Sin Reigns in the Hearts of Man

Introduction

Tonight we come to chapter 4 of Genesis. In chapter 3 we saw sin and it’s devastating effects come into the picture. Before this in chapter 2 there was no sin, man literally dwelled eternally in paradise with the presence of God. In chapter 3 all of that was lost.

Tonight we see that not only has sin entered the world it is here to stay until the promise of 3:15 is fulfilled. Will that be fulfilled here in the seed or offspring of Eve? It will not, sin will continue.

In this passage we will see worship, both good worship and bad. We will see murder. We will see continual corruption, then we will once again see worship.

There is so much relevance to us from this passage because we can easily see our own tendencies come to light in the sinful world. We can see our angers and frustrations. We can see our own worship and see how it compares to what we see here.

Let’s pray then begin to journey through the content of Genesis 4, after the fall.

The Story

Genesis 4:1–2 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.

Adam and Eve have a child. This is the first birth to take place in the world. In this birth she has realized her purpose and she is filled with joy. She attributes this all to the Lord Yahweh. Through her words there is a sense of expectation, her seed or offspring is to be the one through which the serpent will be crushed, here is her seed, now what. She thinks this is the one who will complete this task but we know that it is not, we are only 4 chapters into this big book.

She then bore a second son in continuing on with the divine mandate. Cain was a worker of the ground and the second son Able was a keeper of the sheep. Two occupations to provide for their needs.

Genesis 4:3–5 ESV

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.

In their occupations they each brought the produce of their labor. I want to read first how the NIV words it; “In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.”

Cain brings some of his fruits, Able brings some of the best of the best to offer to the Lord. The Lord had regard for Able and his offering because of his heart posture and the way he enacted it. He had the proper content in his worship and the proper heart behind it. Cain did not have this and the Lord did not have regard for his offering. Instead of asking what he can do better or making the effort to change he becomes angry.

Genesis 4:6–7 ESV

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.”

The Lord sees the anger that Cain has and confronts us about it. He then is told perfect wisdom from God, sin is crouching at the door and desires what is contrary to what you should do but you must rule over that desire. The power in that. Granted that is easier said than done for us in a fallen world but the first step to fighting sin is seen here, realize it is there and that you want to fight it. If this step is not first accomplished then there is no hope in fighting our sins.

Genesis 4:8–16 ESV

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.

Cain does not rule over his sin, his sin rules over him. He kills his brother, the first murder. This is all a result of his heart being in the wrong place for the worship of God. He then tries to pretend that he does not know what happened when confronted by God. God is all knowing though and he says that he knows what he has done. He then curses Cain.

This is the first man that is cursed himself, this is just like the serpent is cursed. This shows us that Cain is of the devil. It says in 1 John 3:12 “We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.”

Cain says that the curse is more than he can handle and that he will be killed. God then puts a protection on him so that he has to live his life out in this curse. He is told that if anyone kills him their vengeance will be sevenfold. He then leaves the presence of God and goes into the land of wandering.

Genesis 4:17–24 ESV

Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”

This genealogy stands in contrast with the line of Seth. This is what we could call the ungodly line where Seth’s is the chosen line.

Because of his curse Cain goes out and begins to build cities instead of working the ground. The mercy of God can be seen on Cain though because he has children that bear the imago dei, the image of God. We see through this genealogy though that they are of their father Cain.

Through all of the accomplishments that are seen in this line we can tell that this line has the cultural power. They are the ones ruling and doing all of these other things but that is not what really matters. What is important is following God.

We see the evil clearly displayed in Lamech. Lamech comes out bragging about killing a man and uses the curse of Cain as a badge of honor. He brags about killing a man that wounded him. He also brags to his two wives so we see that marriage has been perverted as well.

The giving of this line by Moses shows us this evil and shows us the perversion in the world. It also makes clear that it is not this line that the snake crusher will come through, this is not the line of promise. It is characteristic to go down a line like this then go back to the elect line. So now to verse 25, back to the elect line.

Genesis 4:25–26 ESV

And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

Eve is granted another son by God and names him Seth. She sees him as a replacement for Able because of his death. Seth to has a son and names him Enosh, this is the line of promise, the elect line. It is through the youngest that the promise will continue.

At this time people began to call upon the name of the Lord. There is worship taking place. Just like in the beginning as Able brought the best he had to offer to God as worship people are calling on his name. In the end this does not last though but we see that there is a continuation of righteous people upon the earth, they do not go extinct in the midst of sin, but they to are sinners.

Worship

One theme that is present throughout Genesis and the whole Bible is the worship of God. Obviously it looks a little different at this time than at other times in the history of the Bible. This is a time before the law too so it looks a bit different than the rest of the Old Testament.

The first act of worship we see here is Cain and Able taking offerings from what they procured through their occupations. Through both of these men we can see different sides of their worship.

Able brought the best that he had, he brought the firstborn from his flock and the fat portions. This was the best of the best. Cain brought some of the fruits of the ground. We see that God approves of Able’s offering and does not approve of Cains. This is because God does not just care that we worship, he is concerned with the content of that worship.

He is also concerned with the heart behind it. As soon as Cains offering is not accepted he turns to anger and jealousy. This leads to the murder of his brother. If his heart was behind it he would seek to give the very best. This is not what he does though. He has the wrong heart posture behind his worship.

John 4:23–24 ESV

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

This New Testament passage shows Jesus pointing us straight to the principles that we are talking about. We are to worship in spirit and in truth.

Lets start with what it means to worship in truth. This is referring to the content of our worship. God does not want to be worshiped by us saying all sorts of false things about him, even if it is in spirit. Our worship must be grounded in the truth. Cains worship was not grounded in the truth because the content of it was not true to what God deserves. To be true to what he deserves means that it should be true to who he is. Able brought the best of the best to the best of the best.

To think about this in our modern New Testament church worship we should think of the things that a worship service should have. I want to list 4 things and how they are to be done in truth; sacraments, scripture reading, preaching, and singing. First to do the sacraments in truth is to do them in the way that the scripture tells us, these things are the Lords Supper are Baptism. To do the scripture reading in truth is to read the truth. This one is easy, read God’s word from a faithful translation of Gods word. The preaching in truth means that the sermon should be fully grounded in the scripture, it should exalt God, and it should be fully truthful to who he is and what the scripture says. Lastly and this is the big one for you all is the songs. To sing in truth means that the songs we sing convey things that are true of God and are aimed at him and not self. If you listen to modern worship listen to the words, who is it talking about? You or God? If it is talking about God what is it saying about him? Is that true as we see in his word? This is how we can worship in truth.

Now to worship in spirit. This can be summed up in a thing that Ryleigh has coined as heart posture. To worship in spirit means that we are not just doing the things right, we are not just in truth, but our hearts are in it as well. Our hearts are in it with the right attitude. I remember as a kid going to church and mindlessly singing hymns every Sunday while my mind was not there. I had those songs memorized so well that I could be singing them and not even realize it. To worship in spirit means that you heart is behind every part. That you have the right heart posture.

Cain did not have the right heart posture. He turned immediately to anger when his offering was not accepted. Then that brought about jealousy that his brothers was. If his heart was in the right place he would not have been focused on his brother but rather focused on changing so that his offering would be accepted. We can see though that his heart was not in the right place from the beginning as he doesn’t seem to put in the effort towards what he brings like Able does.

This chapter also ends with worship. It says that people began to call upon the name of the Lord. This act of worship gives us hope. Even amongst the sin that is plaguing the world, God is still being worshiped. Even though the true worshiper was killed, others began to worship too. This is not many as we will see but there is still righteous people present.

Our worship matters, the content of our worship matters, the heart behind our worship matters.

Sin

This passage teaches us a lot about worship but it also teaches us a lot about sin. It was just last week that we saw sin enter the world through the action of one man. This is called original sin and now every naturally born human is born with a sin nature. This is evident in the first man born.

In the life of Cain we see a downward spiral into sin. We see God giving him a word of wisdom concerning sin, and we see the disregard for the words of God go down through the family.

He starts with not having a high regard for the worship of God. improper worship is a sin because it displeases God. We see this lead to anger. Then it moves to jealousy. It finally accumulates into murder. This is a spiral of sin that so many of us go on too. One thing leads to another and the next thing that we know we are deep in sin. Just like wisdom and the fear of the Lord can snowball us down the right path of life, sin can begin to snowball us down the path of destruction.

We must pray for God to reveal these things to us. To help us to see the sin in our life. Cain probably didn’t see the sin in his worship but we do not want to be that way. We want to see when we fall short so that we can put a stop to it. When we do see it we must stop it immediately.

God’s words of wisdom here are in Genesis 4.7

Genesis 4:7 ESV

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.”

God begins by pointing out his problem. This is when he should repent. Then God gives him these words; sin is crouching at the door, its desire is contrary to you but you must rule over it. This is saying that sin is waiting and it wants you to do things that you don’t want to do and you must rule over it.

We must rule over our sin, putting an end to it as soon as we realize it in our lives. But more than just that we must also be praying for God to show us those sins because often times we are slow to realize them.

Before we are saved it says of us in John 8.34

John 8:34 ESV

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

without salvation we are slaves to sin. When we put our faith in Jesus we are then slaves to him which is a glorious reality. Since we are no longer slaves to sin then we must rule over the sin in our life with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Finally we see that this starts a pattern of sin through his family. Each person in his family line continues in sin, they could break free but they don’t. For many of you, you may be in a family that is steeped in sin and you are at a disadvantage of certain things. If you are in a family of alcoholics you are dramatically more likely to be an alcoholic too. You don’t have to be though. You can be the one to break the cycle and free yourself and those to come after you from that sin. This is a difficult task but a noble one.

Sin is something that effects more than we ever realize and it can snowball in our lives and down our families. Whether you are at the start of this and don’t want to start the snowball or are in someone else’s snowball you must rule over sin, not letting it rule over you.

Conclusion

Cain and Able, two brothers on two paths. One on the path of life filled with proper worship. The other on the path of sin that leads to destruction. Both men have the same background and made their own choice. I am not painting a picture of Able being perfect either, everyone has sin. Able just chooses to rule over his sin while Cain lets it rule over him.

In life do you worship the way that you should? Do you worship at all? Our worship is so vitally important and it is not something that we should do mindlessly.

In your life do you rule sin or does it rule you? This really goes back to our salvation, outside of faith in Christ there is no hope of us being able to do anything against sin, we are helpless. It is through faith in Christ that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and can rule over and rid our lives of sin.

Maybe tonight you see the path that you are on is the path of Cain and you no longer want to be on that path. You see your sin and your need for forgiveness. You want to rule over sin with the help of the Holy Spirit. Then today you need to put your faith in Christ and repent of your sins. This is the only hope for salvation.