Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copies and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
THE GENESIS OF DEATH
From the beginning of time, immediately after the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, death has been a relentless hound on the heels of every man. The first murder in the Bible was committed when brother rose against brother and Cain killed Abel. The story of that incident carries some great lessons for each of us.
Genesis 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
Eve had been created from the rib of Adam. Adam had been formed of the dust of the earth and God breathed life into him. Thus, both Adam and Eve had not known what it was like to be born, to grow as a child, to learn and become an adult. Their very first day of life was as a perfect adult with superior intellectual ability, living in a land of perfect harmony, beauty and peace. They knew what it was to take a walk with God in the cool of the day, every day. God had created them to have companionship and to have someone who would love and serve him gladly.
From that perfect world they fell. Sin entered and everything changed immediately. They were cast from the Garden, never to see it again. They lost their eternal life and life became a hard taskmaster instead of a joyous existence. They went out, driven away by God’s holiness, righteousness and justice.
Can we even begin to imagine how the heart of God must have been broken that day? Adam and Eve, created as the first children of God, were disowned for their rebelliousness and cast out of the family of God, away from the face of God. Where once they had walked with God face to face, now they no longer saw his face. The love of God that had burned into their hearts as God spoke with them had turned to judgment for sin and now they felt his anger as they walked away in fear, with tears flowing from their eyes, from gates of Eden.
Even though they faced God’s judgment, they still experienced his mercy and grace. Thank God for that mercy and grace. There eternal life was lost but they were given time, in the natural body, to learn and to suffer for the sin they had committed.
I wonder what their thoughts may have been? Would God just allow them to go on their own for their disobedience? Would God turn his back on them and leave them to their own devices? How could they make it in such a hostile world without God? I still wonder those same questions today. How can anyone go through life without Jesus. I am so glad that Jesus lives within my heart. I am so grieved by those who don’t know Him.
Eve brought forth a son. Her firstborn was named Cain. Most scholars of the Bible agree that Cain and Abel were actually twins but that Cain was born first, then Abel. God’s command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth was still in effect. Can you imagine her joy as she realized that God had not totally abandoned them after all.
Genesis 4:2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
In the beginning, after their exit from the garden, God saw to it that man had some back-breaking work to do. God knew that hard work leaves less room for the evil mind and heart to do its mischief.
I think that a large part of the sin that grips our nation is produced in the heart of man because he has too much unoccupied time on his hands when he can think of evil things to do. We all love leisure time, and we don’t seen to have enough of it, but I think that God has designed life to be a busy life so that the evil that men create will be somewhat limited.
One old saying puts it this way, “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”
When God told Adam that he would earn his living by the sweat of his brow, that’s exactly what he meant. There were no desk jobs or inside work inside the cool buildings and caves. Adam and Eve were gardeners. They had originally been given the task of tending the Garden of Eden. One of the most satisfying types of work that you can do is to see seeds grow and watch the plants produce fruit. It’s satisfying but its very hard, very hot work to be a gardener and keep the shrubs all looking nice and lawn mowed.
Their sons, Cain and Abel, were also employed in back-breaking work. Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. Both of these jobs carried with them a lot of hard labor. Most Bible teachers that I have studied also agree on this point. Both Cain and Abel were farmers because they had to raise their own crops to feed the family but Abel added sheep to his farm and not just crops of the field.
Thus we come to the next part of the scripture portion.
Genesis 4:3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
This was an offering of Thanksgiving unto God for the great harvest that God had given. After such hard work and effort it is always a happy time to see the fruit of your labor as the food is gathered in. Adam’s family still knew of God and even in their sinful state they attempted to please God. God never left them but continued to supply what they needed for survival.
It must be a testimony to the really wonderful life that awaits those who love Jesus when you think of the joys, happy times and good times that we enjoy now, even when the whole world is under the curse of death as a result of God’s judgment. How wonderful it will be to walk with the Lord again when sin and death have been destroyed forever!
Genesis 4:4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Scholars agree that both Cain and Abel brought forth an offering of thanksgiving unto God for their great harvest. These offerings were meant to praise God and worship him but God could not accept offerings that were brought from the cursed ground.
Prayers from an unrepentant heart; worship from the lips and not the heart; half-hearted service to God; giving of our possessions and wealth; and the show of our talents in a way that brings honor to our own ego, are not acceptable offerings to God. They are offerings from a cursed sinful nature. How can God accept that which has been cursed by sin as an offering of any kind?
Genesis 4:5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Whether both Cain and Abel brought offerings from the field isn’t the important fact here. The important thing to remember is that Abel brought an offering of life and blood that said to God, “I know that I’m not worthy and the work of my hands is not acceptable as an offering because of the sin nature in my heart, but I offer the blood of this innocent lamb in repentance and humility. Perhaps God will accept this offering.”
This is one the first verses in the Bible that specifically points to the coming Messiah and the Lamb of God that would be slain for the sin of mankind.
Cain’s face fell! A huge frown came across his face and his bottom lip hit the ground as he began to pout and get angry with God! He went around with his lips all poked out in anger against God! One of those snake eggs we spoke about last Friday night was being planted in his mind and it wouldn’t be long until it would hatch out into a murderous viper!
How dare God not accept my offering! How dare God reject me and then accept Abel’s sheep! That’s not fair!
Genesis 4:6-7, “And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
God was trying, just as he still does today, to get into the heart of Cain and reason with him concerning his mistake. God was giving Cain a time to confess and make it right but Cain would not.
God’s words to Cain carry a warning to each of us.
Don’t get mad if I reject your offering to me! Learn from it and do it right the next time and it will be all right. If you don’t learn from your mistakes, then sin hangs around the door to your heart, just waiting for you to open up and let him in. He desires to rule over your heart and destroy your life. Don’t be angry with your brother. It’s not his fault that you were rejected.
Abel’s heart was right. He wanted to help Cain to please God. If Cain had responded correctly to God’s words, he would have had an acceptable offering the next time and he would still have been looked up to as the older brother with the birthright. But Cain would not listen, just like so many people we know.
Genesis 4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
What a tragedy this was. This not only was the first murder, but this was the very first time that any man, made in the image of God, had died. Death’s sting in the body of flesh was felt. Spiritual death had already come but we have a way of forgetting about that as long as this body still has life. We forget that this body is nothing more than the dust of the earth with the breath of life from God still in it. When God withdraws the spirit and takes back the breath of life, we become nothing more than a lump of glorified dirt once more and the body returns to the dust from which it was made.
How quickly we see the hand of Satan already at work in the hearts of men. Not only did he bring Spiritual death to Adam and all mankind but, less than one generation from the state of perfection that was the Garden of Eden, we see him bring about the physical death that has plagued mankind ever since.
One day that power of death shall be broken. One day there will be no more dying, no more graves, no more leaving our loved ones in a cemetery to never see them again. No! One day soon Jesus, who has already taken the keys of death and hell from the devil, will shake them in his face in victory. Death and the grave will be cast into the Lake of Fire too. That’s when eternal life will reign forever under the power of the Resurrection!
This was the Genesis of Death. It came through the curse of sin and will only be destroyed by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with power and glory!
Genesis 4:9 – 10, “And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.”
Even in his condition as a murderer, God was giving Cain one last chance to turn around. The love of God for man knows no bounds but God knows when the heart of a man has gone too far and grown too hard to ever turn back to him in repentance. Cain had reached that point!
God’s love reached out to Cain for a confession of his sin. God already knew where Abel was and what Cain had done. His eyes see everything. He knows the heart of every man. There is nothing hidden from him.
But Cain only became more arrogant. “How should I know where Abel is. You’re God, you should already know. Besides, it isn’t my day to keep up with him.”
God knew that there was no repentance for Cain! Abel’s blood had returned to the ground and now the ground cried out to God on Abel’s behalf.
Jesus spoke of the voice of his creation in Luke 19:40 when he said, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
The earth was never meant to receive the blood of man. God had taken man from it to live forever and the earth was unprepared to receive it back. The very ground, where the blood of Abel fell, cried out to the great Creator in anguish as it was forced to take back what it did not want to receive.
Genesis 4:11-14, “And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.”
Such is the power of un-repented sin in the heart of a man. It condemns him to a life that is unfulfilling and desperate. It condemns him to separation from the love of God, the face of God and the presence of God in his life. It becomes a great gulf that cannot be crossed over and hopelessness rules in the heart. Fear grips the heart of the unbeliever. They become like a fugitive on the run from the law with no place for rest, no place for peace, ever hounded by their own condemning heart.
Who can bear this condemnation? Who can bear the flames of Hell? Who can fathom the depths of despair of a lost soul in the Lake of Fire?
Just as Cain rejected God’s last opportunity for him to repent and was destined to roam in exile, in the Land of Nod, for the rest of his life and to spend eternity in the flames of hell upon his natural death, there is no escape for those who continue to reject the Lord Jesus as their Savior and die in their sin.
Cain was afraid of dying. What he didn’t understand is that he was already a dead man walking. His travels to eternal death and physical death had already begun. When the vapor of his life was over he would only then realize just how far from God he had gone.
Genesis 4:15, “And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.”
It is a testimony to the loving grace of God that he still deals with, protects and provides for those who reject him. God marks that man who rejects him, just as he marks those that are his. Revelation speaks of the Mark of the Beast and God’s mark, or Seal, upon those that are his. God knows where every heart of man is destined but he provides for the unjust and the just alike.
What was that mark upon Cain?
Some say it was a horn in his forehead: others, a leprosy in his face; others, a wild ghastly look; others, a shaking and trembling in all his limbs; and others, that there was an earthquake wherever he stepped: and others will have it, that the dog which guarded Abel’s flock was given him to accompany him in his travels, and when the dog barked it was to warn others that he was not to be attacked. Some say it was a letter imprinted on his forehead.
Whatever the sign was, it was easily seen, so that Cain’s earthly life would be spared until God took it away. It was all for a short time though, for Cain’s life would be soon over and he would face judgment.
Genesis 4:16, “And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.”
Cain was forever separated from the presence of God in the same fashion that he had always known it. He had gone too far and there was no turning back now.
He went out east of Eden, toward the same direction that the coming Messiah and King of Kings would appear in the last days. It was as though he was already rushing headlong to that final judgment and his eternal destiny.
He was a nomad, roaming the desert sands, trying to scratch out a living on his own in unfertile ground until the day he died. But, he never spoke to God again as a loving God, only as his righteous judge.
The Genesis of Death had begun and it continues to this day. Billions upon Billions of souls have followed Cain into the jaws of hell. Don’t be one of those who are eternally lost and separated from God. Turn back to God while there is still time. He is still asking you, “Where is your brother?” What have you done with your Elder Brother, Jesus Christ? Have you chosen to be among those who screamed for his crucifixion, or have you confessed your sin to him and been adopted as an heir with him.”
