This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Genesis 1-4” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 21, 1993.

Let’s listen to the word of God. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant, as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death, and their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace, the garment of violence covers them, their eye bulges from fatness, the imaginations of their heart run riot.

They mock and wickedly speak of oppression, they speak from on high. They have set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue parades through the earth. Therefore his people return to this place, and waters of abundance are drunk by them. And they say, How does God know, and is their knowledge with the Most High?

Behold, these are the wicked, and always at ease. They have increased in wealth, Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence For I have been stricken all day long and chastened every morning If I had said I will speak thus Behold I should have betrayed the generation of my children When I pondered to understand this it was troublesome in my sight until I came to into the sanctuary of God, then I perceived their end.

Surely thou dost set them in slippery places, thou dost cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment, they are utterly swept away by sudden terrors, like a dream when one awakes. O Lord, when aroused, thou wilt despise their form. When my heart was embittered and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant. I was like a beast before thee.

Nevertheless, I am continually with thee. Thou hast taken hold of my right hand. With thy counsel thou wilt guide me, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And besides thee I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from thee will perish. Thou hast destroyed all those who are unfaithful to thee.

But as for me, the nearness of God is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all thy works. And then, Genesis four, verse sixteen, one came out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden. What a foundation you have given for us. You have given, O God, the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, and even now you are building up your church as a holy dwelling place in the Spirit, fit for you to dwell in. O God, throughout the world, your people are being drawn by your word that they may in fact be built upon such a foundation, they then being a holy temple in God. O Father, there are living stones in this temple, we ourselves having been made alive by the blessing of your grace. May we be zealous to do all things according to your word, that we might not insult the foundation that is given us, nor the cornerstone that has been laid.

In Jesus’ name, amen. that the record given us of that first transgression in Genesis 3 sets before us a bit of overreaction on the part of God, that all ought to be removed now as we move into the fourth chapter. For here we are most definitely confronted, and that unambiguously, with sin’s seriousness and its utter destructiveness. Now, in all honesty and truth, we dare not minimize the weightiness of that transgression by which our first parents plunged humanity into ruin. There are the subtle features of their sins, their sin, and we dare not overlook the account of their sin.

There was the lie. There was the refusal to accept blame. There was, in fact, the shifting of blame to someone else. Finally, the point that that blame came to rest upon God himself implied in our first parent’s reaction was that God himself was accountable. He was to blame for what had taken place.

Beyond this, there was Adam’s condition of mind and soul, an unwillingness on his part to come to his wife’s defense, refusing either to intercede for her or to offer himself in her place. These fundamental failures, this wickedness, these failures and wickedness are a floodgate, and early on the potential for corruption and the heights of wickedness are set before us. Unmistakably now, we have this set before us in Genesis 4.

Cain’s self-centered, earth-oriented worship, which has earned for him the Lord’s rebuke. There is also God’s loving pursuit of Cain, a pursuit which ends with Cain rejecting his God. even though God has lovingly, graciously appeared to him and pleaded with him.

There is the premeditation in Cain’s heart, there is the doing of the deed, the murder of his brother, and then there is the taunting of the Lord. All of this set, setting before us the magnitude of wickedness that is now unleashed upon the world. came taunting the Lord. Am I my brother’s keeper? These things then, latent within his parents’ offense, but not overt as yet, they subsequently come to light.

Cain’s murderous heart, then, it is proved, is as much directed against God as it is against his brother. Cain hates God as much as he hates his brother. In contrast, his parents had, in time, humbled themselves before the Lord their judge. They had in time expressed their faith, their confidence in the Lord. But Cain, their son, will have none of this. From face to face with God’s judgment, be it even the prelude to eternal judgment, His response proves to be unlike his parents. His response is not one of humility, a humility by which he would throw himself upon the mercies of the Lord and repent.

Instead, we find him expressive of a fear that now there would be removed for him all insulation, there would be removed from him all protection for his life in this world. His interest in God’s presence, which he makes special mention of, his interest in God’s presence is only to be interpreted along these lines. he sees dissolving, the protection he sees removed. He stands now doubly the exile, for he shares the alienation that his parents knew, the alienation from the garden, the special dwelling place for God with his parents. But now he also knows the alienation that has come upon him, an alienation that cuts him off from the church, from the assembly of the Lord, an assembly to which God had especially connected himself even in this sinful world. The terror then that momentarily overtakes Cain, when confronted with God’s judgment, is due to the threat that he now will be cut off from this world that upon which he had set his hope. After all, hadn’t he murdered his brother Abel for the purpose of removing the competition? removing the one whom he imagined a threat to his own plane in the earth and to the earth. But given even the enormity of the sin, and sin expressed even in the fear that this man has within his soul, God proves to be gracious even to this one, for he promises order even in such a world into which Cain is driven.

A world that stands apart, then, from the Church. He promises that he will preserve Cain’s life even in this world of exile into which he is driven. He will preserve him from destruction from those who would do to him what he has done to his brother.

Here is grace. It is not special saving grace, but it is grace. Nevertheless, it is truly unmerited, undeserved, but it is a grace. Yes, to be sure, this grace is ultimately for the sake of the Church, which must exist in the world This grace then serves the purpose of a blessing for the Church, since all things are for the sake of the elect. Indeed, common grace serves special grace.

Nevertheless, this is a grace by which the fallen world continues as a world, and even a world over which God himself is sovereign. It bears the stamp of his compassion upon it. It bears the emblem of his sovereignty within it. This then is reflected upon by Jesus himself in Matthew chapter 5. when he states, for God causes his Son to rise upon the evil and the good, and sends his reign on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Now, in such a world, many will pursue interests and enterprises, that proved both pleasurable and beneficial to them and to others, all the time quite oblivious to the promise of God and His sovereign oversight. In fact, in such a world, many, not knowing a thing about the story of Cain or its significance, will assume the horizons of this world to be the only true horizons, this world being the only world, in fact, that exists. They will think the pleasures and the benefits experienced in this world to be all that there is. From their ignorance they presume upon the goodness of God, And that which should work to correct and convert them only condemns them.

Isaiah reflects upon this truth in the twenty-sixth chapter of his prophecy, the tenth verse, where he writes, Though the wicked is shown favor, though the wicked is shown grace, He does not learn righteousness. He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness and does not perceive the majesty of the Lord. But it is not only the wicked who are confounded by such a world as we have just described. The righteous themselves may also go astray. In a world in which life continues for the wicked, and in which there is existence outside of the church, the righteous may become restless and disturbed, confused about the promise of the Lord’s justice and the swiftness of His retribution.

We find the psalmist asking about the prosperity of the wicked. We find him addressing the problem of a temptation that is overtaking his soul, namely envy of the wicked. You have it set before you there in Psalm 73. The psalmist in that 73rd Psalm does not miss the mark.

For he points out the fact that those who live for this world, the kings of the world, and the line of kings, seem to do so well in the world. They’re the ones that get ahead. They’re the ones that seem to be so talented, or at least have the world recognize their talent. They seem to be the ones endowed with such intelligence, gifted in so many areas. capable in so many dimensions.

Believers make a mistake, as in fact the psalmist hones up to his mistake, taking it a step further. Believers make a mistake when they gush over a celebrity who supposedly has become a Christian. Or a Christian who has become a celebrity. I’ll say it again. Believers make a terrible mistake when they gush over a celebrity supposedly becomes a Christian or a Christian who becomes a celebrity.

Now this is not to discount or downplay the ability, the giftedness that we find in many a believer. It is merely to say that the world’s recognition of that ability can hardly be the objective of a believer’s life. Nor is that ability, or the world’s recognition of it, ever the basis for assessing the validity of our faith.

As if such things were a proof that God exists. and should be sufficient evidence to anybody who had eyes to see. I sometimes get the impression that some talented Christians, that is talented in a worldly sense, some talented Christians like quarterbacks, like guitarists, But some talented Christians, that is, talented in a worldly sense, are saying that because they are so talented and have had such success, the world should get in line behind them to acknowledge that God exists after all.

This is proof that there is a God. My goodness, I threw a touchdown pass and won the game. Now how many self-respecting pagans are impressed by thinking like that? When there are far more pagan quarterbacks that are throwing infinitely number more touchdown passes. Pagans have done quite well for themselves without any belief in God whatsoever. We’re surrendering them to us as we look out at a world in which God’s graciousness has even granted giftedness to unbelief. We sufficiently warned not to confuse giftedness in the world’s sense with the blessing of God, insofar as that blessing were then the means by which others would be convinced that there was a God after all.

Consider Cain’s lot now, however. The truth of the matter is broadcast to us in the 16th verse of that fourth chapter, despite what appearances may be set before us in this world. The truth of the matter is that Cain has gone out now from the presence of the Lord. Whatever he finds in that world apart from God, it is, after all, apart from God.

He is out of the church, he is excommunicated, he is dwelling in a place called Nod, east of Eden. He moves east toward the rising sun. as a parody of the move his parents had made when driven from the garden, a move on their part which was toward their coming redemption and the gift of the morning star which was to arise for them. Cain, however, moving eastward, comes into the land of Nod. Nod means wandering.

It is the land of wandering. Despite appearances, here is the true nature of the world into which the kings of the earth have come. Despite appearances, these are the true aliens, the true strangers. Having chosen a world that they believe is permanent, they find in the end that it proves to be impermanent. A world in which, if the truth be known, they not only wander, but grope about as blind. Ironically, the text says that Cain dwelt in naught. He dwelt in wandering? You see, his dwelling is an illusion. His life is a dream.

But on the opposite end of the spectrum, and then despite appearances, those who seem to be, from the world’s point of view, strangers and aliens, even pilgrims, these are the true heirs, those to whom all things belong, for they themselves belong to the Lord. He Himself being their eternal inheritance. The Lord is the strength of my life and my portion forever.

Let us pray. We may in fact be overcome because it seems as if our faith has proved to be useless to us. The wicked prosper. Everything seems to be given to them while your people are denied, while they suffer in fact. But Lord, even here within the courts of your church, we are instructed with respect to the end of the matter, that those who appear to be permanent are actually living in the world of impermanence, and we who seem to be impermanent are those who have been given an everlasting habitation. Lord, we would be blessed in the knowledge that you are our inheritance, truly our portion, that sealed to us through Christ your Son.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.