New Beginnings Part 8
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Today we discuss the story of Cain and Abel, a story that we are probably all somewhat familiar with
Whether you’ve been in church your whole life or not
You’ve probably at least heard pieces of this story
We even have a phrase that we use “raising Cain”
This story is about two brothers, Cain and Abel
In this passage we have a bunch of firsts.
First birth, first brothers, first shepherd, first farmer, first offerings, first worship service, and the first murder
The word that you will see over and over is “brother.”
It’s repeated 7 times in the first eleven verses
The shock of this story is not simply that Cain kills a man who made him angry
That would be bad enough
But he kills his brother.
This word is repeated over and over so that the reader may never forget
Today we get to see how sin progresses
We also get to see a very important fact when dealing with God
It’s not always just what you do, but also how you do it
It’s not always just what you do, but also how you do it
We will see that it’s not just what Cain does, it’s more about how he does it
As we look at Cain in the text, let’s pay attention not just to what he does but how he does it. The motivation in his heart that causes him to do what he does.
Let’s dig in
1 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.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And 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, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
There are once again so many questions we just don’t know the answer to
Age difference?
How did one become a farmer and the other a shepherd?
How did they know to bring an offering?
Hod did they communicate with God?
What we can say is that there are so many similarities between Cain and Abel.
They share the same parents
The same spiritual background
The same home life
If you were to just read the first several verses you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the killer and the victim
The only major difference we see here is that Abel’s offering is accepted by God and Cain’s was rejected
There are differing opinions on why Abel’s offering was looked upon with favor while Cain’s wasn’t.
Some believe there was a difference in the quality of the offerings.
Cain brought fruit of the ground while Abel brought the best of the best
Some believe because it was a different kind of offering - grain versus blood sacrifice.
If that is true then God must have given instruction on this point and both brothers knew (Not written until Leviticus)
For God to be just it had to have been clear
What is clear based on Hebrews 11:4 is that Abel had faith and Cain did not
4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
The biggest difference between Cain and Abel was not the two offerings the real difference was their heart
Abel had faith and Cain did not
So when God looks upon Abel’s heart he finds faith.
V.4&5 give us an insight into our Father
It says He looked with favor on Abel and his offering. He looked on Cain and his offering.
The order is crucial: First the man, then the offering
So where man looks on the outward and makes his judgements that way, God always look to the heart first and foremost.
God looks at Abel’s heart and shows favor to him and looks to Cain’s heart and does not
So cain becomes angry!
At this point I can somewhat relate
I have 2 older brothers and 2 younger and we are as competitive as they come
Now it’s one thing for one of your older brothers to do something better than you but it’s another when your younger does
Cain had just been bested by his younger brother and he was mad
But what Cain should have done is realized that he was the problem, not his brother
There’s a story in 1 Samuel where God tells the king of that time, king Saul, to go and just wipe out this city.
They were evil wicked enemies of God’s people and so God tells Saul to go and destroy everything.
Don’t leave one single thing living. Spare nothing. Even the animals and livestock
So Saul takes 210,000 men and just wipes them out.
But he makes a grave mistake. He doesn’t kill the king and he leaves some of the best cattle and sheep so that he can offer them as a sacrifice to God
God becomes angry with Saul and the prophet Samuel comes to him and it says this. “to obey is better than to sacrifice.”
Now we look at this text in Genesis 4 and it’s safe to say that Cain did sacrifice. He brought fruits of the soil. It’s not like he completely refused to do what God asked, he just doesn’t completely obey.
I would say to us this morning: It is better to obey than to sacrifice.
What we like to do is to make a big deal about all of the sacrifices we make to follow Jesus but then refuse to obey Him in other areas.
We will say, I go to church every Sunday, never miss and yet you act nothing like Jesus the other 6 days of the week
We can’t say we have surrendered all to Jesus if we are just making sacrifices and not really obeying what His word says.
Let’s not be like Cain and just do the easier things God asks but ignore the hard ones.
Let’s be fully surrendered, fully obedient.
6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 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.” 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
God asks Cain questions to force Cain to face his sin
Cain was so angry at Abel that he couldn’t face up to his own personal failure.
God’s offer had to have been genuine
If Cain would do right, offer the right offering in the right spirit than he too would be accepted
The door was open to both brothers equally but it must be entered by faith
Going through the motions will not win God’s approval
God isn’t after our routine He’s after a relationship.
“Sin is crouching at your door” pictures sin as a lion waiting to pounce on Cain and destroy him.
What starts as sibling jealousy led to anger and now is veering towards complete rage
God calls Cain, and us as well, to rule over sin. To not allow it to have a stronghold over us
If we are not careful we will become like Cain, we will allow sin to rule over us when we have the power to rule over it.
Cain is on the brink on destruction, there is a battle for his soul. Right now sin has the upper hand but there is still time to change and so what does he do?
Cain lures Abel into the field and kills his brother
So we see the first murder.
Why? Because Cain wants to remove the competition and he wants to get even with God
Have we ever found ourselves in a similar situation? Now we probably didn’t kill but we sure went to great lengths to eliminate a threat to us.
That guy is a good business man so I’ll to shady things to cause him pain and suffering to keep me safe
That girl is more successful than I am so I talk bad about her to diminish her reputation
And often we do it to those we love. No one can make us angry like members of our own family right.
Often the meanest things we say are said to those closest to us
Maybe there’s a little Cain in all of us and maybe a lot of Cain in most of us
What we also see is the quick progression of sin.
In the Garden the enemy has to tempt Eve into sinning.
Here just a couple of verse later, Cain can’t be talked out of sinning by God.
Small sins can soon become big
What start in the garden as temptation and disobedience in one generation turns into anger, rage, and murder in the next
And great sins are never as sudden as they seem
So we will often say that we saw someone fall into sin. We don’t see people fall into sin, we usually see them hit the ground.
They had been falling for a long time and you just saw the end of the process
So be careful with how you let sin creep into your life. It may start small but it can absolutely ruin your life
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 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.” 15 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. 16 So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
First, we see there is total denial of responsibility.
We talked about how shame and fear are a response to sin but I believe that sometimes the Spirit uses those emotions to pull us back to the Father.
It’s when we are in sin and feel no fear and no shame when we are in the most trouble and Cain evidently felt none.
He let sin master him
Second, we see there’s judgement because with a holy God and sin there always is
God sentences him to restless wandering. He will work the ground but no longer yield fruit. He will roam the earth never able to find a place he can call home.
Finally, Cain shows fear but it’s not a fear that drives him to repentance it’s a fear that drives him to more selfishness.
He doesn’t show the first bit of remorse or repentance;
his only concern is that someone may do to him what he did to his brother.
He is concerned he may be killed and so again we see Cain only concerned with himself and his protection
He isn’t remorseful about Abel and he isn’t repentive to God
What is God’s response?
God promises protection and punishment.
It’s a blessing that no one will kill him;
it’s a curse that he will now live a long restless unfulfilled life.
V. 16 We see the first time someone decides to live without God.
Cain leaves God’s presence because he shows no sign of repentance. Since sin can not stay in the presence of God he now voluntarily leaves.
He becomes the perfect picture of the secular man who lives under God’s protection even while living in rebellion against him.
But he also shows that even the worst of sinners can be forgiven.
What would have happened if Cain would have shown remorse. If he truly cried out in repentance for what he had done?
There still would have been judgement but there would have been mercy and forgiveness because that’s what we see everywhere else in Scripture
If we step back here is what we see of Cain 1 He killed his brother 2 in the context of worship 3 after rejecting God’s warning 4 then denied responsibility 5 and refused to accept his punishment.
There’s not much positive you can say about Cain. He appears to be a man wholly gripped by sin
Seen from Abel’s side, it looks like this: The first man who died, died for his faith, killed by a religious man who hated righteousness.
As we move into the NT Cain and Abel become symbols of two larger spiritual realities. Cain is the first unbeliever while Abel is the first true worshipper of God and also the first martyr.
Cain and Abel paint us the picture of the two humanities we see today
The line of Cain: proud, stubborn, cynical, sullen, defiant, angry
The line of Abel: humble, honest, a man of faith, a true worshipper who offered his very best to God
Cain represents all of those who attempt to come to God on their own terms.
But God says to Cain and to us now, “No deal. Come my way or don’t come at all.”
Abel represents the believers who have rejected the world and are often rejected because of it, who nevertheless come to God in humble faith, laying hold of the cross of Jesus as their only hope of heaven.
Listen close: Cain’s worst punishment was being cast out of the presence of God
Cain was so obsessed with self protection
He wanted to protect his favor with God
He wanted to be with God so He could protect him
He wanted protection from death
In the end Cain got what he wanted.
He got protection, but he was never fulfilled.
He lost the thing that matters most.
He lost the ability to be in the presence of God
Our ultimate motive should be to dwell with our Creator
Our ultimate motive should be to dwell with our Creator
The motive behind our belief is not to look good
It’s not even to feel good
It’s to be with the only thing that is good, that’s perfect. Our heavenly Father
We can search the world for trivial thing after trivial thing
One momentary satisfaction after another
We can be like Cain and allow sin to rule over us only looking to provide and protect self
Or we can let go
We can realize that He is the fountain that never runs dry
We can surrender all we have and all we are
We can rule over sin
and We can dwell in the presence of our heavenly Father
We can have a piece of heaven here, right now!