell. He was downcast. And so God comes to him. God comes to him in many ways as a parent. To a willful child. To one that they can see is going the wrong way. Coming to confront. Coming to say, what are you doing? What is this about? And so we see God's rebuke to him. Verse 6, then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? Now, did God need information? Did he need to know what had happened? I think that it may be helpful here if we say and translate this, to what end? What is the purpose? Where is this going, Cain? To what end are you angry? To what end is your face downcast? Cain, he had shown this improper response to God's rebuke, rightful rebuke, for his offering not given in faith in the correct manner. And instead of being humble about it, and instead of looking to God, asking God, why, why, what did I do wrong? Repenting of his wrongdoing. Instead, he starts to harbor this anger. And the Lord says, where is it going? Where is this anger going? What are you going to do with it? And so then he continues in verse 7, showing him the two sides that are in him, this inner struggle that is now warring. In the first part, if you do well, I would, one possible translation is what the NIV has there. If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But another that's seen in other translations is, if you do what is right, will your face not be lifted up? This anger is not from rightful action. Your face is downcast, Cain. If you do what is right, your face will be lifted up. You will be able to look at your brother, not in jealousy, not in envy, not in strife. that you will be able to look at him with a clear conscience. Your face will be lifted up. But on the other side, if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. To what end are you angry, Abel? Oh, Cain. To what end are you angry? Sin is there. Sin is ready to take advantage of your anger, To take advantage of your downcast face. Because what is sin's desire? End of verse 7. It desires to have you. But you must rule over it. You must master it. Cain, you are in this world post-fall, after Adam and Eve sin. Sin is all around. Temptation is all around. You have responded with anger. You need to know what it is that you are doing. Sin is ready. Sin is there. How will you respond? And so we see his response in verse 8. Premeditated murder. There's action of forethought. Cain said to his brother, let's go to the field. Let's just go talk. Let's go out for a brotherly chat. And then while they're there, he rises against his brother. His brother Abel, and he kills him. Total disregard for what God had confronted him with. God had shown him his anger where it would lead, and yet he nursed it and continued with it and brought it to fruition in his sin, killing his brother. And I don't think it's wrong to see an attack on God in this. Or who was it that brought this about? God shows favor to Abel? Well, I'll show God. I'll attack that one that was shown favor. And so we have this animosity. this incredible flowering of sin. Adam and Eve had eaten of the fruit and thus brought the downfall. And now, just one generation removed, we have murder. Not just murder of anyone, but of a brother. And yet, if we look at this and we shake our head at Cain, how can he be so evil? How can he do that? And we do that to those we read about in the newspaper. How can they be so evil? How could they do that? I think if we say that, if we do that, we haven't looked very closely at our own hearts. We haven't been gripped with the sin that is in us. The sin that, but by the grace of God, would lead us on their path. Instead, as we see that, we need to bow and thank our Savior. Thank our Lord for His restraint of sin in our lives. How He has changed us. How our mind is being renewed. But the other thing we see here is how sin has totally dashed the hopes of Adam and Eve in this their firstborn. So he said in the beginning, they were so happy. This is the one. I've gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And now, they see that he is not the seed of the woman. Instead, he is the seed of the serpent. He has shown his true colors. And we see that in humanity that there would be this division. That as mankind went on this earth, there would be even within mankind both the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. That it would be fought out amongst them. And we see that faith, faith cuts and has to be stronger than even family. Blood is not the closest tie. Instead, it is who you have faith in. It's who you follow. Is it the creator of all? Or is it the father of murder? Is it the father of lies? And so, we need to always remember that. That our ultimate loyalty is to the Lord. Even though we are torn often, as we see families torn apart by sin. As children go outside their upbringing. They go outside the covenant community. We've had that from the beginning. It is a heartbreak. It is a sadness. And yet, it's been seen from the beginning. But then, God comes in judgment. Verse 9. Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is your brother Abel? Now, we've heard this question, where, before. Where? Where? Well, God came in judgment just a chapter earlier. And he came in judgment and he cried out, Where are you? As Adam was hiding. He cried out, where are you? And we need to see in this that God isn't coming as He could, just bringing a sword, striking down Cain for his murder of Abel, striking down Adam and Eve for their sin of eating the fruit. Instead, He is coming in grace. Instead, He is coming as one who was looking, looking for the confession of his sinful creature. He came to Adam and Eve and he said, where are you? And Adam and Eve, though protracted, though long in their answers, though shifting on their blame, eventually admitted what they had done. I ate. And yet, that's not what we find with Cain here. But we should be struck by that. This is a cold-blooded murderer. He has just killed his brother. And yet, even to him, God comes with the question, Where's your brother, Abel? Where is your brother? He once came to fess up, to show what he's done. And again, we can see a great analogy with parents. They might know what you did. They might know who broke the vase in the room, who messed up the table or whatever it is, but they come to ask, do you know who did this? And will you shift the blame or will you admit to your wrongdoing? They want to go because they want to see sorrow, godly sorrow for sin. And that's what God was looking for with Cain here. He comes, where is your brother Abel? And unlike Adam and Eve, as we mentioned, who admitted, I ate, I ate. We see here Cain's true heart hardened. Hardened even to God's gracious question. I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? It's not only an outright lie. It's also throwing insults to it. Am I my brother's question? Am I my brother's keeper? He's mocking God. Why should I know that? Why should I know that? You come to the wrong person. And in many ways that question, we look at it and we read it and we say, yeah, he should have been. Adam and Eve were to guard a garden. Surely, Cain should have been a guard or a keeper of his brother. And yet he had abdicated that responsibility. He had shown that he was at war with those who are allied with God. And so God responds to him. Not as he responded to Adam and Eve, but as he responded to the serpents. Adam and Eve in chapter 3, though hardships are put upon them, they are never said to be cursed. Only the serpent is cursed. In verse 14 of chapter 3, cursed are you above all livestock. And so now we have that curse put on Cain. We have his curse there. The Lord said, what have you done? Listen, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse. Cursed are you. Cursed are you. He has merited judgment. Judgment as the seed of the serpent. As one who is outside the covenant line. He has merited this, the curse. And yet, as we read this curse, we're maybe, again, surprised, or at least we should be. Cursed are you, and now you will die as your brother Abel was killed. Cursed are you, you shed the blood of man, now by man will your blood be shed. No, instead we find something different there, isn't it? We have, cursed are you from the ground. And this ground that he identifies, this ground which Cain has made to take the blood of Abel. And so in verse 12, we see the two aspects of that curse. Cain was this worker of the ground, and now his curse is coming upon him from the ground. The first part is that the ground will no longer give it strength. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crop for you. The ground that you made take the blood of your brother, that ground will not anymore let you take its produce. And not only that, you will be a restless wanderer on the earth. That second phrase, you will be a restless wanderer on the earth, it's a little difficult how exactly to understand that. Was he talking about his mode of existence? Now you're just going to wander everywhere, never settling, always living in a tent or always living under the stars. Well, we read just a few verses later that Cain goes out and what does he do? He starts building a city. And so I don't think that's quite what it's getting at there. Instead, it's helpful to see two of the other places where we get the same terms used. One is of the wandering that God made Israel do in the wilderness. And another is of him making them wander out of the land of Canaan to go into exile. And so I think we can rightly see here that part of what this is, is a casting out of Cain from the covenant community. In many ways, this is excommunication. This is sending him out so that he won't be settled. Settled in the sense of having the purpose, the home, the community that comes with being a part of the people of God. He instead is now one who is shifting about. He is the first apostate sent out of the church. And so we shouldn't read it so much as he will wander all about that he will be in exile from the community that matters most in the world, the community of the saints of God. Now, Cain hears this, and of course, his first response is worrying about his own hide. He sees this as a death sentence. What have you done, God? This is more than I can bear. Why don't you just kill me now? Because everyone else who finds me will kill me. And I think in verse 3, we can, sorry, in verse 14, the first section there, today you have driven me from upon the land. That one possible way to read that is really, you've driven me now from the land of the living. How can you drive me out and expect me to live anywhere else? Because I think Cain also knew Genesis 3.15. Cain also knew what that said. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. Cain knew that he was now the one on the opposite side. He was the one to be crushed, whose head would be crushed. He was the one that there would be this hostility against. And so he says, you've driven me from the face of the land, from anywhere. I'll be hidden from your face. I'll be this restless wanderer, and what will happen? Anyone who finds me will kill me. You've sentenced me to death. Because you said there would be this enmity, that there would be this hostility between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. And so surely, surely if they find me, they will kill me. And God responds, showing us again something surprising. Something surprising about this world now. He clarifies Cain's misunderstanding. That in fact, this isn't a death sentence. That, in fact, he won't be hidden from God's sight. His sight in the sense of being under God's protection. And God gives to him this oath, this statement there in verse 15. Not so. If anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over. And the end of verse 15 needs to be tied with the earlier part. What's translated as mark there, can other places be an oath? Can be an oath given to somebody? So Rahab asked the spies to give her an oath to give her this mark or this sign. And so we need to tie these two together, that the Lord gives this sign to Cain. And what is this sign? It is his oath. If anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over. God is going to protect this murderer, this apostate, this one who has shunned God, killed members of his community, This one who was fearing for his life, God said, you don't have to fear for your life. There will be justice still in this world. I will still watch over, even you. And you can go out with that sure promise that vengeance will be taken on the one who kills you. And so Cain does. He goes out. He lives. He has children. We see in verse 17, He builds a city. His children have children. Not only that, they raise livestock. They invent music. They become the ones who work in iron. They not only go out and are spared, they prosper. They fill the world. They settle there. We see this prosperity. And we don't have to read too much farther. And we find that this Cain, this line following him, the one at the beginning who had feared for his life by the hostility of God's community, that now the tides have turned. It's this line of Cain that's oppressing the people of God, that are pressing them down, those righteous, mistreating them, And beating them down. And I think we should be surprised at this. Or it should shock us again. This is the world in which we live. And God is explaining it to us here right at the beginning. How is it that murderers and apostates of the covenant community can live out full and happy lives. And yet, the godly perish. Perish as a breath. We ought to at least note, we have at the beginning there, Cain is named because Eve says, I have brought forth this one. And so the verb brought forth is a play on the word, on the name Cain. So we know his name, what his name means. He's the one who's brought forth with the Lord. But look, we don't get that with Abel. He instead is just introduced. She became pregnant again and gave birth to his brother Abel. Well, the name Abel means breath or vapor. There's a book of the Old Testament that actually begins with the same word, the book of Ecclesiastes, often translated vanity, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. And we see the angst that is brought forth in Ecclesiastes, We see that right here. The godly Abel, he's the one who's dead. The murderer Cain, he's the one who is under God's protection. And it strikes us as so odd. And yet, we see it is that way, not because God is not in control. That he is somehow subject to the same evils we are. He wishes it were better. No, he's the one who is in control and who set this about. He is the one who made this so that the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent live together in this world now. We participate together. We work together. But why? Why is that? Well, that's the rest of the story that we see in the Bible. We see because He was leading to something. He was delaying His judgment so that He might gather us, His church. So that He might bring salvation through that seed of the serpent. Sorry, through that seed of the woman. That He might crush the seed of the serpent. That salvation that comes in Jesus Christ. He was delaying judgment. He was looking over sins. And he wasn't just looking over the heinous sins. He was looking over our sins. He was in delay, not punishing us in the moment for what we've done. But he was doing it so that he could send his son who would take our sin upon him. who would be our righteousness. And yet we yearn. The saints in heaven yearn. We yearn for that time when this will no longer be. When the oppression of God's church will no longer be in the world. When we won't have to read about Christians killed in Nigeria or oppressions in India, when God will bring about the peace that he promises for his people, that our time of suffering will be done when every tear will be wiped away. We yearn for that. And he warns those who do, who too continue in their sin and in their misery. He warns them that the time will come. For example, in Isaiah 26, verse 21, See, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her. She will conceal her slain no longer. Abel's blood cried out and yet God delayed judgment on Cain, but not forever. Now is the time of salvation. Now is the time to call upon the Lord. But when he comes in judgment, then it will be too late. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we take confidence that you are in control and that your wisdom is greater than our wisdom. And we ask that you give us the strength we need in this life. And we pray that we will be those used of you to build your church. Those you've called even now to suffer, suffer though for a little while for the glories that we see, that we yearn for, that the whole creation is looking when Jesus Christ will be revealed again and when He will come. And we pray that you sustain us till that day. And we pray that you come quickly. Lord Jesus, come quickly. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.