The First Worship War

Genesis chapter 4. Now the man had relations with his wife, literally and the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. And she said, I have gotten a man's child with a help of the Lord. Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering, but for Cain and for his offering he had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Then the Lord God said to Cain, why are you angry?

And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it. Cain told Abel his brother and it came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother and killed him. Then the Lord God said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know, am I my brother's keeper? And he said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you.

You will be a vagrant and a wander on the earth. Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is too great to bear. Behold, you have driven me this day from the face of the ground and from your face, I will be hidden and I will be a vagrant and a wander on the earth. Whoever finds me will kill me. So the Lord said to him, therefore, whoever kills Cain's vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold and the Lord appointed a sign for Cain so that no one finding him would slay him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod east of Eden. What a description. A picture of worship, but what a context. Over the last couple of decades anyway in America and actually throughout the Western Evangelical Church, there's been what has been called worship wars.

These worship wars are really about people's strong convictions about how we are to worship in the Church of Jesus Christ. We have some real extreme positions. There are those who think you're not worshipping unless you have a rock band and the worship is kind of like a rock concert. Instead of an altar, you have a mosh pit and instead of us singing the old hymns of the faith, we sing whatever comes to mind. On the other extreme are those who say we don't really worship unless we sing only the words of Scripture. There are those churches who sing songs only and for sure you couldn't go wrong in doing that, could you? But somewhere in between is the mass of the church and sometimes this really gets heated how people feel about what we ought to do, especially in regards to music in the Church.

There are those who are more concerned about those who are much more liturgical in their worship, and they like certain sights and sounds and smells, but in the great majority of the Evangelicalism, the big issue is music. What kind of music do we sing? Is it really God glorifying? Is it really what God wants us to do? And that really is the question. The question is not our tastes. Every generation experiences this to some extent or another, as the generation shift, obviously, as God raises up new leaders and new people in all these different realms, and they begin to write music, it's going to sound different. And my generation, who often looks down on contemporary Christian music with kind of a looking down their nose at it, for debts that we used to sing, do Lord, do Lord, do remember me.

And you know, I've got to me, what is it? Gas in my Ford so I can truck for the Lord or something like that? And we had some of those great works of art in our day, too. And so there is a lot of stuff that's written today in contemporary worship music that really isn't worth singing, but just because it has a slightly different tune or it wasn't written in the 19th century, the 18th century, doesn't mean it doesn't honor God. What do the words say? And really the issue comes down to this. What does God think? That's really what's important. You know, we are so taken up in our day with the church growth movement, the seeker's sensitive approach to the church, that we actually begin to think that that's what's important, what is going to appeal to the world when we gather to worship?

That isn't the issue. The issue, what does appeal to God? Is this a sweet smelling saver in the nostrils of God? What we do in Sunday mornings? Or is he repulsed by it? And maybe even the thought that God would actually judge our worship is surprising to you, but that's exactly what the text says here today. The very first murder is a result of God's response to worship. Do you think it's significant the way we worship? It seems to be to God. Chapter four reveals the consequences of sin and the reality of death. Over and over in these chapters in chapter three, four, five, and six, we have confirmed the reality of the curse which God has placed upon humanity, placed upon Adam when he said to him in the day that you eat of this, you shall surely die.

And death now continues on one generation after the next. God's curse upon Adam's disobedience now comes to rest in his own family. And he feels the brunt of it in a powerful way. But the amazing thing that even in this poignant story of sin and misery, we have a picture of the patience of God. Patience and mercy characterize God in this story, in this event, even with an unrepentant sinner. God demonstrates mercy to an unrepentant sinner in this text. Amazing. And it won't be the last time that he does this in the book of Genesis. And you read the book of Israel, you see the patience of God to an unrepentant sinner. This passage moves along in basically five scenes and we're going to look at these scenes and kind of see what the message is from this story.

First of all, the first scene is we have in verses one and two, this is kind of the establishing shot of this. We see this picture of a covenant family. We say that because Eve addresses God as Yahweh, the covenant Lord, and we have the gift of life here, right in the shadow of the curses of God and that of death that's going to be fall mankind. Right in the midst of that, we have the gift of life. Right in the midst of the rebellion of Adam and Eve, children are born into this family of blessing of God. We see God's goodness displayed in their family. There's a very appropriate response here, a believing acknowledgement by Eve that God's goodness and mercy is the source of this good gift that he brings into her life.

Notice several things in verses one and two. First of all, I want you to notice how he describes this marital relationship, the physical relationship within marriage. If you have a King James Bible, the old or the new King James Bible says, and Adam knew his wife, that's the most literal translation because that's exactly what this Hebrew word means. Now some people think, well, that's a euphemism. So we can read this in front of our small children. It's not a euphemism. It is a description of this physical union. God's design is the physical relationship in marriage is to be one that's based upon intimacy and knowledge and understanding and tender care. And out of that union comes this child, the gift of God.

And notice what she says, I have gotten the child with the help of the Lord. She is immediately aware that this is a blessing from the hand of the God who has brought the curse upon the earth and upon the serpent. It seems clear here, as we've mentioned before, that Eve is assuming that this is a fulfillment of the promise made in Genesis 3.15, that when he cursed the serpent, he said, the seed of the woman will crush the head of the seed of the serpent, even as the serpent will crush the heel of the seed of the woman. And so she assumes that this is the fulfillment of that promise. Here is the seed of the woman, she thinks, that God has given her a man. In fact, she doesn't use the word for child.

It's translated man-child in some translations, but it literally says she thanks God that he has given her a man. And if this man is going to be the one she thinks, who's going to curse and who's going to bruise the head of the serpent, but of course she is greatly mistaken, but she does manifest faith. She believes the word of God. She believes the promise of God, so she calls out to the Lord and acknowledges him in the giving of this child, in fact both these children. And notice also the names of these two, Cain and Abel. Cain is actually a play on words. The words I have gotten a man from the Lord, the word gotten in Hebrew is Kanah, and this name Cain basically means something like God acquired.

She's received him from the Lord, and so she names him assuming he is going to play a significant role in this battle against the serpent and the serpent seed. The second child, she names they name Abel, which just means vanity or mere breath. It's kind of a hint at the fact that his life is going to be cut short. Actually Abel has much more significance in his worship of God, obviously, than Cain. And notice the two occupations. What you would expect, Cain follows in the footprints of his father, the oldest son. In Hebrew culture always, quite normally, would follow the path of his father. And like his father, he becomes a tiller of the soil. That was a blessing from God. God created Adam and gave him this assignment to till the soil.

And now his son, Cain, in a fallen world, in a cursed world is going to be a tiller of the soil and Abel as shepherd. He pastors animals. There is no hint at all in any conflict between them until they come to the altar. We have the goodness of God, manifesto here. Derek Kiddner, in his commentary on this passage, says, Eve's cry of faith, list this situation out of the rut of the purely natural to its true level, the spiritual. In other words, the story tells us that this child, these children are a spiritual blessing from God. She sees even the birth of a child as a supernatural gift from the living God. What a different opinion she has than the modern view of what a child means when God gives us a child into our family.

Notice the second scene, in verses three through five, we have the worship experience here, a family at worship. Notice what happens in verses three through five. It says so it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord. Out of the through the ground, Abel on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering, but for Cain and for his offering, he had no regard. So Cain became very angry, very angry in his countenance his face showed his emotion in other words. They bring their offering and God judges their worship. This is a crucial truth that I think we need to take to heart. God evaluates our worship.

God does care about how we worship him. He does judge their worship. He wants our hearts. That's what scriptures clearly revealed that in worship God wants our hearts and he's ready to judge some worship as acceptable and other worship as not. It says nothing about the spell of music. Never does. Never does in all the scriptures. It never does tell it say anything about the style of music. It says that our music ought to be teaching and admonishing one another. So it has to have content and it has to be singing and making melody in our heart to the Lord. You know, and the best cures for people have these strong opinions about that there is only this narrow field of music that has God's approval on it ought to go to some other part of the world and worship with believers there.

Go to the Ozarks. Go worship with followers of Jesus Christ who don't know how to play classical music and see if they worship the living God. You see what's important is God wants the heart and we have the context here and this is really I think at the heart of the issue is that God wants worship to flow out of family life. The basic unit of worship is the family. The very first worship event we have is within the family and the father is a priest and we see this throughout the Old Testament until the coming of the Levitical priesthood everybody understood that the head of the household was the priest of that family. He was the one who led the family in worship brought them before the living God.

Why does God find Keynes offering unacceptable? We need to understand this. What is it about the offering of Keynes that caused God to reject it? Now there's a lot of opinions about this. If you just pull down a few commentaries and there's a ton of commentaries in the book of Genesis. Pull down a few commentaries and see what the commentators say. Gunkel and a German commentator says that God prefers shepherds over gardeners. Vestermann says that God is inscrutable. That is he's arbitrary in his view. There is no reason. God is just that way. He arbitrarily didn't like and disapproved of the offering of Keynes. Others, of course, say that the problem of core is that Keynes brought a bloodless sacrifice and Abel brought a sacrifice of blood, the shedding of blood which points to the death of Jesus Christ.

The problem with that is that the language that used here of this offering is the bloodless sacrifice is under the Levitical system, the grain offering and so forth. What is the reason? Well, the text doesn't say and so we need to be careful that not say more than the text says but we do have a couple of important hints in the text here in Genesis chapter 4 and that is the difference in the first of all, the difference in the description of the two offerings. Keynes, and here's really the key, his is nondescript. He brings an offering from the fruit of the ground. Says nothing about it. That's simply it's from the fruit of the ground. He's a gardener and he brings some of his the product, the produce of his gardening and offers it to the Lord.

But notice the details of Abel's sacrifice. He says it is he brought from the first links of his flock, which means the very best, the premier. And secondly, and of the fat portions, the best part of the best. What this reveals, of course, is Abel's attitude towards God and the worship of God. He brings the very best. So there's this hint of their costliness to Abel as he presents this sacrifice. It was a sacrifice that cost him something and it manifested something. It manifested the fact that even before these two great commandments are given, now she'll love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might and love thy neighbors, they self. We see the manifestation of these two commandments here in the difference between Cain and Abel.

The second real hint in the text is Cain's response to the Lord. Notice what he does in verse 5 again. But for Cain and for his offering, he had no regards, so Cain became very angry. And he's salt. Everybody shows her angry, anger is slightly differently, but we can tell when a person's angry normally, you can see it in their face. And sometimes parents will tell their kids to get that look off your face, boy. Wipe that look off your face because we know exactly what the emotion is behind the look. Cain's response to the Lord here, we have this hint of arrogance. I mean, think about this. Imagine the Lord coming to you and saying, your worship is not acceptable. I've got where to wake you up tonight and say to you, your worship, your worship life, your approach to me is not acceptable.

Can you imagine your response to God being the response of Cain? Would you respond in anger to the Lord God of the universe? Because he's telling you that your worship is not acceptable. Can you see how prideful Cain is? That he gives this angry look to God and he answers in the way that he answers as the text goes on. So in the passage itself, we can see that there's a difference between the offering of Cain and the offering of Abel. Abel gives the first of his flock. He gave the back portions of the flock, the very best, premier part of these animals. And yet in Cain, we see arrogance because God disapproves of his offering. God sees the heart. I can fool you, but I can't fool God. When I come here to worship, God knows exactly what's going on in my heart.

He knows exactly what's going on in your heart. The New Testament helps us here. Now let me explain something. Let's go to the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 11, turn there with me. Hebrews chapter 11. Let me explain something to you about our view of the inspiration of Scripture. We believe that 2 Timothy 3.16, when the Apostle Paul says, all Scripture is inspired of God, lit quite literally, God breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished with every good work. We believe that the clear implication of that text, and that is not the only one, we see it throughout the Scriptures, is Paul's view and understanding of the Scriptures, as Jesus was, that not one jot or one title, not the smallest marking in the Hebrew text, would fall to the ground until all of this was fulfilled.

At the view of the Apostle Paul is that this book, the Bible, the Scriptures, are God breathes. And so when we want a commentary in the Old Testament, if there is a commentary in the New Testament, we go to that commentary because we believe it is an inspired commentary. It's a commentary that will tell us what the Old Testament text means, and we can count on it. More than we can count on Google, our Vistamon, our Bart, our Bruner, our Charles Ryrie, or anybody else, the Scriptures themselves have authority, an authority that is different than any other writings. And notice what the inspired text, the God breathed text says about this situation in Genesis chapter 4, the writer Hebrews, who we don't know exactly who that was, the writer Hebrews says, by faith able offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain.

Now Genesis doesn't tell us that, it just says that God rejected the offering of Cain, but the writer here says that the offering of able was better, a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. It's able's faith that made his offering what it was. It led him to offer what he offered in the way that he offered it, and it's why the Lord received Abel's sacrifice, and he didn't receive Cain, it was because of his faith. In order to worship the living God, we must worship in faith. You remember what Jesus told, though, woman at the well, God is spirit. May that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

It has to be worship that comes from the heart. It has to be a manifestation of the faith that we have towards the living God, but also look at 1 John chapter 3. In 1 John chapter 3, we also have a comment in reference to Cain, an evaluation of his character, and notice what John says. 1 John 3, verse 11, for this message, which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, the message from the beginning, and the message that Jesus fleshed out in his life, that he made visible to us what it means to love one another. He says in contrast, verse 12, not as Cain, who was of the evil one. He was the seed of the serpent. He was of the evil one, and he slew his brother, and for what reason did he slay him?

Because his deeds were evil, and his brothers were righteous. The implication of that verse is, what I am doing when I come before the living God and do not offer him worship in faith, what I am doing is evil. Isn't that amazing? The thought of that hit me this week, and I got to tell you, it threw me into a sense of repentance, of thinking of all the times I've sat in the midst of worship, going through the motions of worship, and yet not having my heart engaged, and God says that is evil. The manifestation of evil. So what does the New Testament tell us? Tell us. Well, it tells us that evil came in faith, offering his sacrifice. That's what we must do. We're told in the New Testament that we bring bloodless sacrifices before the living God.

We bring the fruit of our lips in praise and worship. We bring our good works, the fruit of our wallet, he says, to give to meet the needs of the saints, and we bring the fruit of the gospel. We offer up to God all the effects of sharing the gospel in our life and with our lips. When we come to worship him, and those offerings are acceptable through Jesus Christ. Because Christ has paved the way for us, our worship in Christ through faith in Christ is acceptable to the Father. When our worship is a manifestation of our faith, the next size of our faith in Christ, it is acceptable to God. Able came in faith, offering his sacrifice. He was a righteous man, we are told, and Cain's heart was not right with the Lord.

Isaiah 29, the prophet Isaiah says, and he brings a word of judgment against the worshiping community of Israel, the people of God in the Old Testament. And God says, Isaiah, this people draws near me with their lips service, but their heart is far from me. He says they mow the right things, but at the same time they have hearts that are not engaged. Their hearts do not draw near. It is not an expression of faith, it's going through the motion. It is like the worship of Cain. Cain's worship was tokenism, not true religion. What a danger that is. Tokenism. Jesus said that God is spirit, and therefore our worship of God must be this. The woman at the Sonaritan woman had just said to him, well, because she is a little red herring that she's throwing out before him and says, she says, we worship here in this mountain at Mount Gharazim, but you do say we should worship in Jerusalem.

And Jesus said an hour is coming. Now he is when neither in Jerusalem nor in this mountain will you worship, but God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. We can worship him in a cafeteria. I get a kick out of there's a guy that calls once in a while, and he will only come to one of our services if we're in the in the pack building because that's more like a church setting to him. Now I just can't get over that. The worship of the living God is not the building, it's not the glass, it's not the sounds, it's not the smells, it is our hearts attitude toward the living God. Do we come before him with hearts that are open to him in repentance and faith and adoration?

Or do we sit and critique? I cannot get over the fact how people feel that they do have a license to critique everything that goes on in a local church. This is the most amazing thing. How we can judge every little element and what we should be doing is evaluating our heart, is my heart engaged, is my heart engaged. Let me tell you, some of the best worship experiences you will ever experience is in settings that don't seem like a church setting at all with people who don't have what you think you have to have in order to worship, but have hearts that are open to God and are worshipping him openly. What God wants is not tokenism. He wants joyful worship. Joyful worship and you know you can't work that up.

It's not that we can teach you a little dance or how to raise your hands or how to sway back and forth. That won't get it. It has to be a heart, it is a heart issue. How it affects your body is your business as long as you stay within certain parameters. I've been in service, I grew up among a bunch of people who used to worship in some ways that got a little bit out of hand. I saw a woman one time got her head stuck in a chair. She was so physical in the way she worshiped the living God. I was at a camp meeting one time and they were having a great time. People were dancing around the altar and I was sitting back there as about 13 years old. I'm rehearsing this very heavy lady dance. She started losing her balance and she sat down on the altar.

The only problem was there was a little 12-year-old kid's head there. She sat down right on his head and God supernaturally protected that boy. It was just an amazing thing. You know that's all right. I didn't bother me. I've been in context and when I went to the Philippines it was amazing. Every service a different group would lead the worship and we had people from all over the Philippines. The Philippines is huge and the cultures are diverse and we had some that were great conservative Baptists. They were like the GARBC, the general association of regular Baptists and they were regular and they did things exactly the way you were supposed to, every single point, very formal. And then we had others that was like, man, you never know what was going on.

This one guy led songs. He was so acrobatic. I couldn't believe it. And the way he led and they were happy. They were joyful. And everybody got joyful with them. We just changed styles. Whoever was leading. It was great. Let me show you something. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 8. I think here we have an indication such a clear picture of what it is God wants from our worship. I think every culture, even within major cultures, we have subcultures and we worship differently and we express ourselves differently in some groups. They're much more expressive than others. But the real issue is, is this a manifestation of a heart open towards God? Is this what Paul describes here in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 when he says, now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given to the churches of Macedonia, that in a greater deal of affliction, they're going through very difficult time, their abundance of joy.

The idea of abundance of joy is joy that's overflowing and it can't be contained. That there are abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. The other night, Judy and I, I won't tell you what we were talking about, but we got to talk and both of us got so tickled, we must laugh for 30 minutes and we thought if anybody were to hear us, they would think we were mad because we just couldn't contain it. We kept trying to stop but we couldn't contain it. We just had gotten so tickled and so full of joy over what we were laughing about and it was like there was this overflow of emotion that we couldn't help and that's what he's describing here. The overflow of joy mixed with deep poverty.

They barely had enough to live on. He says it overflowed. It was like a chemical reaction. It overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. They opened their hearts and they gave themselves. In this case, he's talking about giving their money to the needs of some needy saints in Palestine, what we call Palestine today. In this passage, when he talks about giving, I don't want to even relate it to giving right now, I want to relate it to the fact that he's referring to one of the aspects of worship. This is the motivation of worship. He wants our worship to be worship that flows out of the heart because of our overflowing joy in God. Have you ever been happy in God? I need to answer that question based on the look in your face right now, but have you ever been so happy in God that you just couldn't hardly contain it?

Oh, it's a wonderful experience, isn't it? For the spirit of the living God to open your eyes to the depth and breath and height length of the love of Christ and it hits you and it just flows throughout your being and you can hardly contain yourself. What a God this is, what a gracious God, the God of glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is the unveiling of that God. That's how we know God is because of Jesus Christ. You want to know what God's like? He's like Jesus. He loves the way Jesus loves. Read the gospel. See how Jesus loves. See how see the character of God and the grace of God in Christ Jesus and it will fill your heart with joy. Understanding the gospel is what will set the fires of worship on going in your heart.

Sometimes we forget we're like the Ephesian church. Remember the church at Ephesus Paul had great influence on that church and he was there for a long great time and they were a church that really understood truth when he writes the book of Ephesians. It is theologically dense. I mean he talks about the major issues of the gospel in Ephesians. This was a mature church and yet when Jesus speaks right to the church through John at Ephesus he says you have I have this one thing against you. You have abandoned your first love. You're best love. You're no longer overflowing with joy in God. That can happen to us, we have these hardening of the categories or hardening of the arteries spiritually and it's like we can hear people talk about the joy of God we say I know what they mean but when was the last time that you experienced and when was the last time you actually took the time to meditate and to think about and to examine in the word of God the truth of who God is and what he has done for you in Christ Jesus to the point that it actually moved your heart that you were affected.

Emotions are not proof that you know something necessarily but they are proof that that truth has sunk in deep into your heart. So what is what should we get from this? We should get from this that what God is asking of us is the what David said when he wanted to offer up an offering to God and he said I am not going to offer up something that doesn't cost me anything. I will not worship God in a way that costs me nothing. If it were possible to arrange the worship of the living God in a way that you could be totally passive it wouldn't be the worship of the living God. We have to be actively engaged. We have to engage our minds and our hearts and our wills in the worship of the living God. He deserves it.

He deserves all of you and all that you have and all that you are and all that you will ever be. And the more that that the grace of God the greatness of God grabs your heart the more you will find yourself spontaneously and without the ability to stop you start giving yourself away. We have got this crazy lady over in Uganda. She keeps giving more and more and more of herself away. What in the world is she going to do next? What is happening? She is just overwhelmed with the joy of God in the context of there are so many needs. God will do the same thing for us when we worship him not in the light cane but like able. I want you to notice the fact of something in Genesis chapter 4 and that is the thing that brought division between Cain and Abel was the presence of God.

Think about that. The thing that brought division between Cain and Abel was the presence of God. It was their exposure. Cain's exposure to the truth of God in regards to his worship. The presence of God. Their awareness of God's presence and his word and his evaluation is what divided them. It's what always disrupts a peaceful relationship between the seat of the serpent and the seat of the woman. It has always has been. It's when the presence of God is manifest in God's approval of true worship and his disapproval of false worship of tokenism. It always brings disruption. Postal pulses that legalists are always going to persecute people of grace. Always. Why is that anyway? Well think carefully about this.

In Genesis 3, 15, God promised to establish enmity between the seat of the woman to see the serpent. Here is the first manifestation of it. They see it right before their eyes in their home. Two brothers who are as far as we know have been getting along just fine. What does God do? He establishes enmity between the seat of the woman and the seat of the serpent by his response to their worship. They actually find out what God thinks of their worship. Wow. That's a scary thought, isn't it? What if God were to tell you today? What do you think about your worship and my worship? Because he recognizes God's rejection of his sacrifice, Cain, who is the seat of the serpent, hates the seat of the woman and strikes out against him.

The bruises heal. We see this over and over again. Why is true Christianity, biblical Christianity, the worship of the true and living God in Christ Jesus opposed around the world? Why is it? And the more it manifests the truth of the gospel, it is hated more. Why is that? Derek Kiddner in his commentary, and this is here we see for the first time the deadly antithopathy of carnal religion to spiritual religion. The carnal man cannot abide to be in the presence of the spiritual man. Why? Because it is convicting. It's convicting to be in the presence of a spiritual man, he says. Jesus said in John 319, this is the judgment that light is coming to the world and then love darkness rather than light because they're diesel.

I remember as a kid because I grew up in a church where there was so much emphasis on the manifestation of the presence of God that when you went to church, it was a good service if God somehow manifested His presence in some way. And you went expecting that. But I can remember as a very young Christian, not wanting to be in one of those services if my heart wasn't right with God, because I was so afraid of being exposed. Now, it's not like that here, you're real safe. You come here and you're hearting the heart is a rock and nobody knows it. But you know the reason that there is this battle between the sea to the serpent and the sea to the woman is the same reason that when students hate the guy who ruins the curve.

You just didn't have that guy then you know we'd all be okay. We just wouldn't see the truth about our hearts manifested in the person who is rightly adjusted to the living God and actually is living like a Christian. I mean they're making decisions that manifest the fact that God is the most valuable thing in all the world. And it makes me so uncomfortable. Well, the third scene, I'll stop there, the third scene on that thing. The third scene is found in verses, the last part of verse 5 through verse 7, we see a sulking cane, we see unbelief and impenetence, he is unrepentant. And notice what it says back in Genesis chapter 4, the last part of verse 5, so came became very angry and his countenance fell, literally his face fell.

And the Lord, then the Lord said to came, why are you angry? Why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and it's desirous for you, but you must master it. Even after Keynes' unworthy sacrifice, the Lord comes to him in grace, he is patient and he is merciful towards Keynes. He keeps in treating the sulking cane. Don't you hate to entreat sulking people? I, it's in my nature, it's really hard for me, if somebody is sulking, I kind of avoid them because I, and when I sulk, I want people to avoid me actually, but I can't stand to talk to somebody who is sulking. And yet God comes to the sulking cane.

Why are you angry, Keynes? Think of it, the Lord of the universe comes to plead with Keynes, who is this angry man, because he thinks that the Lord has been unjust with him. He's full of resentment before God, and here God comes and shows genuine concern for Keynes. That's the kind of God we serve, the God who is patient with unrepentant sinners. The Lord tells Keynes, he says, if you do what's well, that is if you repent, you will find restoration, but he warns him that if he allows sin to master him, then sin is going to dominate him. He pictures sin as an animal, crouching at the door, I think a picture of Satan himself, a serpent, crouching at the door, ready to take advantage of him. Now, there are two New Testament passages, there are a bunch of them, but there's a couple I like to look at for just a moment.

I don't have a whole lot of time, but I would like to look at this, and just to drive this point home. And that is that the nature of sin is such that when we give in, when we allow ourselves, in the smallest way, to be driven and motivated by sinful motivations, we get entrapped and entangled, and sin expands and expands. It's kind of like Bermuda grass. You know what Bermuda grass is like, especially in sandy soil. Once it gets a hold, it's so hard to get rid of. And James, notice how James describes this process. This is so dangerous for us. If we don't realize how serious sin is, that is refusing to submit to the will of God, refusing to treat God as he is, the sovereign Lord of our lives.

In James chapter 1 verse 13, James says, let no one say when he is tempted, or when he's going through a great trial, and in that trial he is tempted to sin, says, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone. But, and now he explains what really happens when we are tempted. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived. My beloved brother and sin is deceiving. Sin is entangling, sin is entwining, sin is always growing. You possibly fall in Romans 7 and in other passage, he says that the commandment gained him, do not covet.

And he says, all of a sudden, I found myself coveting in every way. It expanded, it took over my life. So sin takes opportunity in Paul to produce coveting of every kind. It will do the same thing in us. Genesis 4 reminds us of the entraping and expanding consequences of sin. Now stop and think about this. If the God of the universe addressed you and he said, listen to me, you are about to be tempted in a way that's going to destroy your life. Don't allow sin to take hold of you. You think you take that seriously? The God of the universe comes to Cain and warns him about the temptation that's going to come upon him. And yet Cain thinks he can handle his sin and so he continues to sulk and be filled with resentment.

And notice in verses 8 through 12 and Genesis, we have the fourth scene and that is Fratricide, the killing of a brother, the consequences of sin nursed. When we nurse sin in our lives, we have these sins in our life that we continue to nurse them and protect them and put them in some little compartment where we think they're safe. They can end up taking control of our lives. You know the routine that's going on here and in verses 8 through 12, Cain tells his brother, came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against able his brother and killed him. You know the routine, you're offended. Somebody offends you and you work over, work it over and over in your mind in a shower, you're taking a shower and you're thinking about how you could get revenge, how you could get back at them or at least vindicate yourself and that's what Cain has done.

He is angry at his brother. His brother has shown him up, the little brother has shown him up by bringing the kind of sacrifice that God accepts. So the Lord comes to Cain and he says, Cain, don't let it go. Master sin, don't let it master you. Don't let this bitterness in this resentment dominate you, but what does he do? He allows it to take root. He allows it to control his life. He allows this anger to so control him that it results in murder. When Jesus says in Matthew 521 that when we get angry at a brother, we are guilty before God of murder. What he's talking about is the fact that once I make the decision in my heart and that decision in my heart flows out of the anger that I harbor.

And here Cain carries it out. Think about this for a second. The first death in the fallen world is not old age, it's not an accident, it's not disease, it's murder. Murder. The older son murders the younger son. The fruition of God's curse against Adam for his sin. The day that you need of it, you shall surely die and now he sees this brought to its culmination. When his son murders his younger son. So we see the consequences of sin. And then in verse 9, notice then the Lord said to Cain, where is the able your brother? He said, I don't know, am I my brother's keeper? God says, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. Wow, the serpent has taken control.

He didn't master it, it mastered him. And now he exercises dominion over Cain and brings this death in the family. And you hear in verse 9 you see God coming to seek Cain just like he came to seek Adam after the fall. Where is your brother? I do not know, am I my brother's keeper? You know this Cain's disregard for God. He despises God in the way he speaks to him and he doesn't love his brother. He's insolent towards God and unloving towards his brother. And then this curse, an amazing curse, because in this curse we see the mercy of God. What you would expect in somebody says, you know, he has the mark of Cain on him. And we think, oh, the scarlet letter, he's been marked as a murder, he's going to suffer for it all his life.

That's not the mark at all. Look at the mark. What is this mark that he gives him? He says, now you are cursed, verse 11 from the ground, which is open its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you. You will be a vagrant, a wander in the earth. And Cain says to the Lord, my punishment is too great to bear. Behold, you have driven me this day from the face of the ground and from your face. I will be hidden and I will be a vagrant, a wander and whoever finds me will kill me. So the Lord said, and therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold. The Lord appointed a sign for Cain so that no one finding him would slay him.

He protected him. An amazing thing. Look at this hardness. In verses 13 to 17, you have the hardness of this unrepentant heart of Cain. It always amazes me how hard-hearted we can get towards God, how we can resist the work of the Spirit. In this last scene, we speed the hardness of Cain's heart and yet we see the patience and forbearance of God. In verses 13, unfortunately, I just read, he protests against God's sentence. It's too harsh. It's too much. It's not fair. Remember the thief on the cross who began to badmouth Jesus as they were hanging on the cross and the other thief says, shut your mouth. We deserve to be here, but this man is innocent. That's the difference in a hard heart and a repentant heart.

A hardened heart says, Lord, your sentence is too hard. It's too difficult. It's not fair. The repentant heart says, Lord, your mercy is undeserved. Your mercy is undeserved. All your sentence is fair. It's your mercy that is undeserved. That's the difference being repentance and worldly sorrow. Second Corinthians 7, that some people have worldly sorrow over their sin, but no repentance. Repentance says, Lord, I don't deserve this mercy that you are showing me. It's always the case. Wherever we hear someone declaring that God's sentence is too harsh, we can be sure that we're listening to an unrepentant heart that hasn't found repentance. Because a repentant heart knows that if we were to receive what we deserve, then we would all be under the condemnation of God.

Yet we see here God's concern for the lost. Adam and Eve were victims and Abel was a victim and yet his grace towards them as matched by his grace towards Cain. He applies this mark, a mark of protection. Not a scarlet letter, but a mark of safe passage so that he wouldn't be what he inflicted upon his brother would not be inflicted upon him. Kidner in his commentary says, this is almost a covenant. It is the utmost that mercy can do for the unrepentant protection. God, even in the hour of Cain's unrepentant shows mercy towards him. Let me ask you in light of this, what's it our posture towards the sinner be? Shouldn't we desire the mercy of God to be shown upon him on the sinner? The sinner be called back to the presence of God?

Shouldn't that be our attitude? If this is the attitude of God? And even though Cain has shown mercy because of his hard heart, he turns away from the presence of God. But I want you to notice a principle here. Found in Romans chapter 2 verse 4, something we should remember, whoever we are here today. If you're here today, you've never received the mercy of God through faith in Christ. It's something you should understand. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 2 verse 4, do you think lightly of the riches of the kindness of God and his tolerance and patience? Do you weigh the kindness and tolerance and patience of God towards you lightly? You take it a light thing that you're still breathing even though you haven't turned in repentance to Almighty God.

He goes on not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance, the kindness of God leads you to repentance. The Bible says that people, because they are not judged quickly, think that they can get by with their lawlessness. God says the reason that he is long-suffering and merciful is to lead you to repentance. Why hasn't judgment fallen? Your Apostle Peter and 2 Peter says there are those who say all this stuff about the judgment of God a bunch of bologna. It's never coming even saying this since the beginning. And Peter explains, God desires it all, should come to repentance. He's delayed his judgment so that he could save sinners, so he could save people from the day of judgment, so he could save us from the day of judgment.

He delays the day of judgment. Do you take it lightly that God in His kindness as you hear today hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ that there is salvation in Christ, that there's forgiveness of sins and restoration and reconciliation in Christ? Do you take it lightly that He shows His mercy upon you in this way? That I can stand up here today and say, God loves you. And all the good things in your life, the sunshine you're feeling right now, the blessing of children and love, a love relationship with another, with a spouse, that's a gift of God. It's a manifestation of the presence of God. The whole thing about sin, according to second psalonians, is it's going to be a way from the manifestation of the glory of God.

No relationships in hell, no parties in hell, no music in hell, no art in hell, no joy in hell because it's a way from the glory, the power of His presence. God in His kindness has brought us here today and says to you through a weak man, God loves you and He sent His Son into the world to die for sinners like you and if you will turn to Him in faith, He'll make you His child. He'll accept you into the family. He'll bring you right into the inner circle of the triumphant Godhead and make you a fellowshiper with a living God. He's so kind. What have we learned from this? We learned that repentance is grace. Repentance is a gift. Repentance is something that God must give you. Cain didn't lack opportunities.

He had all kinds. The God of the universe comes in twice and speaks to him and gives him opportunity to repent before and after the sin. Why does he do this? Why does Cain persist? Did he lack opportunity? No. He lacked the moral capacity to change. He had a hard towards the living God and only God himself could change his heart and only God can change your heart. That's why he's the only one you can ask. You can ask to save you. The only one you can ask to save you from a hard heart towards him. In this dark passage, is there a word of hope? Absolutely. Even in this picture's sin, we're reminded because of the our complete ruin that our only hope is to look away from ourselves to the only person who can bring redemption for us and that is Christ Jesus.

So even as we learn about sin and misery in Genesis 4, we are reminded that God is able to redeem us out of sin and misery through his sacrifice. That's a glorious message. Whether you're here and you need to hear it and believe it or whether you're here and you need to believe it and tell it. It's a glorious message. The God has given to that. I want you to believe it. Let's stand together and pray. Our kind and gracious, patient, merciful, loving Father, we give you thanks for your long suffering and your mercy towards us. We thank you that you have delayed the day of judgment from our perspective to give us another day that we can turn to you in faith and repentance. We thank you, O Father, that you have shown mercy to us in Christ and that the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to the truth of that.

We see it for what it is. Our eyes have been opened because of your supernatural work and we pray that you would do that work because no one else can do it. No one else can do it. No one else can open the heart, change the heart, open the eyes so that they can see. We pray that you would open blind eyes, you would soften the heart of hearts, you would motivate rebellious wills, help us to turn to you with all that we are, to give all of ourselves to you. We pray in Jesus' name for the glory of Christ. Amen.