Destruction

Good morning. Last week, we went through Genesis 3, and I introduced you to a character. We always name him Bill. If you remember, you were here. He disrespected his boss, stole property after being fired, rejected a police officer, dishonored a judge, and then mocked the warden. He had a pretty rough day. He had no respect for authority. And the diagnosis, this is what's important, he has no fear of God. That's his biggest problem. There's an important connection between how we treat others and how we view God, how we relate to God. If there's no love for God, there's going to be no love for man. This past week I was walking through the first chapter of C.S. Lewis' book, Abolition of Man, with a young man. The first chapter is amazing and I recommend it to you. Here's the last three lines from chapter one of Abolition of Man. We make men without chest and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful. The idea of men without chest, the chest is a place of virtue. where you recognize what's good, right, true. And the whole premise of chapter one is that the turn towards how you feel only, not what's objectively good. It's creating a whole generation, and the context of the chapter, the context of what he's writing is Hitler's bombing London, and he's terrified. If we don't teach what's truly good, virtuous, and right, Will we fight for it? Will we protect it? Will we pursue it? Well, we live in a culture that sought in every way to reject God. And we see the fruit of it. If we deny the one who is truly good, who is truly right, who is truly virtuous, what do we expect the people to be like? How we relate to God. The first commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart. has incredible ramifications for the second great command. Love your neighbor as yourself. We're in a short series. We typically walk through books of the Bible. We're walking through Genesis, but with a specific purpose, more of a theological series. We're asking questions. Who is God? That was Genesis 1. What is man? Genesis 2. What went wrong? Genesis 3. And here we are in Genesis 4. How bad is it? It's really bad. How bad is it? We're looking at Cain and Abel. If you think about the two names in scripture, we get Adam and Eve, and we always associate those two together. We got David and Goliath, Cain and Abel. We do not know anything about the other without both together. There's two main scenes in this story. The first represents a lack of love for God, or no love for God. That's verses one through seven. The second reveals no love for neighbor, or more so, brother. That's verses 18 through 16. Cain and Abel is not an isolated story. If you're looking at Genesis, if we just go back over to chapter two, Verse four. Notice there, Moses has given us this clue, a key. These are the generations. Look at chapter five, verse one. This is the book of the generations. Look at chapter six, verse nine. These are the generations. That continues. What this shows us is chapter two, verse four, all the way through chapter four is meant to be one unit. We understand this all together. God created us good, put us in his garden, gave us worth, gave us work, gave us marriage. We disordered it all. And now we're going to see how bad it really is. There's two main lines. There's what God's doing and what we are doing. God receives worship, warns us of sin, judges disobedience, and provides hope. Those are the truths we're gonna understand about God. He receives worship, warns us of sin, judges disobedience, and provides hope. What does man contribute? We deny God worship, we ignore his warning, we disobey his command, and we complain about the judgment. If you're taking notes this morning, the first point is called hope, hope. and maybe I'll say number two with a second point. I love my note takers, they always remind me of how funny my outlines are. Hope, verses one and two. 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. Now this is the setting. This is just telling us who the basic characters are and something important about them. Adam and Eve are first humans. Adam formed from the earth, breathed life into. Eve formed from the rib of Adam, celebrated, rejoiced. Now the earth is truly good. They're meant to be husband and wife, to be one flesh. And remember here, it says that he knew her. They're married, they share their marriage bed together. And she conceived, this is overcoming the consequence of sin, that the womb would have difficulty. Already we see God being gracious. And she bore Cain. Now look at how many words are used regarding Cain. Just leading up to it, Adam knew her, she conceived and bore Cain. And then there's a declaration about Cain. I have gotten a sweet little baby. Remember, she says a man. I've gotten a man with the help of the Lord. She praises God. I have a child. This is why it's important that this is seen in the context of two and three, because if you remember 3.15, God promised Satan a child of Eve is going to crush the serpent and reverse this whole curse. It looks like there's hope that Cain might be the serpent crusher that quick. She seems to be praising the Lord that he has opened her womb, she has been blessed, and there's a man who might actually get us out of this mess. Notice what's said about Abel. He's the brother of Cain. There's no declaration of another conception. People have hypothesized maybe they're twins. There is a theme in Genesis of twins and the younger being the one who's accepted by God throughout Genesis. But here, the word brother. There's a great celebration, Cain the firstborn, this is typical, and then Abel is his brother, and then we just hear what they do. He's a keeper of sheep, he's a worker of the ground. There's just some simple context. The first two sons take center stage. Point two, idolatry. Idolatry. Here's where the action picks up. After they become men, 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 portion. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. Now we had all those words and even Eve's own celebration related to Cain and the birth, but notice the amount of words that are used to describe Abel's offering over against Cain's offering. Cain's offering is fruit of the ground. Abel's offering is the first fruit, the best, the most precious, and the fat portions. That's what's emphasized here, and I believe that's why the Lord received, he had regard, he accepted the offering of Abel. Now what did this look like? Well, there must have been a area where they knew to bring the offering. God himself actually had the first sacrifice. Remember, he covered Adam and Eve with loincloths from animals that he, sacrifice himself. Whatever it is, they know that God is worthy of worship, they know that God is worthy of a sacrifice, and so here Cain brings something, Abel brings his best. And if you put the best fat portions on the rock, you put some of the grain on the rock, They're there waiting to see how God's gonna respond and I assume one of them was, well the fat portions, is burned up with fire, received by God very clearly. And Cain is left looking at his offering that was not received by the Lord. Why? Because the Lord is worthy of the best. It seems very clear he did not bring the Lord what was the best. Some have hypothesized that it needed to be a blood offering, but there are other offerings in scripture that aren't blood offerings. It appears Cain knew he was not bringing the first. Now, we need to ask, who do you think got the first? If he didn't give God the first grain, who did? Maybe mom. All right, we love our moms. We like to give them the best things. Probably Cain. He decided to consume what was best and give God what else he had. Now, I wanna pause here because this story's about to go real sideways. Spoiler alert, Cain murders Abel. We're shocked by that. But we gotta pause here because we should be shocked that Cain didn't worship God the way he ought. We should be shocked that we would not worship God the way he ought. He is worthy of all praise and glory and honor and that should be as shocking as a murder. Because it's sin. Cain's offering Reveals his root problem. He has no fear of God. He does not revere God We see here The idolatry he does not worship the right God the right way and Notice what God does halfway through verse 4 third point invitation. There's an invitation So Cain was very angry. He saw his brothers accepted. He's sitting there staring at his own, seething, looking at it. Why wouldn't God take what I gave him? His countenance falls. He's slouched. He's showing in every way that he's angry, but God knows his heart. And the Lord says three things. Why are you angry? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, Sin will devour you. Three things. All three are very important to see how kind God is, who was just worshiped with not the right thing, in not the right way. He approaches Cain. First, there's a invitation for self-reflection. Why are you angry? Is it because you didn't do what you should do, or is it because I didn't do what I was supposed to do. You can feel Cain seething, angry because I gave you something, why can't you just accept what I give you? The second, there's a promise. If you're gonna memorize a portion of this passage, this is it, right here. Simple, this is what I call easy load ammunition when we think about God. When we think about the temptation we have to go into despair, God says, if you do well, if you do what I've told you to do, what I've clearly communicated, will you not be accepted? The word there can be forgiven. Will you not be received? If you do what's right, am I the kind of God who would not receive you and bring you in? There's a wonderful promise. If you do well, I will accept you. And then the warning. And if you do not do well, if you remain in this sin, if you remain holding on to this anger, Listen to the way he describes sin. It's crouching at your door. It's ready to pounce, it's a predator. It's desire is contrary to you. It's desire is to destroy you, to undermine you, to bring disorder. There's only one way to treat sin. Rule over it. Not protect it, not entertain it, not cuddle it, It must be destroyed because its purpose is to destroy you. The invitation is putting at the forefront who is in control of worship. Is it just we decide whatever we're gonna bring to God and he needs to receive it? Or as God said, this is what worship is. I will receive you. Cain seems to be seething, saying, God isn't fair, and that sounds just like the lie Satan put into Eve's ear. That's the first scene. God's words need to ring loud. He's warning, he's inviting. You'll be forgiven, you'll be accepted, just do what you're ought to do. Cain's silence is terrifying. We don't know what he said, we don't know how he heard this. But instead of saying, Lord, I'm sorry, Lord, forgive me, Lord, here is the first fruits, Lord, I want to come and be with you, forgive me. Second scene, first words, Cain spoke to Abel, his brother. Our fourth point, murder. And they were in the field. We don't know what Cain said to Abel. It seems to be some kind of enticing. Come out to my field, I wanna show you something. There's a plotting hinted at here. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. The word kill there, Cain also is described like a predator. This is the way a predator would just devour another animal. It's harsh, it's cruel, it's vicious. Then the Lord said to Cain, where's your brother? He said, I do not know, am I my brother's keeper? Notice verse eight, Cain rose up against his brother. Did anybody forget he was his brother? The word brother is used seven times here. It's not, continue to introduce so that we remember, oh yeah, that was Cain's brother. No, it's emphasizing. He's killed his own brother. The identity should be a close relationship, a loving, close connection. Folks, how bad is it the first human being born in sin just murdered the only other human being we know of that was also born in sin? Abel was described as a righteous man because he believed God and he trusted God and he obeyed God. The first human being, he's a murderer and it's first degree murder. It's contemplated, it's planned, it's vicious. This goes real bad, real quick. Notice the Lord in verse nine, the invitation. He approaches him similarly as God approached Adam. When Adam's hiding, where are you? God approaches Cain and it seems to be inviting, where is your brother? The Lord knows. He's gonna reveal a little bit later that he already knows. It's an opportunity for Cain to reflect. Where is your brother? And notice, we know Cain is a Child of Satan because he's a murderer, that's what 1 John's already told us. We don't need 1 John, we can see it. He's just like saying he's a murderer, but now we know he's a child of Satan because he's a liar. I do not know. And then he asks the question, am I my brother's keeper? Keeper's the same word we saw earlier in verse two. Shepherd, protector, provider. Am I the shepherd's keeper? Am I really responsible for that guy? And the answer, of course, is yes. Our first human born in sin is a murderer. Then the Lord gives a judgment, our fifth point, judgment. There's hope, there's idolatry, Invitation, murder, now judgment. 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 was 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 had already received some instruction on what worship should look like. He knows what it means to do well. Then Cain receives an invitation to do well and you'll be forgiven. And he's seething, he rejects it. He's very much self-consumed. And listen to his response to God's judgment. This is too much, God. You're wrong about the judgment. He thinks he's God. Behold, you've driven me today from the ground and from your face. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer, and whoever finds me will kill me. It seems like his complaint about God's judgment, if Bill startled you with the way he talks to his boss, the police officer, the judge, and the warden, here's a real life situation. Can you believe he's talking to God this way? Because his real concern is just selfish. I'm gonna, somebody's gonna kill me. I'm worried about my own life. Why is he so worried about somebody killing him? We're typically afraid and paranoid about the sins we're wrapped up in. Liars think everybody's lying. Adulterers think somebody else is committing adultery. Murderers are afraid of being murdered. Well, who's gonna murder him? That's a typical classic question. God is going to provide more offspring. And in time, it actually makes it clear that in a new time, the descendants of that offspring would logically want to avenge the murder of Abel. I think it's perfectly logical that he would recognize he deserves to die and someone will try to kill him in the same way he murdered his own brother. Look how gracious God is to Cain. Not so. If anyone kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold. That probably means seven generations will die. And the Lord put a mark on Cain, a protection, lest anyone who found him should attack him. Notice Cain isn't upset about being out of the face of God or away from the presence of God. The judgment is just. It's actually merciful. You've buried your brother in the ground. Therefore, you will be cursed among the ground. And that's repeating in many ways what God's already said to Adam. But here, now he's a wonderer. And the farther you go east in Genesis, the farther you're getting away from God and his goodness. That's where the story's directing us. Remember, they were cast out of the garden going to the east, and they're gonna keep going farther and farther east, demonstrating more and more rebellion. What Cain is gonna be doing is saying, I don't want to take responsibility for what I have done, and I want your protection to God. One of the interesting points of a storytelling here, notice how the story began with action, verse three. In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord. Cain, as the story begins, gets to go in the presence of the Lord. As the story begins, Cain can know God if he worships God as he ought. Cain rejects the warning. Cain refuses to apologize. Cain rejects the confession opportunities he has. And how does he end? Cain went away from the presence of the Lord. That is absolutely Terrified. He's now going away from the Lord. He is a wanderer. Nod means to wonder. He is in the constant now state of being a wanderer. God has given him over to his sin, and now it's terrifying. I wanna drop down to verse 25, because we have to see God always gives hope. And Adam, that's our sixth point, hope. And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and she 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 the time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. Seth, and now the line of Seth is going to be the line of Genesis 3.15. This is where God is keeping his promise. Even over against the great sin of a brother killing the promised child, Abel, God has now brought another child. And this is where the genealogies are so important. This is why Genesis 5 will pick up in a genealogy. Everybody just love reading those genealogies closely? I see one head nodding, good for you. It's kind of fun to try to read the name sometimes. The genealogies in scripture are showing us, is this the child, is this the child, is this the child? The genealogies in scripture are showing there's a line that God has created from the promise to Jesus. And it's to show he's faithful. Yeah, it takes a long time, but he's faithful. If we just skip over to Genesis 5, 28. This is where we know that the whole idea of these genealogies is that a son will be born one day that will reverse the curse. When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, out of the ground that the Lord had cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands. There's a belief that Noah is gonna be the child that reverses the curse according to Genesis 3.15. It's right there. And Noah was supposed to be. He's the new Adam. The flood is a decreation. So Noah can come off the boat and be the beginning of a new human race that would worship God and call upon his name. But what did Noah do when he got off the boat? He took the fruit of the vine and became naked and ashamed. He decided to get drunk when he got off the boat and shame covers the earth again. Every human being born in sin needs a savior from outside of this world and that's why we rejoice that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, God himself taking on our human likeness without sin so that he could die in our place without sin but to be crushed for our sins we've committed against God. He alone is the new Adam. And we'll be looking at that as we get back into Luke soon. That's our story. It begins with hope, goes sideways with idolatry, gets nasty with murder, and then we see God give hope. I have four questions for us to meditate upon as we think about this story. First, how worthy is God? What do our sacrifices say about God's worth? Now, let's be clear. Praise God, we didn't need to slaughter an animal or gather some grain from the garden to come to worship this morning. Why is that? Because Jesus Christ, the perfect high priest, brought the once for all sacrifice to cover and take away our sin. Praise God, worship is not bloody here anymore because there's been one blood that was spilled and it washes away sin. Praise God. We've sung of that already. Nothing but the blood. We'll sing of it again. But now we're supposed to be living sacrifices. Once we've been bought by that blood, once we've been purchased by his sacrifice, we're supposed to be living out God's will to believe in Christ, to love one another. The most basic commands we just heard from 1 John earlier. So as we think about how Christ redeems us, renews us, calls us back into worship, how do our life decisions declare God's worth? How do our priorities proclaim what we really think is praiseworthy? Now notice there, I didn't ask how do your priorities declare God being praiseworthy, you're designed to be a worshiper, you are a worshiper. We're always worshiping someone or something. The challenge is to actually step back, be warned. What are we worshiping more than God? How are we prioritizing something or someone more than God? If you do well, will you not be accepted? Are we giving God our best? Our absolutes, our first. Are our God commitments written in pen or pencil? You get the difference. How easy it is to erase something in pencil. How committed are we to keeping worship priorities for God? I wanna take the opportunity to explain what we do here in our worship service. We want to help train and equip you for worship and so what we do is we try to read God's Word, pray God's Word, sing God's Word, proclaim God's Word. We're gonna practice God's Word with the ordinance of the Lord's Supper and Lord willing, next week, baptism. The goal is to hear the grace of God and hear the instruction of God and seek to meditate upon and let it wash over us so that we know what he expects of us. If you wanna just do a short study, a discussion at lunch today, take Romans 12, where it's very clear we're to be transformed to be a living, reasonable sacrifice. And just read through what he expects of us just from Romans 12. Let's also pause here for a moment and let's just be real about the way we think about our sin. We all do this. We all say when it comes to a sin we're enjoying or a commitment we know we should make, well, just give me a little bit longer. When I get married, then I'll take it more seriously. Or when I have kids, then I'll start being more active. Or when I don't have kids, then I'll be able to really invest in worship. Here's the truth. God is either worthy of your full worship today or he's not. There's no circumstance that's going to make him more worthy. There's no circumstance that's going to make it more pressing. There's no circumstance that's gonna make it more easy. We've gotta stop pretending we're waiting for this ideal world in which we're really gonna start taking God and his word and worship seriously. Oh, hear the invitation. The God who forgives. The God who invites. If you do well, will you not be accepted? God is worthy of our best. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. The second question, how terrifying is sin? Do we really see sin for what it is? The crouching, lurking, it's destructive, it's deadly. When you go home tonight, anybody have a bottle of bleach on the dinner table? Anybody have their pesticide next to salt and pepper? I hope you don't. Be foolish. It's dangerous. Why would you make that available? Why would you put that anywhere near what you're going to consume because of your own need for good health? But we treat sin like it's not a poison. We treat sin like it can be stashed away in that special cupboard of the heart, like it's not gonna infect everything. It's crouching. It's deceptive. You know, when Eve is tempted by Satan, she has an innocent, pure, righteous heart, and this is where, when shame comes on, it's startling because she feels it for the first time, but we live constantly with the deceptive desires of our own hearts inside. It's terrifying. There's only one thing to do with sin. Rule over it. Crush it. Mortify it. Those are commands from the New Testament. We don't protect it. We don't set it aside for a rainy day. We don't entertain it. We rule over it. I want us to see to the two sides of the way sin works. The first thing it's going to declare is you've got to try this out. You need this. It's a natural temptation. It's something God's given you. There's a desire. It's natural. It's good. You need this. There's nothing to be afraid of. Take a bite. and then on the other side of our guilt. How could you? Filthy and shameful. No one will ever forgive you. No one would ever love you. Hide this fear away. James 1 tells us that whenever we are tempted, it's from our own desires that lure us away. Praise be to God that he gives us the word to know our own sin, to be washed from it. How worthy is God? How terrifying is sin? Third question, well, you should ask the question, am I my brother's keeper? And the answer, of course, is yes. There's two human offspring. There's a special bond here. They're neighbors, but they're siblings. There's supposed to be a love. And then a cold-blooded, angry murder. We looked a little, a few weeks ago, Love your neighbor as yourself. Well, the reason we're supposed to love our neighbor as ourself is that we're supposed to be teaching and practicing the truth that God has declared us all image bearers. That the church should be leading the way in teaching that so, such important truth, we all have equal worth and dignity. The church should be a beacon of light into the darkness that wants to know how to set apart prejudice, how to set aside prejudice, and how to actually declare true Equality. As we consider these things for ourselves, one, I'll remind you, love your neighbor as yourself. Every neighbor, every human being, we don't get to choose who's not equal. Every human being is made in the image of God. We all have the same worth and dignity and value. We should be declaring and practicing regularly the declaration of Every human being is an image bearer. The second, love your brothers as Christ loved you. And this is another command. Christ said this is the new commandment I give you. And it's like love your neighbor as yourself, but it's a different people and a different qualifier. Those who have also been bought by the blood of Christ, those are also siblings of yours in Christ and only in Christ, you're to love them as Christ loved you. Fun question, who loves you more, you or Christ? The answer's Christ. Galatians six makes it clear, there's a higher calling for a love and a commitment to those who are also in the church. I think this is helpful. The church is where we are supposed to be regularly rubbing elbows. Getting to know and love and communicate with and even have friction with. Those who are completely unlike us in every way except for the fact that we're bought by the blood of Christ. The training ground for actually loving your neighbor as yourself is doing it here when you're with people who are sometimes difficult. Yeah, there's difficult people in the church. I'm one of them. And we confess sin. We say we're sorry. We learn how to love those who are bought by the blood of Christ here in the church, and that empowers us to know how to love our neighbor as ourselves. The third command, care for the widow and the orphan. This is true religion according to James. We should be concerned for the weak and the vulnerable and this still exists and it might not be the widow and the orphan anymore. Who is the weak, who is the vulnerable? The church should have a special eye to make sure that the dignity, value, protection, provision of those image bearers is at the forefront of how we're thinking, how we're praying, how we're living. Are we brother keepers? Members of Jefferson Park, I want to just read two parts of our church covenant. We will watch over each other in brotherly love. We will pray for each other. We will participate in each other's joys and endeavor with tenderness and sympathy to bear each other's burdens and sorrows. We will humbly warn a brother who is in danger of falling into disobedience or error. We will speak the truth in love, be slow to take offense, and be eager to seek swift and lasting reconciliation. That is where we practice brotherly love. Our fourth question. Last question, how gracious is God? One of the great blessings of God is that he does not bless disobedience. He does not bless Cain's offering. To protect Cain from thinking bringing second best, bringing something casually to God is acceptable. Low expectations are unloving. God makes it clear, if you do well, you'll be received. You'll be accepted, you'll be forgiven. There's an invitation to repent. Today, the invitation is loud. If you're not a Christian, this is the invitation of God. In your own sin, in your anger that you might not murder anyone yet, but in your anger, in your lust, in your deception, in your coveting, in your rejection of God, The judgment of God is going to be true. The judgment of God is gonna be right. And there's nothing you have to say for yourself when you stand before a holy and righteous God and all of your sin is just there and obvious. That's why you believe in Jesus. Because you're speechless at that point. But if you believe in Jesus today, if you believe in Jesus who died for that sin, if you believe in Jesus who rose again to give you new life, he comes alongside of you. He says no, Father. This one's mine. This one belongs to us. He's washed in my blood. He's believed in my name. He's restored. He's renewed. He's reconciled. He's adopted. He's one of us. He can come to the table. Hebrews, the call to worship, said the blood of Christ is a better witness than Abel's. Abel's blood was a clear, powerful, absolute witness. You're guilty. Jesus' blood is a better witness because it declares for all who are underneath it that you are forgiven and declared righteous and renewed and loved by God. Believe in him today. Christian, is there a sin we need to confess? Is there a sin that we've been holding onto that we keep saying, just a little bit longer, it's not that dangerous, I'm gonna hide it away, I'm gonna protect it, just a little bit longer, and then I'll be a real worshiper of the way I know God has called me to, just a little bit longer. Hear the invitation. If you do well, you'll be accepted. If you confess, God will forgive. If you repent, God will restore. Christ died to wash us, to renew us. He is able. Let's pray. Father, we come before you. We thank you that you have not left us alone. Thank you that you've kept your promise to restore us to forgive us. Lord, may you do a work in us so that we would receive your grace, that we might live for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.