Gospel—B. Brockmeier
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Let's open with #20 Behold the Savior at the door. He gently knocks, has knocked before, has waited long, is waiting still you use no other friends, so we'll open the door. He'll enter in and Sup with you, and you with him #20.
Like to begin first with Hebrews chapter 4.
Just to continue on with some of the thoughts we had this afternoon, this morning as to the importance of the Word of God, I would just like to open with these two scriptures in Hebrews 4 and verse 12. For the Word of God is quick, or is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts.
And intents.
Of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Each one of us has to do with God. That's what this scripture tells us. And.
How important it is that we have to do with him now in the day of God's grace ere we have to deal with him in judgment, when there will be only wrath dispensed in that coming day. But this is the day of God's grace and the way in which God would bring man into blessing is through this blessed book, the Word of God. It is living, that is it has the capacity and power to impart life to your dark and soul. Your for your far from God. If you are without the Savior tonight and you need life and we have the word of God.
That is able to impart life to you and is powerful. I will carry this book down with you, perhaps on the college campus, perhaps down the street, and see if any book gets a reaction from others. As this blessed book know, it's powerful and this book has the power to change lives. That's why it's troubling sometimes to see those that profess the name of Christ and we don't see a life change, a new direction, new motives, new objects, because the word of God is powerful and it changes. If one is reading it, it will change.
Our life. And it's sharper than any two edged sword. It slices both ways.
But notice it says piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. We had something of that this afternoon, the soul and the spirit. There may be, and I'm thinking now of when the Lord Jesus was going to the cross.
There were the women of Jerusalem that wept, and from a certain level we can appreciate that. They could feel for Mary and the loss of her son, her first born. They could see this man who was a good man. From all accounts, he was a man that was going forward to be crucified, and they wept.
The Lord Jesus could turn to them and say, Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. His heart was on them. And there may even be a point where one comes to the point of tears with respect to the death of the Lord Jesus, all that he suffered, the cruelty, the agony.
That man hurled against him and be moved in an emotional way to the point of tears. And I know of some that have been moved to tiers not too many months ago at work and hearing about a certain film that they had seen. But the spirit wasn't moved. There was a certain emotion that responded to her graphic scene. But the Word of God would come in and divide between soul and spirit. That is what is simply the emotion of man's natural feeling. And what about the spirit that has to do with God?
No, we're not here tonight to simply seek to move the emotions because we all have to do with God and the word of God would divide between that he knows where you at are at in your soul and of the joints and marrow. That which would even within our soul, that which is unseen, the movements and the impressions. Only God's eye can zero in beneath that facade that you may put up in front of you and see exactly where you're at in your soul. I often think there in Luke 15 where we have the.
Three-part story there of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost boy. But there the work of the Spirit of God is likened to a woman sweeping the house. She has her light, she has her candle, and she has a broom to stir things up. But it's all within the context of the home. It's what is not seen outwardly, and that's the work of the Spirit of God that goes on within your soul. Now and then perhaps we can get an idea where someone is at by looking at their countenance, by looking at their conduct.
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But in the final analysis, it is only God that can look into your heart and see what's going on there.
And what to God there was a little stirring up with. To God there was a little exercise and a little earnestness. Oh, the great sin of our day is indifference to Christ, indifference to this blessed book. Well, He sees the joints in the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. What we know from the 139th Psalm, that God knows all our thoughts, and He understands them afar off. And here we find He not only knows your thoughts and my thoughts, but He knows our motives.
He knows our intents. He knows why we have done what we've done. He knows those inner springs that move us.
And animate us were laid bare before the presence of God and it's the word of God that would come in and have to do with our with our souls. Now verse 13 neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened or laid bare under the eyes of him with whom we have to do we sometimes say so and so reads them like an open book. Well, God reads us like an open book. It's all laid bare.
We may fall one or the other, but we can't fool God. He knows exactly where we're at in our hearts tonight, and He knows exactly where you are with respect to His beloved Son. For whatever else may be said tonight, it all boils down to this one point. What think ye of Christ?
Unto you therefore which belief he is precious now, if you cannot say.
In sincerity and truth. Amen. He is precious to me. Your lost. You're not saved because the breathing of the new life that God gives is love for the Savior. It doesn't matter what your outward conduct might be in a positive way. Is Christ precious to your heart. While I just bring this in at the beginning here to emphasize the importance of the word of God because I would like to turn back to a passage in the Old Testament.
About two boys. We know them well, raised in the same home.
With God fearing parents raised with the same privileges but their eternities, how different?
I was speaking to my father one time. I had read this, uh, little story about, uh, this family and the Civil War and, and, uh, one of the boys went S to the Confederacy and one boy went N to the Union. And here was two brothers on opposite sides fighting each other. My father simply said, well, it started off early in man's history, didn't it? And that's who I'd like to speak about tonight, Cain and Abel. But before I turn back to Genesis 4, let's turn to Hebrews Chapter 11.
Because both these men are spoken twice, I believe, in the New Testament.
And how different?
Their endings Hebrews Chapter 11 and verse 4. By faith, Abel offered unto a God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous God, testifying of his gifts.
And by it, he being dead yet speaketh Abel is one that's marked by faith and marked by having a more excellent sacrifice. Isn't that one of the grand themes of the book of Hebrews? A more excellent sacrifice? That is the death of Christ, that which has security, eternal redemption for us. But we see here that Abel was one that was marked by faith. He had the right sacrifice. Now turn to the epistle.
Of Jude.
Jude takes up the ungodly men that crept in among the Saints.
That turned the grace of God into license. And in verse 11 we read, woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain. And so as we turn back to Genesis 4, I'd like to look a little tonight at the faith of Abel and the way of Cain.
Genesis 4 and Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bare Cain and said I have gotten a man from the Lord.
And she again bear his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
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And in process of time it came to pass that came broad of the fruit of the ground, and offering unto the Lord and Abel, he also brought the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect, and Abel into his offering, but unto Cain, and to his offering he had not respect.
And Cain was very raw, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said in the 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.
When Cain talked with Abel's brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother.
And slew him. And the Lord said in the cane, 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 enemy from the ground, and now thou art cursed from the earth.
Which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand? Well now, till us the ground 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. The old Thou has 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 everyone that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain.
Vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon King, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of nought on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived in their Enoch. And he builded a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch. And then Enoch was born Irad and Irad, Bigot, Mahujil and Mahuji, all Bigot Methuselah. And Methuselah begat Lamech, and Lamech took unto him two wives.
The name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other Zilla and Ada Bear Jabil. He was the father such as dwell in tents, and of such as half cattle, and his brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all such as handle the harp in Oregon and Zilla. She also Bertubal Kane, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron, and the sister of two volcanoes, Naama And Lamech said unto his wives, Ada and Zillah, hear my voice. She wives a Lamech hearken into my speech, for I have slain a man to my wounding, and the young man to my hurt.
If Keynes shall be Avenged Sevenfold truly Lamech 70 and sevenfold. And Adam knew his wife again, and Shibera's son, and called his name Seth. For God said, She hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
And itself. To him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos. Then began Min to call upon the name of the Lord.
The whole two boys, King and Abel, able, a keeper of sheep, Cain was a tiller of the ground. No doubt, as we had in the prior chapter, that when Adam and Eve had sinned, they were driven from the garden, but before they did, God clothed them with skin of an animal to cover their nakedness. Just a little hint, just a little picture, that in the presence of sin that death must come in, and that principle that would abide without the shedding of blood.
There is no remission, there is no forgiveness of sins apart from the blood of Christ. But how wonderful to know that the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
For you and I to be able to turn and to see the blood and water that flowed forth from the Saviors. Riven sighed. To see in that the forgiveness of our sins, that which met us in all of our need, in whom we have redemption through His blood. Even the forgiveness of sins will with perhaps that basic elementary understanding that death must come in, in order that as a result of sin, in order that they might be covered. The time came, as it says here in verse three, in process of time.
That they each brought an offering. This is expression and process. Process of time is an interesting one. It doesn't appear too often, but it seems to me to suggest this thought. That there are times in our life where things come to a head. They boil down. There may be things that have needed to be addressed and we just haven't got to it. But in process of time there comes a point it must be addressed. And perhaps you and I, even as believers, some of us, have had that time. You'll forgive the personal illustration, but I can remember a time for myself.
I was truly saved. I was at the Lord's table, but the word seemed to come to me from the Lord.
You've always had in your mind that you're gonna live for the Lord, but when are you gonna start? Oh, I was a Christian and maybe you're a Christian too. Maybe you're breaking bread, but perhaps the Spirit of God would impress with you, right? Uh, in you with your soul right now. When are you gonna begin the process of time? Are we just gonna go on in a, in a casual and different way, or have you come to that point and God had pleaded your soul right now to turn to him in earnestness and truth?
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Well, here came a testing time, and this is the first point. There's six points I'd like to notice here with respect to Cain. He brought the fruit of the ground.
It came from a cursed earth. In effect, Cain came to God in the position that he was not a Sinner, that the work of his hands was good enough, that he was bringing the best of his garden to present to the Lord, And God must be satisfied with that which was the best.
Remember some good many years ago, there was a man that would come to the campus and preach and he had a very aggressive, bold way of going about it and perhaps offensive too. But to be that as it may, he didn't lack on courage and he would aggressively go after students and faculty alike as he walked and back and forth on top of one of the benches there in the in the quad. And I remember being in a in a class after the lunch period and I heard someone back in the class saying to another.
He said well I choose to worship God as I please. That was his answer to the man that was preaching the gospel. Two things on that. The 1St is.
A young man that said it, I don't think had any regard or thought of worshipping God, period. But even if he had, even if he did, we do not do it as we please, Cain says. I'm gonna come to God on my terms. I'm gonna bring the best that God to God, the best that I can, and God is obligated to receive it.
But it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way again, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. So Cain came on the ground, bringing the food of a cursed earth. And it's not the works of our hands that gain the favor of God, not of works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. Oh, we can't earn Avon Byworks. It's the fruit of His mercy and His grace. For by grace are you safe through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.
Not of works, lest any man should boast. God will be the giver, and God will pour out his blessing on the one that simply says.
I'm a Sinner and I need thy salvation. So the first point here with Cain is that he brought a sacrifice, the fruit of his own hands from a cursed earth, in effect denying the fact that he was a Sinner. And I trust none here are in that position tonight where you are denying that most fundamental fact that you're a Sinner. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Solomon could say there is no man that doeth good and sinneth not. Again, we read in Romans chapter five that is by one man, Adam.
Sin entered into this world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. The word of God is clear that all have sinned, that you and I have sinned.
Well, we see the Lord does not have respect to Cain's sacrifice.
To the offering that it brings, and it's noticeable in Cain's countenance that he's not pleased with being rejected.
It says in verse six, Why art thou wroth?
Perhaps none of us like to be rebuffed.
Cain didn't like it either, but now notice the tender grace of God seeking to work with this man. Verse 70 says, If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin or the thought is a sin, offering lieth at the door.
It's true if Cain did not do well, sin, lie to this door, that he was accountable and responsible. He'd sinned before God. But really this is an overture of grace. There was a sin offering lying at the door. Perhaps there was another. There was another lamb, There was a sheep lying right there. That cane could have come and offered that sacrifice just as Abel had, and be accepted. And furthermore, just in case Cain was concerned that his younger brother was going to.
Preempt him, he says.
And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him, over his brother Abel. Oh, what grace of our God is Seek to reach this man, this man who had brought the wrong sacrifice.
And now he extends to him the sin offering one that would meet his need as well that there was an offering for him as well. And there's one for you tonight. Perhaps you've rejected the Savior many times, but is grace still lingers and longs to bring you in. He desires your blessing. But all we find that he spurns God's gracious provision. We're going downhill now. First the wrong sacrifice, then the right sacrifice refused. Now in verse 8, and Cain talked with Abel his brother and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain was up against Abel, his brother.
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And slew him.
What we have here now is personal enmity, and it's true, there was enmity towards Cain, towards his brother Abel, and a larger sense that brings before us the enmity of the heart of man towards Christ.
Turn if you went to first John chapter 3.
We know that John's ministry has much to do with the law of the love of God, the love of the Father, the love of the Son, and in first John so much the love within the family of God love his brethren.
In verse 11 of chapter three he writes for this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain don't love like he loved not as Cain it was of that wicked one and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him because his own works are evil and his brother's righteous.
He had a conscience that condemned him.
And instead of repenting, instead of saying Abel was right, he did bring the right sacrifice. And there's one for me, and I wanna change my ways. No, he just stealed his heart and he set his course further, and he rose up and slew his younger brother, the 1St man born into this world, a murderer.
Now verse nine. And the Lord said in the cane, where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. So not only is he a murderer, he's a liar. I know not. Am I my brother's keeper?
So we see with Cain.
He brought the fruit of a cursed earth. He refused God's gracious provision. He manifested personal enmity and type towards Christ. And now not only does he lie, but he's insolent, He's defiant, He's sarcastic with God. Oh, have you ever seen that with one who's sarcastic with God? Right towards the beginning of this year.
Now with some of the children passing calendars out in the retirement home.
In this particular retirement home, it's like an H, only sideways with a center divider and there's.
There's uh, four, two quarters, uh, four different ends to it. And we had just finished up. We are on the final, the final end of one of the rooms. Girls are going on one side. The boys and I were going on this side. And so they all came into this room and there was a man in bed and next to him was this woman.
And A quickly sized up that she was seeking to bring the gospel before him and they came in and said we have some calendars and he had one of those.
You know, those cocky looks on his face, like he was like he was out of sort of the world. And I just thought, you know, he's probably like that as a young man. He's still that way. And the woman there was just delighted that we were coming, bringing these Scripture calendars.
And so he said to me, I said my, I said, friend, I said God loves you. He says if God is a God of love, then what about Hurricane Katrina?
How do these things happen if God is a God of love? And I said, Sir, I'll tell you why. I said as one very simple reason, and the reason is sin. I said by one man, sin entered in the world. I said, who brought it in? Man brought it in. God didn't bring it in. Sin came into the world because of death came into this world and suffering and sorrow because of sin.
And I said, you don't see the love of God in these hurricanes and these what might be spoken of as acts of nature. I said, if you wanna see the love of God, look at the cross. I said, how dare you challenge the love of God? So he gave you the very best of heaven. He gave you his own Son to die. So here's my boy right here. I wouldn't give him to die for you. But I said God gave his Son to die for you. And what are you doing? You're sitting there challenging the love of God instead of saying God be merciful to me, a Sinner, and thanking him for that great gift.
You wanna challenge and defy it. And this woman, like she's just beaming and she said you, I said, Sir, you should say God be merciful to me as Sinner.
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He looked up to me and he said, God be merciful to me, a Sinner. And he turned to her and said, There I said it.
I hope it was in sincerity and truth. I don't know what the context was. The woman there was a friend of this man's wife, and he was going on, no doubt on his way to eternity, and she was seeking to bring the gospel before him. And all he would do is poke fun and challenge and throw out these arguments that he thought nobody could answer. Have you ever had that a little bit working in your soul where I think you're so smart and have all these arguments that God himself can't answer?
Your responses and your defiance of him. That's what Cain is. That's what we find here. Am I my brother's keeper? Yes, he is. Yes, you are. But he covers over his lie that he doesn't know where his brothers are by trying to take the aggressive stance, by challenging God. You know those and those in Ezekiel's day, they said the way of the Lord is not equal. The way of the Lord is not equal. What were they saying? It's not fair. He's not equal. He's not just. He's not righteous. Oh, he's the righteous God. He is just and all that he does is righteous.
And so he says, no, it's your ways. It's your ways that are not equal.
Well, that's point #4 begin defiant towards God.
Now he says in verse 13.
And Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
So I alluded to that earlier where he says he challenges the justice of God. It's not, it's more than I can bear. It's more than I can handle. You know, in a certain sense, there's something very solemn and very true about that. Truer words in a certain sense were never spoken.
Because if we would turn again to the book of Jude, we find those there that to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness, forever, the unending, the unmitigated wrath of God, will fall upon all those that defy God and refuse the Savior. It matters not what your upbringing is, how many verses you can reel off, no matter how many snappy responses you can give to someone that's trying to reach.
Your heart and your soul, that's the eternity for those that are Christ rejecters. My punishment is greater than I can bear. I'll consider that solemn scene at the great white throne where earth and heaven flee away and John can see. I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and they were judged according to the things that were written in those books. And it ends with and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire to think of that.
The last sight to see is the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not now as that Savior, not now without one that had the look of love that broke Peter's heart down when the Lord looked upon him and wept. No, not then at face of August's majesty.
That dispenses a soul into a lost eternity.
My punishment is greater than I can bear. Oh, how God would work with your soul to bring you to the feet of your feet of the Savior. That there's more here.
He the Lord meets him in grace still in verse 14.
He's fearful that everyone that finds him shall slay him because he was a murderer. And verse 15 says 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 fine in him should kill him, we read in Timothy that he is the Savior or the Preserver of all men. Here is a man that had defied God. Here is a man that refused every provision of his grace. And God puts a mark in him to protect him and to keep him all again. The heart of God lingering over this, this poor man, but but to keep him that he would be preserved. Know how many times, no doubt God has preserved you and He's preserved me from matters of going perhaps into a lost eternity, perhaps in other situations in life with his tender care as a Creator. Have you ever thanked Him for these things?
What a gracious God we have. But finally with Cain, after all that's been shown to him, the goodness of God in verse 16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. He went out from the presence of the Lord.
What a solemn thing, I think, is Judas Iscariot there, one that had traveled, had served, had feasted, who had walked with the Lord Jesus for 3 1/2 years.
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And that final scene that the Passover there where the Lord Jesus takes the SOP, the favored token of, of, of love and, and of care, and it gives us to Judas Iscariot and Judas takes this sign of highest favor.
And walks out and Scripture says, and it was night. It was night Satan himself would enter into him and Judas Iscariot as an eternal knight now. But he left the presence of the Lord. Cain left the presence of the Lord, not just briefly to notice.
Because you and I live in this world to see the character of the world in which we live. It all begins from a man that left the presence of the Lord. And so that we see it rightly, that we view things according to God. He builds a city again, this city.
I like the expression in one of JG Deck's hymns that speaks of the city whose glory is but congregated guilt, whose glory is but congregated guilt, where everything comes together in the big city, but their man and all that he is, is set up for display. And Cain, His name means a maker. He was a man that was making things. And now he builds a city, and he calls the name of the city after the name of his son. Turn to the 49th Psalm for a moment.
Verse 11 is what I have in mind, but let's start with verse 6.
They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. That's pretty straightforward that no man can speak, can answer, can redeem his brother. For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth forever.
Or has given up forever. When your soul leaves your body, it's given up and it's given up forever.
The redemption of their soul is precious or is costly and we will just again seek to entreat you that cost was so great. We sometimes sing in the hymn we are by Christ redeemed. The cost his precious blood. Oh, there's the measure of the love of God and the love of Christ in order that his blood was be shed that you might that you might be saved. Now verse 10 for he seeth that wise men die. Likewise the fool and the brutish person perish.
And leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue forever.
And their dwelling places to all generations. They call their lands after their own names.
Or, in the context of Genesis Four, they call the city after the name of their sons.
Enoch, his name means dedicated. How different from the Enoch of the next chapter that was devoted and dedicated to the will of God. Who? One that walked with God. This wasn't the purpose, the dedication of this Enoch. No, he was dedicated to the course and the superstructure of this world. He has a son named Irad, means a wild *** the character of rebellion that marks this world.
Mihuji Li understand means blotchy out that jaws God.
Look at the progression as one generation goes to another. Now the thought of any thought of God and of Jehovah is blotted out. We do not want to be reminded because we have other interests before us. Methuselah. One of the meanings of that name is they died inquiring. Why are there so many questions in this world that are very simple really to answer? Because man does not want the truth. Man wants these questions answered apart from the Word of God. That's the only place there is answers to these things.
They died inquiring how many questions there are in the sad, hurting world.
And then he begat Lamech, whose name means strength, through his name means overthrower. And so we see with Lamech he overthrew one of the institutions of God. He overthrew the institution of marriage by being a bigamist, taking two wives.
Here's man in his advancement, but it's really moral regression and and decline. But then he has three sons Jabil the father such as dwell in tents and as such as have cattle. Oh, we have commerce, we have the business world. We have real estate here we have all that line of things being developed. Verse 21 we have jubilee was the father of all such as handle the harp and the organ that which might be very pleasant to see, but again.
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At all or to hear, but it all began from the presence of man that left the presence of the Lord. It's the entertainment world in verse 22 Zilla she also Bartubalcaine an instructor. So there's the education world of every artificer and brass and iron. So technology and industry. The whole world lies in the wicked one. And so it might be ever so glamorous, but to see how God will look at it. This world. We know that this world came under judgment in the flood, but the moral elements are the same. It's a world that has left the presence of the Lord and all these things that might allure the heart and the mind.
Are that which left from a man that left the presence of the Lord. Now finally, in verse 23, Lamech addresses his wife's hear my voice. She wise of Lamech carpet into my speech. For I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.
Lamech goes on to say that if Cain was going to be Avenged Sevenfold.
For first degree murder that Lamech would be, uh, would be revenge 70 and sevenfold because it appears here he acted in violence but it but it wasn't self-defense.
There's two points I would like to make. The 1St is despite what Lamech said, there was the the auspices of judgment that was hanging over it all, that he was fearful that somebody was going to get him. And you know, it may be one thing to go on and all the pleasure.
And all the enjoyment of that which the system of this world offers, which you can write over at all, reserved under fire. But now what's especially before me is not Lamech, but this young man.
Just thinking about this, the other day I was working. I said who is this young man? Here was some young man. What was the context of this situation? Here I have slain a man to or in my wounding and the young man in my hurt. Apparently they got into some fisticuffs, this young man in Lamech, and Lamech killed him.
You know, as many young men it's gotten out into this world, thought he could take care of himself.
In the prime of life, that he found that there's not only a corrupt side of this world, but there's a violent side of this world. And here is a young man he met, a man that he wasn't a match for. He took on Lamech and Lamech answered. This young man killed him. Oh, we live in a world, despite how it may be dressed up, it's violent and it's wicked.
So, brother.
Back home, that was, he and his wife were in a certain situation. They had, uh, visited. And he didn't tell me too much about the situation, but it was something where there was much corruption that was going around and then it broke out into violence. And he made the statement to me. He said, you know.
We want, sometimes we want the corruption without the violence. But they go hand in hand. Read the book of Proverbs and we find what marks this world in this corruption and violence. They're linked together. And so you say, well, I'm just going to go in for the corrupt side of the world. Be careful because there's a violent side of the world too. And there's a young man who thought he had the world on a string, as we say, or used to say, but he went out and was slain by Lamech.
Well, we come to a nice ending to this chapter, this 4th chapter of Genesis that is able.
Who was the?
Was in that line of promise as he is killed by Cain and Cain leaves the presence of the Lord. She has me bears another son, Seth.
Who to him is born a son? Enoch. Seth was appointed. Enos means man in all of his frailty. And isn't that a point that God would have every one of us to come to, to recognize our frailty, our weakness before God? It was Martin Luther that said there's two things every man must do alone. He must believe alone and he must die alone. Have you believed alone? There's no group think.
There's no group faith. Do you have faith in God? Have you trusted Him?
For your salvation have you put your trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ? He knows your heart. You must do it individually. You must do it alone. Because when you pass from time into eternity, it matters not. Even if there was a great, great explosion in many entered an eternity at the same time, we must go alone. We must each give account of ourselves to God. So His name means frail. Have you ever come to that point to recognize your frailty, your feebleness, your lack?
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And your failure in the presence of God.
Well, here I believe the picture is Enos. Then man begin to call upon the name of the Lord. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But until you come to that point, until you feel your need of Him, there won't be a turning. There's a going on. And so as we look through the course of those two men, there was that man able who in simple faith, he offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. He was, he was.
He was received by faith and then came to see a man that charted his course away from God.
And whose eternity is the blackness of darkness forever before we close. There's just one more verse that comes to mind in Hebrews chapter 12.
I mentioned.
At least there's two that comes to mind, two references to Abel and two references to Cain in the New Testament. But Hebrews chapter 12, it speaks of those things that the Jewish believers had come to and in verse 24, and to Jesus, the mediator of the covenant and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. What did the blood of Abel, what did it speak of? It cried for vengeance. That's what God said. Thy brother's blood crieth to me from the ground.
And there is that certain sense in which the death of Christ at the hands of guilty sinful man has not yet been answered. And it will, because God is appointed in a day, a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath appointed, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, and the hath raised him from the dead. The death of Christ, the blood of Christ is going to be answered by God exalting his beloved Son, and that day of his appearing, and all will be put down before him.
But as you find in Hebrews, his blood speaks of better things than Abel.
Because it Abel's blood cried for vengeance, the blood of Christ, it lays the foundation of peace and pardon with God.
Let's see him 21 in closing.
#21.
The.