The Two Seeds
Genesis • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Let me begin today by saying that my goal is not to try to answer every question today.
Again my goal is big picture and understanding the flow of the text and what is being communicated to us by the author, the human and the Divine Author.
There is a time and a place for answers and for discussion about questions like the origin of Cain’s wife and maybe other questions that people may have.
But I also want to say this many times simple explanations for questions will be overlooked, ignored, or rejected and simply I believe the reason for that is because of the offense of the gospel and not because someone just really needs to know details about Cain’s wife and if his wife was his sister why could he marry his sister in Genesis and later in the OT there is a law against that.
Again I think that there are good explanations for all of these things but we are not going to get caught in that discussion
I. Family Conflict and The Seed of the Serpent
I. Family Conflict and The Seed of the Serpent
4.1: Eve saw the birth of her children as a gift from the Lord, this was not simply some natural event. The conception of a child has more than just a human explanation.
Brothers and sisters this is a reminder to us that every birth, every conception is a work of the Lord
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Unfortunately the birth of these two sons set the stage for conflict and murder
It is clear that man has not entered into the rest of His Creator, instead there is conflict, there is war, there is unrest.
vv.3-5
Here we see the root of this conflict, we see that Cain is angry at Abel because Abel’s sacrifice was accepted and Cain’s was not.
So of course the natural question is why, why did the Lord have regard for Abel and his offering but not for Cain?
One thing we can say is that the text seems to emphasize that Abel brought the best and the first, the firstborn of the flock and of their fat portions.
Picture that is painted for us is that Abel brought his best while Cain just brought something.
Another thing brothers and sisters is that God knows their hearts and Cain’s heart becomes pretty obvious to us as we continue to read the account.
“With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
The point is this, one might offer an offering or a sacrifice to the Lord and yet their heart is still far from the Lord.
Just because one preforms a religious duty or goes through the motion with a religious activity that does not mean that there is a genuine love for the Lord, it does not mean that they trust and treasure the Lord, right?
vv.6-7
The Lord warns Cain and urges him to repent
The picture that we have of sin in v.7 is that of an animal waiting for the opportunity destroy Cain, to rip him to pieces.
v.8
of course Cain did not kill the desire instead the desire gave birth to sin and Cain ended up killing his brother
Just think about what we see in this passage brothers and sisters.
We are again reminded that when our heart is far from the Lord, and we may even do things that look like our heart is not far from the Lord, but when our heart is far from the Lord when are in a dangerous place.
When we are not trusting and treasuring the Lord then we are in dangerous territory, we are walking in the land of destruction when we are not trusting and treasuring the Lord.
And we also see the connection again, right; if our relationship with the Creator is not right then we will hate our brother. We cannot love our brother as we should when we are not trusting and treasuring the Creator.
vv.9-14
God confronts Cain just as He had confronted Adam but notice the different reaction. Cain lies and gets angry at God.
We see no sorrow for his sin at all, the only sorrow is that he got caught and that he has consequences.
Paul warns us about the difference between godly sorrow and the sorrow of the ungodly.
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
There is no brokenness about displeasing the Lord or about killing his brother, instead what does Cain say? v.13-14
He feels sorry for himself.
Let me tell you, you can tell the difference between a work of the Lord and when someone is just upset about getting caught and are still far from the Lord.
Godly sorrow produces a brokenness that understands that i am at God’s grace and mercy, it is broken over what was done and the sin against God and others.
Worldly sorrow someone feels sorry for themselves and often feels like their punishment is too much. It is a clear sign that satan still has a hold of the heart when one believes that he should be able to sin and not have any consequences.
This sounds like our culture does it not? Decisions without consequences. Whining and complaining when there are consequences, this is too much, this is not fair!!!
Let me tell you that type of attitude does not lead to godliness, it is not of the Lord.
Parents, grandparents we must teach our children that there are consequences when bad decisions are made, we must teach our children that sin will be punished.
v.11 Instead of blessing we see that sin brings curse, it brings God’s judgement.
There is a mark put on Cain in v.16 and this has nothing to do with his skin tone. White supremisists have misused this passage and twisted it. We don’t know what the mark was and if somebody tells you that they know they are a liar.
It is clear that Cain is a part of the cursed serpent seed, he represents the cursed serpent seed in this passage.
He is a murder and a liar just like his father
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.
He murdered his brother, he hated his brother.
Let’s remember Jesus’ words
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
Brothers and sisters Cain is a warning to us. By God’s grace we are called to put to death that which looks like Cain in us.
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, He came to implant God’s seed in us.
Brothers and sisters we have to know that turning to Christ and putting Cain to death in our hearts will lead us to be loving.
I think of 1 Peter again which we are looking at mid-week
Because we are God’s people, His chosen possession how should we live?
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
Another thing
4.16
Again we see how sin drives humanity away from God’s presence. We see this all through scripture.
But the hope of redemption
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
The rest of chapter 4 through v.24 follows the line of Adam through Cain.
We see the ungodliness of this line
Reaches apex with Lamech who was
polygamist
prideful
violent
This section ends with Lamech’s song of revenge where he pridefully boasts in his violent nature and how much worse he is than Cain.
We see that the seed of the serpent is
self-centered
prideful
hateful
II. The Seed of Promise
II. The Seed of Promise
vv.25-26 ease us into the lineage of Seth that we see in chapter 5.
What we see clearly in the text is the contrast between the seed of the serpent and the seed of promise.
And again we need to be clear, these men were biological brothers, it is not that one had a religious gene and the other did not.
They came from the same father and mother and to put it as simply and as biblically as we can, the only thing that made the difference was the sovereign grace of God.
In chapter 4 we see prideful man exalting himself
But then we come to the line of Seth and we are introduced to Enosh. This word Enosh is used to refer to humanity or as a proper name much like the word Adam.
Often this word is used to suggest man’s weakness, his mortality, his dependence upon God.
As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
We see that he calls upon the Lord, the contrast is with those above. He is humble and realizes his weakness, his dependence on the Lord. The picture is that of worship, of prayer and sacrifice.
5.1-3
Really refers us back to Gen. 1.26-28.
We have a hint here that it is through this line, it is through Seth that God will fulfill His purposes for mankind.
Clearly the point is the connection between the line of Seth and the original creation of humanity in the image of God, humanity will be restored through this line.
Even as one reads these two chapters the righteousness and the hope is a clear contrast with the darkness, the death, and the despair of the other.
Notice Lamech the seventh from Adam in Cain’s line
Enoch the seventh from Adam in Seth’s line (vv.21-24)
The contrast is clear,
Enoch walked with God, enjoyed a supernatural, intimate fellowship with God while in Cain’s line we have Lamech the vengeful murderer who boldly sings of his violent deeds.
Notice again the Lamech in Seth’s line (5:28-31) is a contrast as well. He is looking for deliverance from the Lord’s curse on the ground (v.29) where as the Lamech in Cain’s line is worried about revenge and making a name for himself.
The text is full of contrasts
Cain’s son, Enoch has a city named after him (4.17) and Seth’s son, Enosh calls upon the name of the Lord (4.26)
The Enoch in Seth’s line affirms that those who walk with God in this fallen world will experience life, not death as the last word.
Notice in the text the lifespan in chapter 5 and we do not see that in chapter 4. (again we could talk about the long life span and i believe that it has something to do with the environment after the flood and the growing weakness of the human race due to the fall)
But the point i am making is this, the the line of Seth is characterized by complete and full life spans leading to life and blessing.
Cain’s line leads to judgement where as Seth’s line leads to salvation.
Seth’s line leads to Noah
vv.28-31
Noah means rest
Lamech, Noah’s father was a man of faith,
He desired, he longed for the coming of the one who would bring rest, who would undo the fall.
We will see later that is the Savior-figure, he is the type of Christ pointing us to Jesus.
Noah is not the ultimate rest giver that Lamech had hoped for but He points us to the one who is.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”