February 23 Sermon: Call Upon the Name of the Lord

Consider these questions as we look at Genesis 4:1-26:

1. How does the story of Cain and Abel illustrate the compounding nature of sin and its consequences?

2. In what ways does this passage emphasize the importance of faith and trust in God's promises, even in the face of increasing evil?

3. How does the concept of calling on the name of the Lord serve as a central theme in this passage, and what significance does it hold for believers today?

Transcript:

When it comes to sin, I believe we are extremely aware of a serious truth. It doesn’t usually end with one sin. Sin is compounded. We do one thing and it leads to another. In a very public example like Watergate in the early seventies, we see that really the compounding sin ends up being worse than the initial transgression. We want to hide our sin or maybe downplay the significance of it.

‌We tend to follow our sin wherever it leads regardless of how irrational our actions become. In early 2018 a store in northern Russia was robbed and all that was taken was a single bottle of wine. Now, you are probably thinking, how does this act show that our sin increases and that people can continue in sin to irrational actions. Just wait until you hear how this guy got to the store to steal that single bottle of wine. Starting off his day by consuming an unhealthy amount of alcohol he decided it would be a good idea to break into a privately run motor-sports training area. He took a small tank. Yes, a tank. He drove it through a forest and into a small town. He was having trouble cornering the vehicle, according to onlookers but the news article I read didn’t make any speculation on whether this was because he lacked the skills to properly drive a small tank or because he was inebriated. Regardless of the reason he ran over a small car and plowed into the window of a small family convenience store. Observers of the incident say he then got out of the tank, checked out the wreckage that he had created and climbed through the broken window of the shop. He was then seen stepping out of the store with a lone bottle of wine and it is certain that he did not purchase it because that store was not authorized to sell alcohol that time of day. When he was found later by the police he did not resist arrest.

‌While this could easily be used as a story to explain why you should avoid excessive alcohol use and drunkenness I think this story describes how we often let our sin get away from us. We want something and we don’t care what it takes or who we hurt to get what our sinful hearts desire.

‌As we come to Genesis 4 this morning coming off the fall of humanity in Genesis 3 we see that humanity did not just dip its toe in the baby pool when we fell into sin. We see that the fall was a belly flop from the high dive into the deep end. The rebellion against God in eating the fruit led to envy, pride, and murder. The fall was just the beginning of our rebellion against the nature of a holy God.

‌Before we dig into chapter four lets plot out where we are going today with our three main points.

‌First, we see that life moves on after the curse. Despite the curse that has been placed on humanity Adam and Eve are living out the mandate from God to be fruitful and multiply. We see a story of two of the children of Adam and Eve. Their story is important for helping us understand not only the way humanity increases in sinfulness but also shows us insight into how we are to understand the Old Testament as it unfolds.

‌Secondly, we see that it is important that we turn away from sin. The temptation that Cain faces is addressed directly by God but like his parents instead of listening to the word of the Lord he gives in to temptation.

‌And lastly, we will see that despite the sinfulness of the world there is hope. We are going to see this in two ways. The first is that even though the descendants of Cain slip into evil they still do things that are for the benefit of humanity. We will also see that God keeps his promise. While the world is being continually plunged into increasing evil he is not forgetting that he has made a promise and he will provide the redeemer that was promised in Genesis 3.

‌And now we land in this very well known chapter of scripture as we see that life moves on after the curse.

‌Before the fall there was a command from God to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. That command didn’t stop being in effect because there was now death and sin in the world. In fact, because of the curse there is actually a new motivation to have children. There is a promise from God that a male seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. So Adam and Eve get together and she conceives and Cain is born and later on they have Abel. There is a sense here that Eve expects this to be the one who will crush the serpent’s head. Notice she doesn’t say that she has a baby boy. She has been given a man. Remember, he will crush the head of the serpent. The expectation is that this child will be the one who is the promised one, or at worst will be the one through whom the line to the Messiah will pass. This story is told for a very important reason. We are to understand just how important it is that there is male offspring.

‌There really aren’t too many details here about what is happening in this early world. We see they are following God’s commands to fill the earth. We also see in the tasks that Abel and Cain take on that they are caring for the creation that God gave them a mandate over. Abel is caring for animals and Cain is growing crops. Despite the world plunging into sin, life goes on. Work is harder but they still continue in it. They know that they are going to die at some point but still their lives have purpose. There is meaning in the good work that God has given them to do. He placed them in a family and gave them the purpose of multiplying and filling the earth. He gave them vocations and they care for the creation. There is great meaning in life on earth. We live in an age plagued by being self-absorbed and thinking that there is no meaning to life. We see from what God gives people to do that there is more to life than us. There is purpose beyond our own happiness. We care for his creation and we care for the family he has blessed us with and that gives our lives purpose and meaning. Adam and Eve were banned from perfection and happiness. If ever there were people to think that life suddenly has no meaning it would be them, but we see them taking seriously the work that God has given them to do.

‌But that is just our first point for today. That life goes on and has meaning even in this fallen world. We now see that the temptation to sin continues and God calls Cain to resist it.

‌We have seen what is to be expected for this firstborn mail child but not he story is taking a pretty serious twist. We know what happens in this story and so we are not surprised by the turn of events. We have heard this story probably since we are children but there is no shock. But imagine hearing it for the first time. This should be the chosen one. This should be the one who is going to cure the disease not purposely get it. There are some movies that are famous for their shocking twists. You probably remember the first time you saw the film and that feeling of shock and disbelief that you had when it was revealed and it caught you completely off guard.

‌That is what we should feel here. This is just like the rebellion of Adam and Eve. We are meant to feel that this is as bad as it can get.‌

The story is an interesting one. They both brought sacrifices to God but we are told that God had no regard for the offering that Cain brought but he was fond of the offering that Abel had given. We aren’t told exactly why this is but we get a very clear hint from the text. Look here at the difference between the descriptions of the offering of the two men. I’ve shortened up the verses we are looking at and used capital letters to draw out the descriptions I’m speaking of.

‌‌Cain brought his offering in the course of time but Abel brought the firstborn. One offering seems to be an afterthought, the other is the best and trusts that God will provide another. The sacrifice of the first born of the flock says that he believes God is the one who provides. Bringing an offering in the course of time says that you are going to wait and see if God will provide enough for him to get some. While Abel has a very small part in this story we see something about his faith. So much so that the book of Hebrews drops this person with a small part in the story into the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11.

‌The author of Hebrews lets us know that Abel is a sign of how we are to have faith. We are to trust God that he will provide. We are to trust that God is good to keep his promises. That is the message here. That Abel came in faith but Cain was more concerned about Cain and he makes it about how he feels that this is unfair.

‌‌And we see that God is still intimately involved and interacting with humans. He knows Cain’s heart and gives him a challenge. He can still do what is right. We see that forgiveness and doing what is right is still a possibility. Cain has not gone too far.

‌God says that sin is crouching at the door. What a powerful image. It is waiting for him. It is going to strike. It isn’t waiting to give you a prize. It isn’t Ed McMahon at the door with a giant cardboard check for 10 million dollars. It is sin and it wants to destroy him. God calls him to turn away from the anger and sin in his heart but Cain has no regard for this call of God upon his life.

‌It is important that we see what this says and apply it to our lives. Sin is rebellion against a holy God. It is not just choosing not to follow some rules posted in an old book. It goes against the very nature of God and we see this here. There was sixth commandment for Cain to break here.

‌‌Yet, God calls it sin. Why? There is an inherent order in creation that comes from the nature of God and to do these things rebels against God. We saw this in Genesis 2 when we saw the creation of marriage and saw that all kinds of sexual immorality is a rebellion against the nature of God and his created order. Here we see that even there is no command for Cain to break it is rebellion against God to take life. God gives life and he takes it away. It is not for man to impose his will upon.

‌But this is what Cain does and we are told how God judges this in a similar fashion to how we are told the story of the fall. God shows up and asks what he has done even though he knows very well what has been done. Cain uses that famous line am I my brother’s keeper to act as though he is in fact innocent. But God knows and so he tells Cain what his punishment will be. Just like his parents he is sent out. For him, someone who grows crops, the ground becomes even more cursed and he will always be a fugitive and a wanderer.

‌‌And Cain knows this is a big deal. He doesn’t like his punishment. He knows he is moving away from the blessings of God and he is worried that one of his family members will come and seek justice for the evil he has done. But yet, we see that God shows grace to Cain. Just as he didn’t destroy Adam and Eve for their rebellion in the garden God doesn’t destroy Cain and he even puts a mark on him to protect him from being killed and puts a terrible curse on anyone who would harm Cain. Cain is protected by God even though he is moving from the presence of the Lord. And notice where he ends up. East of Eden. Adam and Eve were pushed out of Eden to the east and now Cain is pushed even further from the Garden. He is further from the presence of the Lord. Yet, God’s protection goes with him but things don’t get any better from there. We are brought into the story of Cain through his family tree.

Before we look at this, we need to answer a common objection to the Bible. We see that Cain knew his wife but where did she come from. This is such a common question that it actually made it into Scopes Monkey Trial in the 1925. Famed trial lawyer Clarence Darrow had the lawyer on the other side of the case, William Jennings Brian on the stand. He had taken the stand to defend the Bible and Darrow asked him where Cain got his wife. It was rather an embarrassing moment for William Jennings Brian and he was never given the opportunity to redeem himself in the public eye because he died only a few days after the trial. The answer is quite simple and if we keep reading through the text of Genesis we come to the answer not too many verses down the road.‌

Adam had Seth at 130 years and lived another 800. We don’t know how long early humans were able to have children but even if it was 50% of their life span he would have had scores upon scores of children. He most assuredly had to have been fruitful and multiplied as God had command him. While it seems gross to us Cain’s wife was clearly his sister and incest was not banned by God until Leviticus 18 after the human race had multiplied significantly. So the clear answer to this objection to the Bible is that Cain was driven east with his wife, who was also his sister, and we read here his family tree.

This isn’t very exciting reading so we won’t dwell on it but what we are meant to see is that the line of Cain is increasing in sinfulness. The one who was once thought to be the promised seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent now has his family line in league with the work of the serpent. We are meant to see this most in the words of Lamech. He sees himself as a very bad man. No one is going to mess with him. He kills for small reasons and if the revenge for killing Cain would be seven fold if someone comes after him he will come to them with a rage that is seventy-sevenfold.

‌We see that this sin of Cain in now spiraling down and down and down and the earth is becoming worse. There are personal ramifications for sin but we see here that sin infects our families and moves us further and further away from God and his blessings.

‌But we are going to see in the final verses of this chapter our final point for today. Even though the world is full of sin there is hope.

By all standards Cain was supposed to be the promised Seed of the Woman but he proved to be unworthy because he followed after the serpent. Abel is dead. The world is doomed, right?‌

No, God has made a promise and he will keep it. There will be a seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent. And so Seth is born and we see that the line to the Messiah is not through Cain any longer but the promise is on Seth. In fact, we will follow the family tree of Seth next week as we come to Genesis 5. The line of Cain is now following the serpent and is banished further from the Garden and the presence of the Lord but God keeps his promise through Seth. We see that there is a transition of the promise here in the name of Seth. His name means “appointed” and that name shows that Eve has faith and hope that he is the one that is appointed to the godly line that will destroy the work of the serpent. In Seth there is hope in this passage. This chapter really is filled with doom and gloom. Sin, murder, and increasing evil dominate the ink on the page of chapter 4 but it does not have the final word. Death and sin and Satan do not get to have the final word. God does. These two verses at the end of this chapter point us to the gospel and that is where we find joy, peace, and hope. God will rescue his people and we see that this is going to be passed forward. We are going forward in Genesis with the hope of the promise. Seth has a son and we see that the family is now righteous because they are calling upon the name of the Lord. They are trusting God and his promises.

‌And so we have seen many interesting things in this chapter. We have seen that life moves on despite the curse and there is purpose and meaning in life. We have seen in the temptation and failure of Cain why we must reject sin. It not only harms us but it has long lasting consequences. In the midst of this all we have seen that there is in fact hope. God keeps his promise and the serpent will not prevail. His promised one will come.

‌So from this what do we take into the world this week. How do we apply this passage to our lives? I believe there are three clear takeaways for us as the benediction sends us out to live and serve God in his world.

‌First, remember that we live in a world of meaning and as servants of God we have a purpose. God gives us good work to do to serve him. As I said in our time we live in a time where there is a struggle with meaninglessness. We wonder what good any of this is if we are just going to die anyway. We see that right after the curse there was purpose and meaning to do the good work that God has to do and that work is to care for God’s creation. To care for others. To pass on the promises of God to the next generation. God has an unfolding plan for his creation and as his servants we have an important roll to play.

‌Secondly, reject sin. I know this goes without saying. Pretty easy point of application, right? But this chapter of scripture shows us the consequence of sin. It multiplies. It grows. It infects others. We also see that it seeks to devour us. And so we do well to assess our lives and daily see where sin has rule over us. It can happen so easily and we can so easily say that it’s really no big deal. But we have seen the past two weeks that sin is a big deal. It is a rejection of God. It is rebellion against the God of the universe. We are but creatures from dirt and we don’t get to decide what is right and wrong or not that big of a deal. We must look at our lives and strive to push aside sin.

Lastly, we see where we get our strength to do just this. We call on the name of the Lord. That one line at the end of this chapter tells us so much about what putting our faith in God is about. We call out to him. We pray that he will help us. We look to his promise of salvation in Christ. The line of Seth was not perfect. They were not sinless. What did they do? They called out to God. They trusted in him and put their faith in him. In Christ, we have forgiveness for all the sin that we have committed. We trust that in him we have been made righteous and that in him we have the power to repent and turn to him and instead of rebellion against God we call out to him trusting that his promise of forgiveness and salvation is true. So call on the name of the Lord this week. When you are in need, call on the name of the Lord. When you have sinned and need forgiveness call on the name of the Lord. When you see the beauty of God’s blessings, call on the name of the Lord in praise.

And may we be a people of God who depart from here this week and may we call on the name of the Lord that all honor, glory, and praise may go to Christ alone for who he is and what he has done for us, his people.