Cain and Abel

Well, good morning, everyone.

Again, my name is Keith Knowlton.

It's a pleasure to be with you this morning.

If we haven't met, I hope to have the chance to do so after our service this morning.

As James mentioned, we are continuing our series in the book of Genesis,

the very first book of the Bible.

We've been walking bit by bit through this book.

We've already looked at the creation story,

the creation of man and woman made in God's image.

They're placed in the garden with a command to rule over creation.

They live in fellowship with God.

But yet, as we saw last week, they end up rebelling against God.

They are tempted by the serpent, and they eat of the forbidden fruit,

and sin enters the world.

And though God promises them soon after their sin that he will rescue them,

he will send this rescuer sometime in the future to overthrow the evil one,

we see the immediate effects of the fall,

brokenness and separation from God being banished outside the garden.

And so that's where our passage picks up today in Genesis chapter 4,

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

this familiar story of Cain and Abel.

And I wonder if you've ever heard the phrase,

someone said it to you perhaps,

welcome to the real world.

It's one of those phrases that's said with a bit of cynicism,

a bit of sarcasm, a sarcasm in your voice.

Perhaps there's a student who recently graduates from uni

and is looking forward to getting their dream job,

and they begin work, but then they recognize there's office politics,

and they have a difficult boss and coworkers that are targeting one another.

Someone may say, welcome to the real world.

Or maybe you have a young adult who's ready to branch out on their own.

They move out of their family's house.

They find their own flat.

They're excited for the sense of freedom and independence.

And then comes rent and council tax and insurance and utilities.

Welcome to the real world.

Or maybe it's a newlywed couple that returns from their honeymoon,

excited about this life of marital bliss.

And then it's the very next day that they recognize these differing opinions

in finances and in family and in their future.

Welcome to the real world.

We see this, I think, a similar situation in our passage this morning,

this welcome to the real world moment,

because we recognize that man had been in paradise in the garden,

and now they're suddenly confronted with this ongoing effects of sin

in life outside of Eden.

And so again, this is a familiar story of Cain and Abel,

I would think, to most of us,

but I don't want us to characterize it the wrong way,

because I think oftentimes we can just look at it as this historical narrative

about the first murder in human history.

And we can kind of keep it at arm's length to think,

well, that doesn't really have anything to do with me and my situation.

But what I hope that this narrative portrays for us is the picture of the real world

in which you and I still live,

in which you and I continue to experience the pervasiveness of sin.

But also in the midst of this brokenness,

I hope that we see today that we are not left without the mercy of God.

And so let's look at our passage.

This is in page 6 of your church Bible,

Genesis chapter 4, starting in verse 1.

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

Adam made love to his wife Eve,

and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.

She said,

With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.

Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil.

In the course of time,

Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord.

But Abel also brought an offering,

fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.

The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering,

but on Cain and his offering,

he did not look with favor.

So Cain was very angry,

and his face was downcast.

Then the Lord said to Cain,

Why are you angry?

Why is your face downcast?

If you do what is right,

will you not be accepted?

But if you do not do what is right,

sin is crouching at your door.

It desires to have you,

but you must rule over it.

Now Cain said to his brother Abel,

Let's go out to the field.

And while they were in the field,

Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Then the Lord said to Cain,

Where is your brother Abel?

I don't know, he replied.

Am I my brother's keeper?

The Lord said,

What have you done?

Listen.

Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.

Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground,

which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

When you work the ground,

it will no longer yield its crops for you.

You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.

Cain said to the Lord,

My punishment is more than I can bear.

Today you are driving me from the land,

and I will be hidden from your presence.

I will be a restless wanderer on the earth,

and whoever finds me will kill me.

But the Lord said to him,

Not so.

Anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.

Then the Lord put a mark on Cain,

so that no one who found him would kill him.

So Cain went out from the Lord's presence,

and lived in the land of Nod,

east of Eden.

This is the word of God.

Will you pray with me again?

Heavenly Father,

as we turn now to the preaching of your word,

we do ask that you send your spirit among us,

that he may prepare our minds to receive your word,

to move in our hearts to embrace your truth,

and to strengthen our wills,

that we may follow in your ways.

We pray this in the name of our Savior Jesus.

Amen.

Now, as I mentioned,

our passage today,

we are confronted with this post-fall reality

of life after Eden.

This is not a narrative that simply describes

the environment thousands of years ago.

It describes our environment here and now,

the conditions in which we live in.

And so I wonder,

after Adam and Eve first sinned,

how they first thought about sin.

Obviously, they recognized

the consequences of sin,

these external consequences.

We know that they felt remorse,

but how did they initially think

that sin might affect them internally and personally?

I wonder if they might have had this thought,

well, yeah, we slipped up,

but it's not going to happen again.

Or it might happen again,

but it's not going to happen all the time.

Maybe it'll be kind of more of an occasional dealing

that we have to face.

But I think they probably woke up very quickly the next day

and recognized a very different setting.

Arguments began, selfishness creeped in,

anger and pride.

It affected their thoughts and their actions

and their speech.

And they realized, oh wait,

sin has affected everything

and there's no escaping it.

And we see how quickly sin grows and expands

that even in this first chapter

that records man's life outside of Eden,

we're faced with murder.

We only have to go two more chapters in Genesis

where it says this about God's people,

that the Lord saw how great the wickedness

of the human race had become on earth

and every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart

was only evil all the time.

And we think, wow,

that escalated quickly, right?

I mean, we look though

at the Westminster Confession of Faith

and it gives a similar description of human condition.

We are utterly indisposed,

disabled and made opposite to all good

and wholly inclined to all evil.

And so that's what I want us to think about today,

to think about sin

and its seriousness and its pervasiveness.

And specifically in this passage,

I want us to think about the progression of sin

that we see here

from conception to confrontation to completion.

And so those will be the three points

of this sermon today.

Sin conceived,

sin confronted,

and sin completed.

So let's consider that first point of sin conceived.

Now we're introduced to Abel,

Cain and Abel right off the start.

Abel, he keeps flocks.

Cain, he works the soil

and they both bring these offerings to God.

Cain brings the fruit of the soil.

Abel brings the firstborn of his flock

and these fat portions.

And I think it's worth noting right off the bat

that there's this sameness here.

They're brothers.

They're both in this act of worship.

And on the surface,

it doesn't appear like there's much different.

I remember from my childhood,

you see these images of Cain and Abel.

And Abel is kind of this innocent boyish figure.

And you see Cain like this big menacing dark figure.

I don't think that's what we see right off the bat here.

They're both engaged in this act of worship.

And so why is it then that God looks at favor,

looks at Abel's offering with favor,

but not Cain's.

And I think we get our first clue

by just looking at the offering itself.

And I don't think it's simply because Cain

didn't bring an animal as Abel did.

Remember, this is before the Mosaic law

where there's instructions about different kinds of offering

and different kinds of sacrifices.

We know that Cain was a farmer.

He grew crops.

This is what he brought to the Lord.

But the thing is,

what we see here is a missing key word in the Hebrew.

It says that he brought fruit,

but it doesn't say that he brought his first fruits.

The first fruits are the yield,

the first yield of your harvest.

And they're supposed to recognize,

it's a recognition that all creation belongs to God.

And so we get a sense here of Cain's stinginess perhaps,

that he's holding back his first,

he's holding back his best.

He's making offering to God,

but he's wanting to make sure that he has enough for himself.

We get a second clue about this offering

and God's pleasure with Abel.

We see when we go to the New Testament,

to the book of Hebrews chapter 11,

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

says this in verse four,

by faith, Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did.

By faith, he was commended as righteous

when God spoke well of his offering.

And so we see here,

it's not simply about the gift that's brought,

but it's the heart of the giver.

Abel brought his offering out of faith.

You may say, well, faith in what?

Like they literally just got kicked out of the garden.

Well, remember, when God kicked them out,

he gave them this promise

that through the seed of a woman,

a rescuer would come to crush the head of that serpent.

A rescuer is going to come.

Abel didn't know when it was gonna happen,

how it was gonna happen,

but he exhibits faith.

On the other hand, we see Cain's offering.

He doesn't give this offering

in response to this promise of salvation.

In fact, his offering exhibits a lack of faith,

a lack of trust.

He's holding back his best.

And so isn't this how sin often begins in our lives

with this little lack of faith?

And perhaps it's small,

and perhaps it's unnoticeable at first,

but implicitly, we start to doubt God's goodness.

Can he be trusted?

Is his way best?

And we stop resting on him,

and we start thinking that our way is better.

This is what's described in the book of James

in the New Testament

when it talks about how sin begins.

It says each person is tempted

when they are dragged away

by their own evil desires and enticed.

Dragged away from the will of God.

And then after this desire has conceived,

it gives birth to sin.

And so we see here,

Cain, it's not like he's refusing outright

to worship God or to give an offering.

It's not that he denies

or doesn't believe God exists.

We see him interacting

and communicating with God in this passage.

He's involved in this religious activity,

but it's not done with a pure heart.

And so I wonder if we often do the same thing.

We come to church,

we're involved in a community group,

we serve on the welcome team,

but where is our heart?

We believe that God exists,

but do we truly long to be in relationship with him?

Or are we simply here out of a sense of duty,

just going through the motions?

Do we recognize our deep need for him?

Or do we think that religion

is just kind of one of those things

we add to our life's portfolio?

The reality is,

is that God sees the condition of our heart.

And he doesn't desire for us

just to go through the motions of worship.

Listen to God what says

through the prophet Hosea,

he says,

I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

and acknowledgement of God

rather than burnt offerings.

Have you ever considered

why a lot of church doors are painted red?

It's done with a purpose.

It symbolizes that we enter into the presence of God

through the blood of Jesus.

We don't come to worship

based on the fruit of our own labor.

We're not trying to come here

to prove ourselves to God.

We come into his presence.

We come to worship as his people,

to experience the means of grace,

confident that he will forgive our sins

and redeem us through the work of Jesus.

And so for anyone here

who has sinned grievously this week,

anyone here who has forgotten God's goodness,

anyone who has relied on your own strength,

God welcomes you here.

And we're glad that you are.

Because we're invited to come in faith

recognizing that God freely gives grace to us.

The old hymn says,

nothing in my hands I bring,

simply to the cross I cling.

And that takes us to our second point.

Sin confronted.

Now some of you know that

before coming to Scotland,

I practiced law in the States.

And law school is a little bit different.

It's set up here.

We actually were talking about this

in our community group last week,

that the teaching is a bit different.

It's not just you sitting in class

and are lectured.

It's a form of what's called the Socratic method.

It's this dialogue of the professor asking questions

and the student answering those questions.

And so when you go to class,

the professor would likely call on one person.

You'd have to stand up that student.

And then the professor may pepper them,

all class,

just that one student with questions

about the reading,

about the case law that they should know.

And so maybe he picks on a few people.

But the point is,

he's asked these questions

not because he doesn't know the answer,

but he's trying to draw out understanding

to cause the student to think critically

to come up with the right answers.

And so I think we see something similar here.

God comes to Cain and he asks,

why are you angry?

Why is your face downcast?

And God's not asking these questions

because he doesn't know the answer.

It's not that God is lacking information here.

Instead, he's asking these questions

in order to bring Cain

to this point of self-reflection

and understanding

that he may recognize his own sin.

And so I think it's worth noting here first

that we see the tenderness of God.

So often people outside the church,

they want to look at the Christian God

and think he's this judgmental God

who's looking up,

just waiting for us to fail

so he can drop the hammer on us.

That's not the picture we get here.

We get a picture of God's patience

and forbearance.

Cain is already in sin.

He's demonstrated this lack of faith.

He's been jealous toward his brother,

but God doesn't seek to immediately punish him.

He seeks to bring about restoration.

And he does so by this very ominous warning

that sin is crouching at your door.

There's another old English version

translated this way.

I like it.

It says sin is lurking at your threshold.

This crouching verb in the Hebrew,

it describes the way that a predator

would leap upon its prey.

It's this readiness to spring.

It's a language that's echoed

in 1 Peter 5 where Peter says,

your enemy, the devil, prowls around

like a roaring lion,

seeking whom he may devour.

And so we've all seen those animal documentaries, right,

where you have a lion

who's hunting down its prey slowly

and stealthily moving through the bush,

sneaking up on this unassuming prey.

And it's only to the last minute

that this animal takes notice,

but it's too late.

And the tiger or the lion has pounced

and overpowered its prey.

And so do we really view sin this way,

that it's crouching at your door?

This is the phrase that kept coming up

in my study over and over again.

It really was haunting me this week

because I realized how often

I personally fail to acknowledge

the opportunity for sin

in every aspect of my life.

Sin is always ready to attack.

In your interactions with your family,

every time you pick up your phone,

every time your mind wanders,

every time you sit at your desk at work,

every interaction you have

with coworkers and classmates,

every time you're by yourself at home,

sin is ready to pounce.

And so how are we encouraged to respond?

The New Testament has descriptive words

throughout that says,

how do we confront our sin?

It says we resist,

we fight,

we flee,

we struggle,

we put to death.

We cannot address our sin passively.

We are engaged in this spiritual combat

empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And so we do this

because of the second part of God's warning

that we see in our passage.

It's so important because it says

that sin desires to have you.

When a lion attacks an antelope,

it's not simply looking to tear off one leg

and then let it hop away with three.

It wants to kill the animal.

It wants to consume it whole.

Likewise, sin is not looking to affect

just part of us.

It doesn't want to attack

and then retreat.

There's no truce

in our battle against sin.

It wants to fully overpower us.

And so it's not content

to allow you to just have a few arguments

with your spouse.

It wants to destroy your marriage.

It's not content to just interfere

with some of your thought life.

It wants to ruin it

with lust and anger and pride.

Sin doesn't want to steal

just a few minutes of your day.

It wants to make you destroy

your productivity

through idle scrolling,

through being distracted

from anything other

than Christ and his kingdom.

And so what we see in this story, though,

is that destruction,

it doesn't come all at once.

It's not like Cain woke up one day

and just decided,

I'm going to go murder my brother.

We see that sin

has this gradual effect.

So think about maybe

how it played out in Cain's life.

He's farming after the fall.

He has no heavy equipment.

He probably has little help.

It's hard to even bring

enough produce to survive.

And so maybe he's a little disgruntled

even from the beginning

that God has put him

in this situation.

And so he brings some of his fruit,

his produce to offer to God,

but it's not his best.

He needs to make sure

he has enough for himself to eat.

And God's not pleased with this,

so he's a little upset

that all this hard work

is going overlooked by God.

And he begins jealous

because God is pleased

with his brother.

And so maybe he exchanges

some words with his brother Abel

over time,

begins to get angry

rather than just jealous,

and that anger finally turns to hatred,

and this hatred then

proceeds to murder.

It's really a wonderful book

that creatively illustrates

the tactics of the devil.

It's the Screwtape Letters

by C.S. Lewis.

And in there we have

this senior demon Screwtape

who's writing these letters

to his nephew demon,

and he's explaining

how to effectively tempt the human

that he's responsible for.

And he makes a point

to say that it's not

through dramatic evil events

that you tempt someone,

but through quiet,

gradual manipulation.

He says this,

he says,

the safest road to hell

is the gradual one.

The gentle slope,

soft underfoot,

without sudden turns,

without milestones,

and without signposts.

And so throughout the book,

Screwtape is repeatedly encouraging

that you make these sinful habits

feel normal and harmless.

And so the goal

is not dramatic rebellion,

it's spiritual numbness

that ultimately destroys

the whole person.

And so this is the process

that works in each one

of our lives.

It's subtle,

it's quiet,

and so therefore,

often we let our guards down.

How often do we address

sin in our lives?

Oftentimes,

we want to justify it.

We want to validate

our actions based

on our circumstances.

Why cheated on the exam?

Because everyone else

was cheating on the exam.

I didn't want to be

at a disadvantage.

I was holding a grudge

because you don't know

what that person did to me

and they're not even sorry for it.

I spoke angry to my kids

because they just won't listen to me

and they're disobedient all the time.

I was rude to my spouse

because my spouse was rude to me.

I was ruthless at work

because that's the only way

that I'm ever going to get a promotion.

Similarly,

in addition to justifying,

oftentimes we try to minimize

our faith, right?

Think it's not really

that big of a deal.

Well, it was just

a bit of lust.

It's not like I cheated

on my spouse.

It was just a bit of gossip.

I don't do it all the time.

I may work more than I should,

but look at that other guy.

He's with his family

far less than I am.

I think worst of all,

we often try to hide our sin.

We know that it's wrong.

We know that it's destroying us,

but we try to conceal it.

We try to make and deal with it

on our own.

We don't want to ruin our reputation.

We don't want to have to ask for help

or accountability,

and so we wallow in the sense

of guilt and shame.

And when we do that,

that often spirals into a cycle

of more sin and more shame,

and we get to the point of thinking,

God would never forgive me

for what I've done.

But look again about how God

responds to Cain here.

He gently warns him.

He urges him to acknowledge his sin,

that he's been minimizing

and justifying and concealing.

And we need to recognize

that even today,

God continues to work

in the lives of his people

in this way.

Through his spirit,

he confronts,

and he convicts,

and he encourages us.

And so do we recognize

that this is God's mercy toward us,

that we feel guilty for our sins.

Not that it leads to self-loathing,

but that it leads to repentance,

so that we can be enabled,

as God encourages Cain here,

to rule over our sin

rather than it rule over us.

Every Sunday here

in our worship together,

we try to incorporate

a prayer of confession.

It's a way of acknowledging corporately

that we fall short of God's glory.

And hopefully,

this is a personal practice

for each one of us,

that we're willing and ready

to confess our known sins,

but also to ask God

to convict us of hidden sins

that we either ignore

or overlook in our lives.

That we can pray

like the psalmist prays

in Psalm 139,

Search me, O God,

and know my heart,

know my thoughts,

see if there is any wicked way in me.

And so may we let

God's kind confrontation

lead us to repentance,

that we may be vigilant

in our fight against sin.

And that brings us then

to our final point,

sin completed.

You ever had the opportunity

to tell someone,

I told you so?

Or maybe someone said that

to you before?

I feel like this is

a daily occurrence

in the lives of parents

when they see their kids

fighting or doing

something questionable.

Someone's going to get hurt,

there's going to be tears.

Then within minutes,

there are tears

and someone's upset.

And it says,

I told you so.

I warned you.

We see that with the same thing here.

Cain was warned.

He didn't listen.

It says,

I told you so moment for God.

We could have predicted

something bad was going to happen.

It says in verse 6,

Now Cain said to his brother Abel,

let's go out to the field

and while they were in the field,

Cain attacked his brother Abel

and killed him.

And again,

God comes to Cain

the same way that he came

to Adam and Eve

after they sinned

and he asked them,

where's your brother?

But instead of confessing his sin

like Adam and Eve did,

he tries to deny it.

He tries to cover it up.

Am I my brother's keeper?

And so we see this cycle

of unrepentant sin

leads to unrepentant sin

which leads to unrepentant sin.

And so God punishes Cain.

No longer will he be able

to grow crops.

He will be a restless wanderer

in perpetual exile.

And sadly,

even now,

we don't see Cain

with repentant heart.

We don't see any sign of remorse.

He's simply bemoaning

the punishment.

He's full of self-pity,

full of resentment.

He thinks this punishment

is more than he can bear.

In his mind,

being cast out of God's presence,

being taken away from land,

it's a death sentence to him.

But even in the midst

of Cain's ongoing rebellion,

we see really something

incredible here.

And it's God's mercy

accompanies his justice.

And he places a mark

on Cain so that no one

who found him

would kill him.

We need to recognize

that God would have been

fully within his right

to strike Cain down.

In fact,

in the Mosaic Law

that comes later,

it prescribes

this death penalty

for someone

who intentionally

murders somebody else.

But yet,

God chooses

to show mercy.

The late theologian,

Meredith Klein,

he notes in his commentary

on this passage,

he says,

God's concern

for the innocent

is matched only

by his care

for the sinner.

And so if God cares

for an unrepentant

murderer like Cain,

how much more

does he care

for you and me

who come to him

in faith and repentance?

We've spoken

these last few weeks

about how Jesus

serves as a second Adam.

Adam wasn't able

to perfectly fulfill

the law,

but Jesus came

in perfect obedience

and did what Adam couldn't.

But we see

in this passage

that Jesus also came

as a second Abel.

Because just as

this shepherd Abel,

his blood was shed

by his hypocrite brother

who is offering,

who is giving

these offerings to God

in false worship,

we too see

our good shepherd,

Jesus.

His blood was shed

on the cross

by Jewish religious leaders

who Jesus personally

called hypocrites,

who said they were

clean on the outside

but full of greed

and indulgence

on the inside,

whose jealousy

led to hatred

and hatred

to murder.

And so while

Abel's blood

cries out

for justice,

we see something

different

in the blood

of Jesus.

In Hebrews 12,

24 it says this,

it says,

we come to Jesus

the mediator

of a new covenant

and to the sprinkled

blood that speaks

a better word

than the blood

of Abel.

Abel's blood

speaks of judgment.

Jesus' blood

speaks of grace.

And so this should

be an incredible

word of encouragement

and hope

and comfort to us

because this is

the real world

in which we live,

that there's not

an inch of creation

that hasn't been

affected by the curse

of sin,

but we have a loving God

who fulfilled

his promise

to send a rescuer

through the seed

of woman

to be the perfect

sacrifice,

to redeem us

from our sins,

to restore us

into perfect relationship

with God.

And so if you're here today

and you've never

placed your trust

in Christ,

the invitation

is for you

to come forward

in simple faith

just like Abel did

because you're not

too far

from God's mercy.

You don't have to

get your life

in order

and straighten

your ways up

to think that God

will accept you.

Come in your sin,

come in your shame

and heed God's warning

that judgment

is coming for those

who do not repent

but his mercy

is extended

to those who put

their faith in Christ.

For those of us

who are in Christ,

maybe we remember

just how formidable

of an enemy

we face.

That sin

is ever crouching

at your door.

And so may we be

ever vigilant,

not trying to justify

or conceal our sin

but being welcome

to welcome

God's gentle confrontation

that we may be

trusting in him

that he's ready

to forgive

and ready to restore.

Amen.