Genesis 4_10-16 Marked but Not Repentant
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Summary
In this week's sermon, Pastor Ken teaches on the role of blood in the atonement of sin, and why the blood of Cain and Abel was not enough to fulfill God's desire for a perfect sacrifice. Instead, God gave us the perfect sacrifice of His own blood.
Transcript
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Amen. Well, this text is great. I love it. I'm actually really excited to preach it.
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Last week we examined verses 9 through 10. Today we get through 10 through 16.
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If you remember, I pointed out that this passage teaches three particular truths.
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The first was the design of blood and redemption, and we spent most of our time last week covering
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Number two is that unrepentant sin always results in covenantal expulsion or exile.
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And number three, that God remains sovereign over vengeance and justice, even upon the
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wicked in circumstances like we will read today. Now, in my previous sermon, again, we focused
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heavily on the significance of blood. And last week, we looked at it around three angles.
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Now, first, we saw that in Scripture, blood is not symbolic for life. Blood is life, and life
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is in the blood. Essentially, when blood spills, life spills. And so, when the blood of Christ
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spills, his life is spilled for you. Now we learn that because sin demands death, we know that I
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think it's Romans 6 23, the wages of sin is death. That because of that, we need atonement. Atonement
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is essentially the covering of sin. And that requires the shedding of blood. We saw this in
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Leviticus chapter 17, God has given us blood for the atonement of sin.
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Now, the Old Testament taught us this principle clearly.
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We saw that blood was all throughout the Old Testament and that blood was essentially required.
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And the problem was that blood was not sufficient to take away sins of mankind.
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What humanity required was a human substitute, not an animal substitute, especially not a fallen
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animal substitute. And so we needed somebody who could act as that perfect sacrifice,
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who could stand in the place of sinners and bear their judgment, but not be dying for their own
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sin, but be able to be a substitute that they might die for the sins of others. And so this is
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essentially the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, which we learned about again last
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week. Hebrews 9.22 says, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. So if
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you're looking for the passage, there it is. Blood is a requirement for the forgiveness of sins.
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It also adds a little bit later, one chapter later, it says, it is impossible for the blood
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of bulls and goats to take away sins. And so again, we understand the beautiful passion behind
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John's statement, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Now, only Christ,
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who is essentially the sinless Son of God, could offer His blood once and for all as a perfect
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atonement and sacrifice for this discussion that we're having around sin. We can't be saved by any
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other blood but the blood of Christ. Now, we also learn that Cain's act of murder, his act of blood
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guilt, as another term for that, was not simply a private crime. And I thought that was fascinating
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as we saw Jesus apply the guilt to the Pharisees several thousand years later for the death and
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murder of Cain. And in other words, we essentially saw that there was a larger covenantal conflict
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between the two seeds. We saw the seed of the serpent and we saw the seed of the woman. And
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these covenantal seeds were warring against one another. And the guilt of that covenantal crime
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was not just on Cain, but was passed down to his covenantal descendants, which included the
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Pharisees. I said last week, Cain and Abel were brothers by birth, but enemies by covenant. And I
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think that summed it up quite well. Now, third, we learn that when it says that Abel's blood
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speaks. It cried out both for what? Sufficiency and justice. For two things. Not just one thing,
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but sufficiency and justice. Hebrews 12, 24 says, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
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and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Remember, we stopped
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on that phrase, the blood of Abel. We thought, is it speaking the blood of Abel, meaning his blood
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that came out of his body from being murdered? Or was it speaking of the blood of Abel, the blood
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of his sacrifice that he made of his first lamb that was given to the offering of God? And we
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concluded that it really was speaking and fitting to both of those realities. And so if you remember,
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we concluded that this passage is speaking about Jesus's blood speaking a better word than the
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blood of Abel. In one, it fulfills what Abel's sacrifice of his lamb anticipated, but was unable
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to do. So Jesus' blood is a better sacrifice. It speaks a better word in the fact that essentially
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the blood of the lamb that Abel was sacrificing was not sufficient, but it anticipated the blood
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of a perfect lamb in Christ. And that's why Jesus' blood speaks a better word. It also,
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number two, it satisfies what Abel's murder required. Means that it satisfied Jesus' blood,
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satisfied and secured the justice that was demanded for Abel's murder. Now today we're
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going to see how Cain's sin of murder actually brings greater physical pain and suffering
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than Adam's sin of disobedience. So what we're seeing, we talked about this before, as we enter
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into chapter 4 and chapter 5, we're leaving Genesis chapter 3, and the theme is sin continues on
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after the garden. In fact, it intensifies, it magnifies, it gets worse. And there is a greater
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requirement for that promised serpent crusher that was promised to Eve to come. And so it's again,
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this great anticipation that starts building up pretty quickly right after the expulsion of the
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garden. We're also going to see how Cain being cut off from the blessings of the earth as a fugitive
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from his own family and his own descendants. He essentially has no peace. He has no rest.
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Now this is again a physical that's mirroring the spiritual. And what that means is that it's
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supposed to mirror his spiritual judgment being cut off from God and being cut off from the peace
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and rest that comes from God. So what we see physically is actually a mirror of what's
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happening spiritually. And we need to catch that as we're reading this passage of scriptures. Let's
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read verse 11 together. It says, and now, this is God speaking to Cain, you are cursed from the
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ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. Now, if you
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remember my sermon from Genesis chapter three, it was titled God's curse on the serpent and judgment
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on the sexes. That was just a few weeks ago. And I pointed out that although we call the fall
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often the curse, there actually is no curse on man in the fall. There's only a curse on the serpent
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and there is a curse on the ground. But there is no curse at this point in Genesis chapter 3
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on man. And that's important. I'm going to read actually Genesis 3 17. It says,
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and to Adam, he said, because of you, or because you have listened to the voice of your wife and
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have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to. It says you shall not eat of it. Cursed
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is the ground because of you. In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Now, why does
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this matter? Why is this important to us right now? Well, because Cain is the first cursed man
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in scripture. Cain is the first cursed man in scripture. And he is cursed by God through the
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ground, through the ground. I thought this is a fascinating observation through the ground,
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the very ground in which he fed his brother's blood. And so he's feeding the ground, his
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brother's blood. And now the very ground will come up and curse him. Now, again, if you remember my
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sermon also on Genesis chapter 3, I did a sermon that really talked about the poetic justice of
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God. Now, as a reminder, poetic justice is how God punishes people. We see it all throughout
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scripture. It's essentially using the very instrument of sin as a part of the consequence
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or as a part of the judgment. And I'm just going to give you a few examples just to kind of refresh
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your memory. The serpent used a tree to bring death. God uses a tree to bring life, not just
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the tree of life, but also Jesus hanging on the cross, which is also called a tree. The serpent
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used eating to destroy humanity. God uses eating sacramentally to redeem humanity. Eve sought to
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rule over her husband. So God says that your husband will now rule over you. Adam was made
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from the ground. After his disobedience, the ground essentially becomes an adversary or an
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enemy of Adam, bringing up thorns and thistles, and in pain he shall eat of it. So there's this
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trend of poetic justice that God uses the very things that they cause their sin to come up and
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work against them. Now here in Genesis chapter 4, with the punishment and consequences of Cain,
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we see the same pattern emerge again. So Abel was a shepherd. Who was Cain though? Well, Cain was a
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tiller of the ground. Cain was a tiller of the ground. And when he poured his brother's blood
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into the ground, the very ground comes up and curses Cain. Verse 12 says, when you work the
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ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer
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on the earth. Now, God's curse here is twofold on Cain. And I want you to feel the weight so that
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you can step into Cain's world and understand the magnitude of the punishment that is being
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given in this moment. First, the ground, which was cursed because of Adam, and it would produce
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thorns and thistles, but it would still yield food through pain. So as hard as it is, he's going to
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be farming, and it'll bring up thorns and thistles, and by the sweat of his brow, he will eat of it
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out of pain, but at least he can eat of it. That's not the case for Cain anymore. Cain will work and
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toil, and not just thorns and thistles, and he will somehow pull something out to eat. Nothing
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will come of Cain's efforts to produce food for himself or his family. Now, this forces Cain to
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be a functional scavenger. He's wandering the earth, being completely dependent upon other people
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for his own sustenance. Now, second, we see that Cain is exiled. Cain is exiled.
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Now, we often hear the phrase, not all who wander are lost.
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Warren Wiersbe, he actually said a line that I really appreciate.
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And once again, this is God using the physical to illustrate the spiritual.
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In fact, I would argue that this text teaches us a few things.
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One is the fact that he is lost and has no home and has no connection.
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It is showing that the same is true, that he has no God and he has no family and he has no connection with the spiritual world.
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The second thing that I want you to catch is in the inverse.
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what a great blessing it is to have a home, to be connected with the ground,
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and to be attached to your family. What a great thing that is.
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It is a thing that is stripped from Cain, and it is one of those things that we often take for
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granted. To have a home, to be connected to your own land, and to be attached to your family.
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It's a good thing. Now I want you to feel the weight again because we are talking about Cain
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and he's operating in what? An agrarian and a tribal culture. An agrarian and a tribal culture.
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And so to have no connection to the land and no connection to family in an agrarian and tribal
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culture is the ultimate punishment. You're completely without meaning or purpose.
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Now, spiritually speaking, I was thinking about this fugitive life and it reminds me of how I
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feel when I'm out of fellowship with God. I don't know about you, but you're walking in sin. You
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feel disconnected from your family. Maybe it's a moment of anger. And even if it's a
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short period, it's a couple hours. Do you know that feeling, that sense of lostness,
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meaninglessness, no direction, instability? I think that's what Cain's experience was,
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and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.
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But the reality is, how many people do you know
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is to seek comfort and pleasure as a way to pacify the reality
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that they have no hope, no purpose, no connection, no meaning, no direction.
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Outside of Christ and His will, there is no rest.
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lastly just a couple points i want to make as we are on this verse just exegetically
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i noticed that among all of the pre-flood patriarchs that we see only the line of cain
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has no recorded lifespans cain marries and has children we're going to see that next week
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All the scriptures record how his line culminates in basically debauchery, murder, the people who create cities, who create weapons.
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Essentially, the only record of Cain's life is how it divulges into sin and death and destruction.
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And what that means is that it's not just a curse to Cain.
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Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground,
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I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.
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Now what strikes me about this is that Cain is crushed by God's judgment,
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He's crushed by the judgment. He's crushed by the consequences.
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Godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation.
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Cain grieves the consequences, but not the sin.
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Cain's concern is entirely for his own safety and well-being.
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He shows no sorrow for the safety and well-being of Abel, who he just murdered.
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And I think this is actually a very common response among, like, serial killers and psychopaths.
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when they get punished they essentially only have remorse over the consequences
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they don't fear god they fear the consequences they fear the own their own pain in other words
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i don't want you to confuse cain's sorrow as moral it's only self-preservation
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and to think that anybody would interpret it the other way uh you might think is crazy but it's not
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In fact, I actually looked at a video this morning.
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Ben Shapiro says that Cain was the first one to repent in the Bible.
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That was his interpretation of Genesis chapter 4.
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And that the mark put on him is a mark of grace to protect him.
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So again, bad exegesis, bad theology hurts people because it tells lies.
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So this is a sobering warning for us when the Lord disciplines us.
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okay you can look at this again as if it's some other guy and it's true yes it is at the same
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time i want you to apply it to your own life what's your first response when you get caught
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what's your first response children when you get in trouble do you feel sorrow for having
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Now, it's easy to look at kids and go, what about, yeah, your mom's looking
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disciplining me. I deserve much greater. I deserve death. Thank you for your grace and your mercy.
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May it sanctify me and make me more holy. Imagine if that was Cain's response. Totally different
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narrative. I want you to focus on the line at the end of this verse 14. It says, whoever finds me
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will kill me. I think the most common question raised here among Christians is, who else is
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going to kill him? Adam and Eve? Were there other people on the earth? I think the best answer is
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that the scripture says that Adam and Eve had other children. In fact, it's Genesis 5, 4. It's
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a chapter later. It says, the days of Adam after he had fathered Seth were 800 years,
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and he had other sons and daughters, end quote. And so we don't really have a lot of clarity
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here about these details. We're going to see again next week that Cain takes a wife and fathers
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a son, which again presupposes some degree of a population. His wife was most likely a sister or
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a niece. And we might go, oh my gosh, is that incest? Well, prior to the Mosaic law, incest was
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not illegal to the law of God. Also, the arguments among Christian scientists, the genetics were so
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pure that these types of relationships didn't have the kind of degenerative biological results
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that it would have today. And so, Cain's concern about him being killed weren't about some random
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other people that had no connection with Adam and Eve, but rather they were, again, was there even
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a stranger at this point on the earth? Everybody was related to him, directly related to him. I
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think his fear of someone killing him was a brother or a relative who wanted to avenge Abel's
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blood on Cain. I think that's really, if you step into the context, I think that's the most
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Then the Lord said to him, Not so. If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be
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Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him
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should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord
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we touch on the final point of this passage that I was talking about when I opened up.
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God remains sovereign over human vengeance while still executing justice upon the wicked.
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In some way, God made this warning. No one's going to kill you. He made this warning
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known to the rest of humanity. We don't know how, and for anybody else who didn't know about it,
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put a mark on him. And this term is sevenfold. You know, if anybody kills Cain, sevenfold.
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There's a variety of interpretations on this. It could mean I'm going to kill or curse seven
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generations. I think the best interpretation is that throughout the Bible, we see the number seven
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a lot. It's typically, it means the fullness or the completeness, intense-ness. It's the model
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of six plus one for the creation narrative. It's a full completeness. And I think we see that
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pattern throughout scripture. And so as for the mark, many have speculated, is it a scar?
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Is it a tattoo? I saw someone think it was a haircut. It was kind of wild.
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Is it some sort of outward sign on Cain? Well, scripture doesn't tell us. All we know is that
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It was a visible mark that made Cain identifiable and connected to the warning to not take his life.
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But what I do want to point out is you go, why didn't God just kill him?
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Why didn't God allow someone to come and just have an eye for an eye?
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Well, I think that, one, the consequence, I believe, was worse than death for Cain.
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Two, I think Cain ultimately became a living memorial, a visible living memorial, a warning of God's judgment against evil.
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Imagine just seeing that man and knowing that reality and go, oh my gosh, I do not want to be like him.
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The last person on earth I want to be like is that man, King.
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now as i close out here i think many of you are familiar with the popular american idiom
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raising cane you might even be more familiar with the restaurant which is kind of a play on words
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raising canes and this expression comes from this passage of scripture that's where it comes from
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And only a society that has lost its fear of God would celebrate phrases about the rebellion and tragedy of Cain.
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Unfortunately, the phrase is more than an idiom.
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Too often it describes, I think, the American modern family.
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Well, it's sons who are raised up and they reject God.
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They sever themselves from their land and their own inheritance.
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and because they're so connected to their family
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because their parents were thinking multi-generationally
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for this example and understanding of these brothers.
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Lord, the illustration of the righteous and the wicked.
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Lord, we pray that you would bless our congregation, that we would not raise any canes or that
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we would raise ables, that we would raise men of God, sons of honor and integrity.
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Lord, we pray for a blessing, that we would have generations of faithfulness here in this