The Way of Cain

I want to invite you guys to turn in your Bibles to the Book of Jude. the book of Jude, and it'll make sense why we're doing this in just a few, short minutes. Jude, just go to the last book of the Bible, Revelation, and then the book right before Revelation, a very small book. It's just one chapter, is the book of Jude.

And I want to begin here this morning. If you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be The Way of Cain. The way of Cain. I want to just read to you verses 3 through the first part of verse 11 of the book of Jude.

And so let me read this to you. Beloved, while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you. Appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed.

Those who were long beforehand, marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness, and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I desire to remind you, though all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of, out of the land of Egypt, Subsequently destroyed those who did not believe and angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode, he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality.

And went after strange flesh are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same way these men also by dreaming defile the flesh and reject authority and revile angelic majesties.

But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil, And argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. But these men revile the things which they do not understand and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. Woe to them. For they have gone the way of Cain.

Woe to them For they have gone the way. Of Cain Most of who Miley Cyrus is. She used to profess faith in Jesus Christ. She used to claim to be a Christian.

She has since renounced all pretense of Christianity and has detached herself completely from a Christian worldview. She is abundantly transparent about her mindset and her music and in her interviews. In an interview that came out just this past week, Miley talks about how she does not identify as a boy or as a girl. And she doesn't care who she sleeps with, whether they identify as a boy or a girl.

She's got standards though. She says that her sexual partners must be human, they must be over 18, and they must be consenting. They meet that standard, those 3 standards, then Nothing is off limits for her. She shares how she confessed to her mom that she was a bisexual when she was 14 years old and listen to her as she describes her perspective regarding her mom's reaction to her.

She says it was hard for my mom to understand. She didn't want me to be judged and she didn't want me to go to hell. But she believes in me more than she believes in any God. I just asked for her to accept me.

And she has. This is what Miley Cyrus wants most. She wants her mom to believe in her more than she believes in God and to just accept her. To accept her as she is.

I would encourage you guys to read through the entirety of the book of Jude today. This afternoon and even in your care groups tonight. In the book of Jude, Jude describes people who do the following things, and this is just a partial list, people who turn the grace of God into licentiousness. In other words, they turn God into a God who is so full of love and tolerance and grace that he gives people license to do as they please.

They deny Jesus Christ as their Lord and as their master. Jude also says they engage in gross or extreme immorality, which entails them going after strange or other flesh. This means going after flesh other than that which is consistent with the moral order established by God. They reject authority.

They revile what they don't understand. And they do not fear God. Jude goes on to describe them as people who care only for themselves. They speak harshly against God.

They grumble and they find fault. They follow after their own lusts. They show arrogance in their speech. And they are worldly minded.

And here's the crux of the message for this morning about these people whose descriptions I have just read to you from the book of Jude. Jude says, woe to them. Woe to them, for they have gone the way of Cain. What I wanna do this morning is to let ourselves be instructed by Jude and learn that apparently there is such a thing as the way of Cain.

As Christians, we should care about knowing what the way of Cain is so that we don't go down that same road. The reason we don't want to go the way of Cain is because as Jude tells us in his letter, those who go the way of Cain will experience whoa. If they don't repent, they will undergo the punishment of eternal fire. He also tells us that the black darkness has been reserved forever for such people.

Jude also tells us that such people are marked out by God for condemnation. Jude also tells us in his short letter that such people creep into the church and they are like hidden reefs in the waters of church life. No doubt indicating that their true status is often unknown to God's people and they can shipwreck the faith of many unsuspecting souls. I've had this sermon on my heart for about 5 weeks now.

It's been a lens through which I have looked at the news, I have read the news and observed what is happening in our culture today. And there is no doubt about it, our culture. Has gone the way of Cain. We live in a culture full of people who are walking in the way of Cain.

And Christians in the church are being invited. To come along We're being scolded and told to come along. And if we don't wish to come along, that's OK as long as we affirm those who are walking in the way of Cain and tell them that what they're doing is good and acceptable. Christians who refuse to do so are viewed as evil haters, who hold to an unaffirming theology.

which we are told inflicts real oppression and harm upon people whose lifestyles are different. Anyone who would think that way about Christian theology would have a really hard time with the book of Jude. Essentially, we're being asked today to believe in sinners more than we believe in God. And today I want to take a look at Genesis 4 and I wanna, we're not gonna spend a lot of time on each of these things, but I wanna give you 10 characteristics.

Of those who walk in the way of Cain. Apparently Jude has studied Genesis 4 just like we have just finished studying Genesis 4. He's observed the way of Cain. As it unfolds in Genesis chapter 4, and we're gonna do what Jude apparently did, and we're going to observe 10 characteristics of those who walk in the way of Cain.

And my purpose will be to show you that what we see happening in our culture today is nothing new. And I wanna call you today to not walk in the way of Cain, to reject the way of Cain. I want you to be warned about those who are walking in the way of Cain and to not give them influence in your life. And if you are walking in the way of Cain today, I wanna call you today to repentance.

If you are a Christian, I want you to recognize that you have remnants of the way of Cain inside of you and so do I inside of me. We need to be able to identify the way of Cain inside of our own selves and learn to do the daily work of repenting and learning to walk in the way of Christ. 10 characteristics of those who walk in the way of Cain. Number 1, they can engage in religious expressions of worship.

Apparently, from Genesis 4, we observed that those who walk in the way of Cain can engage in religious expressions of worship. Chapter 4 of Genesis begins on what seems like a wonderful note of two brothers bringing their worship, bringing their offerings to God. In fact, here's a Bible trivia question for you. Who is the first person in the Bible to bring an offering of worship to God?

Kane. Cain is the first worshiper mentioned in the Bible. The text tells us in Genesis 4:3, so it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to Jehovah from the fruit of the ground. At this point, all I want to point out is the fact that it is not just the Richard Dawkins and the Bill Mawers of the world who walk in the way of Cain.

In Genesis 4, Cain is quite the religious fellow. He is presenting an offering to God in some ritual expression of worship to God. This teaches us that people who follow the way of Cain can engage in religious expressions of worship. On the surface, they can appear to be very religious.

So don't think that you're not walking in the way of Cain. Just because you're religious, or because you go to church. Also, don't be duped into believing Something that somebody says simply because they're religious or a pastor or a seminary professor, or a professing evangelical Christian who writes and sings worship songs. Dangerous people who follow the way of Cain can often engage in wonderfully appearing religious expressions of worship, and they will impress you with how religious they are.

But they're on the way of Cain, just as Cain was on the way of Cain. That leads us to the next characteristic of those who follow the way of Cain, and this is what sets their religion apart from those who walk in the way of Christ. And that is they expect God to accept them on their own terms. They expect God to accept them on their own terms.

We know that Cain fully expected God to accept him and his offering. Because when God didn't, Cain's countenance fell. His face fell. This implies that Cain approached God with an uplifted and expectant countenance.

Cain fully expected that God would accept him and his offering. Cain had a form of religion, and he fully expected God to accept that. The mere fact that Cain even came before Jehovah God and brings himself and his offering to the Lord clearly indicates that he is fully expecting God to accept his religious expression of worship. But we have studied Genesis 4.

We know that evil is in Cain's heart, and we also know that he is not bringing his best to God like his brother Abel did. We learned in Genesis 4 that when Abel brought his offering, he brought the first slings of his flock and gave of the fat portions. Abel gave the first and the fattest and the finest of what he had. Cain merely brought Something from the produce of the ground.

Abel brought his best, Cain did not. But whatever is wrong with Cain and his offering, Cain is not honoring the way that God had instructed him to worship God. Nonetheless, he comes before God with an uplifted and expectant countenance. Expecting God to accept him and his offering.

Cain is worshiping in the wrong way. His heart is not in the right place. His religion is wrong, but he expects God to accept him anyway. And this is the way it is with those who follow the way of Cain.

They expect God to accept them on their terms, not his. This is the only religion that they are interested in. Jodie Foster, the Hollywood actor, is a perfect example of this mindset. This mindset is everywhere, she's an example.

That will cite this morning. She once said in an interview that she herself is not against religion. She said, in fact, I love religions and religious texts and all that stuff, she said. But which religion Would she accept for herself?

Here's her answer. For me to accept a religion, it must embrace me and who I am without putting preconditions on what makes me whole. This sounds a lot like what Miley Cyrus wanted from her mom. This is what those who walk in the way of Cain want from God too.

They want God to just accept them and not tell them they're broken and not put preconditions on what makes them whole. Now think about it, what would you expect to happen if someone with this mindset comes to God with their worship, they present themselves and their worship to God with this mindset, expecting God to accept them on their terms. Yet God has the audacity to reject them and their worship. What do you think would happen?

That brings us to the next characteristic of those who go the way of Cain, and that is they get angry. They get angry when God does not accept them on their own terms. Cain has his offering in his form of religion. He presents himself and his offering to God, yet God does not show regard.

The text tells us to Cain and to his offering. God is being less than fully inclusive with Cain. He is choosing not to include Cain among the worshippers that he approves of and accepts. And how does Cain respond?

Does Cain respond in humility and ask God for guidance to show him what it is that he's doing wrong? Does he say, God, please show me what is wrong, show me what to do so that I can make sure that I and my offering are acceptable to you. Not at all. In Genesis 4:5, the text tells us that Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.

Literally, the text tells us Cain burned abundantly. And his face fell. Cain is furious at God for rejecting him. In Genesis 3, we learn the story of the fall of man.

In Genesis 4, we learn. About the fall of Cain's countenance. To put it another way, in Genesis 4, we learn about the fall of God from Cain's approval. Cain is angry at God for refusing to accept him.

And his offering. It seems that Cain liked God. He actually liked God as long as God accepted him on his terms. But now that God has rejected his offering, Cain doesn't like God.

He is burning with anger against God. One of the things we learned in this account is that God Obviously does not accept all forms of worship. All religions are not acceptable to God. God is not the God of the universalist Unitarian who accepts all worshippers regardless of their beliefs and their practices.

And it's not unloving for us to point that out. We also learn here that in simply being his perfect divine self, and simply behaving according to who he, God is, God apparently can make people angry and cause their countenance to fall. This should teach us that no matter how beautifully and wonderfully and perfectly we as Christians might try to represent the true God to the world, he will make men angry and cause their countenance to fall. Not everyone is going to like him.

In fact, most will hate him. And we know this because God Himself came into the world in the person of Jesus Christ, and Jesus made people angry. So angry that they killed him. And do why the religious leaders It was the religious crowd that primarily hated him and vowed to destroy him.

why they hated Jesus? Primarily it was because Jesus did not accept their religion. They had created their own religion. They had taken the religion of Israel as revealed in the law, and they twisted it beyond recognition.

And Jesus, the God man shows up and says, basically, I don't accept your religion. You are not justified and righteous before God. In fact, you are children of hell. And your converts are twice the children of hell as you are.

In John 8, Jesus looks at these religious leaders and says, your father is the devil, and you are simply doing what he wants you to do. And so they were angry with him, obviously, and they wanted to kill him because he refused to accept them and their religion on their terms. Those who follow the way of Cain, expect God to accept them on their terms, and they get mad at God when he doesn't. And they will get mad at you if you speak that truth to them.

They will call you a hater. But if it is true that God does not accept all religions, if that's really true, then we are being loving and telling people that. Observe yet another characteristic of those who follow in the way of Cain, and that is they refuse to listen to God's gracious counsel to do what is right. They refuse to listen to God's gracious counsel to do what is right.

God speaks to Cain. And counsels him to do the right thing. He says in verse 7, if you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up. God has rejected Cain and his offering, but he, he's not rejected Cain as a person.

He actually sees that Cain is angry, and God pursues Cain. And gives him gracious counsel. He lets Cain know that you can do something about this problem. All Cain has to do is simply do what God says and do the right thing and all will be well.

God did not have to speak to Cain like this. He didn't have to pursue Cain. Cain is not in a humble place. He's ticked at God when he has no right to be.

God could have written him off for his anger, but he doesn't. God pursues Cain and lovingly, graciously appeals to him and gives him counsel as to how his own countenance can be lifted up once again. But the following narrative of Genesis 4 as we have seen, makes it clear that Cain completely disregarded God's counsel to him. Today God comes to rebel men and women and gives to us a book.

And says you have sinned against me, and you deserve my eternal wrath. You are at war with me. Yet I have sent my Son to die on the cross, and if you will repent of your sins and do the right thing by believing in my Son, then I will save you and forgive you, and your countenance will be more than lifted up. Come to me if you are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give rest to your souls.

Come to me. On my terms and I will not cast you out. God graciously speak such words. To us, but those who follow in the way of Cain hear that and say, No, They refuse to give heed to the gracious counsels of God.

They refuse to pay attention to God's holy revelation revealed in God's holy word. Tied to this rejection of God's positive counsel, those who follow in the way of Cain also do yet another thing and that brings us to the next characteristic of those who walk in the way of Cain, and that is they refuse to listen to God's warnings. They refuse to listen to God's warnings. God gives to Cain a warning, but Cain refuses the warning.

God tells Cain, if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and it's desire is for you, but you must master it. This is a remarkably clear warning from God. God is saying, Cain, if you do not do the right thing, there is such a thing called sin that is crouching at the door of your life, and it is waiting to pounce on you and dominate and control you. You simply must make the right choice here and master sin, and you can.

Get on top of this and master sin if you will do the right thing in this situation. God is warning Cain about the ferocity of sin. He's warning Kain that sin is crouching at the door of his life. God is warning Cain that a person can reach a point in their life where sin pounces on them and takes dominion over them.

God did not have to give Cain these gracious warnings, but he does. However, as the narrative of Genesis 4 unfolds, we see that Cain completely disregards God's gracious warning. Cain will not only refuse to do the right thing, but he will actually do the wrong thing in spite of God's gracious counsel and God's gracious warning. The same is true for those who walk in the way of Cain today.

God gives to us hundreds of loving and gracious warnings in His word. He warns us away from sin. He warns us that our sin will find us out. He warns us that the wages of sin is death.

He warns us that God is not mocked and that whatever a person sows, that's what he will reap. God warns us that those who reject Christ will suffer the eternal torments of everlasting hell. He warns us that we will stand before God at the judgment and give an account for every idle word and every deed that we have done in this body. But those who walk in the way of Cain, ignore these warnings.

And if they never repent, they end up In hell. And to get to hell, they had to step over hundreds of thousands of gracious counsels and warnings from God revealed in His word and even through the voice of conscience in their lives. Let me ask you guys a question. Was God wrong to speak words of revelation to Cain, expressing his gracious counsel and his gracious warning?

Was God wrong to give that revelation? To Kane Are we wrong today to speak the revelation of God's word to people today who are walking in the way of Cain? Are we? No, absolutely not.

Rob Bell, the former pastor and the author of the book Love Wins, recently has come out in favor of homosexuality and gay marriage. He believes that the Church of Jesus Christ should fall in step with the rest of the culture. And actually, he believes that the church should stop letting the Bible be our guide. When asked by Oprah Winfrey if he thought that the church would ever come to accept gay marriage, he said that he believed that the church was actually moments away.

from accepting gay marriage. She was surprised at that. And then he said this, he said, I think culture, I think the culture is already there and the church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from 2000 years ago as their best defense. What Rob Bell dismissively calls letters from 2000 years ago is the authoritative word of the living God.

In Genesis 4, God similarly spoke his revelatory word to Cain in his sin, and gave him gracious counsel and gracious warning. Yet Cain treated God's words as irrelevant, and he disregarded God's revelation. And the problem is with Cain for viewing God's revelation as irrelevant. The problem is not with God for speaking holy words which Cain deemed to be irrelevant.

Mark my words folks, it doesn't matter what the world or some pop preacher says. To the contrary, God's word is always relevant. Always. God's word is always ahead of its time, and it will endure forever.

Long after America has passed from the scene with every other kingdom of this world, long after Rob Bell has gone to meet his fate, this 2000 year old book will still be around and it will endure forever. And if we don't want to go in the way of Cain, we should give heed to this book every day and make it our daily bread. People who walk in the way of Cain do not do this, however, they ignore God's word and they do something else which leads me to yet another characteristic of those who walk in the way of Cain and that is they strike out against the righteous.

They strike out against the righteous.

How did Cain respond to God's counsel and warning? He killed his brother. In Genesis 4:8, the text says, Cain told his brother or he talked to his brother and it came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. Murder was probably already in Cain's heart when God was speaking to him.

Yet Cain regards, disregards God's counsel and warnings and persists in plunging even deeper into his sin of anger and hatred. Cain's hatred of God and Abel now turns to murder. Cain responds to God's rejection of his own religion. By killing the person whose religion God did accept.

This is what those who walk in the, in the way of Cain do. They're angry that God won't accept them. On their own terms. So they strike out against those whom God does accept.

Cain clearly views Abel as the problem. So he strikes out against Abel. This is Cain's solution to his own anger problem. Cain's face has fallen, and he thinks the solution to his countenance problem is to kill Abel.

If he can just get rid of Abel. His countenance would be OK, he thinks. Cain cannot kill God, but he can kill the one person in his life who is relating to God and representing God. As Dietrich Bonhofer says, Cain kills Abel, not because he hates Abel, but because he hates God.

There are people who believe. People walking in the way of Cain today who believe that the greatest problem in our culture today is Christians. It's you. Their countenance has fallen, and they think that we and our unaffirming theology is the reason that their countenance has fallen.

They will call our theology oppressive. They will label it hate speech. They either want us eliminated or silenced or marginalized or they want us to change our beliefs to comport with their beliefs. We are at war.

Not a culture war, but a war that God declared in Genesis 3:15. A war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. And those who walk the way of Cain. hate God and they hate those who represent him.

In 1 John 2, John speaks of Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. John then turns to us and says, do not marvel, don't be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.

Paul himself makes it very clear that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. If you desire to just you yourself live godly in Christ Jesus, that will be intolerable to those who walk in the way of Cain. It was true for Abel, and it will be true for you. It was true of Jesus, and it will be true for this church.

There's another characteristic of those who walk in the way of Cain, and that brings us to the next point, and that is that those who walk in the way of Cain seek to cover their sin through deception. They seek to cover their sin through deception. God comes to Cain and says, where is your brother Abel? And Cain answers by saying, I don't know.

I don't know. That's a boldfaced lie. Just like Cain, people who follow in the way of Cain will use deception to conceal their sin or to divert attention away from their sin. This is one of the ways that they suppress the truth.

So that they can live in unrighteousness. They don't just suppress the truth about God, but they suppress the truth about themselves and about their sin. They cannot let that in. Because they cannot continue in unrighteousness if they do.

The truth is that Cain killed Abel and he knew exactly where Abel was, but Cain represents that knowledge of where Abel is and his murder by simply saying, I don't know where he is. So in this instance, murder and hiding the body gets relabeled, I don't know where he is. Cain doesn't want the label murderer. He prefers instead to be labeled the man who doesn't know where Abel is.

And the same thing happens today. Some of the people walking in the way of Cain will seek to cover their deeds through deception. So that no one knows about their deeds. Some of them will be public about their deeds, but then put innocent sounding labels on them.

They're hiding their sin just the same. Such relabeling doesn't work with God. And it shouldn't work with us. You can relabel your adultery as a midlife crisis or as an affair, but God sees it for what it is.

People can relabel their immorality. As marriage equality, but that doesn't work with God. You can represent your sin with the beautiful image of a rainbow, but God is not deceived. You can label your murder of an unborn child as a woman's choice, but God will not be mocked.

You can label your sinful actions as just something that everyone else is doing. Everyone's doing it. But that won't work with God, but this is exactly what those who walk in the way of Cain do. There's another characteristic of those who walk in the way of Cain, and that is they cast off the bonds of responsibility toward others.

They cast off the covenantal bonds of responsibility toward others. When God asked Cain where Abel was, Cain lies and then says, Am I my brother's keeper? Literally, he says, I am not my brother's keeper, am I? He's hoping for A certain answer.

Cain is hoping that God will say, oh yeah, you're right. You are not your brother's keeper. You have no responsibility regarding anything that happens to Abel. That's the answer that Cain wants from God.

Cain wants desperately to be absolved from any responsibility toward his brother. Cain has a covenantal responsibility toward his little brother, but he has cast that responsibility off. And he wants God to agree with him. Nowadays, when a woman aborts a child, she is saying, I am not my baby's keeper, am I?

When a man leaves his wife and allows his marriage to die, he is saying, I am not my wife's keeper, am I? When a wife leaves her husband. She is saying, am I my husband's keeper? When we pull away from someone because they've hurt us, we are saying I am not this person's keeper.

When a man or a woman becomes so occupied with drugs or television or alcohol or entertainment or sports or money or work that they neglect their children, they are saying, I am not my children's keeper, am I? When we refuse to provide care for someone in our life that needs our help, we are saying, am I my neighbor's keeper? We live in a culture today where covenantal bonds mean very little. It's a casting off of obligations and responsibility towards society as a whole and towards other people.

Those who follow the way of Cain do not fulfill their covenantal responsibilities toward those. Whom they are called by God to be responsible for. They cast these bonds off, which fits with Jude's description of them as people in Jude 12 who care only for themselves. This leads us to our next point, the 9th characteristic of those who walk in the way of Cain, and that is they complain about the consequences they bring upon themselves.

They complain about the consequences that they bring upon themselves. When God pronounces the sentence on Cain, Cain, he's, he's worshiped wrong, and God did not show regard for Cain and his offering. Cain gets angry, God gives him counsel and warning to tell him what he needs to do to make things right and his countenance will be lifted up. Cain ignores that and kills his brother.

God then Confronts Kane And says, here's your consequences. And he pronounces his consequences upon Cain. And Cain upon, and these, we've seen in recent weeks that those consequences, yeah, they're severe, but they are incredibly gracious. So much less than Cain deserves.

God even says, I'm going to be your personal protector. But Cain says, my punishment is too great to bear, and he lists off the consequences. He says, behold, you've driven me this day. You've driven me this day from the face of the ground, and from your face, I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and it will come about that whoever finds me will kill me.

My punishment is too great to bear. You, God, you have driven me. Into these circumstances that I find myself in. Caves Focus is just so wrong.

His focus is totally on himself, he says nothing about his sin, nothing about other people. He expresses no remorse for the pain that Abel must have felt when he killed him. He does not express concern about, Lord, this is, this is gonna be such a huge pain to my parents for me to be banished. His only complaint is regarding how burdensome his punishment is to him.

These are the ravings of an insanely selfish man. And this is what people who walk in the way of Cain do. They sin freely and they bring upon themselves painful consequences. They go against all sound counsel that God gives to them in his word, and they thereby bring upon themselves painful consequences, and then they complain about their consequences.

But they don't repent of the sin that brought those consequences on. They talk about how life is not fair. They talk about how they don't deserve this, and they will even fall to God for the circumstances that God has allowed into their life, circumstances that they brought on themselves because of their sin. There's a 10th and a final characteristic of those who walk in the way of Cain, and that is ultimately they go out from the presence of the Lord.

They go out from the presence of the Lord. It says in verse 16 of Genesis 4, then Cain went out. From the presence of the Lord. He went out from the face of Jehovah.

And settled in the land of nod or literally settled in the land of wondering. This matches Jude's description of those who go in the way of Cain and Jude 12 and 13. Jude describes them as clouds without water, carried along by winds. He describes them as wandering stars.

Cain goes out from the presence of the Lord. Because he didn't want to live in the presence of this one who would dare to reject his offering. Lance Armstrong was a road racing cyclist who had cancer in his twenties. The cancer had spread to his brain requiring surgery.

In his biography that came out 15 years ago, Lance Armstrong shares about what was going through his mind as he was preparing himself emotionally for the brain cancer surgery. He thought about the fact that what if I die on the operating table and what if I find myself standing before God at the judgment. And am I ready? He actually talks about that in his book.

I believe the title is, it's not about the bike, but listen to his thinking process. He says, I decided that I was essentially a good person. Although I could have been better. At the end of the days, if there was indeed somebody or presence standing there to judge me, I hoped I would be judged on whether I had lived a true life, not on whether I believed in a certain book.

If there was indeed a God. At the end of my days, I hoped he didn't say, but you were never a Christian, so you're going to go the other way from heaven. If so If so If this God does say that to me, because you didn't believe this book, because you didn't believe in Christ, you're going to go the other way from heaven? If so, I was going to reply.

He's already resolving, this is what I will say. what? You're right. Fine.

You see the attitude? That is the way of Cain. If God is going to judge him for not believing in Christ and send him to hell for that, then Lance Armstrong says he's fine with that. He would not want to be in heaven with such a God.

Who would think he's not good enough. This is exactly the way that Cain thought. God says to him, you and your offering are not acceptable to me, Cain, and by his subsequent actions, Cain says, fine then. And he walked away from God and went out from the presence of the Lord.

He did not want a relationship with a god. who would not accept him on his terms. So this is the way of Cain. Many are walking.

This path today and they would ask us to affirm them and call their actions good. Ultimately, they're asking us to believe in them more than we believe in God. Unfortunately, there are some in the church who are stumbling all over themselves to do exactly that. Not a week goes by hardly that some Christian, from the church, a professing Christian is not coming out publicly saying I have changed my stance.

After deep searching and prayer and study, I have changed my view on these issues and what I used to call evil, I now see as good and beautiful. And we are being invited to join them. Won't you come too? And call evil good.

How should we respond? Jude actually tells us how we should respond. We should respond with mercy toward those who are walking in the way of Cain in the hope that they might be saved. He says, have mercy on some who are doubting, save others, snatching them out of the fire, and on some have mercy with fear, hating.

hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. Jude tells us to reach out in love and mercy to the lost. But notice that we are called upon here to be haters, not haters of people, but to hate sin because sin destroys people. We hate sin because we love God and because we love people created in the image of God.

Therefore, we hate sin that destroys the lives of people. We should hate sin and hate the pollution that sin brings to ourselves and to other people. And we do our culture no service if we do not hate sin. Jude wants us to be aware of the easy potential for us to be polluted by the way of Cain.

Actually, we should recognize that we, all of us in this room who profess Christ, we have remnants of the way of Cain in us. I myself am a, a recovering Cainite. And we should be engaging in the beautiful daily task of hating our own sin and repenting of our own sin. And in the process, show the world what true humble repenting actually looks like.

We should speak out against the sin in our own lives. And repent And give the world an example of humble repentance. The cross shows us that we are Cain, and that we need a savior. And we who are God's people, we've admitted that we've come to Jesus with our need.

And guys, that's the real difference between those who walk in the way of Cain and those who walk in the way of Christ. It's not that those who walk in the way of Cain are villains. And we are not. The difference is that we are the ones who have admitted that we are the villains.

And we've cried out to God for salvation, and ever received forgiveness, and he's transforming us. Those who walk in the way of Cain, refuse to admit their sin. They want to behave as villains and have God and us pronounce their actions good. Miley Cyrus can ask her mom to believe in her more than God.

She can ask her mom to accept her as she is, but that's not our message as Christians to the world. We invite people to believe in God, not in themselves. We invite them to accept Jesus as he is, without trying to change him into someone different than what the Bible says that he is. We also declare that to everyone that Jesus has the power to transform them, if they would come to him by faith in all humility, and walk with him each day.

That's my message to you today. If you're walking in the way of Cain, believe in God, believe in Jesus Christ, accept God for who He is and all of his unchangeable holiness, and majesty and grace and mercy and power. Realize that you are the one who needs to change, not him. Cry out to him to be your Lord and Savior and ask him to transform you.

Embracing the unchangeable God is the first step to your own personal transformation. You will never experience transformation when all your energies are being put into trying to transform God. Quit trying to change God. Believe in the unchangeable God and let him change you.

I remember RC Sproul, years ago I was listening to him preach a sermon and he, and he asked a theological question of the audience. He said, what is the one attribute of God that the world despises the most? And our brains were racing. What is that?

What is it? His holiness, his justice? What is the one quality of God? That the world despises the most, and RC Sproul, after a pause, said, it is his immutability.

Which is a fancy way of saying it's the fact that he won't change. Embrace the unchangeable God. And let him change you. As for us Christians, let us be humble.

Let us be merciful, let us be gracious, but let us love the world by holding to God's word and speaking his truth lovingly and yet without compromise. It's what the world most needs from us. And most importantly, it's what God calls us to do. Will you do that?

Let's pray together. God help us. God have mercy on us. And upon Our nation upon our world.

Which is in a freefall. Abandoning any pretense of a Christian worldview and is running headlong in the way of Cain. The way of woe, the way of judgment. I pray for Miley Cyrus, Lance Armstrong, Jodie Foster, and for all of us in this room.

That you would do a work in all of our hearts of humbling us, bringing us low before you. Admitting our sin, admitting our brokenness, admitting that between you and us, we're the ones who need to change. And only you have the power to change us. Bring us to that point, Lord, bring us to that point every day.

Help us as a church, as your people to speak your truth with love, with grace, with confidence, with boldness. And though many will reject what we say, there will be a few that can be snatched from the flames, and some will be saved. Above all, Lord, help us to be faithful. To never deny you, our Lord and our Master Jesus Christ.

To hold to your word, to build ourselves up in our most holy faith. And to be willing To stand for you, to not be ashamed. And to be willing to die with you. And die for you and for your truth.

And how can we do anything less for you who died? For us You're a good God, Lord, and we just say to you this morning that we love you, we trust you, we thank you for your word and the infinitely wonderful counsels that we find here. Thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord, receive these funds, do much with every penny that is given to advance the cause of truth, the cause of righteousness. And the spread of the glorious good news of salvation through Jesus Christ.

In His name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen.