Matthew 24, verse 37, if you have a
red letter edition of the Word of God,
these words are out of the mouth of
Jesus.
But as the days of Noah were, so
shall also the coming of the Son of
Man be.
For as in the days that were before
the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, until the day that
Noah entered into the ark.
And knew not, verse 39 reads, until the
flood came and took them all away.
And here's that important phrase, so shall also
the coming of the Son of Man be.
This morning, I would like for you to
think with me on this thought, the words
of Cain, the doubt of Cain, the church
of Cain, the way of Cain.
And this morning, the words, what came out
of Cain's mouth.
In Genesis 4, let's go to the Old
Testament now, and let's read the fourth chapter
again, to refresh our memory.
Genesis 4, verse 1, And Adam knew Eve
his wife, and she conceived, and bare Cain.
And when Cain was born, this is what
she said, I have gotten a man from
the Lord.
Verse 2, And she again bare his brother
Abel.
One conception do we read here in this
passage, but two births.
Apparently, Cain and Abel were twin brothers.
So we have the story presented, and Abel
was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was
a tiller of the ground.
And in the process of time, it came
to pass that Cain brought of the fruit
of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
And Abel, he also brought of the firstling
of his flock, and of the fat thereof.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and
to his offering.
But unto Cain, and to his offering, he
had no respect.
And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance
failed.
We read on into that chapter, and we
find out a murder takes place.
Chad, there was somebody there who got so
angry, they killed someone.
Cain becomes a killer.
Abel dies.
The words of Cain obviously had power and
influence.
In Genesis chapter 3, we have the account
giving us of what's going to take place.
In Genesis 3.15, we have the promise
of a Savior.
There's going to be help for fallen men.
Genesis 3.15, we have the curse of
Satan.
In Genesis 3.15, we have evidence of
natural entity, or there's a warfare between God
and Satan.
There's a natural resistance in my flesh against
snakes.
That's normal.
That's natural.
Human beings and snakes do not get along
very well.
There's something natural about that.
If I had a seven-foot king cobra
in my left hand, and a five-foot
rattlesnake in this hand, and I just walked
down this aisle and said, who would like
to have a cobra or a rattlesnake?
Normal people would be leaving the building.
You bring a snake up on me, and
I'm going to hurt you and your snake.
Could I get a witness on that?
There's just something natural there.
We don't get along.
You say, well, so-and-so on TV.
Those people on TV handling snakes are crazy.
They got them out of the locked-up
rubber room and put them with snakes.
And they're glad to do that.
Or either they're smoking wacky weed.
I don't know.
But it's not normal.
And what Genesis 3.15 is saying, that
there's a normal resistance between Satan and God,
a natural entity.
And that was established there.
And we find out that there's a promise
of a Savior.
And notice this, that that serpent, the snake,
that one of these days, the seed of
the woman, Genesis 3.15, is going to
crush the head of the serpent.
That the Savior is going to conquer the
devil.
He's already conquered.
Now, there's also phrasing in there about the
bruising of the heel.
But that's temporary.
That's calvary.
That's three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth.
But that's temporary.
That picture they just showed Brother Jerry on
his gift certificate, it's a picture of the
empty tomb.
There's a door there.
And Brother Jerry, what does it say on
the door of your gift certificate there?
It's got a picture.
He's not here.
That's what it says on the door.
It was temporary.
A temporary bruising.
But when He's crushed, that's going to be
for all eternity.
The joy of knowing God.
In Genesis 4.3, it says that Cain
and Abel, in the process of time, in
the original language in the Hebrew, that process
of time gives connotation to the fact that
when they became responsible, when Cain and when
Abel became responsible for acting in personal faith,
when they achieved that knowledge that they've got
to answer to God themselves, then it was
Cain talking religion.
It was Cain's words.
Cain was saying, we need to worship God.
Cain was saying, we need to have a
service.
Cain was saying, we need to give an
offering.
Cain was the religious one.
He suggested this activity.
In Genesis 3.21, we find the evidence
of blood being shed for salvation.
We have God's example.
Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, and
they discovered that they were now without clothing,
and God had to clothe them.
And the only way He could clothe them
was something had to die, and an animal
was killed, and He made clothes for them
out of the skin of that animal.
Here's a little sidebar that will make you
read and do a little research when you
get home.
Are unicorns real?
Have you ever read about a unicorn?
That mysterious animal in the shape of a
horse with one antler?
Some of the old Bible writers used to
say that the animal that God killed in
the garden was the unicorn.
He killed the male and the female, and
therefore there are no more unicorns.
Where did this image come from?
Adam and Eve told their children about how
they looked and drew them pictures, and we
don't have them anymore.
They don't exist because of sin.
It's an interesting sidebar.
Other Bible scholars say that we don't know
how many animals were there with Adam and
Eve, that there were many elephants, many tigers,
many lions, many sheep, and so God could
have set the precedent of the lamb being
slain that was carried all the way through.
Abel offered a lamb.
In the book of Exodus 12, a lamb,
the lamb, your lamb, ultimately the Calvary, God's
lamb.
Either way, it doesn't matter.
We know blood had to be shed.
That's the important lesson, and that sin costs.
Sin is always expensive.
The illustration today for us is that Adam
and Eve were a pattern for their son.
The sons, Cain and Abel, had to be
taught how to worship God, and in Genesis
4, 3, we come back to this thought.
It was Cain's idea.
Cain led the way to church, and when
they got to church, Cain brought of the
fruit of the ground.
He brought the harvest.
He brought flowers.
He brought his efforts, his hard work, his
toiling, his sweating, because that ground is cursed,
and he brought all of that in and
presented it to God.
Now, what you've got to remember is God's
word is life.
Cain's words, that's man's words, they are death.
Remember, God's got a way, and man has
a way, or Cain has a way.
God's way is obedience.
Cain's way is disobedience.
God's word is truth.
Cain's words are lies.
God's words offer help.
Cain's words offer hurt.
Cain's words offer separation.
God's words offer reunion and reconciliation.
God's word is hope.
Cain's word is hopelessness.
There's a great difference in the words of
men and the words of God.
Genesis 4-5, something powerful happens now.
Notice what happened.
Cain brought his offering of the ground, and
when he brought his offering, God had no
respect, Larry, to Cain.
But God didn't stop there in that Bible.
I'm always amazed at how God is so
emphatic and specific, and God said, I no
longer have respect for you, Cain, you disobeyed
my word.
I have no respect for your offering.
He disrespected Cain, and he disrespected his offering.
You know what Cain was thinking?
Cain was thinking, you know what, Mom and
Dad are out of touch.
They said the only way to please God
is with a blood sacrifice.
They're the old generation.
I'm a new generation.
I've got new ideas and new ways to
worship God.
So Cain said, let me bring my new
approach.
Let me bring my new method.
Let me bring my new way.
Let me bring my new words.
It doesn't matter what I say, just so
I'm sincere.
It doesn't matter what I do, just so
I'm sincere.
All paths lead to God.
It doesn't matter if I take the garden
path or if I take the path of
a blood sacrifice.
All paths lead to God.
And Cain presented his new ways, his new
thoughts, his new ideas.
And he said, I will impress God.
I'll change God's thinking.
I'll convince God that we need a new
way to do it for this generation.
What used to work in 50 years ago
or 100 years ago, that'll never work today,
God.
We're too sophisticated today.
We have more intelligence today.
We have more technology today.
What worked 100 years ago, that'll never work
today.
Why you can't sing a song from 50
years ago and expect any teenager to be
listening to a song that's 50 years old.
That just won't work, God.
We need to have a new way to
impress God.
And we need a way to change God's
word so it won't be so uncomfortable for
today's society.
Let's take it down a notch.
Let's take the edge off the sword.
Let's take the abrasiveness off of absolutely right
and absolutely wrong.
God's word, Cain's word.
God's way, man's way.
Surely there's a margin of let's all get
along in the middle.
Where we can feel good about ourselves.
Genesis 3.17 says that the ground is
cursed.
That because of sin and disobedience, the ground
is cursed.
So what did Cain do with his words?
He said, well, I know what God said,
but I've got a better way.
And so he ran over to the garden
and he said, I'm going to get a
harvest out of the ground.
I'll get corn and beans and tomatoes and
peppers.
And I'll bring a beautiful offering of the
toil of my labor.
Matter of fact, I've been experimenting with hybrids.
And I'm actually producing larger watermelons than Adam
and Eve ever grew.
My cantaloupes are sweeter.
I've got larger cucumbers and my tomatoes have
no acid.
I am actually a lot smarter than another
generation.
And I'll bring all of my offerings and
my fruit and my apples and my oranges.
And I'll all bring them up here to
God.
And I'll decorate it with flowers out of
my garden.
I have a fruit garden.
I have a vegetable garden.
I have a flower garden.
And the Word of God said in Genesis
3.17 that the ground is cursed.
And Cain walked over to the garden and
he got cursed ground and cursed product with
a cursed fall of nature.
And he brought a curse to cure a
curse.
God said, I have no respect for that.
I have no respect for you.
You didn't listen to me.
You didn't believe me.
And Abel's over there at the edge of
the woods crying.
Saying, I ought to go to hell.
The way I have been born into this
world.
All I've got, God's given me.
I don't even have any power to grow
the grass in the field.
I can't make the water fall to water
the grass.
I can't make the sun to shine.
Everything I have is a gift.
My lambs are heaven lambs.
And my lamb's lambs are heaven lambs.
And God's blessed my flock.
I don't know what I'm going to do.
God's so good to me.
Everything I have is a gift from God.
He said, I'm going to take what God
gave me.
I'm going to take part of it back
over and lay it on the altar.
And I'm going to give a blood sacrifice,
a sin offering.
And God said, boy, I like that.
He knows.
He didn't do it.
And he respected his offering.
And he respected Abel.
And he didn't respect Cain.
And he didn't respect Cain's offering.
Now, if you don't hear anything else I
say, you listen quietly and attentively right here.
The first time we find wrath, anger in
the word of God, we find it right
here.
Cain's words are found in Genesis 4, 5.
Cain was very wroth.
And his countenance failed.
Was it God's fault he had no respect?
Was it God's fault his offering was not
received?
He disobeyed God.
God said, this is the way you do
it.
This is the way you have church.
And he ignored it.
Now he's mad.
And the very first time we see that
he's wroth, or he has wrath, he has
anger, he's mad over church.
Now, you think about this statement.
The very first time we have anger discussed
in the Bible, it's about worship.
The first time we see a record of
man's anger or wrath, it is over religion.
Can you imagine that?
Cain was mad in church.
God wasn't doing it the way he thought
it ought to be done.
He did not submit to God's leadership.
He did not humble himself to God.
But it doesn't stop there.
In this particular instance, guess who his pastor
is?
Adam.
Do you believe in God's order?
God's in heaven?
He had a son, Jesus, came to this
earth.
Jesus went back to heaven and he said,
I am the head.
You say, born again, you are the body
of Christ.
The head's in heaven.
The body's on earth.
He said, I want you to love me
as a bride loves her husband, as a
bridegroom loves his bride.
Hey, he said, that's the comparison.
As a man loves a woman, a woman
loves a man.
There ought to be romance between earth and
heaven.
He said, I am the head of the
church.
He said, man is the head of the
home.
And he said, I want you to have
your worship in order and I want you
to have your home in order so your
life will be in order.
God is the head of Adam.
Adam is the head of Eve.
Eve is the head of her children.
Jesus is the head of the body.
The pastor is the under shepherd or the
head of the church.
And the parents are the head of the
home.
And you know what happened here?
His pastor was Adam and Adam and Eve
said, boys, we sinned in the garden.
We went against God.
We listened to the lies of the devil.
We went against God's word.
It cost us broken fellowship.
It caused the ground to be cursed.
It caused woman to have to have labor
for reproduction.
It caused thorns to come on roses.
It caused weeds to grow in the garden.
He said, you don't want to do it
your way.
Always do it God's way.
And Adam preached.
And Cain didn't listen.
And Abel did listen.
You've got to see the illustration.
The first church that any of us attended
was the church of the home.
God doesn't expect you to bring your kids,
your children, your grandchildren to the house of
God and for the church to correct them
because you're not doing it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
You can't take your kids to a Christian
school on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
and expect them to do miracles that you
will not do at home and on the
weekend.
The first church is the home.
Cain said, you know what I think about
my mom and daddy?
I love them.
They're good people, but they're out of touch.
They're old timers.
They're old fashioned in their thinking and they're
old fashioned in their ways.
And they need to understand that this is
a different day and a different generation.
And we've got to change church to make
it fit the congregation rather than to get
the people to fit the hand of a
holy God.
Cain began to preach his message and he
began to live it.
And then he began to say, I want
my way.
And God's way was ignored.
He began to talk about his self-esteem,
his self-importance, his opinion.
And God was over there thinking all have
sinned and come short of the glory.
Cain's talking about his efforts and his works
and how that if he doesn't participate, it
won't happen the way it should happen because
he is so gifted and so talented.
And God's over there thinking about it has
nothing to do with works.
It's all about grace.
Cain's over there talking about ritual and God's
way is able over there.
He's thinking about the reality of what's going
to happen.
Hebrews 9.22, and without shedding of blood
is no remission.
Hebrews chapter 10 and verse number 4, for
it is not possible that the blood of
bulls and of goats should not take away
sins.
Bull blood can't save us.
Sheep blood cannot save us.
Because Aster Calvary, Jesus was the Lamb of
God, one sacrifice once and for all.
Your works cannot save you.
Neither can your works change you.
Even after salvation.
You listen right here.
Religion cannot save your soul.
Ritual, customs, culture, classes, catechism, candles, cathedrals, churches,
priests, preachers, and rabbis cannot save your eternal,
never dying soul.
Religion and ritual cannot change your life.
Customs and culture cannot give you a reason
or a purpose for life.
Churches, cathedrals, and temples cannot keep you out
of hell.
Priests and rabbis and ministers cannot clean up
your life.
There is not one ritual or religious routine
that can comfort you in the middle of
the night when your world is crashing in
and you're fighting the demons of darkness.
Only God who's alive and well can comfort
and keep your heart and soul and mind
in peace with Him.
The words of Cain will not help.
Jesus' words are life.
He said, I am the way.
No man shall see the Father but by
me.
Cain's over here saying, it doesn't matter which
way you go.
Doesn't matter what path you take.
You can believe in this God or this
demigod or this mental process or this meditation
or this new age philosophy.
It doesn't matter.
Just so you're sincere, all paths lead to
God.
Old Cain's out here.
He's still talking trash.
He's still spreading his lies.
Cain's words have changed the truth to fit
and make comfortable the people of today.
Just so you're sincere, it's okay.
Cain led the way in religion.
Cain's words are religious words.
Genesis 4-3, Cain brought an offering unto
the Lord.
Genesis 4-7, God gives Cain another opportunity
to repent.
In Genesis 4-7, he says, listen, I
disrespect that.
I have no respect for you.
I have no respect for your offering.
But if you will bring a sin offering,
in the seventh verse of chapter 4, he
gives him another opportunity.
And you know what's happening here today?
It's the same thing.
God gives us another opportunity to get right
with him over and over again.
But one day, we will encounter the last
opportunity.
The sin offering is at the door of
the tabernacle of worship.
God's warning is out here today.
Cain's words, Cain's advice, Cain's spirit, Cain's criticism,
Cain's attitudes will produce spiritual death.
There's no victory in that.
Are you an unbeliever today?
Are you lost?
Then the words of Cain you need to
understand are not true.
If you're lost, you cannot redeem yourself.
If you're an unbeliever today, you've never trusted
the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to know
that Cain's words will cost you your soul.
You do need a Savior, and there's only
one.
Are you an unbeliever today?
Are you lost?
Have you been trusting in ritual, routine, religious
activity?
Have you been going through the motions over
and over again?
Well, I need you to know that the
Cain message will not keep you for eternity.
Cain's words are death.
The only thing that can save your soul
is that you know that the Lamb died
for Abel.
There was a blood sacrifice, and God's Lamb,
the Lord Jesus Christ, died for your sins.