The Battle Begins: the First Murder

Good morning. just a couple, announcements to make, and one to rejoice in, actually both to rejoice in. There's a flower here to my right. And I, I hope I pronounced this right, in honor of Eliora Phoebe Zarecki, born to Dominic and Esther Zarecki on April 8th.

Coming into the world at 5 pounds and 12 ounces and 18 inches long. And her name means God is my light. God is my light. also, speaking of rejoicing on Easter Sunday, we took up a collection.

For the Agape Fund and we told you all the proceeds of that Agape offering on that particular Sunday would go to the San Bernardino Pregnancy Center that is a ministry that's all about saving, the lives of the unborn and saving the souls of the moms and the dads that find themselves in crisis pregnancy, situations and the total amount of your donation. was $5,112. So thank you for your generosity. In giving to this ministry and we will happily pass every penny of that along.

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Genesis chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4, we are moving right along in our study of the book of Of Genesis and today, Lord willing, we will look at Genesis chapter 4 verses 1 through 8 and this will be somewhat of a downer of a topic, this morning. The title of the message is The Battle Begins. The first murder.

We will witness this morning the first murder in human history as we study Genesis 4:1 through 8. 150 years ago, this past week, an angry man murdered a man in cold blood, shooting him from behind, and after he committed his act of murder, he was on the run for 12 days while the authorities were hunting him down. During that time period, possibly on this exact day. 150 years ago, this fugitive on the run wrote some words in his diary, and among those words were these.

I cannot see my wrong. I do not repent the blow I struck. I think I have done well, though I am abandoned with the curse of Cain. Upon me Those words were written by John Wilkes Booth in the days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

He is on the run as he writes these words. He is unrepentant. He thinks he did well and yet he realizes that the curse of Cain was upon him. John Wilkes Booth in his diary is harkening back to the very events that we will be looking at this morning.

In our passage today, we will meet Kane for the very first time and by the time we are done, we will witness the first murder in the history. of human civilization and we will see that it was an act of murder committed by one man against his own brother. Our passage today contains the first episode of sibling rivalry in history. And it did not end well.

How many of you have siblings, brothers or sisters? OK, that's most of you. I grew up in a household where I had 2 brothers and 1 sister, and I and my 2 brothers, we were born very close to each other. I was only 10.5 months younger than my older, brother, and, my younger brother was 1.5 years younger than me, but we For most of our growing up years, fought like cats and dogs.

How many of you fought with your siblings growing up? OK, I see those hands. And we, we were raised in a Christian home but we fought horribly all the time about everything. and there was sibling rivalry almost daily, but I remember the last fight that my older brother and I ever got in, he was winning.

We were in my dad's study surrounded by theological books, about 2000 of them, and he was on top of me. He had wrestled me down. I was fighting to get out. From underneath him, I was losing badly.

And my brother, I think it was like our freshman year of high school. And my brother just stopped what he was doing. And he said, this is stupid. And he got up and walked out of the room.

And being less mature than my brother, I was like, yeah, you better walk out of the room. Your chicken. But what, we literally never fought after that. He had this epiphany while, pinning me down that this is silly, this is stupid, and we just for some reason never fought after that.

Our sibling rivalry ended well, but the rivalry that we see in our passage today ended horribly. just reviewing a little bit, we have seen in chapter three how Adam and Eve have sinned, and after their sin, they hid from God. God seeks them and he draws them out of hiding and ultimately he gets them to admit their sin of eating from the forbidden fruit. God then we saw, delivers some pronouncements to them about what life will now be like on this side.

Of the fall. Adam, it seems, responds with faith and he gives his wife the name Eve, essentially saying, you will be the mother of all the living. God provides atonement for them and then he drives them out of the garden for their own sake, lest they eat from the tree of life and live forever in a fallen state. We looked at all of that last week.

And so life begins as we turn the page to Genesis 4. Life begins in a post-fall world. And like I said at the outset, we'll be looking at verses 1 through 8 this morning. This is a passage that goes from one extreme.

To another. It is a passage of extremes. It begins literally with Adam making love to his wife, and it ends with Cain killing Abel. It features two brothers worshiping God and presenting offerings to him, and it ends with one of the worshippers killing the other worshiper.

We will see two offspring this morning, both of whom are the product of Adam and Eve's love for one another, who end up being on opposite sides of the war between the woman's seed and the serpent's seed. God promised in Genesis 3:15, we have seen that there would be enmity between the seed of the serpent. And the seed of the woman, and we see that warfare breaking out and manifesting itself in the lives of these first two boys that were born. To Adam and Eve.

Let me read the passage to you beginning in Genesis 4:1. Say now the man had relations with his wife, Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. And she said, I have gotten a man-child with the help of the Lord. Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel, and 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 first slings 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 and his countenance fell. Then the Lord 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 it's 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.

This is the word of God and may God help us to understand. His words this morning. Here's how we'll frame things today as you'll see on your insert that is in your bulletin, we'll observe 7 developments in this passage which culminate in the first murder in human history and in the process, we'll learn many things along the way. The first development, this starts off on such a positive note is that Eve gives birth to Cain.

And Abel. This is a happy occasion that this story begins with. Eve gives birth to Cain and Abel. It says now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain.

And she said, I have gotten a man-child with the help of the Lord, and again she gave birth to his brother, Abel. Let's make a few observations here. I am sure that Adam and Eve did quite a few things to get themselves adjusted to their new life after being expelled from the garden, but it is fascinating to note that the first thing recorded that Adam and Eve do after being expelled from the garden. is engaging in physical intimacy with one another as husband and wife.

A few verses earlier, we saw Adam receiving his wife afresh and bestowing upon her the name Eve, the mother of all the living, and now here in verse one, we see Adam giving himself to her in physical intimacy. This is good. This is good. This is the first occurrence of sex in the Bible.

And it is happening within the covenantal confines of the marriage relationship. Sex is such a transparent act of vulnerability and trust and self-giving that God only wants it to occur within the context of a relationship in which a man and a woman have pledged themselves for life to one another. In fact, the literal wording of the text here is, and some of your translations may translate it this way is that the man knew his wife, Eve. In God's economy, sex is not merely a bodily function.

It is an act of intimacy and relationality. The word knowing here is never used in the Bible to speak of an animal that is knowing another animal that it is mating with. This is a language that is reserved only for humans. In engaging in physical intimacy with his wife, Adam was knowing his wife in the deepest way possible.

He was not simply seeking physical satisfaction for himself, he was knowing Eve. Knowing his wife. A huge reason that God wants sex to be within marriage. is because one of the byproducts of the sexual union is children, and God wants children to be brought into this world with a mom and with a dad who love one another and who have pledged themselves for life to one another.

This is God's design and it creates an environment in which children can best thrive. This is the goal to strive for because this is God's Design And that's what's happening here. Adam and Eve are physically intimate with one another, and As a result of that, Eve conceives in her womb and she gives birth to a boy and she calls him Cain. She calls him Cain.

Eve is clearly rejoicing in this gift of a son. She obviously wanted a son, and she might have thought that this son would perhaps be the one who was promised by God to grow up and crush the head of the serpent. She also obviously feels that Jehovah has helped her to obtain this son. She names him Cain.

Cain so as to permanently enshrine her recognition of the fact that she obtained him with the help of Jehovah God. In fact, the text literally reads this, she gave birth to, in the Hebrew, Kayan. And she said, I have Kaithi, a man-child, and so you see the relationship and sound of these two words. She gave birth to Kayan.

Because she had canited this man-child from the Lord. In fact, a good English translation of this text would be she named him Got. GOT saying I have gotten. A man-child from the Lord or with the help of Jehovah.

So if Cain were alive today, born today, his name in English would be Got, OK? Or something close to that. Notice that she refers to Cain as a man-child. This is interesting.

This is the only time in the Old Testament. Where this particular word ever is used to refer to an infant. this is the word ish, which in the Hebrew, speaks of a mature male. It never speaks of an infant male except in this passage.

This means that this is a word of destiny that Eve is speaking here. When she looks at Cain in his infancy, she does not simply see an infant, she sees him for what he will become, a man, an ish. Is the Hebrew This is also Eve, amazed and dazzled by the miracle of life and reproduction. Adam was, we saw, he was Ish, right?

That's the Hebrew word for man. He names Eve when God brings her to him, he names her Isha because she was taken out of Ish. And now Eve is marveling that she who is Isha is bringing forth an Ish. She who came from man is now giving birth to a man.

God had brought forth a man from the dust of the ground, and now Eve is bringing forth a man from her womb with the help of God. And Eve, it seems, is dazzled by the miraculous. Irony of the whole thing. birth is, it's something we're accustomed to, but it's still amazing, right?

But imagine what this must have been like for Eve. They had never experienced anything like this before and I can almost just see her laughing at the miraculous irony of the whole thing. I just produced an I, a man. I came from a man.

I just produced a man. She's clearly amazed. Notice that when she refers to God in this passage, that she refers to him as Jehovah. If you're paying attention as you're reading, This text, you'll notice that when she in chapter 3 was being tempted by the serpent, the serpent refused to use the name Jehovah, the more personal name of God, and instead only used Elohim and Eve in her response to the serpent fell right into that and she did not use the name Jehovah, she only used the name Elohim.

Which is the less relational name for God, but clearly she's in a different place now. She's relating to God, she's relying on him. No doubt, in fulfillment of God's promise in chapter 3, she has experienced multiplied pains in delivering this child, but rather than complaining about those pains, she is thanking the Lord, she's thankful. That Jehovah, whom she is relating to, has helped her to give birth to this I, this man-child.

Additionally, the text tells us that Eve gave birth to another son whom she named. How we pronounce A. There are two things to note here about Abel, and that is, first of all, nothing celebratory is said about Abel and his birth. And secondly, the Hebrew word Abel means vanity or vapor or breath.

It speaks of something that doesn't last. this word is the word that is used in the book of Ecclesiastes. Where Solomon says, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. He's saying the name Abel.

When he says that. Ave speaks of breath or vapor. It has the idea of frustrating futility. Some commentators speculate that at the time of Abel's birth, Eve had experienced enough of the brokenness of life in a fallen world that she represents that experience by the name that she gives to Abel.

If that is true, then that means that at this point, after the birth of Abel, Eve has 2 sons, one named Gott and the other named V Vanity. Or breath or vapor. Now observe the narrative as it moves us into the second development which brings us one step closer to the first act of murder, and that is that Cain and Abel worship God differently. Obviously, they grow up, they mature into manhood.

And we're brought to an occasion where Cain and Abel are worshiping God and we see them worshiping God in a different way and receiving a different outcome from God. It says, and 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 first slings of his flock.

And of their fat portions. The text tells us first of all that Cain and Abel engaged in two different occupations. Abel was a keeper of flocks. Cain was a tiller of the ground.

Just like his father was, there's, both of the roles were good. They were critical to the livelihood of their family. One occupation was no better than the other. They both clearly are occupying themselves with tasks that are to the benefit of their family.

In verse 3, something is said about their worship of the Lord though. Apparently, and there's a lot of details we don't know, but it was customary to worship God and to bring offerings to him. And the goal of the offering was no doubt to express worship to God and to present something to God that would be pleasing to him and to gain his favor and acceptance. The goal in making an offering to God was to give him something that he would welcome and Receive.

I have no doubt that Adam and his family worship God together as a family, but in this passage, both Cain and Abel are bringing individual offerings to God. They were not judged in the end by God on the basis of their family's worship of God. But on the individual worship that they brought to the Lord. Children, listen carefully.

You may grow up in a home where your family worships God. You may be there sitting there with the family as they worship God and listen to his word and pray to him at the judgment, you're not really going to be judged on the fact that you sat there during family worship hundreds of times, but how did you worship God? Even during those times, how did you individually worship God? What did you bring to him?

What was your relationship with God? That's what you'll be judged on the basis of. And on the occasion of this particular offering, Cain brings an offering to Jehovah and his offering was from, it says, from the fruit of the ground. Nothing descriptive is said about the quality of his offering.

It's only stated that he offered something from the fruit of the ground. Now, We might disagree on this. there, there are some who fault Cain for the fact that he is offering from the fruit of the ground rather than offering a blood sacrifice. How many of you have heard that?

on this, this passage, I'm not going to say dogmatically that that's Necessarily wrong, but I think it's reading a little too much into the story. The word for offering here is the Hebrew word that you actually find in the Old Testament speaking of grain offerings and cereal offerings that the Jews were actually told to bring to the Lord, and these were pleasing to God when offered in the right way. So the Jews, even in the Old Testament law, were given prescriptions about bringing These types of offerings from the fruit of the ground to Jehovah God.

The fact that Cain is bringing that offering is not in itself a bad thing because we see that even later in the Old Testament prescribed for the Jews.

so let's at this point, just assume that this is a good thing. There's nothing necessarily wrong with what he is bringing in terms of it being from the fruit of the ground. But notice Abel's offering. The text tells us that Abel brought an offering to the Lord and we know two things about his offering.

Number one, his offering was of the first slings. Of his flock This means that it wasn't just one animal but several, and it wasn't just several animals, but it was the first born of all of the animals that Abel had under his care. The text also tells us that his offering included the fat portions which were deemed to be the best portions. Of the animal when offered for sacrifice to God.

We even see that later in the Old Testament. So based on these descriptions, we can begin to get a feeling for the difference between Cain's offering and Abel's offering, right? The difference was not simply that Cain offered the fruit of the ground and Abel offered animals. The difference was that Cain, it seems, merely gave an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the ground, but Abel offered the first and the best.

of what he gained from his occupation. The fact that Kane's offering gets no description regarding its quality, yet Abel's does. indicates that what Abel was intentionally giving to God was from his very best. He gave to God his first.

And his best, Kane. He just gave No descriptions at all. So notice what happens next. A 3rd development that brings us one step closer to murder and that is that God accepted Abel and his offering, but Cain But he rejected Cain and his offering.

It says, and the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering, but for Cain and for his offering, he had no regard. Something interesting is at play here when you read the text carefully. The text doesn't simply tell us that God had regard for Abel's offering, but not Cain's offering. The text tells us that God had regard for Abel and his offering, but did not have regard for Cain and his offering.

The Hebrew word for regard means to gaze at, to pay attention to. The idea is to look upon with appreciation and with favor. So obviously the text is telling us here that God looked upon Abel and he looked upon Abel's offering with favor, but he did not look with favor upon Cain. Nor upon his offering.

Obviously there was a difference in the quality between Cain and Abel's offerings as we have seen, but it also seems that there was something about Abel and there was something about Cain that caused the different outcomes as well. The difference was not simply in their offerings, but in themselves. The, the fact that Cain merely gave. And Abel gave of his first and best actually tells us something is different about Cain himself.

And about Abel. What that difference might be is hard to say, but as we read the text and the developments that follow, we see much about Cain's heart being revealed, right? The darkness that we see coming out of Cain in the coming verses was not a darkness that suddenly appeared inside of him, the moment that God rejected his offering. God's rejection of him and his offering was in response to the darkness that God saw was already at work in sight of Cain.

God is seeing this darkness at work. And having free run in Cain's heart, and God rejects Cain and his offering, and his rejection merely provokes Cain and draws the darkness out of Cain that was already in him. All along So observe how Cain responds, and this is where we really get to see Cain's heart. A 4th development that brings us one step closer to murder, and that is that Cain became angry over God's rejection of him and his offering.

Cain becomes angry over God's rejection of him and his offering. Verse 5, so Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Rather than being humbled by God's rejection of him and his offering, and rather than seeking, running to God for guidance, tell me what I need to do in order to present an offering to you that will be approved by you, Cain instead pouts and he fumes over the rejection. The text in the New American Standard says he became very angry.

Literally the idea in the Hebrew is he abundantly burned. In response to God's rejection of his offering. He is fuming, he is on fire. He is furious over this rejection.

And the text also tells us something about his face. Telling us that his countenance fell. This tells us that Cain was expecting a different outcome. And his countenance originally reflected this hope.

When he came to God, his countenance was lifted up, but once the hope was dashed by God's rejection of him and his sacrifice, his, literally, the text says his face fell. In response to that. Think about it, especially those of you that know the Lord. If you come to God and worship him and in the moment God's rejecting your worship, how would you respond to that?

I know many of you, you love the Lord, you've been humbled by the gospel, you would be broken to pieces over that and would come running to God saying, tell me what's wrong so that I can fix it because I wanna be pleasing to you. But Cain's heart is in a place where he's furious, he's ticked at God, that God would dare to reject his offering of the fruit of the ground. And there are many people like him who want to be pleasing to God and wanna be accepted by God, but they want that to happen on their own terms.

They don't consult with God, they don't seek to follow his plan, to be acceptable to him.

Instead, they come up with their own plan and they bring that to God and they are infuriated by the fact that that's not what God wants or that God might reject that. Their response is anger rather than humility. I remember reading one author who was talking, a famous athlete who was saying, if I come before God at the judgment, and he says, my works are not good enough, I'm gonna respond by saying fine then and I'm gonna turn and walk the other way. Like I don't wanna spend eternity with a God who doesn't look upon me and my works as being good enough.

That's the spirit of Cain. At work in the heart of that author. Likewise, in our culture today, there are some who, they wanna prohibit Christians from being able to say anything that might make a person feel offended or cause their countenance to fall. That's the unpardonable sin today, to ever say anything that would cause a person's countenance to fall.

We're supposed to affirm whatever people believe. And however they want to live their lives and however they want to worship God, ways to God are legitimate. All religions are supposedly equal. All lifestyles are supposed to be equally valid.

And if you call someone out and tell them that something that they're doing or believing is not acceptable to God, And if you thereby cause their countenance to fall in the process, you are deemed and labeled the hater. But in this passage we see God refusing. To accommodate himself to Kane. And refusing to accept Cain and his offering simply to protect Kane's feelings.

Nonetheless, God doesn't just reject his offering. God doesn't just spurn Cain, in fact, he pursues Cain. He sees Cain's response to his rejection and God pursues him and talks to him, and that brings us to the 5th development that brings us one step closer to murder, and that is that God encourages Cain to do the right thing. God could have rejected Cain's offering.

And Cain himself and smote him dead. He doesn't do that. God could have just rejected Cain and his offering, but then when he saw how angry Cain became, God could have just had nothing to do with Cain after that. But instead, Cain has brought an unacceptable offering to God, and Cain is also angry at God.

He's on fire against God for the fact that God would reject his offering. He's pouting, and God still pursues Cain. And he encourages Cain to do the right thing. Verse 6, then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry?

And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? This is amazing to me. God in His grace does not just abandon Cain.

He seeks him out and speaks to him. And he asked him some questions. God sees his anger and talks to him and beckons to him, and he says, why are you angry? Why has your face, your countenance fallen?

God is not asking this because he's so much requiring an answer from Cain as much as he's trying to show Cain that he has no right to be angry at God. Anger is not the proper response to this rejection of his worship, humility. Is the proper response. You can bet that if God had rejected Abel's offering for some reason, Abel would have been humbled by that and pursued the Lord to find out what he needed to do to make that right.

Notice what God does here in verse 7. He gives Kane counsel. And he does so in the form of a question. He says, if you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?

If you do well, will you not be lifted up? What this means is that Cain has enough revelation from God to know that this is a true thing that God is saying, and it tells us that God is reminding Cain of something that he already knows. Cain, that if you do well, you will be lifted up. You, you have enough knowledge from me to know this.

God is saying. Your anger and your fallen countenance, God is saying to Cain, can be rectified immediately. All you have to do is make the right choice and do well or do right. All you have to do, Cain, is do the right thing and implied in this also is that Cain knows what the right thing to do is.

God doesn't have to specify it. Cain knows that he has not presented the right worship and the right offering to the Lord. He knows this. And when God says, if you do well, clearly that indicates that Cain knows what it means to do well, even in this very moment as angry.

As he is. Cain knows the choice that is before him, he knows what it is that he is supposed to do. He knows what it is that God wants him to do. Clearly, based on what God is saying to Cain, the problem is not able.

And the problem is not with God. The problem is that Cain has not done well. He has not done right. And Cain has enough revelation from God to know that.

The problem is that Cain obviously felt that he had done well enough with his offering. That's why he's upset that God would dare to reject. This offering that he has presented to the Lord, but Cain has not done well according to whatever God's standard was that God would have presented to him. We know from the text that he has not brought God his best, and additionally, there's evil in Cain's heart.

Perhaps there is already a seething hatred of his brother Abel for his righteousness, and that evil heart is making his worship unacceptable. To God and so God rejected Cain and his offering, and when he sees angry growing, Cain growing angry over that, God pursues him and calls upon him to do the right thing. God is saying, Cain, it's not too late. All you have to do is do the right thing by my standards, and I will show regard to you and to your offering, and your countenance will be lifted up as a result of that.

Observe what happens next as God. Gives Cain a warning. God stops asking. Questions at this point and delivers a warning to Cain because the stakes are so high and that brings us to the 6th development and that is that God warns Cain about not doing the right thing.

God says to Cainan, if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and it's desire is for you, but you must master it, God says. God sees something that Cain cannot see. God sees that sin is crouching behind a door in hiding. The sin.

wants to get through that door to Cain and destroy him, to gain mastery over him. Sin wants Cain for itself. Sin wants to make Cain, it's servant boy who does its bidding. But God is warning Cain about this and he's saying it's not too late.

He's saying you came. You must be aware that sin is crouching at the door, and it wants you so badly. And you must not allow yourself to be mastered by sin, but you must master it. For God to give Cain this counsel and warning implies that there was a clear choice before Cain at this moment of his life, and Cain, from our standpoint, could have gone in either direction.

This is a hugely pivotal moment in Cain's life. He could have done well, he could have repented of his sin and his anger and his pride, and then offered a sacrifice to God that would have been well pleasing. To God Or Cain could have chosen to hold on to his anger. To hold on to a sin.

And refuse to change. And God says to Cain, if you make that choice, Sin is gonna come through that door and it's gonna pounce on you and take control of you. Be warned. Well, it's evident that Cain chooses the latter option to not do well, he disregards the grace of God that's pursuing him and giving him clear instruction.

Here's all you need to do, Cain. And he rejects that and that brings us to the 7th development, and that is Cain kills Abel. Cain kills Abel. The text says Cain told his brother and it came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother.

And killed him Here's what Cain does. The New American Standard translates this saying Cain told his brother, we're not sure exactly what this means. This could mean something like Cain had words with his brother. it could simply mean that Cain spoke to his brother and we're left to infer what it was that he would have spoken to his brother about, maybe telling his brother about this exchange with God and how God rejected his offering.

And his worship, several ancient translations and the Samaritan ancient text of Genesis 4 have additional words in the text where the text reads this way, and Cain said to his brother, come, let us go into the field. Whatever it was that Cain spoke to Abel, they ended up in the field. And while in the field, we're told here that Cain rose up against Abel and he killed him. Notice the emphasis in the text.

In verse 8, it says, Cain spoke to Abel, his brother. And Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed. Him. Notice twice we're told that Abel is his brother.

The, the writer knows we already know that Abel is Cain's brother. But he wants to drive home. The special awfulness of what it is that Cain is doing. All murder is wrong.

To kill one's brother, to murder one's brother is an even deeper expression of callousness and evil. Cain killed Abel. Who was his brother, the writer says. Whatever was at work in Kane.

Whatever sin was at work in Cain, it transcended the bond of brotherhood, and he struck his brother down in cold blood. There's nothing said in the text about Cain letting Abel speak to him. Cain could have sought the advice and counsel of his brother, but he doesn't do that. Cain just spoke to his brother.

Whatever he said, he wasn't interested in hearing from his brother any advice or counsel. Why does Cain kill Abel? For Cain to kill Abel indicates that he viewed Abel as the problem. Rather than rising up against the sin that was within himself and viewing the sin in himself as the problem, Cain viewed Abel as the problem and sought to eliminate his problem by removing and by killing Abel.

God told Cain, if you do well, your anger problem would go away and your countenance will be lifted up, but Cain instead wants to solve his countenance problem, not by obeying God and doing right, he wants to solve his countenance problem and his anger problem by taking it out on Abel and killing him. I want you to think about that for a moment. I know that you're not likely to go killing someone this week. Or having killed someone this past week.

But is the way of Cain in you? Do you think the way that Cain thinks? Do you have an anger problem? Do you have a fallen countenance problem?

And do you think that someone else is the cause? Of that anger problem that you have and that fallen countenance problem that you have. And do you lash out at that person as if they are the cause. Of your anger and fallen countenance problem.

You say, well, I, I, I would never do what Kane does. Well, I would just ask you, and you'll ponder this in care group tonight, how do you eliminate your problems? Your problem people Those people in your life that you think cause you anger and cause your countenance to fall. Jesus says, John says, if you hate and you're angry against someone, you're guilty of murder.

I think there's more of Cain in us than we would care to admit. you would say, well, I, I would never go killing someone who's making me angry. I would just give them the silent treatment. What is the silent treatment?

It's murder. It is a commission of heart murder against another person, wherein you say, I'm going to pretend you don't even exist. I will give you no response. You don't exist.

To me. Or do you assassinate their reputation behind their back? Do you murder their reputation in the eyes of other people? Do you retaliate against them with angry words or even physical assault?

Beware lest the spirit of Cain is in you. You have a sin problem and that sin problem is your problem, it's inside of you. How about rising up against the sin that is within you? Rather than blaming other people and rising up against them to solve your anger problem.

And your fallen countenance problem. Cain hated Abel and eventually killed him. We need to evaluate whether a similar spirit is ever at work in us. Let's just ask the question, did Abel maybe bring this on himself?

Did Abel deserve what Cain did to him? Was Abel maybe being a jerk and about the fact that, hey, guess what, my sacrifice was accepted. I noticed yours wasn't. Well, I wonder why that would be.

was Abel being an arrogant jerk toward Kane that would cause Kaine to lash out against him. Maybe you think perhaps he was and we're just not told, but actually, Abel comes with some pretty high references. one of them, Jesus himself. In Matthew 23:35, Jesus refers to Abel as righteous Abel, righteous Abel.

Not foolish, Abel. But righteous Abel. In Hebrews 11, Abel himself is actually the first inductee into the Hall of Fame that you see in Hebrews 11. In Hebrews 11:4, the writer of Hebrews tells us that by faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain.

And he goes on to tell us that it was through that sacrifice that he obtained the testimony that he was righteous. And by accepting his offering, God was testifying not only about Abel that he was righteous, but also about the quality of the gift and the offering that he presented to the Lord. So we know from this that Abel was not being a jerk who provoked Cain to anger through his arrogant, sinful, immature behavior. Abel does nothing wrong here.

He just simply did well here. He simply did what God wanted him to do. He simply lived a life and offered worship to God that was pleasing to God, and Cain killed him. For that.

Let's, let's just mark this lesson down, shall we? If you seek to live godly in Christ and if you seek to worship God in this culture, in all sincerity, humility and truth, people will rise up against you and persecute you for that. And when that happens, don't automatically assume, oh, I must have done something wrong. To bring this on myself.

Nowadays when Christians are being wrongly treated by the world and we hear news of that, we tend to assume that they must have done something wrong to bring that on themselves and wow, whatever they did wrong, I, I wouldn't have behaved that way to bring that wrath on myself. In our culture today, there's also a tendency to look at the hatefulness of people's responses to Christian beliefs and to infer something about the hatefulness of Christian beliefs as indicated by The response of the world to those beliefs.

People might think, wow, there must be really a lot of hate. In this Christian belief, if it provokes such passionate, hateful responses from other people.

But that's the lie that the devil wants you and me to believe and don't believe it for a second. Jesus Christ lived an absolutely perfect and a flawless life, a sinless life. His life and his ministry were the perfect balance of grace and truth, graciousness and truthfulness. And guess what?

People hated him and they killed him. Stephen, in Act 7, merely preached the truth before the members of the Sanhedrin in that chapter, and the text tells us that the members of the Sanhedrin literally were grinding their teeth, they were so angry at Stephen. And they rose up and they stoned him. Stephen committed the unpardonable sin of causing their countenances to fall.

And that's the way it has always been. And always will be between those who are the seed of the serpent. And those who are the seed of the woman, those who are of Christ, and those who are of this world, and the first battle in that long war begins right here in our passage today. Don't be naive.

If you're gonna follow Christ, you are at war. You are at war and people will be at war against you. Why did Cain kill Abel? Fortunately, we don't have to speculate about this.

The apostle John gives us sufficient commentary on why Cain killed Abel. Listen to his explanation in First John 3:12. He says, Cain was of the evil one and slew his brother, and for what reason did he slay him? Because his Abel's or Cain's deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous.

That's what you need to know to know why he came. Killed Abel Cain allowed himself to become the seed of the serpent, and he killed his brother because his own deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. And John tells us that, and that's why John in the very next verse turns to us and says, do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you. And you find yourself in exactly the same position.

That Abel was in Just in wrapping this up, let me Just draw together a few observations. We learn in this passage that all worship is not the same, all religions are not the same. Cain worshiped God and was rejected. He presented an offering to God, it was rejected.

Abel worshiped God and presented an offering to God and it was accepted. Cain and Abel were both worshiping and practicing their faith as it stood at that time. They both brought gifts to the true God, but one of them was acceptable to God and the other was not. We see at the very beginning of human history that here are two worshippers, and one of those worshippers receives God's favor, and the other one Does not And we know that all worship is not equally valid because one of the worshippers killed the other.

That's how we know that all worship is not the same. Abel was the righteous one and it turned out that he was not the intolerant one. Cain, the unrighteous one, was the one who could not tolerate the existence of his brother and so he, an unrighteous worshiper, killed Abel. We also see here in this passage that your worship is important.

We learned the critical importance of worship in our lives. We don't often think about this, but Cain's act of murder lay somewhere downstream of his worship. And it emerged from his flawed worship. One writer Bruce Walke says it beautifully.

He says it this way, Cain first fails at the altar, and because he fails at the altar, he fails in the field where he killed his brother. Read Romans 1 and observe. And the downward spiral of men and women into spiritual ruin that is chronicled in the length of Romans chapter one, and where does that downward fall begin? It begins with a dysfunction in worship.

In Romans 1:21, Paul says, even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give thanks. And then what follows. All the degeneration found in the rest of the chapter lies downstream. Of that refusal to worship God the way that God should be worshiped.

Your worship is the most important thing about you. What you worship and how you worship is the most important thing about you. Everything else in your life lies somewhere downstream. Of that.

Be careful what you worship and how you worship. We also see in this passage that sin is powerful. In this story we see something about the power and the progress of sin. I am sure that Cain at the outset did not resolve to kill his brother.

If you would have come to him early on and said, I think you might be killing your brother sometime soon, he would have said, no way, no way. I would never do that. He's my own blood, but that's what his sin led to. Sin will always eventually surprise us like that, apart from divine intervention.

We often think that we can coddle sin. And keep it under control and sin in our lives will happily play along with that illusion and let us come and go as we please, but then one day it pounces. And refuses to let us go and before we know it, it's taken control of us and caused us to do something or to act out in some way that a week earlier, a month earlier, a year earlier, we would have never dreamed we would be capable of doing. Be forewarned by this, guys, don't trifle with sin, don't tolerate it in your life.

Inside of every sin, every sin is a whole universe of evil that if allowed to play itself out in its entirety, will bring about your death and the death of other people. And just lastly, we got to look at this just real quick. Doing introspection, let's recognize that we are Kane. We are Cain.

In and of ourselves, left to ourselves. You and I are Cain, and Jesus is our righteous brother, Abel. Jesus always gives the perfect offering to God and God accepts him and his offering. We see that in the New Testament, but God rejects us and our offering, apart from Christ, whatever worship we bring to God, whatever lives we lead, God rejects that.

But he accepts Jesus. And his righteous offering. Jesus came into the world and did what his father wanted him to do, and the Jewish leadership who were worshippers, they hated him for that. And they wanted him dead.

And the truth is that all of us, the teaching of the New Testament is that all of us are complicit in the murder of our righteous brother Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate seed of the woman. He is the ultimate able. He was pierced through from our transgressions, crushed from our iniquities. We hated him, we killed him and we shed his blood.

But what guys, this is, this is why I end with this. This is not ending on a negative note. We are told, we shed the blood of Jesus, but we're told in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 24, that the blood of Jesus speaks better things than the blood of Abel. Much better things.

He shed blood at our hand does speak accusation, but if we accept that accusation and say, yes, I am guilty and we admit our sin, his blood speaks grace to us. His blood exposes us and brings us out of hiding, but if we let ourselves be brought out of hiding and we let that exposure happen, his blood provides us the covering. And the atonement That we need. And his blood purchases for us the forgiveness of sins, relationship with God, and eternal salvation.

I just ask you as we close, which side of this battle are you on? Are you on Jesus' side? Are you of the seed of the serpent, and you have a choice before you today. You can do well, or you can do well.

You can choose Christ or you can reject him. And sin lies crouching at the door. Awaiting your decision. And you can do the right thing and run to God and believe in Jesus Christ, and you can be saved from your sin.

Or you can do the wrong thing and reject Christ and be handed over to that sin. Which will be your master. And bring you to your ruin. Fly to Jesus.

If you have not done so, fly to him. And believe in him today. Let's pray. Lord, we are sobered.

This early in human history. Sometimes we think, man, what is our world coming to, and we wish for a former day. You can't get any further back than this right here. The very first family.

The very first siblings, and it ends so horribly. And we are alerted here to the power of sin. And to the reality of the warfare that rages between righteousness and unrighteousness. Deliver us from the naive notion that there is no warfare and that if we just live right and Play our cards right, everyone will love us.

The blood of Abel gives a different testimony. And may we hear that testimony today. We are thankful for Jesus, the true Abel. Who has offered To you, Lord, the perfect sacrifice.

And we are happy to place ourselves in Him and believe in Him and dress ourselves in Him and in His righteousness so that in Him. We find acceptance with you. I pray that if there's any here in this room, Lord, who have never believed in And Jesus for their salvation that even right now where they're seated, that they would cry out to you, believe in you as their Lord and Savior. That they would embrace you, their righteous brother Abel.

Rather than reject. You We thank you for this opportunity to give our offerings to you, Lord. We ask that you would receive these funds that are given and do much with Every penny that is given. For the glory of Jesus Christ and the spread of the good news.

About him And we ask all these things in the name of Jesus. And all God's people said, Amen.