From the Start - Part 10 | Cain, Abel, and Sin (A Genesis Sermon Series Part 11)

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

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

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

Genesis 34 · chapter mention

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.

Psalms 51:5

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

Galatians 5:16–17

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.