Genesis 4:1-26

The actions that we choose bring about consequences that we cannot choose and would not choose if we could.  God has allowed us the freedom to choose what we do but the consequences of those choices rest with Him.  Sin never settles for a small part of our lives.  Once sin takes root in the heart of men it begins to reproduce over and over again and grows until it dominates our lives.  This is not God’s desire for our lives but it is the reality of man who turns from the grace of God to embrace a life of sin.  We see a clear pattern of choices and the consequences that these choices bring in today’s text.

DISOBEDIENCE BRINGS DEPRESSION: God had instructed Adam’s family as to what and how they were to sacrifice.  Cain, the first son of Adam, decided he wanted to sacrifice his own way.  Abel, the younger brother, obeyed God and sacrificed from the animals he raised.  God accepted Abel’s offering but rejected Cain’s.  This caused Cain to become depressed.  God told Cain that there was no need for him to be sad and promised him that his offering would be accepted and that he would feel better if he obeyed God’s command and offered the right sacrifice in the right way.  Cain’s depression came from disobedience.  The path out of depression requires obedience.  It is a very simple principle.  We often know what God wants us to do but are unwilling to do those things out of pride, laziness or stubbornness.  When we allow these attitudes of disobedience to control our lives; the inevitable result is depression.  Depression facilitates further disobedience which only complicates our original problem to the point that we begin to spiral down into the depths of despair.  When this happens in our lives we must make the choice that Cain should have made; and “do right.”  Obedience to God is the cure that the Bible describes for depression.

REBELION BRINGS REJECTION: Unfortunately, Cain did not repent and do right.  Instead, he chose to diver further into rebellion against God and killed his brother.  In his mind he must have thought that if Abel were dead, God would be forced to accept him the way that he was.  Cain made the fatal mistake of believing the lied that God in some way needed him instead of recognizing the truth that he was the one in desperate need of God.  God confronts Cain who immediately denies his responsibility until God demonstrates that He knows what Cain has done.  We must always realize that we can never hide from God and that all of our sins are lain out clearly before Him.  God’s punishment of Cain is to cast him from his presence and cause him to be a vagrant on the earth.  God does protect him from others killing him for what he has done, but he is no longer in fellowship with God.  When we sin, we must respond to that sin in repentance.  If we continue to rebel against God and refuse to acknowledge our sin and turn from it; we will fall deeper and deeper into sin until all fellowship with God is broken.  We can choose between repentance and rebellion but the consequences of our decisions will either be restoration or rejection.

ARROGANCE BRINGS ASSASSINATION: Cain wonders in the world and raises a family.  His children are blessed with a variety of skills and a society begins to form that is full of arrogance and self promotion.  The gifts that God grants to the descendants of Cain are not dedicated to God, but are used for their own glory.  The first case of polygamy does not take very long to occur.  Lamech, takes two wives and then kills two men because they hurt him in some way.  He shows no fear of God and proclaims himself to be worthy of even greater protection than God had granted Cain.  What we see is a society that has become completely absorbed with itself and grows further and further in its own arrogance.  Pride is a sin that God hates because it breeds all kinds of other sin and is the exact opposite of what He created man to do.  God wants us to live for His glory and not our own.  When we arrogantly refuse to honor Him, and begin to live for ourselves; being overcome by sin is the inevitable result.

HOLINESS BRINGS HOPE: Adam and Eve had another son and named him Seth.  Seth’s spirit was like that of Abel.  He was submissive to God and as a result of his birth; men began to call on the name of the Lord.  Man’s only hope is to call on the name of the Lord.  We must recognize our desperate need of God and live in a way that pleases God.  Only as we recognize our own insufficiency and call out to God to save us from our sin can we have hope of being rightly related to Him.  God has always been faithful throughout the history of the world to preserve a remnant among men who live in holiness before Him.  This is a blessed hope that we have and the culmination of that hope is found in the person of Christ.  He alone is our hope of holiness and being in fellowship with God for all of eternity.