All right, this morning let's take our Bible's turn to Genesis chapter number four. Genesis chapter number four. I want to begin this by telling you, I grew up in the public school situation all 12 years. I was not in a Christian school growing up at no point. I thank God I was in a Christian family. I was in a good Bible teaching, Bible preaching church. I was in public schools during a time when public schools were going downhill. I remember distinctly when I was in the fifth grade, things began to change after that. And they started to restrict use of the Bible, no prayer. They began to bring forth more of the humanistic teachings in school. And even though I had faith, my faith was under attack. while I was in those schools. If you stood for what was good and what was right, you were going to get attacked. They were going to try to humiliate you. They wanted to bring you down. They wanted to bring what you believed down. Sadly, I'm glad that they weren't able to do that, but sadly I had some questions that were posed to me that I could not get answers to. And the purpose for me preaching this series of messages out of the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis is because this is where Satan attacks the worst. This is where the humanistic philosophy that's in the schools, that permeates the schools, that's where they attack. And quite frankly, if you grew up in the public schools, you might even have some questions about some of the things that we're going over. We did skip last week because we had the special Sunday for our church anniversary, but we're going to get back this morning to our text here in Genesis chapter 4. We've already taken a look at the first three chapters, and also we've taken a look at the situation between Cain and his brother Abel. Here in Genesis 4, after righteous Abel was killed by his unrighteous and unrepentant brother Cain, if you remember we saw the last time we were here, we saw that the Lord proclaimed a few things that would become a reality in Cain's life. We saw how the ground was additionally cursed to him such that his farming days were over. That's what he knew was farming, but his farming days were over. We're not told what he did after that, and it really doesn't matter, but what we do know is that he had learned something. He had learned something new because he would never be able to raise crops again because of the punishment that the Lord put on him. That was a justified punishment. It just really was. Some folks get Cain's attitude. They feel a little bit sorry for him. What the Lord put on him was more than he could bear. That's what Cain said. What the Lord put on me is more than I can bear. But we saw that he would be a fugitive and a vagabond, and Cain's life became a fearful life, both of exile and wandering, according to Genesis 4 and verse number 12. And in our text this morning, we're gonna be in Genesis 4, verses 16 to 24. I'm not gonna read all of that, but I do want to read just the verse or two here. Let's back up to verse number 13 and get this. And Cain said unto the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Can you feel his self-pity there? Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid. I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass that everyone that fighteth 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 Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And then verse 16 is the last verse we want to read here. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife. We're going to stop right there. Cain knew his wife. All right. Now, we know that actions have consequences, don't they? They do. You know, you need to be careful what you do, because our actions can have consequences. They can have some good consequences for good actions. They can have some bad consequences for bad actions. And Genesis 4, verses 16 through 24 show that the complaining, bellyaching, and full of self-pity Cain moved to the land of Nod. Nod means wandering. That's what that word means, wandering. And here's where the critics see a problem. He began a family with his wife. Wait a minute, we've not been told about any women being born. We've seen the birth of Cain and Abel and Seth. But now what's the question that comes to mind here? Well, where did Cain get a wife? And I've had people pose that question to me in trying to talk to them about the Lord and talk to them about the truthfulness of Scripture. And what they want to do is they don't want to focus on the truth. They want to get you sidetracked, and they want to get me sidetracked. And what they do is they think they got you. This is a got you moment. Well, where did Cain get his wife? Understand the problem is they don't have a problem with that. They got a problem with the Word of God. That's what they have a problem with. Bible critics point to this as a problem with the veracity of the Bible. And there are even some well-meaning Christians that think, oh no, what are we going to do? If I can't give a satisfactory answer here, the Bible critics are going to claim the Bible's not true. Well, guess what? Whether you can answer it or not, they're still going to claim that the Bible's not true. There are some that you're going to be able to give an answer to when we're done with this, okay, this morning. But I want you in your heart and in your mind to know what the truth is. And I'm going to give you the Bible answer to that question of where did Cain get his wife. And in just the last couple of decades, in fact, while I've been here, I think it was back in 2013, 2014, science had finally caught up with the Bible. You know, if science haven't figured out some things yet. Just stick around. They'll figure them out eventually, or maybe not. But understand that it's not going to satisfy all of the Bible critics. And I'll tell you what the science found about it when we get to the end of the message, okay? You'll have to stick around for that. You get up and leave early, you're not going to find it, okay? But listen, there are some people that are determined or hardened in their unbelief, who will stay in their unbelief no matter what you say or what you do. Now, we say, well, why bother talking to them about it? Because it puts it on them, not on you. You can give them the answer, and they've got to either accept the truth or reject the truth. Many of them will reject the truth, and that transfers the responsibility from us to them. Listen, there are folks who are determined and hardened in their unbelief and who are going to stay in their unbelief no matter what we do. But you can turn some. Some folks that are truly looking for the truth and not looking for an excuse not to believe, if they're looking for the truth, you have the opportunity to share the truth with them. But there's some folks that will not be satisfied with the truth because they are hardened against the truth. They harden their heart, just like Pharaoh hardened his heart, and when he hardened his heart, you know what God did? God hardened it a little bit more. He used his hardening that he hardened himself with, and God hardened his heart even more. Well then, preacher, who was Cain's wife? I've got to know. It's really very simple. He married one of his sisters. Eugh, gross. Yeah, that's the first thing. A lot of times that's the way people think about it. Eugh, gross. But listen, there were no other choices. That's the answer from the Bible, and as we will see, it is in agreement with science. Okay, it is. Let's deal with some things here. Understand why the answer to this question is important. Because it is important. I know probably when you got the handout and you saw where you can get a wife, you're like, oh boy, this is a waste of time. It's not a waste of time. To many people, this question is a stumbling block to accepting the creation account of Genesis, and it's a record of only one man and one woman at the beginning of history, and that's what the Bible says happened, and that's what did happen. Okay? Even science We'll get to it, but science agrees that in a concept that we're going to share here, many skeptics have claimed that for Cain to find a wife, there must have been other races of people on the earth who were not descendants of Adam and Eve. Now listen, as defenders of the gospel, it's important for us to show all human beings are descendants from one man and one woman, Adam and Eve. Because only descendants of Adam and Eve can be saved. and his physical lineage came from that lineage, amen? And that's why he could be the, and he wasn't an Adam, but he was of flesh like we are. And that's why he could be the perfect substitute and die on the cross for our sins. Now in order to answer this question of where Cain got his wife, we first need to cover some background information concerning the meaning of the gospel. Understand what the Bible says about the first Adam. Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15 45 that Adam of Genesis was the first man which agrees with the Genesis account of God's creation of mankind. We know that. The Bible makes it clear that only the descendants of Adam can be saved. Romans 5 12. that says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Now, that statement couldn't be true, except that we all descended from Adam, okay? Because it's in Adam that all die. The Bible makes it clear, only the descendants of Adam can be saved, and Romans 5.12 that we just quoted teaches that all of mankind sins. We sin because Adam sinned, and we are all in Adam, and Adam's sin nature became all of mankind's nature. We, every one of us, this morning that's here, we were born with that sin nature, and that was our problem when we were born into this world. Additionally, the death penalty, which Adam received as judgment for his sin of rebellion, also passed to all of his descendants. And that's why no one gets out alive. That's why everybody escapes. Nobody escapes death. Now since Adam was the head of the human race, understand that when he fell, We who were in the loins of Adam fell also. So that means all of mankind came into this world separated from God. That was the way we came in. Without God's intervention, the final consequence of sin would be eternal separation from Him. Eternal death, if you want to call it that, because that's what it is, eternal separation from God in a lake of fire. Now, because the first man, Adam, brought sin and death into the world, we know the human race, all of whom are descendants of Adam, needed a sinless man who would be willing to pay the penalty for sin, the resulting judgment of death. However, the Bible teaches that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So what is the solution? And we know that from verse Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's talking about all that are in Adam, okay? All that are in Adam. Understand, thirdly, what the Bible says about God's solution in the last Adam. Not only in 1 Corinthians 15 does Paul talk about the first Adam and what he brought, but he talks about the last Adam. And he's referring to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the last Adam. Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 15 that God provided another Adam as the way to deliver mankind from his wretched state. The good news is that God made a way for us to return to Him through the person and work of redemption found only in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, in Him and Him alone. Amen. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, became a man, a perfect man, a God-man by way of the virgin birth. Yet He was still our relation in that He had flesh. Galatians 4 verse 4 and 5, but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law. God sent forth His Son. I'm glad that God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son. What a blessed thought, amen? In 1 Corinthians 15, 45, Paul refers to Christ as the last Adam. because he took the place of the first Adam. Christ became the new head for those that believe on him because he was sinless and was able to pay the penalty for our sin. Listen to 1 Corinthians 15 verse 21 and 22. It says, For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The question is, are you in Christ? Are you in Christ? Because it's only being in Christ that you can be made alive. Christ suffered death, the penalty for sin, on the cross. Shedding His blood, because without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins according to Hebrews 9.22. Christ did that so that those who repent and put their trust in His finished work on the cross of Calvary can be reconciled to God in Him. I'm glad that Christ provided a way for us to be reconciled to God. So only the descendants of the first man Adam can be saved by trusting in the finished work of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. Here's the number four thing. Understand that the Bible shows mankind to be all of one blood. So there was only one man made by God at the beginning, made from the dust of the ground. Genesis 2 verse number 7 says, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. The only account God did it one time. The Bible describes all human beings as sinners and we are all of one blood according to what the Apostle Paul said in Acts 17 and verse 26. And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth. So, the gospel makes sense only on the basis that all humans alive, all that have ever lived, except for the first woman, are descendants of the first man, Adam. Now, she was made from the side of Adam, from a rib. If this were not so, then the gospel could not be explained or defended. But it is so. This also means that Cain's wife was a descendant of Adam. She could not come from another race of people and must be accounted for from Adam's descendants. Now, I want you to listen close. We read in Genesis 3.20, and Adam called his wife's name Eve, listen, because she was the mother of all living. Talking about all humans, amen. She's the mother of all living. In other words, all people other than Adam are descendants of Eve. She was the first woman. Eve was made by God from Adam's side. We read about that in Genesis 2, verse 21 through 24. I know you're familiar with that. Not going to take time to read that. That was a unique event. Happened one time. And the New Testament Jesus in Matthew 19 verses 4-6 and Paul in Ephesians 5-31 use that historical and one-time event as the foundation for the marriage of one man And one woman, and by the way, that's the only type of marriage that God recognizes. You will not find any other marriage that is accepted by Him anywhere in the Scripture. Also, in Genesis 2, in verse 20, we are told that when Adam looked at the animals, he couldn't find a mate. There was no one of his kind. No one of his kind. Well, God remedied that then. All this makes it obvious that there was only one woman, the one that God made, Adam's wife Eve from the beginning. There could not have been a race of women. And so if we cannot defend that all humans, including Cain's wife, can trace their ancestry ultimately to Adam and Eve, then how can we understand and explain the gospel and every one of mankind's need for it? Here's the fifth thing. Understand that Adam and Eve had other children whose names are not given. Now we read about Cain. Cain was the first child of Adam and Eve, according to Scripture in Genesis 4, 1. He is named, and so are two of his brothers. Abel is mentioned in Genesis 4, verse 2. And Seth is mentioned in Genesis 4, verse 25. but they were only part of the first generation of children ever born on this earth. Even though these three males are specifically mentioned, understand that Adam and Eve had other children. You say, how can you prove that? Well, it's written in black and white in your Bible. In Genesis 5, in verse 4, we read a statement that sums up the life of Adam. It says, In the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth were 800 years, and he begat what? sons and daughters, sons and daughters. We're not given how many. So during their lives, Adam and Eve had an undisclosed number of male and female children. Now, the Jewish historian, Josephus, you probably heard that name. He wrote that the number of Adam's children He's, as tradition holds, was 33 sons and 23 daughters. Now that's tradition of men. And we don't know if that's true or not, but it very well could be. It could have been more, it could have been less. We don't know, but we do know that they were commanded, it would seem logical that they would have many, and they were commanded in Genesis 128 to be fruitful and to multiply. be fruitful and multiply. And so, number six thing here. Understand that Cain married his sister or possibly a niece. I will give you that. It could be a niece, but there's no other explanation. If we work totally from Scripture without any personal prejudices or extra biblical ideas, then in the beginning when there was only the first generation children, Brothers would have had to marry sisters or there wouldn't have been any more generations, plain and simple. You had to have it. We're not told when Cain married or many of the details of other marriages and children, but we can say for certain that Cain's wife was either his sister or a close relative such as a niece. There's a slim possibility that she was his niece, but either way, a brother and a sister would have married in the beginning. So Cain's wife was also a descendant of Adam. Therefore, she had to be his sister or possibly a niece. I'll give you that, okay? I say sister. He married his sister. Now, let's talk about the objections that people put forth. Objections about Cain marrying his sister. Some folks base their objections on God's law. Many people immediately reject the conclusion that Adam and Eve's sons and daughters married each other by appealing to God's laws against close relation marriages. Some say, you can't marry your relation. Actually, if you don't marry your relation, you don't marry a human. You know we're all related. We are. In some way, we are all related. We just are. A wife is related to her husband before they are married because all people are descendants of Adam and Eve. We're all of one blood. Also understand that the law forbidding close relatives marrying was not given until the time of Moses. And that's in Leviticus 18, chapters 18 through 20. So there was no disobedience to God's law originally before the time of Moses, before the giving of the law, when close relatives, even brothers and sisters, married each other. Remember Abram? Abram was married to his half-sister, Saria, according to Genesis 20, verse 12. God's law later forbade such marriages, but that was some 400 years later, from Abram's time, okay? And so, there's the objection on God's law, we can knock that out. How about the objection based on biological deformities? Today, brothers and sisters, and half-brothers and half-sisters are normally not permitted by man in man's law to marry and have children. And the reason for that is because of deformities. It's true that today, children produced in a union between brother and sister, they have a greater chance to be deformed. As a matter of fact, the closer the couple is in relationship, the more likely it is that any offspring will be deformed. Each person inherits a set of genes from his or her mother and father. You've got two sets of genes there in the inheritance. Unfortunately, genes today contain many what we would call mistakes because of sin and the curse, okay? Sin and the curse. And these mistakes show up in a variety of ways. I could talk about my own. genetic problems. I've got some genes that give me some issues and it has to do with the makeup of my mom and dad. And you probably have some genetic issues as well that come from that. So the more closely related two people are, the more likely it is that they will have similar mistakes in their genes inherited from the same parents. Therefore, a brother and a sister are likely to have similar mistakes in their genetic material that might lead to deformities. Conversely, the further away the parents are in relationship to each other, the more likely it is that they will have different mistakes in their genes. Children inheriting one set of genes from each parent are likely to end up with some of the pairs of genes containing only one bad gene in each pair, which is good on your part. Amen. But overall, the human race is slowly degenerating. Hope you understand that. Ever since beginning, when man sinned, we've been slowly degenerating as mistakes accumulate generation after generation. That's why we have so many new illnesses on the scene. It seems like every day they come up with a new medicine on TV. I do know that. you know, and that's going to be upon us again as soon as the political ads end, you know, the pharmacy ads will resume and you will not be able to get away from them at all. But overall, the human race is slowly degenerating as mistakes accumulate generation after generation. However, listen, this fact of present-day life did not apply to Adam and Eve. Understand that. When the first two people were created, they were perfect. They were perfect. It says in, when God saw everything made was very good in Genesis 1.31, that means that their genes at that point were perfect, no mistakes. But when sin entered the world because of Adam, in Genesis 3 and verse 6, God brought the curse. And man's sin brought the curse, actually. But God cursed the world so that the perfect creation then began to degenerate and decay. Over a long period of time, this degeneration would have resulted in all sorts of things, all sorts of mistakes occurring in the genetic material of living things. I really believe when the water canopy, and we'll talk about it when we get to the flood, there was a water canopy that surrounded the earth. From the flood on, you had much more degeneration of the genes because of the ultraviolet rays from the sun entering in. But that's for another message, not for this morning. But Cain was in the first generation of children ever born. He, as well as his brothers and sisters, would have received virtually no imperfect genes from Adam or Eve since the effects of sin and the curse, they would have been minimal to start with. Doesn't that make sense? Yeah. Now, by the time of Moses, which was about 2,500 years later, think about that. It wasn't very far in our Bible, but it was a long time and time-wise. from the time that we're talking to Moses was about 2,500 years later, degenerative mistakes would have accumulated, especially after the flood, to such an extent in the human race that it would have been necessary for God to bring in laws forbidding brother, sister, and close relative marriages that he did in Leviticus 18 through 20. Also, There were plenty of people on the earth by that time, and there was no reasons anymore for close relative marriages. Before you had to do it. Now listen, some may resist these truths that are found in Genesis 1 through 5, and they do. They still reject it, even after you've tried to share the truth with them, they reject it. But understand that back in August of 2013, it was discovered that all scientific evidence points to the fact that if you go back far enough, all life on earth is related through common ancestry. They say that. Turns out that applying the same sort of analysis shows that all humans alive today are the descendants of one man and one woman who walked our planet thousands of years ago. Science will tell us that now. They call them Y-chromosomal Adam and mitochondrial Eve. I don't know if you've ever heard those terminologies, but that's what they're called. Now, they deny that those two individuals were married. They say, well, we're not saying that it was Adam and Eve. Well, I am. It was Adam and Eve, so it was. If you think about it logically, it had to be that way. Had to be that way. And so, listen, where did Cain get his wife? Well, he married his sister, possibly his niece, but is it important? It is important. If you're going to defend the Scriptures, if you want to have a knowledge in your own mind, that it's not going to take you away from the truth. Satan tried to take truth away from me, even when I was in an independent, fundamental, Bible-believing Baptist church, because nobody gave me the answers that I was looking for. I had a Sunday school teacher that sloughed me off. I said, well, tell me, what do we do about this? because I'd hear at school, you know, that they would bring up the issue. But I wanted to know because I wanted to be able to tell. I want to be able to tell them the answer. Well, listen, you got the answer this morning to this one. And I trust that you'll use it for yourself. Don't be turned from the truth. If you've got questions, if you've got questions, I'm sure you're going to have questions that we're not going to cover in these first 11 chapters. I can't possibly cover all of the questions that you might have, but you come to me with a question, I'll get you an answer. Amen? And I'll do that because nobody got me an answer and it affected me, and I don't want you to be affected that way. Right? Let's pray. I don't know if you're here today without Christ, but if you are, you need to come to a saving knowledge of Him. Thank God for the second Adam. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you so much for the truths of Scripture. Lord, the things that you show to us that the world rejects. It's a Christ-rejecting world. And just because we have answers, sometimes those answers are not sufficient for them. They ought to be sufficient for them, but they reject the truth. We've already seen, as it relates to creation, how that they have no explanation of how life generated on its own because it doesn't happen. Life begets life in our day and time. You can't bring life out of nothing. You can't put things together and come up with life without having life already there. And Lord, that ought to show them that that there's a creator. But rather than embrace a creator, they say, well that's just, that just goes against what we think and what we, and so we choose not to believe. We're gonna choose to believe evolution, which is not scientifically possible. And they will embrace that which they know is scientifically impossible just because they're God rejecting, Christ rejecting. Help us to see the truth of that. Lord, if there's one here today that doesn't know Christ, help them to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus today. And those of us that are saved, help us to help others who have, some folks have genuine questions. Like I had, I had genuinely had questions when I was growing up It's not that I was looking for a reason not to believe. It's just I needed an answer to the questions that I was getting. Lord, help us to have the answers. If we don't have the answers, help us to know to get the answers, not leave somebody hanging. Lord, have your way in this invitation, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.