Sin Spreads

Introduction

Last week, we looked at the consequences of the rebellion committed by the serpent, the man, and the woman.

While there were certainly terrible consequences that come from their sin, we also saw the incredible mercy and grace of God even in His pronouncement of judgment upon His people.

As a result, Adam and Eve are being forced to leave the safe confines of the garden and will have to live life as exiles in the wilderness.

Now we come to chapter 4 where we begin to see their family start to grow, and the influence of sin will grow and spread as well.

Read Genesis 4:1-16

Genesis 4:1–16 ESV

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

So now we see the first children born to the very first man and woman, Cain and Abel.

Eve Was Hoping for the Seed

She was excited about what the birth of this first son meant for her and Adam.

She was thinking back to the promise of God sending a seed of the woman to come and crush the serpent’s head.

We see her faith displayed in God’s character and promise.

However, she was mistaken as to who this redeemer would be.

Unfortunately, Cain would not be the Redeemer, but rather the first murderer.

Sin Begins in the Heart

So how did this first murder begin?

It started similarly to the first sin. It began in the heart.

However, instead of being enticed by an outside party, this time, the temptation originated with Cain Himself.

The Setting

Cain and Abel are now grown. We do not know how many years have passed, but we do see them working and fulfilling the Cultural Mandate. Both Cain and Abel are exercising dominion and care over the created order.

Cain has taken the profession of Farmer or Gardener and Abel as a Shepherd.

And we see them coming before God to offer a sacrifice.

We do not know exactly how they knew to offer sacrifices.

Maybe through what God did to cover Adam and Eve.

Maybe God spoke directly to them or their parents about how to approach His presence again.

Whatever the cause, they have been invited into relationship with God and are coming before Him offering sacrifices.

However, we see an issue arise as God only accepts the offering of one of the two brothers.

Why would God accept one and not another?

God First Considers the Giver Before the Gift

When we ask this question, we often turn our attention to the kind of offering they made.

Was it a difference between a blood sacrifice and the fruit of the ground?

But as we read through the Levitical law, God makes provision for grain offerings. So the fact that it is the fruit of the ground does not invalidate Cain’s gift.

We might make an argument that it says that Abel brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. while Cain just brought an offering of the fruit of the ground.

Notice, God first has regard or has no regard to the giver.

The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,

But He had no regard for Cain and his offering.

The state of the gift is affected by the heart of the giver.

Jesus’ teaching on giving.

The Widow’s mite was greater than the wealth of the Pharisees

She gave all she had while they were simply giving out of their wealth to fulfill a religious duty.

She had a love for the Lord while they had a love for their reputations.

Abel’s Heart

So to get a bit more understanding as to why God accepted Abel and not Cain. we need to turn to Hebrews.

Hebrews 11:4 (ESV)

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

God accepted Abel’s offering which was offered by faith.

This faith was a trust and an assurance based upon who God is and what He has done, not on who Abel was or could do.

Abel knew he was a sinner and had nothing to offer to God, but rather everything he had and would ever have was a result of God’s grace shown to him.

Therefore, Abel offered his gift knowing that it already belonged to God.

Cain’s Heart

On the contrary then, if Abel was accepted because he lived by faith, then Cain was rejected because he did not live by faith.

What is the opposite of living by faith?

It is living by one’s own works and self worth.

It is living by pride in oneself.

Instead of seeing that everything Cain had came from God, Cain saw himself as earning everything he had and he offered his sacrifice not as a result of God’s gracious acts towards Cain, but in a proud act of self-righteousness that made him believe that he was giving to God something He didn’t already have.

He thought this offering would put God in his debt and would earn God’s favor to him because of what Cain had done rather than what God had done for him.

The Gifts Affected by the Heart

Abel’s Gift - Because he knew everything belonged to the Lord, it led him to give the firstborn and the best, not because it would earn him God’s love, but because God’s love was shown to him by what God had given to him. When the ground had been cursed because of sin, God’s grace was seen in that He was still allowing Cain and Abel to fulfill the cultural mandate by shepherding flocks and plowing the fields.

Cain’s Gift - Cain, however, gave some of his fruit. Maybe Cain honestly believe that what he was giving was physically better and more attractive than what Abel had brought and maybe it was. But Cain’s offering was tainted by the fact that he thought he was giving to God something God didn’t already have rather than recognizing that all he had already belonged to God.

Living by faith does not invalidate obedience to God, it actually enables true obedience to God because it is impossible to obey or please God apart from faith.

Cain’s Anger

We see that this is Cain’s position because of his reaction to God’s response to his gift.

Cain obviously thought he deserved God’s approval and was upset when he didn’t receive what he thought he rightfully deserved.

Our Response

God is inviting all of us to come to Him and approach Him, but there is a right way and a wrong way to come to Him.

There are times in which we want to approach God on our own terms rather than coming to God on His terms, which is by grace through faith.

We can try to approach God on the self-righteous route thinking that if I go to worship and give my tithes and serve in the nursery and the kitchen ministry so many times each month than God owes me and He better bless me and give me what I think I deserve.

Or we try to approach God on the self-justification route trying to convince Him that we are good on our own. We turn a blind eye towards our own sin thinking that God should accept me as I am because I deserve it ignoring the fact that I have rebelled against Him. And so God better accept me simply because I am convince I am a good person. In both of these cases, we are depending upon our pride in ourselves to earn God’s favor towards us, and both of these ways of approaching God are going to fail.

And then when He doesn’t give us what we think we deserve, we can either repent and turn to God for who He is or we become bitter towards Him and the Church, and then we try to find other ways to continue to manipulate God, or worse yet, we completely turn our backs on God.

Sin Must Be Killed

So God, in His grace, comes to Cain to warn Him of the sin that is in his heart.

God is telling Cain that his anger is the beginning of a sin that seeks to destroy Cain’s life.

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount

You have heard that it was said do not murder, but I tell you that if you hate anyone, you are already guilty of murder.

This sin of murder has already entered into Cain’s heart and he is guilty now.

However, God is coming to Cain to warn him to repent and turn away from this sin before it goes any further.

The conviction of God is part of His grace towards us. While our sin begins in our heart, God is still gracious to convict us of our sin and to lead us to repentance, to turn away from the sin that is already there.

Cain is given a choice -

To harbor this anger and sin

To master and kill this sin

Antoine Yates - Ming, the Bengal Tiger.

In April 2000, Antoine Yates purchased an 8 week old Bengal Tiger to be his pet and to live with him in his apartment in Harlem. The tiger was small and manageable at the time so Yates thought this would be an easy pet to tame and control. He would purchase several pounds of chicken meat each week to feed this tiger where his fellow residents joked about how much Yates loved chicken. However, things took a turn for the worse when Yates was taken to the Harlem hospital in September 2003 for injuries to his arm that he claimed were from his pet pit bull. However, the medical staff thought the teeth marks looked too big to be that of a pit bull. A couple days later, police went to investigate Yates apartment where they drilled a hole into his door to see what was going on and the tiger tried to attack them through the small hole made. They realized they were in trouble and called in animal control to help capture this beast.

Yates started with a small tiger that he thought he could control. But as he harbored and cared for this tiger, the tiger grew until it became uncontrollable.

Sin, in the same way, starts small, but it doesn’t stay small. It seems like we can manage it, but if we do not put it to death, it will end up killing us.

John Owen - Be Killing Sin or it will be killing you.

God has warned Cain not to play around with the sin that has taken root in his heart.

To kill sin, we must recognize it for what it is.

We must admit that we are sinners prone to rebel against God.

We must desire to fight against the sin and rebellion against God.

We must admit our need for God’s help to fight against sin.

We must kill our pride by focusing on God’s goodness and glory.

We must employ the help of others in our fight against sin.

What sin is there in your heart that you are playing with and letting fester and grow within you because you think you can manage it? It might be anger like Cain’s. Or there might be lust, greed, covetousness, envy, pride, idolatry, and the list goes on.

Ask God to reveal to you any sin you are harboring, to help you to desire to kill the sin, and that He would give you the grace and strength to fight against that sin.

Sin Will Be Punished

Sadly, Cain did not listen to God’s warning. He played with the anger in his heart and it grew to the point of him not just harboring hatred and jealousy of Abel, but to the physical murder of his brother.

And God was not blind to the sin Cain committed. Just as Adam and Eve could not hide from God, so Cain could not hide his brother’s blood from the eyes of God.

God’s Judgment Upon Cain

So God does curse Cain from the ground. The place where Cain found fulfillment and satisfaction as a farmer and gardener, Cain will no longer experience that fulfillment.

Instead of being able to settle down and build his farm, he will be a wanderer. It’s hard to be a farmer when you are constantly on the move.

Cain’s Reaction to God’s Judgment

But as we looked at last week, this is again meant to draw Cain to repentance and to find grace and mercy within God.

However, we see his reaction as trying to self-justify rather than to acknowledge his sin. He could have said, your judgment upon me is far less than what I deserved. As we will see later, the penalty for taking another human life is death. However, God does not call for Cain’s life.

But Cain instead says this is more than he can bear. He sees this not as God’s merciful hand withholding what he deserves, but as being unfair towards him.

Not only that, but he fears that he will be killed by someone else because of his crime.

After all, while we have not read of any other children, we know that Adam and Eve certainly had many more sons and daughters than what is mentioned in the text. And everyone else out there will either be one of his and Abel’s siblings or nephews and nieces to them. Either way, they are all closely related to Abel and will see his crime as a crime against their own family and will want to naturally seek vengeance.

God Protects Cain from the Vengeance of Others

God places a mark on Cain to keep others from extracting vengeance upon him to let others know that if they exercise their own vengeance, God will take vengeance upon time 7 times. God is essentially protecting Cain from human justice.

But it is not to let Cain off the hook.

God is going to have his vengeance upon Cain for his murder of Abel. Cain is not getting off scott free.

Sin Will Not Go Unpunished

It would have been easy for someone to do just what Cain thought they would do, seek to take vengeance upon him for Abel’s death.

The Lord Will Punish All Sin

Romans 12:19 (ESV)

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

We do not have to worry about justice being done. It might not get done in this life, but God will make all things right and His wrath will be poured out upon all sin.

Two Choices

How is God going to deal with Cain’s sin? The temporary discipline is to make him a wanderer upon the earth.

But all sin must face the eternal wrath of God. God is holy and cannot allow sin to go unpunished.

So, there are two ways all sin will be dealt with.

1. Either God’s wrath will fall upon the sinner for all eternity as they are separated from the presence of God.

2. But the second way is that God is sending Jesus to take upon Himself the fullness of God’s wrath for sin upon the cross for all those who would place their faith in Him. If they were to turn from their sin, trust in the finished work of Christ for them, then Christ’s death upon the cross has taken the eternal wrath and punishment for their sin.

God is Being Patient With Cain

What we see here is God is being patient with Cain. He is withholding the fullness of His wrath to give Cain a chance to repent and experience the mercy of God and allow Christ to take the full penalty of Abel’s murder on Cain’s behalf.

2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

We can ask, why does God allow evil people to continue to survive? He will punish all sin and evil, but He is also gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He allows evil to continue not because He can’t do anything about it but because He is being patient so sinners might repent and receive the fullness of His grace.

God’s mercy is more than all our sin.

What Does This Mean for Us?

First, it means that if we are here today and we have not responded to Christ in faith and repentance, it means that God is still being patient with us.

Like Cain, we are all sinners deserving of God’s wrath. However, God is patient with us and leading more of us to repentance. Perhaps God is calling you to repent of sin and live by faith in the finished work of Christ. You cannot truly live in obedience to God until you live by faith in what He has done and provided for you in Christ.