Study the Word

Guest (Male): Sometimes God asks questions of us, but do you ever wonder why that is? Doesn't he know the answer already? Here's pastor Tom Keller.

Pastor Thom Keller: It's either a teachable moment and he's asking a question to get us to answer the question right, or it's an issue of a sin that we've been involved in and he's trying to get us to confess that. You know God is so gracious to do this. His question gives us the opportunity to come clean before God.

Guest (Male): God knows that true liberty is not freedom to sin, but from it. You see you're not really free unless you're free to do what's right. It's true on a personal level as well as a national one. President Ronald Reagan once said freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged. Hello and welcome to study the word with pastor Tom Keller of Calvary Chapel Lebanon. In Genesis 4 God appeals to Cain to not become enslaved by sin and then mercifully after Cain sins, God calls him to come clean. There are some very clear and practical lessons to learn from this chapter beginning with the issue of how sin begins in the heart.

Here's pastor Tom.

Pastor Thom Keller: It's not the gift. It's the heart behind the gift, the deception, the lie behind it all. That's why the Bible says that God hates the gifts of the wicked. God hates the gifts of the wicked. Says especially if they're trying to bribe him. Well how did they know that their sacrifices were accepted or rejected? Because it clearly says the one was and the other one wasn't. Abel's sacrifice was, Cain's was not. We don't know. The Bible doesn't say how. We just know that it was very clear that his was not. It says in verse 5 that this made Cain angry and dejected.

Anger is always a smoke behind the fire. Anger is never the driver of what's going on. One of the evidences that is just a saying that we've all said, why are you so angry? The question why are you so angry reflects the truth that there's something behind the anger. There's something driving that. Where does that come from? So what do you think the root cause was of Cain's anger? What do you think it was that was driving this? What was the driver behind his attitude towards his brother? What was the driver behind this anger? In all probability it was pride and jealousy.

In all probability. You know proverb says that jealousy is more dangerous and cruel than anger. Jealousy is more dangerous and cruel than anger. And you know if you have if I have a jealous streak in us, it's a very dangerous issue to leave unattended to. You know I like to I like to ski and in skiing the thing that takes snow off a mountain faster than anything else is not the sun, is not warm weather, it's not rain. You know what it is? It's fog. Nothing eats snow like fog because it just lays there. It just lays there and eats at it.

You'll see fog takes snow away faster than anything else. Rain will go through it. Fog will just eat at it. That's how jealousy is. Jealousy just lays there and eats and eats and eats. Anger comes and goes. Jealousy is more dangerous and cruel than anger. Anger rises and drops, rises and drops. Jealousy just lays there and eats and eats. In all probability this was the issue behind Cain. It's reflected in his countenance. It's also interesting to note how quickly this epidemic of sin is growing. The only sin that we know about up until this point is the eating of fruit.

Now just one generation later, one brother hates his brother enough to actually kill him. In verse 6 God says why are you so angry? It's worth noting again that God is still in a dialogue with man. They're having a conversation back and forth. George Otis speculates that there's a good chance that it's actually the sinfulness of man through the generations that causes us to be less and less sensitive to God's presence. I will readily acknowledge and admit it. I'm just telling you my theory is that little children see God and as a part of that understanding is that as they grow older their remembrance of that goes away as well.

But I think some of it's the innocence, some of it's that they haven't been drawn into sin yet. But I think in some way and George Otis makes this point, in some way the early generations still had that ability to connect with God in a way that has diminished through the years increasingly through the generations. It's also interesting that God is asking questions again. We've seen this before in the garden. Why are you hiding? Who told you you were naked? Did you eat of the fruit? Now he says why are you so angry? Why are you dejected?

You know as I was studying this I was thinking it would be interesting to go through the whole Old Testament and New Testament and look at every single place where God asks a question and look at what the driver is behind him asking the question. My guess is that in every in almost all those instances and as you do your own devotion I'm going to try to remember this from now on. My guess is that every time he asks a question he's either after one or two things. It's either a teachable moment and he's asking a question to get us to answer the question right, or it's an issue of a sin that we've been involved in and he's trying to get us to fess up before he points the finger.

You know you can ask a question to get an answer from your child before you point the finger. And that's really what he was doing here. He's giving Cain an opportunity just as he did Adam and Eve in the garden. You know God is so gracious to do this. His question gives us the opportunity to come clean before God. God's desire is always for us to initiate that confession. He doesn't want to have to be the one to come pointing the finger at us. He wants us to initiate that. I believe that God does this because he knows the confession is the only thing that will break our pride.

Have you ever been stubborn over something? Anybody here ever been stubborn? Raise your hand. Okay? And the rest of you raise your hand for being liars. Yeah I think you all raised your hand. We all get stubborn, don't we? So do I. You're smooth. That's good. Sure I do. Of course I do. And then when you got stubborn you ever get to where you don't want to admit that you were wrong? Even if you found out you were wrong. What's up with that, huh? Right? You get stubborn, you dig in your heels, you make the case I'm not doing this.

You find out you were wrong and you still want to admit it. What ends that? What ends that? What brings that to an end? Confession. Right? When you admit that you were wrong. You say well no it goes away over time. I just don't do anything about it. Oh it doesn't go away. It just gets added to the next day and the next day. And that's why marriages fall apart. That 's why relationships end. It's rarely over one thing. It's almost always one on top of the other marriage, work, church, school. We need to be quick to say I was wrong.

I'm sorry. You know the best marriages are going to be marriages where it's those words are said easily, where those words flow quickly across the lips. I'm sorry. I was wrong. The most difficult marriages are that on the face of this earth or where people find it difficult to say I'm sorry. I was wrong. That's why again we talk about this in the marriage seminar. That's why it's so important that couples pray together daily. The statistic is that one couple out of 1,152 couples divorce who pray together daily. One couple in 1,152 couples because you put that thing to rest every day and there's nothing to build on the next day.

It's critical. The most difficult people to live with, people that won't say I'm sorry. I remember a survey was done one time of of children, young people in in high school and they asked them if you could change any two things about your father, what would they be? Two things about your father, what would they be? First one was that he wouldn't get so angry. And the second one is that he would admit it when he's wrong. You know kids know when you're wrong. And they know you have you have the position not to do anything about it.

But isn't it interesting of all of the things that they would want to change in a father that the second thing is that he just admit when he 's wrong. And you know what fathers, when you don't do that you know what you're modeling? You're modeling you're sowing into your son, into your daughter the seeds that they're going to carry into their marriage and that's a seed of destruction. That's a seed that is going to work at their marriage, their marriage someday falling apart. Model the right thing. Let's go on. God gives Cain a big chance.

He says you will be accepted if you respond in the right way. But if you refuse to respond correctly, sin is waiting to attack you and to destroy you. You must subdue it. Some translations here say that sin is couching at the door. It's taken from the picture of a wild beast hiding behind a door and its desire is for you. I mean it's waiting for you to come in so it can attack you and destroy you. But you are to master it. You're not only not to allow it to attack you, you're to master it.

Well how do you master anger? How do you take control of anger? How do you get a hold on anger? Well the first and most important reality of that is this, that God must master you before anger can be mastered. The second is to realize again that anger is not the source. It's just the smoke. There's a fire. There's a driver underneath. Thirdly the Bible says to be angry but sin not. I've heard people use this to justify it's okay to be angry. God's desire is that we would when Jesus was angry he was he was only ever angry on account of God.

It was not for himself. It was for God. Because of God that he became angry. So the point is that if we get angry is not the sin. Don't sin because of the anger. The fourth one is as we said earlier, don't let sun go down in your wrath. Don't go to bed angry. Every day try to settle it. Every day, every issue try to bring it to rest with God. In verse 8 he kills his brother. It's premeditated. It's the first murder that we know of. And then God comes to Cain and asks the next question, where is your brother?

What do you think God wanted Cain to say? Just picture the scene. I picture them walking together. Cain still thinks that this whole thing is hidden just like we do. You know we look at that and think how foolish that he think he can hide that from God. Yeah don't we do the same thing? So they're walking along and God says Cain where's your brother? Why do you think he asked him that? What do you think God wanted to hear back from Cain? I think God's heart was that Cain would just fall down before him and say oh God I'm so sorry.

I did an unthinkable thing. I murdered my brother. I am so sorry. I am so sorry. God gave him that opportunity and instead it reflects his heart. Again the issue that was in place that brought the whole thing into being. He arrogantly says I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? Am I supposed to take care of my brother? And that was the wrong answer. It really sealed his fate. You know I wonder if there's any sin in your life in my life that we're not talking to God about. Is there any issue that he walks with you and asks you about from time to time?

What about this? What about that person? What about that relationship? Cain murdered first in his heart and then in his deed. Have you murdered in your heart? Have I murdered in my heart? This is why Jesus said I believe that Satan was a murderer and a liar from the beginning. It's Cain a murderer and then covers it up with a lie. In verse 10 he says what have you done? Your brother's blood cries out to me. This is an idea that's repeated over and over in the Bible. In Numbers 35 it says that the unpunished murderers defile the land.

They defile the land. And in verse 11 and 12 God brings the curse unto Cain. He banishes him from that land. He sends him out as a fugitive. He says to him that your father, all other men's work is toilsome, that that the harvest comes with labor, yours is going to be next to impossible. And the truth is that punishment always follows sin. The Bible says do not be deceived. God is not mocked. A man will reap what he sows. If we sin there's going to be punishment that follows. This is was so recognized in the Jewish culture that in the Hebrew language the same word is used for sin as is used for punishment.

The same word. It was so understood that the two were linked together in a way that can't be extracted from one another. That to say that someone is sinned is also to say that punishment is with it. To say that someone is punished is also to say that sin was the cause. Cain didn't feel bad about his sin, only about his punishment. He complains to God about the punishment. He never does repent. All he does is complain. One of the consequences of sin is it make that it makes the sinner punish himself instead of causing him to turn to God.

One of the first signs of a new life in Christ is that the person takes sides with God against himself. He takes side with God against himself. Well he says that you're going to be a fugitive. Who does he fear? How many people in the face of the earth, right? Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. Abel's gone. Does he think his mother and father are going to kill him? Well you know it's interesting. I did some math. If this happened at 130 years old and if you assume that Eve started bearing children and had one a year, and I guess that's probable, 1 that 1 would 1 that's 1 some 1 scary 1 thought, 1 isn't it?

That's a Can you imagine those Thanksgiving dinners? Uh guess he didn't have Thanksgiving yet, did they? Well anyway. But I did some quick math and by the time 130 years went by, in all probability if everybody had 20 in 20 years, 20 those 20 have 20, those 20 have 20 and you know what that would look like? I came up with 3.2 million within the first 130 years. So what we're looking at here isn't three people. There's a lot of people that could have killed him. Uh verse 15 he says that if anyone hurts you, kills you seven times punishment will follow that man.

Even here God exhibits his love for Cain in the judgment in that he limits what can be done to him. In verse 16 it says that he moves to Nod and this was an area known for raising eggs where egg Nod came from. It's Christmas. Egg Nod. Don't anybody nod off, okay? I want to make sure I get done with those in before the They want you to miss out on those. Cain's wife becomes pregnant. Who did he marry? Well with 3.2 million at least and that don't don't use that as a firm number by the way.

Uh but with a lot of people it would have been a relative for sure. Maybe a sister, maybe a niece. Uh it would have been some relation. It's obvious that in the beginning this gene pool was obviously pure. Inbreeding was not prohibited by God. It could not have been. It's also interesting even Abraham married his half sister that by that time the gene pool was still probably pure enough that inbreeding could take place. By the time Moses comes along God prohibits it. And again probably because the gene pool started to become corrupt to a point where it would have caused problems.

In verse 19 we read about this man named Lamech. Lamech married two women. He's the first bigamist. If anybody ever says to you where did this thing come from in the Old Testament that men could marry more than one woman, it's Lamech. It's where it came from. It was not God's plan. God's plan was one man, one woman. Lamech blew that. He goes ahead and disregards God's plan. The names of his wives are very telling. Ada means pleasure, ornament or beauty. Zillah means shade, shade which they say probably because of the context refers to her beautiful hair.

The daughter Naamah means loveliness, loveliness. And what it tells us is that even in Lamech's culture, even at this time it was focused on the on the physical and outward beauty of an attractiveness of people. Isn't that amazing? Even back second generation it's the focus, the external, the physical beauty of people. Haven't we made incredible strides since our Neanderthal forefathers? And talking about Neanderthal forefathers, look at what his sons did. His son Jubal, third generation in, invents the harp and the lute. His other brother Tubal-Cain starts the metal forging business. Interesting. Some of the reading that I did said that they had thought that the Iron Age only started 1200 BC and recently discovered that it goes back to line up with the Bible.

Nice of them to do that. In verse 23 it says one day Lamech said to Ada and Zillah listen to me my wives. I have killed a youth who attacked and wounded me. If anyone who kills Cain is to be punished seven times, anyone who takes revenge against me will be punished 70 seven times. It's very interesting here that the amplified Bible says I have slain a man for merely wounding me and a young boy and the real word there is child. And I've slain a child for striking and bruising me. That the first murder was someone in a fit of rage and passion.

This second murder that we know about is a man who kills two, one for wounding him and another a child for bruising him. And then on top of that he takes the vengeance in his own hands and says that anyone that attacks me because of this will be punished 77 times. Shows the fast slide of mankind into depravity. In verse 25 uh Seth is born and it's also interesting that Lamech has never heard from again for all the the beauty and all of the accomplishments of his sons. That generation is never heard from again. And in verse 25 Seth is born and Eve says God has granted me another son in place of Abel, the one Cain killed.

When Seth grew up he had a son and named Enosh. It was during his lifetime that people first began to worship the Lord. But I would like to close with asking you this question. Is there any sin You know when you get to sin it always your involves relationship, almost always the deep seated issues. Not that there aren't other issues and struggles and temptations and trials in our life, but the things that really cause pain are almost always relational. Is there any relational issue in your life that you're hiding from God? Is there any sin?

Is there any relationship that he comes alongside of you from time to time and walks alongside of you and starts asking you questions about What about that? What about him? What about her? Do you really think God doesn't know about it? You know it's so interesting when I go to God in prayer so many times I just keep something from him and then finally I confess it and the moment I confess it it happens the same. I'm so so small. Every time I confess it immediately I realized that he knew about it all the time.

It's like up until then I don't think he did. But the moment I confess it Oh yeah he did he knew about and you just come clean. You know maybe there's something it's time to come clean to God about.

Guest (Male): Don't let anything get in between you and God. Come clean and be cleansed. Then you'll be able to enjoy true freedom. We're studying Genesis right now with pastor Tom Keller on study the word. You can hear this message again by going to ccleb .com. Again we're at ccleb .com. There are many other messages for your growth and edification there too. Or call and request a CD copy at 717 507 7862. That's 717 507 7862. Thanks for remembering that study the word is a Lester supported ministry. We look to listeners like you to help us provide these Bible studies on your station every day.

Here's where to write. Study the word 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046 or call 717 507 7862. Tom Keller is a senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Lebanon and if you're in the area we hope you'll come by for a visit. For directions and service times go to ccleb .com. When you get a chance download our free Android app. Search Calvary Chapel Lebanon in the Google Play Store. Thanks for studying the word with pastor Tom Keller. We'll get back into Genesis with pastor Tom next time. We hope you can join us.