This morning, we turn in the Bible to Genesis chapter 4, and if you're visiting with us, we're working through the book of Genesis, and this morning now we come to the well-known account of Cain and Abel. I will read through verse 16, although much of the curse that happens that falls upon Cain, we will consider next week. Let's give our attention to the Word of the Lord. First book of the Bible, Genesis chapter four. Now, Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And again, she bore his brother, Abel. Now, 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 firstborn 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, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. Cain spoke to Abel, his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother? He said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? And the Lord said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me. Then the Lord said to him, Not so. If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest anyone who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. May the Lord bless this morning the hearing of his word. This is not a pretty passage. This is a hard text, hard to preach, hard to think about, hard to see. And I suppose it's helpful to begin, in light of that, with the words of Jesus when He said in the Gospels something that is absolutely crucial for us to understand about life under the sun as His people, when He said, If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chose you out of the world, Therefore, the world hates you. That's crucial, isn't it, for understanding life? It's a very important teaching. It's not that we can ever make the world love us. And James warns that friendship with the world is hatred to God. We really don't fit in here as Christians, do we? Our identification with Christ has secured something for us. And the Lord told us that you can never prevent or stop the world's hatred of you. Understanding this helps, I suppose, us think through the times that we're in. With the recent Supreme Court decisions and the things that are happening on a widespread level in our country with free speech, what we're seeing play out in front of us is a massive censure that is taking place. It's a massive censure that is happening, and I know what it's aimed at. You know what it's aimed at. Ultimately, this censure is coming right at the heart, to the heart of the Christian message. They're coming after it. We see it. We know it's coming. We just don't know how it's going to play out, or we're in kind of denial of it. But we stand back, and we wonder what kind of shape this is going to take in this country, and where is this all going to go? I mean, could it really be possible? And the older people here right now are stunned by this. Could it really be possible that we are coming to a time in the United States of America where we are physically persecuted for our faith? We would have never dreamed of that. Hey, I have a general hope that things are going to go well for me. A general hope that things are going to go well for me and my children. I'm starting to wonder about that. Is the future that bright? And how do we respond to this? Do we fight? What do we do? Should we expect this? Well, I hope this morning is clarifying for you. Because I think Christians living in the U.S. have been able to enjoy so much peace and so much outward prosperity for such a long time, they have forgotten what the hatred of the world really is like. we have forgotten that such hatred is absolutely inevitable. And isn't it interesting that the first scene after the fall shows us this? The first scene after the fall is a martyrdom for the faith. And what we have this morning in Genesis chapter 4 is the development now, and that's what's really being shown to us, it's the development of sin and what now life is going to be like under the sun in the development of sin. And there's nothing pretty, as I said. This is a hard text. It's going to make us uncomfortable. But you'll notice here, the text is structured to encourage us. And we can't forget that in the midst of this. There's three sections, if you were to divide this up and you were to look at this. In the first section here, in verses 1 through 16, you have an individual case that shows us the development of sin in the first family. And then in verses 17 through 24, you see this development through the course of the human race. You'll notice this development in the family of those who are separated from the life of God, from God. And then you have this shining section at the very end of this chapter, The third section where you see the development of the family of God separated out for God that is worshiping God in the earth. And so we can't forget the end of this chapter. That the Lord is telling us something here and he wants us to understand and we need this today more than ever that no matter how bad it gets here on the earth, no matter how much we are struck down, no matter how much, even if it got to physical persecution, even if things turn bloody, The Lord just promised you by the end of this chapter what Jesus said in the Gospels, the gates of hell will never prevail against his church. He'll preserve her. He'll keep her. She will be victorious in the end. And we can never forget that. So I want to look at this account with these things in mind this morning and back up a little bit to remember some of the things that were said in the curse. And remember in chapter 3 when these curses were being given, the Lord said something to Eve that was very important. She said, in pain now, you will bring forth children. And this is hard. We're seeing that pain play out. And it really helps us. It's not just the pain of giving birth. It's the pain that we see here develop. And it helps us to understand what's happening in chapter 4. I want you to look at verse 1. Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And what immediately jumps off the page here, what is really kind of an exciting beginning to all of this is Eve's excitement. I've acquired a man. The name Cain means that, acquire, to possess, to get. And you almost hear this joy, this radiance that is coming off of Eve. She is excited. It's as if she is saying here right up at the beginning, I have got him. I've got him. He's the one. Now, whether she directly thought that this was the promised seed that was made in Genesis 3 when the Lord made the gospel promise there, I think she thinks that. But whatever the case, she is overwhelmed that the Lord has helped her overcome here and the sign of a son is the sign that he is going to fulfill his promise and so what we see in Eve is the response of faith in our first mother we see the response of faith we had already seen it in dad when he heard the promise the first thing he did is name his wife Eve which means life I believe this just like Abraham he believed the promise of the gospel But remember that the Lord had said something else in the midst of this curse. I'm going to put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. The Lord said there that he is separating out two peoples in the earth. Better said, he's going to take a people and save a multitude no man can number and pull them out of the darkness. The Lord said that. But that's the key to this this morning, that God had made this promise of a Savior who would come and Eve's response is that of faith. The firstborn came, I have got him. And here is Eve now expressing faith, trusting in Christ, trusting the promises, and she gives him this name. Notice how he's called Cain, I've acquired. Well, lo and behold, then comes a second son. And you'll notice how the text just kind of passes right over this. It's insignificant. And there's a purposeful intention of that. Abel's name means nothingness or vapor. And the Lord is showing us something here very important. So the first one's name means acquired. Here is where it is. And the second one that comes means nothingness or vapor and we're set up we're set up now we're set up knowing as we're going to see and we can read back and look at the history of how God has worked and we can see that God works and we're really ready for God with the whole truth of the base things of the world the weak things of the world the nothing things of the world these God has chosen to put to shame the wise and you see this reversal you see it with Jacob and Esau and you see this throughout history that God's ways are not ours and here the Lord is teaching us that when God makes a great reversal of the mess that we have created and God is going to act whatever he is going to do he is going to choose that which brings the most honor and glory to him so that no one may boast in his presence. And so I believe the text is showing us this here. It's showing us sin developed in the human race and the fundamental difference between these two types of people. And the question being, how do we know? How do we know the differences? Well, the contrast really starts in verse 2. Now, Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain was 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 firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. Many believe, Jewish rabbis and others, that there was a designated place of worship in front of the garden where the cherubim were. And this was, remember, the flaming sword boys and girls had gone up. They could not come back into the presence of God, but there was an understanding still that they had to come and worship the Lord, and the cherubim had always been pictured throughout history as guarding the throne room of God, keeping sinners out so they're not incinerated by His glory. But notice here, things are kind of dimly stated, and we see this develop throughout history, but that they come at the end of days. And I take the position that this is your Sabbath worship. That they had come, that they had been taught to come. That whatever had happened at the fall did not remove now people coming and worshiping the Lord and honoring the commandment to Sabbath and to enjoy God. And the question then comes is how is that possible after the fall? The end of days is how it reads. Cain and Abel had obviously been given some kind of instruction on how to come and what to do in the presence of God in worship. And you can't help but thinking that Adam did some real instructing after he had seen the Lord take whatever kind of animal it was and shed its blood and cover them with these skins, teaching them the way to be covered, the way to be justified. It's fair to say that what you have up front here is kind of a worship service. A place for worship, approaching God, who's guarded now by the cherubim, a time for worship, the Sabbath. But the issue now really focuses on the way of worship and the approach of worship. In the course of time, verse 3, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. Isn't this a remarkable statement? And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. What's gone on here? I believe the text is really clear about this. It tells us, Abel brought the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. Cain brought what? An offering. Cain's worship here is characterized as simply bringing the fruit of the soil with nothing else added. And I believe that's the point. What is God showing us? Do you find it fascinating that the first thing God raises after the fall is the issue of worship? How can you come? How do we come back to the presence of the Lord? And sin is developing and sin is taking shape. And where are we taken? Some have argued that the issue was blood, that Abel brought blood and Cain didn't. And I'm not convinced by that. I think the very plain issue here is the heart. Very plain. The throne and the heart. What does God love? What has God universally told us that He loves and that He really is after when people come to Him? He has told us when it comes to giving that He loves what kind of giver? A cheerful giver. And you can't help but when you see that God receives Abel in his offering, what is really coming out about Abel is that Abel is overjoyed to be in the presence of the Lord. Out of the abundance of this overflowing heart, the hands have offered. And Abel has come in a way that has pleased God. What is that? You ever thought, I get up this morning and I come here. And what pleases him? Well, we know that without faith, it's absolutely impossible to please him. For whoever, says Hebrews, would draw near to God, whoever would come here on the Lord's day and the Sabbath to worship the Lord and enjoy Him, must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who do what? Seek Him. Hebrews tells us, by faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. So you have the Scripture commenting on this, and you have the Scripture pulling this out and highlighting the very thing that God is really pleased with. And remember what God had made clear. God had already said that he would send a deliverer, and the first thing Adam does in responding in faith is he believes the promise, and what does God do? God clothes him. Here's Abel. And the father has done a good job. The father has trained his son. And his offering is speaking to the believing heart. Notice, I love how the text says this here. It's remarkably powerful that the Lord looked upon him with favor. You can, we say this when I put up my hands, the Lord bless you and keep you and turn his face to you. The Lord turned his face toward Abel and his offering, and the Lord's smiling face was upon Abel. But, the text now highlights the opposite thing. That without faith, it is impossible to please him. Scripture gets to the heart of things, doesn't it? Scripture takes us right to the heart of things. And when I look at Cain, and I look at his worship, the first thing I come to is this, and I'll qualify this, but the first thing I come to is this. Journalistic worship God hates. His approach to God is like so many worshipers of our day. They come. And why do they come? Well, maybe it's out of tradition. Maybe it's a sense of this is the good thing to come. Why do they come? What animates us in being here? Are they overwhelmed and are they really thankful in gratitude that God has announced a way in which sinners can come and commune with Him and enjoy Him? Has it really set in that God gave His only begotten Son and that He put Him through the cruel death of the cross because now we sit on this side, that He put Him through the cruel death of the cross that we might live. And that because of such love, the response is that there is nothing more pleasing in this life than having the ability to be here and to worship him and to enjoy him and to hear his words of life and for the minister through his servant, the minister to declare to you, your sins are forgiven, which is what happened in the section on when we confess. The Lord forgave you. It's all over the psalmist, you know. We've been through some of these passages. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs. Yes, it faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Ascribe to the Lord glory. Ascribe to the Lord glory and honor. Bring an offering and come into His courts. You get to bring an offering. That's the heart of the regenerate. Now I know many of the true believers often don't feel that. And I understand that. And I'm not saying it's never a struggle. But in the whole trajectory of life, in the whole path of life, in the believer's heart is a longing to come to the Lord with an understanding that He is gracious. And that is overwhelming. But where's Cain? Where the treasure is, there the heart will be. He is giving nothing. His giving had nothing to do with an understanding. What kind of giving would this be then? Token giving. He throws it in the pot and he thinks that he's done something right before God. By which God will now bless him. Wasn't that the mentality across the board today in the church? He's a worker. This man works the ground. This guy is a tiller of the soil. And hey, even though it's cursed, look what he brought to God. And so you're looking at Cain and you're saying, well, what is this? It's some kind of approach out of mere duty, out of mere custom. There is nothing on the inside. I mean, isn't it just wrong to kind of roll out of bed on the Sunday and come here and mumble through the songs and unstirred by the message you can't even focus and you throw a buck in the pot so that everyone sees you're putting something in? Is something wrong with that? And that really if it came down to it and God opened the heart, you're just bursting to get out of here so you can go do what's really important to you. In fact, if two tickets to the Super Bowl were held out to you, That's really where you'd be. What do you think God thinks of that? I told you it'd be challenging this morning. He's not pleased with that. Take Psalm 51. I was thinking of this psalm as I was working. Think of what it says. We sing this. Not the formal sacrifice has acceptance in thine eyes. Broken hearts are in thy sight, more than sacrificial rite. Contrite spirit, pleading cries, thou, O God, will not despise. We sing that. Did you get it? Not the formal sacrifice. That's Psalm 51. And I've always been moved by that, that the heart of this, you know, Abel was at the, if you want to put this in New Testament terms, Abel is beating his chest and he's saying, God, be merciful to sinners, and God is lifting him up. And Cain is at the front, throwing up his offering, saying, God, look at what I am doing. And so meet your first Pharisee. This got so bad in Israel, by the way, that when you come to Isaiah chapter 1, the first thing Isaiah 1 is saying is, I don't even want you to bring offerings anymore. Bring no more futile sacrifices. I'm tired of it. My soul can't bear it. I'm weary of your special days. I'm weary of all this stuff because your heart's not in it. My soul loathes it. Today we have responded to this in the church and we've seen this problem. And what has been the response to this problem? Well, we've tried to dress it down, haven't we? We've tried to take out the form. And whatever kind of form is left, the issue still, whatever we do in trying to make it more accessible, and appearing to have more life, and less formal, and more casual. And we can go right down the line on what we've tried to do to address this problem. I can tell you there's a ditch on both sides here. Neither of them get to the heart. God wants obedience. Make no mistake about it. God wants obedience. But obedience in the way that he commanded, not from self-righteous formalism. I know I've got to watch my time, but I'll give you an example. we're going to read the preparatory form tonight and i love the preparatory form i think it's a good form but i remember because you know i have problems i forgot the form one time in linden i've already forgotten it here and that's not on purpose okay but i forgot the form and so at the church pew somebody yells out one of the elders so it's the end of the service and i read the passage in first corinthians i had a guy come unglued on me because i didn't read the form and i read scripture instead and i went to the elders and i said you think this is a problem you think this is a problem how could you get that mad over that obedience from a sincere heart that desires to bless the name of the Lord for the wonders of his grace is the kind of obedience that he loves. And then what we do matters, doesn't it? Worshiping God according to his will matters. I'm going to go with it here now. The text is showing us what develops in the hearts of these two different kinds of people. And I want you to think about this. The two have come to worship. And what is the peculiar blessing the child of God receives in worship? Well, it's joy. It's excitement. Think of what God's doing for you today. He's feeding you. And he's encouraging you. And he's strengthening you. And he's announcing peace to you. And he's saying you're forgiven. And what does that produce in the heart of the believer? Well, Jesus told us over and over, when you understand that, your joy is complete. In the presence of God is, Psalm 16, fullness of joy. And we have confidence toward God. This is what happened with Abel. This is what the gospel brings. And this peace that surpasses all understanding, it begins to guard the heart and the mind. And you're leaping for joy because of forgiveness. The text here highlights that the opposite thing goes on in the life of Cain. When the Lord looks upon his offering and rejected it, what do we read? God was very angry and his face fell. God is telling you that the basic way the children of God and the children of the devil are differentiated is in their attitudes, attitudes toward him. What does Cain's life tell us? Cain is not angry at himself. Cain is not depressed in himself. Cain is raging at God. How dare you reject me? The Lord approaches Cain. Why are you angry? Verse 6. Why is 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, but you must rule over it. That is a fascinating statement. In the heart of worship, God is exposing for us the single great problem why many are rejected. How can sinners come back into the presence of God? How can they be here? If you do right, Abel shows us what's right. What is the right way? faith if you come believing and you trust me as a good heavenly father if you come with a believing heart it's going to show and express itself in your giving but what happens when i don't what happens when i've not come with belief and faith you know what jude said about cain there's a way of cain that many follow why are you angry cain it's a powerful question why are you angry come i hear this is an amazing thing come believing will you not be accepted graciously and verse 7 if you do not do well guess what's happening in your heart guess what's going on sin is crouching at the door its desire for you is for you but you must rule over here's your problem cain that you're not considering by you going down this path and turning and refusing to come in faith to receive my son since you continue in your tokenism guess what's going on on the inside sin is crouching there and it is desiring to master you if you came believing and looked at my promise there's grace there is grace to break sin's dominion but since you turn from that sin is crouching and he characterizes it here as a vicious animal waiting to strike. The crouching beast is waiting to devour you. It's not some calm animal. It's like a lion. It's like a viper. It's thirsting for you. And if you give and you open that door, it will master. Cain, you should rule over that. What does the history of the human race tell us about that reality? That beast is us. It's not that it's trying to get into the heart. It's in the heart. What did Jesus say about the heart? Out of the heart proceeds one of the first things. Murder. That's what defiles a person. It's what comes out. It's what comes out. It's what's going out the door. Sin is like a crouching lion. And it's waiting to master. And Cain, as you harden your heart against me, you're opening that, and it's going to lash out. It's going to lash out. It's going to go right out, and it's going to attack. Sin was at its door. Understand how powerful the Christian gospel is when it says in Romans 6, sin no longer has dominion over you. I've shattered it. but that's not the case for the unbeliever. And this is so crucial for the fight we're in in this world and what's going on. Here's what happens. Sin never stays in a crouching position. Sin doesn't just sit there. What does it do? When an unbeliever is given to anger against God, where does it go? It's going to strike. And if it can't strike God, what's it going to strike? The one created in his image. And that's what happens. And this is verse 8. Now Cain talked with Abel his brother, And it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. Murder in the first. Premeditated. Awful moment, isn't it? Eve has to see that. The Lord comes to Cain. Where's Abel, your brother? I don't know. I mean, you can just hear the pride and the sarcasm and the lash. I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? What a hard heart. And this ignited the first war. He soaks the earth with the blood of his brother, shamelessly murdering him. And God cries out, what have you done? I think we should feel how awful this is. There are certain sermons where we're so lifted high in the clouds and there are certain sermons which should take us and let us feel the pain of this. Because God is crying, what have you done? You killed somebody in my image. Isn't it tragic that the first fight and murder is occasioned by what? Worship. Worship. And murder starts not at the outward act. It starts right here. And that's why Jesus said, don't even bring the gift. If you're refusing to reconcile with a brother. And the New Testament highlights this as the great divider of mankind. Remember what 1 John said? By this it is evident who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you've heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. Don't be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love his brother abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. John says, here's how you know you've passed. Here's how you know you're a child of God because you love your brother. When somebody is actually able to love even their enemies, that can only be explained by a special work of God's Spirit and supernatural work who has planted life in the heart to make that possible. And I'm telling you, The happiest people are those who can love that way. Those who can't look like they're sucking on a lemon. Because the one who loves has been taught to love by the love of Christ. And isn't that true? We know love because he did what? He died for us. The story of Abel is really a greater story of Christ, isn't it? When he came here, his brothers brutally murdered him. But it was his plan to lay down his life willingly so that as Hebrews speaks, his blood speaks of better things than Abel. What does his blood declare to you? Forgiveness. His crucified body and shed blood of which we're all guilty is here heralded and announced to you so that all who believe can enjoy peace with God. And I'm closing with this. Now you understand why it's so strong that we forgive and that we love, that we let go offenses. He came to set us free from not doing that. And so I think about this question the Lord asked Cain. Why are you angry? Don't tamper with that, it's a beast, it's going to crouch out, it's going to jump, it's going somewhere. Don't be surprised if the worship is empty, your life is full of strife, contention, disputes, because you're going in the way of Cain. And the Lord says, don't go there. The joy of the Lord is your what? Strength. And if you hear that voice, the Lord is telling you today. Come. Come to me. Believe. You don't want that life. Enjoy the power of the gospel. Enjoy the peace that I give that guards your hearts and your minds. Enjoy the ability to love one another. Enjoy the life of peace and joy that I promised you in Christ. Enjoy that. I want that for you, says the Lord. Know this, though. That kind of life comes at a cost, with a cost. You know what it is? It's the world's hatred. You can't get away from it. When you know that love, you can be sure the world will hate you. But don't lose heart. Whatever happens in this sad country, all of this is a sign that we are blessed of God, as the Lord said, when we are persecuted for righteousness' sake. I close with these words. Look down at verse 26, the end of the chapter, 25. We'll come back to this next time. And this gets really, ends on a high note. And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son. God called his name Seth, for she said, God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him. To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. And at that time, notice this, now you've got a multitude worshiping. people began to call upon the name of the Lord. God preserved, God saved, God raised up a worshiping community and I'm looking at one now. May his love drive us to love one another and may his peace be upon us, amen. Oh Lord, our God, we are grateful that you instruct us in these things and sometimes your word is hard, it confronts us, it exposes and then it moves us to see how wonderful you have been in calling us to Christ that we can enjoy a peace and forgiveness and love and having the ability to come and worship with clean consciences, this being the delight of our hearts to be before you. Thank you, O Lord, for this privilege and in every way that we give, whether of our money or of our lives, May it be our best in response to the grace that we've received. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.