Now, throughout the remainder of this series, we'll regularly
come across, I don't know, quaint little Bible stories, the
types of things that you learn in Sunday school.
You know, there was an ark and a flood and Father Abraham, his
many sons. There was Isaac's nearly being
sacrificed on Mount Moriah, Joseph's coats.
Even Cain and Abel find their way into Sunday school Bible
stories, which makes me think I'm I'm not sure of the
appropriateness of some of these for for teaching little ones,
but that's how it is. We learned these things in
Sunday school. So my caution to us is to not
casually approach these as simply Bible stories, but as
God's word to us. There's a reason why each of
these accounts is recorded in Scripture.
And not only do they inform of us, inform us of of what
happened in the early days of humanity, but they also shed
light on what it means to be human.
I think you might find yourself in the pages of Genesis as we,
as we go through it. And as you do that, you'll find
hope in the pages of Genesis and not despair.
God's grace was there on on Page 3, and his grace continues even
onto page 4 and throughout the rest of this book.
So if you're able, would you stand as we read from Genesis
chapter 4 verses one through 7. Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and
she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I've gotten a man with
the help of the Lord. And again she bore his brother.
Abel not Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the
ground. In the course of time, Cain
brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and
Abel also brought of the first born of his flock and of their
fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel
and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no
regard. So Cain was very angry, and his
face fell. The Lord said to Cain, why are
you angry and why has your face fallen?
If you do well, would you not be accepted?
And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.
It's desire is for you, and you must rule over it.
You may be seated as we begin our study.
This morning we started verse one and it's easy for us to to
gloss over this first verse and and move on to the more seedy,
the more well known parts of this passage.
You know, that is the first death in human history.
In fact, the the whole of the Cain and Abel episode is set up
to point the reader to Abel being murdered by the hand of
his brother. But it's important for us to
pause to recognize something important here.
You see, there is still hope. There's still hope here.
You see, chapter 3 ended with the man and woman being kicked
out of the garden. They'd chosen to redefine right
and wrong, thinking that God was playing them and he didn't want
them to have what he had or to be like him.
And instead they they listened to the deceptive serpent and his
take on the situation. And as a result, a curse came
upon the serpent, on humanity and on the land as well.
Yet in the midst of the bad news, there is still good news.
The chapter began now. Adam knew Eve, his wife.
This is important. This actually is a signal of
hope even in the midst of brokenness.
Most people know this, but it's important to make sure we
understand that when it says Adam knew Eve, it doesn't just
mean that he began to find out who she was.
He met her. No, it means he had a sexual
relationship with her. That's what it means now.
In spite of their shame and being naked, they had learned
how to navigate their their sexual relationship and and to
seek physical intimacy together again.
Sin had injected shame, disunity, unhealthy desires and
and pain into their relationship, but Genesis 41
proves that their one flesh union still existed.
They were rolling back the judgment of the curse, so to
say, and through intimacy, Adam and Eve began to fulfill God's
original call to be fruitful and multiply.
So Eve conceived and and bore Cain, declaring, I have gotten a
man with the help of the Lord. This meant two things.
First of all, humanity wasn't coming to an end.
God was still enabling humanity to fulfill the call.
Second, this declaration shows Eve's awareness that God is the
giver of life. Sure, they could participate in
the sexual union, but it was God who actually brought life.
Also, it was God who Eve was dependent on and and who
sustained her to the painful difficulty of Labor that she
would experience. As we read this, I can't help
but wonder, does Eve think that she just birthed the Messiah?
Now, like I I mean by our understanding, of course she
didn't have a fully developed theology of the Messiah.
She didn't know really what that was.
Genesis 315 simply said, I will put enmity between you and the
woman, in between your offspring and her offspring.
He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
That was her understanding as we read her words in verse one.
They sound hope filled. So.
So I can't help but wonder if she thought Cain was the
offspring that God told her would be coming, or was she
simply elated at the fact that that she and Adam had produced
an offspring, Another human. This would only be the third
human in existence, right? Another one that was like them.
And perhaps it's a little bit of both that she's experiencing
here in this moment. And then in verse 2, Abel was
born and and these two babies grew to be men who took on
livelihoods. Kane farm the ground and Abel
was a shepherd. Neither of these is communicated
as being right or wrong. In fact, they are both working
to flesh out God's command to have dominion and and to rule.
Keynes focuses in caring for the land, helping it grow, helping
it be productive and as a shepherd.
Abel's focuses on sheep, helping the sheep to not only survive
any tax from predators, but also to provide conditions that that
help the sheep to reproduce as well as to produce milk also for
them. As the text continues, the time
came for them to presents an offering to God.
So here we're looking at 2 offerings and and this tells us
they must have had some sort of relationship with Yahweh.
You know, I think in my mind, I've casually thought Yahweh
was, you know, in the distant past, you know, they they were
no longer near him. They were, they were somewhere
out in the desert somewhere. But that's not what the text
says. They clearly have a relationship
with him that since they are coming to present an offering to
him, they've been kicked out of the garden.
Sure, those first humans, their parents, Adam and Eve.
But I can imagine them taking their offerings there to the
entry of the garden, and there they would meet Yahweh and offer
their gifts. Perhaps when I think about
these, these two men bringing their offerings, it's very much
in the context of being near to Yahweh, not immediately in His
presence, but near to Him. Now Abel's offering is of high
value and importance. Verse 4 told us Abel also
brought some the first born of his flock and of the fat
portions is what it says the first born is is set aside for
the Lord, the first born. When you offer the first born of
the first fruits, you're saying this thing that you have given
me. Thank you for it, God, and I
trust you as the provider, as the sustainer.
So I'm offering it to you. And also Abel's offering was
fatty, which means that it was it, it was of high value, it, it
showed a sense of prosperity to be able to feed the the sheep
well so that they were fats. Now much has been made of these
two offerings and often readers will conclude that, well, the
problem is that Cain needed to shed blood in order for his
offering to be accepted. Now that is 1 interpretation,
but I think there are a few reasons that that might not be
the case. Hope I'm not stepping in it
here, but I think there's a few reasons that might not be the
case. First of all, the word sacrifice
isn't used in scripture until Genesis 22 when Abraham heads up
on up to Mount Moriah and and Abraham's going to he's been
asked to sacrifice Isaac there on the altar.
A sacrifice is a different type of gift than an offering.
Second, blood offerings wouldn't be implemented for thousands of
years, and once they were implemented, the blood would
then be applied to to a vessel of sorts in order to sanctify
the vessel for use in worshipping Yahweh.
And I'll of course there's no priest, there's no temple
instruments or or altar to sanctify when Cain and Abel were
alive. Even Abel's offering isn't
commended in terms of being a blood offering, but rather it's
noted as being fat. So I say these things to say
that I believe the problem with Cain's offering is that it
wasn't his best. Cain didn't offer his best, but
Abel did. Abel clearly offered the best,
the first of his flock and the fatty portion.
He is offering the best that he possibly can.
The first fruits were specifically reserved for God
and as an expression of thanks to Him for His provision.
Cain neglected to offer his gift in that manner, and Moses
readers would have taken notice of that in the text inexorably
ties each person to their gift as though they are one and the
same. The the person offering the gift
is equated with the gift that is offered.
The text said the Lord had regard for Abel and His offering
as though it's all lumped together.
It's 11 lump sum and it also refers to Cain and his offering
in the same manner. The problem wasn't simply with
the gift that Cain offered, but the problem actually lay within
Cain. What's in the heart of the
person bringing the gift is of the utmost importance.
Martin Luther noted the faith of the individual was the weight
which added value to Abel's offering.
Then we read in Hebrews 11/4 it tells us a bit more about about
Abel's gift. By faith, Abel offered to God a
more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was
commanded as righteous God, commending him by accepting his
gifts. And through his faith, though he
died, he still speaks. The issue lies in the heart.
Scripture refers to the heart more than 800 times, and when it
does, it's looking at the heart as a sort of the heart is a
Control Center for our lives. They obviously didn't understand
how brains work and how we process and think about things,
right? But the heart is the place that
controls our our mind, our will and emotions.
It's deep inside us and something that we're not
necessarily always aware of, Blaise Pascal said.
The heart has its reasons, which reason knows nothing of.
The point being that sometimes what's logical doesn't
necessarily mesh with that deep drive that's inside us, inside
our hearts. Then when we neglect matters of
the heart, then our faith becomes hollow and at best our
obedience becomes forced or or roots.
We might go through the motions, but we're not offering true
gifts of worship to God. Hosea 66.
Many of you will be familiar with this reads For I desire
steadfast love and not sacrifice burnt offerings.
We can fall into a routine where we're simply going through the
motions. We check off the boxes and do
all the right things, but it can still be empty and void.
Do we attend worship services out of a place of faith or are
we just saying check I went? Do we give to God with grateful
hearts or are we just offering our gifts to say that we give?
Do we sing every word to the songs but neglect to realize
what they actually mean? What they're actually saying?
I suspect a number of you are like me and grew up in a church
environment that was all about doing.
It was so much about doing that. I think in a sense we forgot
about the being. We forgot about the relationship
with God. We forgot about being close to
Him, being in his presence, slowing down enough to actually
hear him. The doing, it's important for
sure. The doing is important.
But if the doing is done with without the being, then in a
sense the doing becomes pointless.
It isn't true worship. That's why God said his desire
was love and not just sacrifices.
The people could offer sacrifices.
They could go through the motions and and bring their gift
to the temple. They could do that.
But if their heart wasn't engaged in it, it meant nothing
to God. If it's not from the heart, it
means nothing. So Abel offered his gift in
faith from the foundation of his relationship with Yahweh.
You know Cain's gift wasn't offered in good faith.
This is the fundamental difference between their gifts.
Regardless of the content of their gifts, it was Abel's gift
that was off in the correct manner, with a heart full of
faith, trusting in God's provision.
Next we look at the 2 responses in verses 5 through 7.
There's Cain's initial response, his initial reaction to his gift
being rejected, and then God's response to Cain.
Cain's initial response was first anger.
Cain wasn't just angry, he was very angry.
The Hebrew literally means it burned to Cain exceedingly,
meaning it was very, very, very angry.
And this is this is the same phrase that's used later, later
on in Genesis chapter 34 when with Jacob's sons found out that
their sister Dinah had been raped.
They burned with this anger. So, so Cain, so upset.
He's so angry. I kind of picture it like, you
know, those cartoons where smoke is coming out of someone's ears.
Like, I think it's kind of like that He's so angry.
Smoke is coming out of his ears. He's on fire now.
Have you ever tried to reason with a person who's angry?
I know there's sometimes there are real, there are valid
reasons for being angry sometimes, right?
Such as when Dinah was raped. But have you ever been angry and
looked back on the situation and thought that was stupid?
What was I thinking? Just me, apparently.
Why did I get angry at that? This type of anger isn't
rational, it only looks out for itself and and the perceived
injustices that it feels. Then when we refuse to be
pacified in our anger or we hold a grudge, we step further into
sin. Cain refused to be pacified and
he was holding on to that grudge, and his response set a
storyline. That we repeatedly see played
out in the pages of Scripture a sinful reaction to difficult
circumstances or or perceived injustices.
And then this becomes the MO for all of humanity.
Verse 5 continued. So Cain was very angry and his
face fell. The Hebrew here has been
translated variously as downcast, dejected.
His countenance fell, his his face fell, or simply gloomy.
These are all in the bar ballpark.
But I like to distill it down to one word, despondence.
This is despondence. I think is is the best way to
characterize this in one word. Now, when we think of someone
whose face has fallen or a fallen countenance, I think the
picture of Eeyore comes to mind. Just a gloomy Eeyore, somebody's
face. Oh, you know, we're down.
We're sad. I don't know what Eeyore says,
otherwise I would say whatever he says.
I don't really know much about Eeyore, to be honest.
I didn't grow up on Pooh. So yeah.
But if you think of somebody who's down, you just might think
of poor me. Such a rainy day.
No, it's something more than just rainy day Blues.
That's that Kane is experiencing here.
He was completely devoid of hope.
He'd lost hope. And his, his spirit was
discouraged because you see, the situation is insurmountable.
He must have truly recognized in a moment of clarity that what
was in his heart was depravity. And that and realized that he
actually, he had no desire to change.
He didn't want to conform to Yahweh's standards.
Sure, he's sought God's approval, but not enough to
actually change and and do what was necessary for God's
approval. King's response to the rejection
of his offering tells us everything that we need to know
about Cain. The problem wasn't just his
offering. The problem was Cain's heart was
bad. When Jude, the brother of Jesus,
wrote about rebellious people, these rebellious people who
don't want to follow God's ways, Jude says they live in the way
of Cain. These people make sinning a
regular pattern in their lives and and they aren't submitted to
God's authority and ways. So that's the first part of
Cain's response. And you know, next week we'll
look at the rest of his response, the actual murder.
But then God responds to Cain's initial response.
Verses 6 through 7 read the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry
and why is your face falling? If you do well, will you not be
accepted? And if you do not do well, sin
is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, and you
must rule over it. Now I'm not sure if you realize
this. This was something I just
realized this week, that after the creative act, God resorts to
asking questions. In Genesis 311, he asked the
human who told you that you were naked.
Next week after Cain murders his brother, we'll see.
God ask where is Abel, your brother and and Cain, what have
you done here in this section? God asked Cain, why are you
angry? Why has your face fallen?
See, because God doesn't know the answers.
Of course not, right? God knows what's going on.
Now what's happening here is God is giving each of these people.
He's giving them the opportunity to confess.
He was giving Adam and Eve the opportunity to confess to what
they've done. Here in chapter 4, He's giving
Cain the opportunity to confess to what he's done and to confess
to his sin. So God's, God's response here is
to encourage repentance. God is encouraging repentance.
God wanted Cain to repent. God, God patiently waits for our
repentance, for an acknowledgement of our sin and
in our need for His mercy. In fact, second Peter 39 tells
us the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some
count slowness, but it's patient toward you, not wishing that any
should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
So what is actual repentance? I usually describe repentance as
a as a turning away from something from sin and heading
towards the other direction, heading away from sin towards
righteous living. Now repentance starts in the
mind, if you will, when we choose to agree with God will to
agree with him regarding our sin.
When we agree with him regarding our sin, we've we've changed our
mind about that sin, which then leads to a change in our
actions. Simply puts, repentance is a
change of mind that results in a change of action.
Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of
action. When our mind, or should I say
heart is changed, then this change is manifested in our
actions. Now Cain felt he was justified
in his response to God's disapproval of his offering.
However, Cain isn't the one who sets the standards and and
determines what's acceptable and what's not acceptable, what's
right and what's wrong. Adam and Eve had already tried
that route in the garden and and it didn't go well for them.
Right now, here, Cain wants to push the boundaries, to redefine
what is right and wrong. God chose not to accept Cain's
offering. God has that prerogative.
He's, he's God rights now. If Cain had changed his mind
regarding his response, if he had repented, then he wouldn't
have taken that egregious step of murdering his brother.
If when asked by God, why has your face fallen, he had
confessed and he had realized his sin, realized the error of
his offering, then he would have been set, it seems, on a
different path. It wouldn't have led to
murdering his brother, but he wanted to hold on to that right.
Four times in this passage, God spoke to Cain, initially to warn
Cain against carrying out his evil plan, then to elicit a
confession of responsibility. God spoke to him four times and
four times Cain rejects God's appeal.
God offered him the opportunity to make it right.
Verse 7, he says if you do well, if if you do the right thing,
will you not be accepted? God's saying there's still a
chance King could take the right steps and he could find
acceptance with God. God hadn't closed the door of
opportunity for Cain. He was offering him the chance
to make things right. Now I should clarify that the
action wasn't what would make things right in and of itself,
but the action, of course, would stem from his heart, his heart
being changed. And the verse continues, if you
do not do well, sin is crouching out the door.
It's desire is for you and you must rule over it.
And here God is cautioning Cain about sin.
This is a caution to Cain about sin.
God knows the intentions and thoughts of our hearts.
So. So he gave Cain a heads up about
what he saw. If you don't do well, if you
don't change your mind about this situation, then you're
going to have even bigger problems.
Basically is what God is saying. Now here sin is pictured like an
animal hunting its prey. When cats hunt their prey, they
they silently crouched nearby, waiting for the opportunity to
pounce. Sin is just like that cat.
He waits there patiently at the door.
Would Cain open the door to sin and and step through?
Or would he choose to close the door to sin?
Were he to change his mind and close the door, close the door
of opportunity, then his actions would show him too have
self-control and and have rule over sin in his life.
But opening the door, opening the door would expose him to sin
and it would allow sin to have its way with him, to dominate
him and rule over his actions. Sins power is so pervasive that
it is enslaving, captures the person and and in a sense it
obligates them to live a life devoted to Satan's purpose.
But here God is depicted as as patient towards Cain in the
midst of failure. God is encouraging.
Next week we'll see that in their second conversation after
after Cain's crime had been committed, God continues to show
Cain mercy. Now, if you're paying attention
to what I've said, you might ask the question, Did Cain really
have a choice? What was he free to make the
right choice? Do I have a choice?
Am I bound to sin, selfishness, and pride, or am I actually free
to live the Christian life the way God intended?
First of all, each of us, we talked about this a little bit
in chapter 3. Each of us has a sin nature.
We all have the sin nature. Sin nature is that part of
humanity that makes us rebel against God.
We are naturally inclined to sin.
We're all good at it. By the way, I have to, I have to
tell you about this thing. I have this card on my desk.
Somebody at Cornerstone had written this card in a, in a
Sunday school class. Sometimes they would write cards
to the pastors. And so in the Sunday school
class, somebody this little boy has a picture of, I think it's
me. I'm it's supposed to be me,
right? I think it's supposed to be me
holding a guitar. Really.
It looks like someone holding a machine gun.
But hey, that that's, that's not even the best part of it.
But so they're writing to the worship pastor and it says
inside it says you're a great Sinner.
I think what they were trying to say is you're a great singer,
right? You're a great Sinner.
And I don't even know how many years ago I got this card this
this boy's in high school and he was quite small when he wrote
it. But it has always lived on my
desk because of those two things.
The the person holding the machine gun or guitar on the
front. And then you're a great Sinner.
Yes, I'm a great Sinner. Thank you for noticing.
We are all great at sinning because we have a sin nature.
We were born with this, David says in Psalm 51 verse 5.
Behold, I was brought forth an iniquity and in sin did my
mother conceive me. Was was David born out of out of
a sinful, sinful relationship? No, that is not what he is
talking about. David is simply acknowledging
that the sin nature has always been there from the very
beginning. If we were given the choice of
doing God's will or our own, we would naturally choose to do our
own thing. Now, some people will argue
against the existence of a sin nature, but I really think it's
quite difficult to make your case when you're arguing against
a sin nature. And parents, we all know this.
No parents ever taught their little ones, even babies,
toddlers, children how to sin. They come by it naturally,
right? You don't have to teach them how
to do it. They automatically know how to
rebel. Instead, we have to teach them
how not to sin. We have to teach them to be
nice, to say kind things, to be obedient.
And then, as if that wasn't enough, every day in the news we
were reminded of people who have chosen to rebel against God's
ways. Romans 8, seven through 8 says
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it
does not submit to God's law. Indeed it cannot.
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
This might make someone think sin is a foregone conclusion.
Well, in some sense, yes, sin is a foregone conclusion.
We are going to sin. Even Paul has a struggle with
sin and he writes about that. But that's not the end of the
story. First of all, God has extended
his common grace to all of humanity so that so that even
people who don't know God have learned how to behave.
They've learned to be nice to each other, to tell the truth,
to be considerate, kind, to not steal from their neighbor, and
most definitely not to kill them because that's not very nice.
But then there's spirit filled living.
There's spirit filled living and this comes when we have a
relationship with God and and we choose to submit ourselves to
Him. Galatians 5 verses 16 through 17
reads. But I say walk by the spirits
and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the
desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of
the spirits are against the flesh.
There's a war going on inside each and every one of us every
single day. But if we walk by the Spirit,
then then we can live as free people.
We're we're not enslaved to sin. Scripture tells us we are free.
We are free from the bondage of sin.
And when we live in the Spirit then, then we will produce the
fruit of the Spirit that we looked at this past summer.
Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
These are all byproducts, fruits of a life that is yielded to
God. So as we close this morning, who
or what are you yielded to? Are you yielded to sinful,
fleshly desires or are you yielded to God?
Even as Christians, as people have truly placed their faith in
Jesus Christ and what He's done, we can still have seasons where
we live in the flesh. We act in the flesh and not in
the Spirit. So it's good for us to examine
ourselves and and ask the question, who or what am I
yielded to right now? God.
God works in our hearts and we can choose to respond positively
or negatively to Him when He convicts us.
We could be like Cain and respond in selfishness, anger,
and pride, believing that I know better.
Or we can choose to respond to God's moving.
We can respond in humility and surrender our lives to Him when
he brings that conviction, when he when he prompts something in
our hearts to say this, this thing needs to change.
Each of us can confront that, that little bit of cane that's
inside of us. Who am I submitted to?
Who's my master? Am I my master, or is God my
master? Is he the one who's calling the
shots? And if we agree with him, then
out of our hearts will flow springs of life, and we will
look more and more like Jesus. Let's bow our heads and close
our eyes. As we prepare to close in song
this morning, I think it's good for us to pause.
This isn't a time for for getting down on yourself,
walking in shame. Shame is not of God.
Shame is from the enemy. But if God brings conviction,
then we need to be cognizant of that and to realize that and
confess that sin that has been brought to our attention.
So I want to take a moment for each of us to just examine our
hearts. Where am I holding on?
Where am I saying no God, this is mine, you can't have this, I
am in control. Whether it be stubbornness,
pride, other sins that you commit, just take a moment and
confess those as God brings them to your mind.
God, as we close our time here this morning, our desire is not
to simply check off a box, to say I went to church, God.
Our desire is to say, I met with God and because I met with God,
I am being changed. I am being further conformed to
the image of Jesus Christ, God's Son.
So God, would you work in US, shape us, take away the parts
that need to be removed, add what needs to be brought into
our lives so that each day we are choosing to walk in the
Spirit, putting to death the works of the flesh, yielding the
fruit of the Spirit, looking more and more like Jesus Christ.
Thank you Holy Spirits, for indwelling us that we have Your
power inside us to enable us to follow after you.
Jesus, precious and powerful name we pray.
Amen.