Life East of Eden
Well, it's a joy to be with you guys. I think it's the first time since Corona that I was able to hear the congregation singing and not just brought Joy. So you guys will take your Bibles and open to Genesis chapter 4.
Genesis chapter 4 and why you're turning there?
Mini if you guys are familiar with the animal cat. So you guys have cats and maybe guys despise cats?
Cats are interesting animals. They have incredibly quick reflexes. their precise of their targets many of you guys are probably seeing a cat chasing a laser.
Cats are animated animals in and of themselves. But when you point a laser at the ground a cat kind of goes Bonkers now they come alive when you will you point a laser at the ground. But cats aren't familiar with lasers. They're just familiar with the. On the ground that bounces around. The cats don't understand the correlation of the little black sphere that has a laser coming out of it.
There are many causes and effects in our world. that Humanity doesn't see a correlation to What natural problems come naturalistic answers with physical problems? Come biological answers with social problems come sociological answers with political problems come political answers.
Just as cats Focus so hard on the. Completely disconnected with the laser. So to for a majority of people the world's problems are disconnected with the fall. That is Genesis 3 every chapter subsequent the Genesis 3 in the Bible is marred by the Fall. God's punishment for Adamson creates every problem in the world around us and it's only solved by Christ Christ purchase Believers in his first coming. Yes Satan will still rule on Earth Till the End of the Age The Curse will affect the world until Christ returns a second time to do away with Satan. So the reality of the world that we live in today is the same reality that we find in Genesis chapter 4.
The fall deeply affect our everyday lives.
The world your life is messed up because of the events in Genesis chapter 3.
Remember in Genesis chapter 3 Satan deceives Eve. And ascending and eating the forbidden fruit and Adam follows after his wife and stead of choosing to lead her in righteousness. That's the reality of sin entered into the world.
Weber State and following God directly confronts them in their sin. inverse of 14 God starts starts a curse on Satan and Eve and Adam Genesis 3 verse 20 we see God kills animals and takes their skin to cover Adam and Eve. In 22 God banishes the couple from Paradise and drives them East of Eden.
The title of the sermon this evening is life East of Eden. chapter 4 contains the narrative that results in the fall and chapter 3
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Moses is writing to a stubborn Israelite people have people who Trace their problem back to leaving Egypt. Yep, Moses traces their problem back to the fall and demonstrates that sinfulness and Corruption was from the beginning of time.
Paul says that this way in Romans 5:12 therefore just as Sin came into the world through one man and death through since oh death spread to all men because all sinned percent and deed was in the world before the law was given but sin is not counted where there is no law yet death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those sinning even over those who sending was not like the transgression of Adam. He was a type of the one who is to come. Even before Sinai the wages of sin is death. Adam and Israel had the direct word of God on matters of right and wrong yet those before Israel were without excuse before a righteous God.
Adams one sin Amplified sinfulness to all of his offspring nuns illustrates this well for his readership a recording the media history of Addams Family.
In Genesis chapter 4 our text for this evening Moses shows for narrative scenes describing life in a fallen world. Genesis 4 PS4 narrative scenes of falling man that show you your sinfulness and the mercy and grace of God. The first scene we see is the fall displayed. The first thing we see is able murdered in the first 8 vs. Join me as I read verse 1 of chapter 4 of The Book of Genesis.
Your Adam knew his wife, even she conceived and bore Cain saying I have got a man with the help of the Lord. And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cane a worker of the ground. in the course of time Kane brought to the Lord and offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel also brought the firstborn of his flock and if they're fat portions, And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering before Cain and 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 has your face Fallen if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do sin is crouching at the door. It's desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. Came spoke to Abel his brother and when they were in a field Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Kane was very likely the first born child of Adam and Eve. And able to the second born male child. And as these boys grew up. able was a sheep Shepherd in and really a Jurassic Park type environment
And its environment everyone was a vegetarian most likely until Noah's day. So Abel kept the sheep for sacrifice. You say sacrifice. They didn't have the Mosaic system yet. Always see in Genesis chapter 3 that God used leather rather than any other material to cover. Adam and Eve when they send to cover their nakedness, he killed animals and use their skin to cover them.
God kill these animals to symbolically cover their sin.
Judging by the setting we find in and Genesis chapter 4 as we read this narrative animal sacrifice was a pattern that God had instructed for Addams Family to follow and worship.
So able provided the livestock for worship vertically and Kane provided sustenance for their body horizontally.
Abel provided the best of his livestock for a sacrifice to God the best portion of the best of his livestock and Cane instead of following suit and following a pattern established Sarah buying a appropriate Sacrifice from his brother. He offered up his produce from his own vocation cultivated fruit.
We see in 1st Samuel 16:7. Says that the Lord does not look upon What man does but looks at the heart. And and favors David rather than saw from Man's eyes fruit would look like much more of an appealing fruit look like much more of an appealing sacrifice. What you think smell better?
Yet God expects obedience.
We see in scripture. We do not worship God how we want to worship, but how he instructs us to worship.
I mean if you guys only come to church when it is convenient for you, or you only Worship the Lord and private. When you have extra time.
You worship out of convenience rather than obedience. Kane worship out of convenience rather than obedience and as a result Yahweh regards Abel sacrifice, but not Cain's consent of compromise leads to extreme anger.
He gets extremely anger at an angry and is his face Falls one commentator describes canes reaction Like This Not only was Kane seized with a Sunday in anger. But that from lingering sadness he cherish a feeling so maligned. That she was wasting With Envy.
Do adults do this?
Some of you might do this in your home. Anger is when simpleness is around be aroused because of unrighteousness.
Where's active acted upon in an unrighteous way? Candy came angry out of jealousy, and it was Amplified and it led to murder. There's seven. God warns Cain that he must stop sinning. He must Master his inhibitions.
The reality is that Cain could not master his sin. Use the product of the Fall Adams. blood pumps through his veins
Jesus says whoever commits sin is a slave to sin. Kane held captive to do Satan's will violently murders his brother murdering him and his own pasture with his own hands.
Can you this is wrong because of his conscience? Yeah, there is presumably no human establish protocol. from murder if you murder someone today, you can rightly expect to die by the hands of the government or at least serve life in prison.
humans, look out for themselves not to murder outwardly like what happens in an anarchist State without government?
Yeah, you can commit an equally ferocious sin before God against your brother. By being angry with them in your heart.
Christ while showing the religious zealots of his day their heart on The Sermon on the Mount says this in Matthew 5:21 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 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.
The same file that is displayed and Kane might be the same fall that's displayed in your heart. Is your heart characterized by hate and slander for other people?
He might be outside of God's grace. You might be ruled by Satan just like the religious zealots of Jesus day and just like cane.
And you need Supernatural help me to call the Lord Jesus Christ and completely submit yourself to his atoning work and to believe in him. Some of you are redeemed you are not perfected in the area of anger.
Christ died to pay for you out of your phone State. Why would you return to your own vomit? And to have anger in your heart against your brother.
The first scene that we see post-fall is Cain's murder of Abel. A second sea seen that we're going to look at tonight is befall punished or we see Cain cursed. Let me read starting in verse 9. Then the Lord said to Cain. Where is Abel your brother? And 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 out to me from the ground and now you are cursed from the ground, which is open its mouth to receive the your brother's blood from your hands. When you work the ground it shall no longer yield. You have strength. You shall be a fugitive and a Wonder on Earth. Kane said the Lord my punishment is great. Is greater than I can bear behold. You have driven me today away from the ground and from your face. I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a Wonder on 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 least anyone who found him should attack him. Then came went away in the presence of the Lord and settled in the Land of Nod East of Eden.
God comes to Cain questioning just like he did Adam.
And Kane further demonstrates his sinfulness to lying to the face of God. He knew exactly where his brother was. His clothes were probably stained with the blood of his own brother as he killed him.
You guys know the wages of sin is death. The murder of an image bear requires the forfeiting of one's life. Yet God was incredibly merciful. He did not kill Kane but banished him.
Do the sweat of their brow that the Adam family had cleared a bit of land for agriculture likely so that they can plant fruit so that they would not starve.
But Cain was sent out into a pre-flood world without the ability to cultivate and eat.
Yet God's mercy was seen and the reality of Kane's banishment. every living human if you could imagine would want to kill Cain at this point to it to take revenge on on the Righteous Brothers life. That God separates came from the rest of his family to protect his wife. Verse 13 Kane complains more even though God allowed him to live and sent him as a fugitive and and even gave him a protective hedge. He says my punishment is too great.
He minimizes sin. After committing one of the most egregious sins God graciously gives him a punishment not fit for the crime. And saying and Kane complains. Like telling a car thief that he owes you a candy bar and he tries to bargain with you. verse 15 God again shows Mercy silencing Kane He gives Divine Divine protection over his life.
vs16 receipt Kane music moving further East of Eden Adam and his family were banished East of Eden Cain was banished east of East Eden. And it shows the extent of the depravity through the fall at an atom's line.
For a Christian the Lord disciplines Those whom he loves. That's that's Hebrews 12.
Kainos outside of God Saving Grace yet. God was still very merciful towards pain and and giving him the punishment that he administrated.
The sad reality is often Christians those chosen by God at his Cane axe when God reproves their sin. Job, sometimes discipline a child who is out of line. As we all regularly are and sends them a trial.
and the Christians response more often than not is complaint like saying like like Kane. Is that you?
If you've transgress God's holy law. What do you deserve?
Do not be like Cain. Worship God because of his abundant grace and mercy towards you. person who deserves God's immediate Wrath We see the first scene Kane's murder or sorry, excuse me, Kane's Ables Murder by Kane II scene of life is Cain's curse the third scene that we see in Genesis chapter 4 is the fall can confirm. We see canes line multiplied. Join me in verse 17.
He 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. The Enoch was born I ride and I ride fathered and who Good2Go father Matthew Google father Lemak and limit took two wives. The name of the wine was Ada and the name of the other was Zilla.
Ada Borgia Ada Borgia Bowl. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock and his brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who played the lyre in the pipe. Zilla also bore tubal-cain. He was a border of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of tubal-cain was the Maya lamech said to his wives 8 on Zillow. Hear my voice you wise of lamech. Listen to what I say. I have killed a man for wounding me and a young man for striking me if canes were Avenged Sevenfold then lamex is 77.
Kane and his wife part ways from the Adam family. Which is all the humans that exist on the planet Earth at the time.
The Cain's murder that he had to be banished for wasn't an isolated event.
Cinemas in Cane's DNA
Kane wags his fist at God building a city When God says to be a Wonder and Kane names the city after a knock which isn't the righteous Enoch obsessed line, but the Enoch of his own and verse 17, we see that and naming a city at your son might seem like an enduring thing.
But it is the nine praise to God. When Eve conceived her children, she gave praise to God we see that.
When Cain conceived there is no praise to God. In the city was named after their hope in their son instead of their hope in God.
Is your hope? And God are or is it in your family?
We see that the city prospered five generations after Cain was lamech. And if you'll remember we'll see you in the next chapter. In the days of the pre-flood world people live 10 times longer. So we can make a reasonable. Guess that a woman's childbearing years weren't 37 years like they are now but three hundred and seventy years. I'm so there are a lot of people on Earth that are populating the Earth. And we don't get much detail of these people specifically of canes lines, but we do get is that they were a wicked people.
Deborah claims marriage as between one man and one woman and in Genesis chapter 3 or excuse me Genesis chapter 2 we seeing in first 24 therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.
Play Mac diverted from this pattern and got two wives against God's command. We see the first sexual sin recorded in the Bible was polygamy of lamech.
when you don't walk with God you are bound to send sexually and when you send sexually there's an absence of fellowship with God. God gives societies over to their immorality. If a society isn't walking according to the biblical principles, this is what happens and this is what happened to Cain's line. Does order of a one man one woman marriage is so evident in nature that nearly all societies for the last six thousand years have been given to this model. Yet Kane was so simple that he'd emerged from that.
I said Kane. I meant lamech lamech was so simple that he divorced from that.
Play Max for his own pleasure his own accumulation of wealth or whatever. His evil motives were dive into sin and we see that mentioned in Genesis chapter 4. Play Maxine is further described by his his poem by about his wife's.
As the world expanded numerically and the intelligence that God gave Adam and Eve was lived out through the people that came from their line. We see the specific professions of lamech many people start living and and they're successful and an intelligence sense, but they're sinful.
So Kane left a legacy of sinfulness on nearly half of the world.
Many scholars believe that that there were billions on Earth Before the Flood. People lived 10 times longer conceive much longer and much more rapidly.
So there were many people on earth and Kane and his sin left a legacy of sin through lamech.
You might think your simple heart is veiled on the outside. It's a you problem.
The consequences of pretending to be a Christian and worldly.
Only affect you. It's only between you and God yet. It is not.
At one point, you might imagine the Wuhan Regional a picture fischels might have thought that they're wet markets were a personal problem.
Yep is a seemingly small ethical dilemma of caging species on top of each other has led to a catastrophe.
Officials knew that paneling cages with different species of animals all eating and defecating on top of each other leads to viruses Crossing species, which eventually leads to viruses entering the the human line.
lay aside all of the political ploys Coronavirus Has killed 700,000 people. 700000 people with covid-19 on their death certificate and if you asked the Chinese Regional officials If they are guilty of murdering 700,000 people before this whole pandemic happened. Of course, they would say no. Yet their lack of of ethical leadership resulted in Mass death.
What about you?
No one in this room would think that they would have the capability of impacting a billion people. Yet candid.
If you're living in sin, very likely your your children will live in sin or or maybe your grandchildren $0.11 if your children don't. And your sin will exponentially multiply over the course of time even after you dye your body will rot after you die, but your influence whether passive or active will affecting determine the outcome of generations to follow.
Don't be like Cain. Your sin will learn you an attorney and hell and that's bad enough, but it'll also spread like wildfire and eight and sending potentially billions to their Eternal Destiny of damnation outside of Christ.
We've seen Cain and Abel brought into this world as the two male offsprings. The able was murdered and so Kane is is presumably the only male offspring of Adam and Eve Adam and Eve alive.
Presumably Adam and Eve had children after Cain and Abel yet. They didn't have a male offspring.
You can imagine Eve. Realizing the effects of her send a little bit more when the blood of her one righteous, son. Racine and she no longer had a righteous son, but only a wayward son.
Pushed out from from their inhabitants.
The only male alive besides Adam was was Satan's seed cane.
You can imagine the Adam family in a Jurassic Park type world with Dinosaurs. That was Adams trying to cultivate the ground. I know male strength to help him. No no sun. No grandson. providing for dozens of daughters and and his wife
Yet God. Give a precious gift to Adam and Eve and this gift preserved his promise of reversing the curse look with me and verse 25 and we see the fall blighted. We see Seth brought into the world verse 25 says and Adam knew his wife again. And she bore a son and called his name Seth, but she said God has a plan for me another Offspring instead of able. hurricane killed him does death also a son was born and he called his name enosh at that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
I don't do not know that God will provide salvation by sending himself the father sending the son to be born of a descendant of Abraham and and David Israelite of Nazareth to live a sinless life. And died on the cross as a substitute for sin.
That precise promised is revealed to us, but it was not reveal to Adam.
But Adam had one promise. In Genesis 3 15. God says to Satan. I will put enmity between you and the woman between your Offspring and her Offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
The spiritual being that set into motion the fall of mankind. Would one day die. by the hands of seeds of Eve's seed
Kane sold his soul to Satan. He was the devil's offspring.
Able was murdered presumably without procreating yet. God was faithful to preserve his promise by allowing Eve to produce a new son. Seth the name Seth mean substitute or restitution
Seth was a substitute for able. And through Seth enosh was born.
Notice in verse 26 that people began to call upon the name of the Lord the time of enosh in other words between a table and enosh. Myriad's myriads of Offspring The Way of Cain.
Adam and Eve watch their children spit in God's face.
If they had a righteous line of posterity dust line says children sus life righteous line would eventually produce the human that would crush Satan's head.
We see lamech was five generations after Cain, but Enoch who walked with God and and didn't die as a normal man dies with five generations after Seth and in the following chapter. Three generations after Enoch was Noah the only righteous man that lived on the on the planet him and his family.
Who is preserved in the total Destruction of billions of people? Kendra Generations after Noah was Abraham. And from Abraham to David was 14 Generations in from David to Jack and I are 14 Generations in from jeconiah to Jesus Christ. The savior of the of the world was fourteen Generations.
Is your trust in God's promises?
What if one verse is all you had to rely upon?
Is your hope in Jesus Christ Alone the savior of the world how many promises do you have in Scripture?
In response to to Eve's birth. She says God has appointed for me another Offspring in place of Abel and the same word Offspring. We see in Genesis 3 15 the seed of Eve that would crush Satan's head.
This is the hope of the Gospel that was provided to Adam and Eve.
Is your hope in the same spot Adam and Eve was in Jesus Christ the righteous?
We live in Genesis 4 world, there's chaos all around and you guys see that?
Send Mark everyone around us and it marks our own heart.
We see in a world of turmoil in a desperately wicked World in Genesis for God still was faithful and merciful and gracious and in our world today. God is the same God. He's provided a way to be right before his glory through Jesus Christ.
What is praise him for his goodness? Let's pray to God Lord. We thank you for Your mercy God. We thank you for preserving a righteous line that would eventually produce Jesus Christ. That we pray that we would not go the way of Cain God keep us from anger. From murder in our heart or let us not leave a legacy of sinfulness, but a legacy of righteousness is Seth. Happy thank you for how your word instructs us both how we see the ultimate beginning of all of our sin in Genesis chapter 3, but also at lived out and in the early world. I pray that at Genesis for would instruct our hearts so that we would look to you and your name I pray amen.