(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai)
My Text is found in Genesis chapter 4 and it's verse 11. God's word to Cain. And now art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.
Shortly after Abel's murder, the Lord asked Cain, the murderer, where his brother was. As you know, Cain tried to hide his sin from God, claiming that he didn't know. However, God made it perfectly clear that the sin could not be hidden.
The truth is that all sin is seen. And what is more, it will be dealt with. All sin is seen and it will be punished.
There were no human witnesses to what Cain had done, but the eye of Almighty God had seen this man's crime. And God is not mocked. The Bible says, Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.
Our God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. And he punishes sin wherever it is found. God was going to punish Cain.
And in verse 11, we have a description of the divine sentence passed upon this guilty man. Now art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. You know as well as I do, that sometimes today in our law courts, the sentences that are dished out are absolutely ridiculous.
The sentences that are passed by magistrates and judges in some of our courts today make you laugh. One or two are too heavy, but most are too light. And we frequently find ourselves saying, either one to another or inwardly within ourselves, the punishment does not fit the crime.
However, as far as God is concerned, the punishment always fits the crime. The scriptures remind us of the fact that God is the judge of all the earth, and he always does that which is right. The punishment that was meted out to Cain was just, and it was right.
The punishment fitted the crime. Thou art cursed from the earth, Cain, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. As we look at those words together this morning, there are two things that I would like to bring to your notice.
First of all, we see that Cain was personally cursed. And then secondly, we see that he was cursed from the ground. These are the two things that we're going to be looking at this morning.
First of all, then, we see here that Cain was personally cursed. And now art thou cursed. This is what God said to the murderous man.
And it's interesting to notice here that Cain is actually addressed more sharply, and indeed more personally, than Adam was in the Garden of Eden. Just make the comparison for yourselves. Come back with me to Genesis chapter 3 and verse 17.
And unto Adam God said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commended thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground. For out of it thou was taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. For Adam the curse was indirect.
But God says to Cain, Cursed art thou. After Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, a general curse was pronounced on the ground as a consequence of their sin. But here in Genesis 4 and verse 11, something is added to that.
A specific personal curse is added to the general curse. Addressing Cain personally and individually, God says, And now art thou cursed. Cain was the first human being on which a personal curse was pronounced.
And this just goes to show how much God hated his sin. And the fact is that God hates all sin. Indeed, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man.
Matthew Henry asks the question, Who knows the extent and weight of a divine curse? How far it reaches and how deep it pierces? It's an imponderable question, isn't it? But this one thing is sure. Those whom God curses are cursed. Indeed.
Indeed. The curse for Adam's disobedience terminated on the ground. But that for Cain's rebellion fell upon himself.
And now thou art cursed. Cain was personally cursed. You say, but where does that leave us? In some areas, we have gone the way of Cain.
In view of the fact that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man, how can we escape? How can we escape the impact of the curse? Well, the answer is, there is a way of escape through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, when he came into the world to save sinners, he died an accursed death for the benefit of all believing people. This is something that we need to appreciate.
When our blessed saviour went to the place called Calvary, he endured a painful, shameful, accursed death. The scriptures say, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And Jesus allowed himself to go through the ignominy of hanging on a tree at the place called Calvary for our sakes.
I'd like you to come with me, if you will, just for a moment to Paul's letter to the Galatians. We will look at a verse that I read a little while ago. Paul's letter to the Galatians, chapter 3. And we'll read verse 13 in particular.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. So, when Jesus went to the cross, he was made a curse for us.
And because of what he did for his people, his people are set free from the curse of the law. Do you know what God will say to the wicked as they're consigned to a lost eternity? The Bible tells us, depart from me ye cursed. Those are strong words.
Depart from me, you cursed. These will go away into outer darkness. However, the people of God will not hear those awful words.
Why not? Because our hope is in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He took our curse. He was made a curse for us.
I remember hearing a story told of a preacher who was accused by a member of his congregation of preaching too much on the death of Christ. And he said, I make no apology for what I do. For the centrality of the atonement must be regularly emphasised by every preacher of the everlasting gospel.
We cannot hear too much about what our Saviour has done. I would invite you just for a moment to give careful consideration to the work of Christ on your behalf. Stricken, smitten, and afflicted.
See him dying on the tree. Tis the Christ by man rejected. Yes, my soul, tis he, tis he.
Tis the long expected prophet. David's son, yet David's Lord. By his son, God now has spoken.
Tis the true and faithful word. Tell me, ye who hear him groaning, was there ever grief like this? Was there ever grief like his? Friends through fear, his cause disowning, foes insulting his distress. Many hands were raised to wound him.
None would interpose to save. But the deeper stroke that pierced him was the stroke that justice gave. Tremendous words, aren't they? Jesus felt the pain which came through facing divine justice.
We will never be able to comprehend the depth of Christ's suffering on the cross. Meditate upon those words of dereliction. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? What was happening during these hours of darkness? What was responsible for this cry? It was the fact that Jesus was bearing the curse that we should have borne.
He was made a curse for us. And so I say it is because of Jesus that we will have no curse to face. Cain had to face the curse.
He was personally cursed and we would have been personally cursed throughout all eternity were it not for Jesus standing in our stead. So that's something to think about and prayerfully consider. Cain was personally cursed.
Now let me draw your attention to the second thing that we have in our text. Cain was cursed from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, God says, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.
The curse was going to be inflicted on Cain and it was going to come from the very ground that had been moistened by his brother's blood. If it had seemed good in God's sight, the Almighty could have taken immediate vengeance from heaven and snuffed out the life of Cain then and there. But God didn't do that.
God, instead of taking immediate vengeance from heaven, made the earth, the ground, the avenger of blood. God said to Cain, thou art cursed from the earth. The ground would always be near to Cain and he would not be able to fly away from its presence.
Thou art cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood. From that day, Cain was going to move from one place to another. But no matter where he went, the ground would always be against him.
We're going to deal with that more fully tonight. But the truth is, as part of Cain's curse, the ground was always going to be against him. The ground in which his brother's body had been unceremoniously buried, the ground which held his brother's blood, the ground would be against him.
And for Cain, there'd be no escape. Wherever he went, the remembrance of his terrible crime would be with him. I'm sure you can understand this.
You all know what it's like to unsuccessfully try to run away from something. Wherever you go, there's a reminder of what it is that you're trying to run away from. And then sometimes you find yourself saying, is there no escape? Can I not get away? And that's how it was with Cain.
Wherever he went, there was the ground that opened its mouth to receive his brother's blood. No wonder he said, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Again, you all know what it's like when you're trying to avoid somebody.
Perhaps you've had this experience when you've owed somebody some money. You've tried to avoid them. Or perhaps you've had a disagreement with them and you don't fancy meeting up with them.
You try to avoid them. The thing is, they have a habit of cropping up in the most unlikely places, don't they? These people that you try to avoid. Whichever way you go there, they are standing on the corner.
And sometimes you say, well, I'll be all right today. I'm going off onto the mainland. And you board the boat and there they are.
Or you're in the departure lounge waiting to get on the plane and there they are. And you say to yourself, can I not get away? Is there no peace? Well, that's exactly how it was with Cain. Irrespective of where he travelled to.
His punishment was there, lying at the door. I came across an interesting quotation from A.W. Pink last evening. It's quite basic, but it really hits the nail on the head.
And it sort of endorses what I've been saying to you. I'd like to share his words with you. No matter where Cain should go in the world, the ground should be against him.
The ground that held the blood of his brother, the blood of his victim. The remembrance of his murder should pursue him. End of quote.
And that's how it was with Cain. The remembrance of his murder. The remembrance of the murder of Abel pursued him.
Cain was cursed from the ground. And there was no escape. You say, well, how does this affect other people? We've heard about Cain, but how does it affect other people? Well, basically, for men and women everywhere, the punishment of sin lies at the door.
And men and women won't escape if they neglect God's way of salvation. God is just. And he punishes sin.
The scriptures tell us that judgement runs down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. The Bible tells us that the wicked will be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. So it is a fact that he who punished Cain will punish the wicked.
No sin remains unpunished. That's the bottom line. If sin remained unpunished, God would cease to be just.
And that could never be. Our God is absolutely just, and he will punish every sin. Cain was cursed from the ground.
Men and women everywhere need to remember that unless they repent, unless they turn in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, one day they will hear these terrible words. Depart, ye cursed. However, the wonderful truth of the gospel is that the sins of God's people were punished in the person of God's only begotten Son.
The question is sometimes asked, how can God be just and yet allow sinners like us to go to heaven? It's a reasonable question. We're sinners. We've broken God's laws.
We deserve to feel his hot displeasure. We deserve to be consigned to a lost eternity. We deserve to be punished for our sins.
How, in the light of our behaviour, can we expect to go to heaven? Well, our reliance is upon Christ and his work at Golgotha. If there had been another way for sinners to be saved, Christ would not have gone through the terrible ordeal of Calvary. But there was no other way.
The only way for God to be just and the justifier of sinners is for someone, namely a divine sinless being, to stand in the sinner's place. When Jesus hung upon that cross, in addition to all the physical agony which he faced, he endured the divine wrath poured out upon his blessed person. The wrath of God, too bitter for us to appreciate, was poured upon our Saviour, the Lord Jesus.
We look to Jesus and our testimony is, he was punished in our place. Our sin was punished in the person of the Lord Jesus at Calvary. When we look at our lives, we have to admit that we're far, far removed from what we ought to be.
Most of us have a habit of maximising the sins of others whilst minimising our own sins. Let us remember, there is non-righteous. No, not one.
All of you deserve hell. I personally deserve hell. We're not paragons of virtue, any of us.
We've broken God's laws in thought, word and deed. We deserve to face the curse, but those who are in Christ will not face the deserved curse. Because Christ was cursed in our place.
How do we respond to this? With the words of the hymn writer, Hallelujah, what a Saviour. Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood. Sealed my pardon with his blood.
Hallelujah, what a Saviour. Amen. And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, our blessed Redeemer, the love of God, our Heavenly Father, and the sweet communion of the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, be with us and abide with us, now and always.
Amen.
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.)