Double Up, not Down (Genesis 4:1-15)

Grace and peace to you from God our Satan from Jesus Christ our hope.

The sermon text is from our Old Testament reading.

Here again these words.

The Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry?

Why is your face fall?

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.

Cain was angry because the Lord was not pleased with his offering.

Following the events of Genesis 3, Adam and Eve had two children, Cain and Abel, who grew up, as so many sons do, following in their father's footsteps.

Abel, we're told, was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.

Adam, we know, was a gardener, put by God in the garden of Eden to work and keep it.

But many speculate that he was also a keeper of sheep, since that's what their clothing was now made of.

We could say then that Cain and Abel were each involved in a different facet of the family business.

In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought up the firstborn of his flock and of their family.

It's not clear why they did this.

We have no record of God commanding them to do so.

Perhaps their parents encouraged them to, as part of their bringing them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, as St.

Paul says.

Parents today might do something similar: encouraging their children to put a percentage of their allowance or birthday money in the offering.

What is clear is that their attitudes toward this offering could not have been more difficult.

Not much instead of Cain's offering, just that he brought something.

Meanwhile, Abel brought the best.

Not the runt of the litter, the lean, scraggly sheep that no one wants, but of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.

The strong, healthy sheep, the good stuff.

This was a sacrifice for him personally, like giving up your favorite t-shirt.

Cain, by contrast, appears to have done the opposite, keeping the best for himself while presenting God with the rejects, the bruised apples, and the funny-looking potatoes.

Why is this?

The author of Hebrews tells us that the difference was faith.

By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.

At the very beginning of that chapter, faith is defined for us as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

What this tells us is that Abel brought his offering not on the basis of his own merit, but fully convinced of God's mercy.

He brought the best he could bring out of joyful gratitude for the gifts God had given him.

Gifts he hadn't deserved, but that he had received nonetheless.

This implies also that Cain's offering was not accepted because it did not come from faith.

He did not share the same conviction as his brother that God's gifts were undeserved.

This may stem from the fact that he was the firstborn.

He had a certain status that was unique to him and that in his mind gave him place of pride.

It's not unlike the Pharisees in Jesus' day who assumed they were good with God because they were descended from Abraham.

But Jesus says to them, Do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.

For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

In other words, who cares?

That's nothing to base your faith on.

God's favor is on those who fear him.

From generation to generation.

Everything else proceeds from sin.

And so the Lord had regard for Abel in his offering, but for Cain in his offering he had no regard.

It was an abomination to him.

For in offering up his sacrifice, Cain had really just offered it up to himself.

And God called him on it.

And Cain not surprisingly became angry, very angry.

You could see it in his face.

It's at this point that God speaks to him and warns him, saying, Why are you angry?

And why has your face fallen?

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.

Cain had not done well.

He had sinned.

In pride, he had trusted in himself that he was righteous, while probably looking down on his brother and his offering with contempt.

And yet, it was Abel, the secondborn, who went home that day justified, not because his offering was superior, but because it came from faith.

As we read in Psalm 51, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.

A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Cain then was at a crossroads.

Having been called to repentance, would he acknowledge his sin to God and receive forgiveness for it?

Or would he double down on it, giving sin an entrance into his heart where it could devour him like an animal?

He chose the latter.

He gave in to his anger, and speaking to his brother Abel, invited him out into the field where he attacked him and killed him.

And from there it only got worse.

When asked by God where his brother was, Cain lied and said, I don't know.

When cursed by God as a way of impressing upon him the seriousness of his transgression, Cain doubted, accusing God of being unmerciful.

In the words of one old Lutheran theologian, Cain fell from sin to sin, ran blind-eyed into his own calamity, and did not shed one tear for his past sins.

He wouldn't.

He refused to rule over his sin and instead let it reign over him.

Again and again, God is patient with Cain, giving him the chance to confess, even marking him lest anyone, presumably one of Adam and Eve's many other children, take vengeance on him and kill him.

Despite all this, Cain never does confess.

His story ends with him moving away from the presence of God, still holding on to his pride.

Protect us from this, dear Heavenly Father.

Cain may be the first man who lets sin reign in him, but he was not the last.

Sin is crouching at the door of every one of our hearts, and its desire is for you, and you must rule over it.

But how?

Sin is a foe that is not easily subdued.

Its allure is powerful, its presence universal.

We are by nature sinful.

From the unborn child in the womb to the homebound on hospice, none of us has to be taught how to sin.

We just do it like breathing.

And if you give it an inch, it'll take a mile.

Sins are like dominoes, they fall one into another.

Master Yoda was right.

Fear leads to anger.

Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.

Or in Cain's case, it was pride that led to jealousy.

Jealousy to anger, anger to murder, lies, and finally doubt and despair.

But it could just as easily have been coveting like Ahab or lust like King David.

The point is, once you double down, it's hard to stop.

Once you ignore the warning and convince yourself you're right, that you are justified in your anger or desire or pursuit of pleasure, that's when you've got a serious problem on your hands.

Because again, God's mercy is the only thing that forgives sins.

By grace, you have been saved.

And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

No one can look at their lives and say, Yeah, you know what?

I'm good.

I don't need God.

I'm free to give whatever I want because it doesn't really matter.

If such is your attitude, then you do not do well and you will not be accepted.

For the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.

That's the one he accepts.

The poor, miserable sinner who by grace heeds the warning, confesses his sin, and wants to do better.

These are the ones who are justified.

They look on themselves with contempt, trusting in their Lord Jesus Christ that he is righteous for them.

For the righteous live by faith.

It's a gift.

The free offering of God's own firstborn son on the cross.

And he brought the best.

Not the runt of the litter, a mere sinful human being like us, but the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The strong, healthy sheep, the good stuff.

It was a sacrifice for him personally.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And if that's true, if he did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Here then is how we rule over sin.

By faith.

We don't do it, we simply receive it and respond in joyful gratitude.

We trust in the merits of Christ our Savior and pray him to keep us, his servants, from presumptuous sins.

We hearken to his word, which tells us that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that we should walk in them.

We are inclined to kill, to lust, to covet.

But rather than double down on those sins, leading to more sins, God's Spirit is at work in us, teaching us to hate evil and love good, to be angry and not sin.

Not letting the sun go down on our anger, but seeking to be reconciled to our brother, letting go of any resentment toward him for whom Christ also died.

To let go of our pride and double up on his mercy, which is precisely for domino playing divas like us.

Let no one doubt and think that their sin is greater than Jesus' merit.

For one single drop of the blood that he shed far outweighs all the sin in the world.

And you are accepted.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.

Amen.