Listen to this poem titled “Highway Patrolman.”

My name is Joe Roberts I work for the state
I’m a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number 8
I always done an honest job as honest as I could
I got a brother named Franky and Franky ain’t no good
 
Now ever since we was young kids it’s been the same come down
I get a call on the shortwave, Franky’s in trouble downtown
Well if it was any other man, I’d put him straight away
But when it’s your brother sometimes you look the other way
 
Yeah, me and Franky laughin’ and drinkin’, nothin’ feels better than blood on blood
Takin’ turns dancin’ with Maria as the band played “Night of the Johnstown Flood”
I catch him when he’s strayin’ like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain’t no good
 
Well Franky went in the army back in 1965
I got a farm deferment settled down took Maria for my wife
But them wheat prices kept on droppin’ ’til it was like we were gettin’ robbed
Franky came home in ’68 and me I took this job
 
Well, the night was like any other, I got a call ’bout quarter to nine
There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line
There was a kid lyin’ on the floor lookin’ bad, bleedin’ hard from his head
There was a girl cryin’ at a table, and it was Frank they said
Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights
Well, I must’ve done 110 through Michigan County that night
 
It was out at the crossroads down round Willow Bank
Seen a Buick with Ohio plates behind the wheel was Frank
Well I chased him through them county roads ’til a sign said Canadian border 5 miles from here
I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear
 
Yeah we’re laughin’ and drinkin’ nothin’ feels better than blood on blood
Takin’ turns dancin’ with Maria as the band played “Night of the Johnstown Flood”
I catch him when he’s strayin’, teach him how to walk that line
Man turns his back on his family he ain’t no friend of mine

Isn’t it interesting how two children can be raised by the same parents in the same home, and yet turn out so differently? One child can be so humble and gentle, while the other one is arrogant and aggressive! One kid can be sacrificial toward people and the other one can be greedy and selfish! One child always seems to find the road to success; the other child always follows the trail to trouble! One child may become a highway patrolman, while the other child spends his whole life running from the cops! Some children follow the path of the Lord and enjoy all of the blessings thereof; other children resist the way of the Lord and wind up suffering the consequences of their sin.
We’ve all watched families face this unfortunate phenomenon. Some of us have experienced this painful reality in our own family. Even the best parental efforts don’t always produce perfect results. The truth of the matter is that every human family is affected by sin! Sometimes sin is manifested in families through “minor” misdeeds like materialism, parental favoritism, or sibling rivalry. And sometimes sin affects families in more severe forms like alcoholism, drug addiction, domestic violence, sexual abuse, or even homicide! And it’s interesting to see how these sins often affect families for generations.

The Fall of the First Family (Genesis 4:1-16)
In Genesis 3, we saw how Adam and Eve marred God’s majestic masterpiece by disobeying his command not to eat the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Beauty was broken! The beauty of childbirth would now be marked by pain. The beauty of abundant produce was replaced by the toil of thorns and thistles And Adam and Eve were banished from God’s beautiful Garden of Eden. They could no longer eat from the tree of life that would preserve their youth and prevent eventual death. The human race fell and the whole created world would suffer the consequences of sin. Genesis 3 tells us the story of the fall of the human race; Genesis 4 goes on to show us the fall of the human family. Adam and Eve would have to watch how sin infected their offspring and wreaked havoc on the first human family.
Genesis 4:1 tells us that Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore a son. They named him Cain because it sounds like the Hebrew word for “gotten.” Eve had apparently learned her lesson from her sin in the garden; here she did not rely on her own volition, but she acknowledged God’s rule in her life by saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”
Perhaps Adam and Eve hoped that their firstborn child would be the promised heir that would crush Satan’s head once and for all. (Genesis 3:15) Unfortunately, as we will soon learn, the only head this child would crush was his own brothers’.
Sometime after Cain was born, his younger brother Abel came along. We don’t know anything about their relationship. Were they buddies? Did they like to hunt and fish together? Was there any sort of sibling rivalry between them? They only thing we know is that they both went into agricultural. Cain became a crop farmer; Abel went into the livestock business.
At some point, each of them brought an offering to the Lord. The text says that “Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. But Abel brought the firstborn of his flock and fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.” (4:4-5)
The author of Genesis gives us a clue as to why Abel’s offering was accepted but Cain’s offering was rejected. Both offerings were appropriate for their occupations, but author is explicit about the fact that Abel’s offering came from the “firstborn” of his flock. Presumably, Abel offered his best to the Lord, but Cain kept his best crops for himself. Abel did what was right in God’s sight; Cain did not.
Isn’t this the way sin usually works. How often do we find ourselves in Cain’s position—we know the right thing to do, yet we don’t do it. We know what God expects from us, but we just don’t follow through—we only do “some” of what God wants us to do. In our hearts, we become selfish and want to preserve our possessions for ourselves.
Do you ever do this? Do you ever withhold your best from God? Like Cain then, we should not be surprised when our half-hearted attempts to honor God are rejected today!
When God rejected Cain’s offering, he became angry. His countenance dropped and his demeanor became downcast. But who was Cain mad at? God? Abel? Himself? Maybe he was angry with everyone!
But even in the midst of Cain’s failure, God showed grace and mercy. Instead of punishing him, God responded with compassion, “Why are you angry and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?” (4:6) God acknowledged Cain’s failure, but he gave him a second chance to do the right thing. God showed his grace by warning him that sin is a slippery slope. If sin is not confessed and repented of quickly, it often leads to other sins. God knows the treachery of the human heart, so he warned, “And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. It’s desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (4:7)
Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever gotten angry with someone because they did the right thing and you didn’t? Has anyone ever gotten angry with you because you did the right thing and they didn’t? Have you ever been angry with God for how he blessed someone else’s faithfulness?
Sin is a slippery slope! Anger leads to hostility; hostility leads to malice; malice leads to murder. Envy leads to greed; greed leads to stealing. Most heroin addicts I know did not start with heroin. They started with smoking marijuana or popping pain killers. How have you experienced sin’s slippery slope?
Thankfully, as he did for Cain, God deals with us graciously. He gives us a way to get off the slippery slope. If we repent from our sin—if we openly confess it, agree with God that it is wrong, and make a commitment not to do it again, God wipes our slate clean. If we take the second chance and do what is right, we will be accepted.
I wonder if there is anyone here today who has been sliding down the slippery slope of sin. If so, I hope you realize that deeper sin is crouching at your door! It seeks to destroy your life. It wants to destroy your family! Don’t let it! Repent now! Turn from your sin today! Let God’s grace help you to overcome!
Unfortunately, Cain didn’t listen to God’s warning or accept God’s grace. Instead, he continued to spiral down the slippery slope of sin. He hardened his heart toward God and became jealous of his brother. His jealousy turned into anger, anger into malice, and malice led to murder. Just as the serpent deceived Cain’s mother, Cain deceived his brother. He put on the face of affection to hide his heart of hostility and invited Abel to join him for a walk in the field. And there, he murdered his unsuspecting brother in cold blood! He desecrated God’s greatest artistic masterpiece—human life that was created in his own image!
Sometime later, God confronted Cain and asked him where his brother was. In one of the most chilling statements in the whole Bible, Cain lied to God’s face and showed a complete lack of respect for human life when he replied, “I do not know, am I my brother’s keeper?” He refused to take any responsibility for his brother’s life or death.
Even though most people aren’t murderers, I wonder how many of us have harbored Cain’s hatred in our hearts. It is so easy to ignore our responsibility to be our brother’s keeper. Who is our brother? Our family members? Yes, even the ones that we don’t get along with! Our fellow church members? Yes, even the ones that drive us crazy! Our neighbors, community members, coworkers, and classmates…yes, even the ones we don’t like!
God calls all of us to be our brother’s keeper! We care about one another! We look out for one another! We provide for one another! We go out of our way to help each other! We love each other! Cain sacrificed his brother for his own benefit; God wants us to sacrifice ourselves for each other’s benefit.
Therefore, we should never think or say things like, “Well, those people aren’t my problem!” or “It’s none of my business!” When it comes to people, it is our problem and it is our business! We are our brother’s keeper!

The Fall of Cain’s Family (Genesis 4:17-26)
But even as God punished Cain for his sin, he was still gracious. God could have taken Cain’s life, but he showed mercy by banishing him to be a restless wanderer on the earth. He even put a special mark on Cain to protect him.
But notice verse 16, “Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” Don’t miss the significance of this verse. To go out from the presence of the Lord means that Cain completely turned his back on God! Cain was supposed be a wanderer, but what do we see him doing? He defies God again by settling down. “East of Eden”, away from God’s presence and the memory of the paradise, Cain would make his own life. He would secure himself, and escape from his wanderings by starting his own family and building the world’s first city. Even though God promised to protect him, he takes matters into his own hands and builds a city for his own safety and security.
By naming the city after his son Enoch, it’s likely that Cain was defying God again. Cain was trusting in his own ingenuity rather than relying on God. He was not creating for the glory of God or the benefit of others; he was building a city and establishing a kingdom to his own glory!
So, the name of the world’s first city, is named “Enoch”, or “initiation.” Cain was initiating a new (godless) way of life, as well as a new (godless) security, and a completely new (godless) sense of rootedness. Here, the God estranged wanderer could settle in, take root and consider himself ‘at home’.
Then, in Genesis 4:18-26, we see Cain’s descendants carrying on his artistic advances and getting caught up in progress without God. In verse 20, we see Jabal developing the art of tentmaking and domesticating livestock. In verse 21, we see Jabal’s brother Jubal making music with instruments like the lyre and pipe. And in verse 22, their half-brother Tubal-Cain infatuated with forging of all instruments of bronze and iron. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these artistic achievements, but Cain’s descendants were using them to promote independence from God and progress without God. As we see in other places in the Scriptures, tentmaking, metalworks, and musical instruments can all means of glorifying God and blessing other human beings, but they can also become idols that try to replace God.
And notice Cain’s descendant Lamech! He defied God’s marriage pattern by taking two wives rather than just one and then he brags to his wives about murdering a young man for striking him.
This is where we start to depths of depravity in the human family. Sin began with Adam and Eve breaking God’s simple command in the Garden of Eden. Then their boy Cain murdered his brother Abel and inaugurated a legacy of defiance and independence against God. Then we see Cain’s great-grandson Lamech engaging in polygamy and perpetuating a family line that fell further away from God by getting caught up in their own artistic inventions. And finally, we see Lamech boasting about murdering a boy for merely wounding him!
Do you see how far the human family had fallen, and how quickly? This tragic tale should cause all of us to stop and think about our families! It should cause all of us to think about how our sin affects our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and the generations that follow! It should cause us to consider whether we are establishing a legacy of faith and godliness or a legacy of independence and defiance against God! Like Cain, we all have the choice to repent from our sins and embrace God’s grace and experience his blessing, or we can choose to rebel against God and follow our own path. Which will you choose: repentance or rebellion?