03 | GOD REVEALED | Genesis 4:1–16 | Cain — a brother’s worship curves inward

INTRODUCTION

fGod Revealed

Series Purpose:

To consider a variety of encounters God has with individuals in the Bible and ask what God is revealing about himself in that encounter.

It is not a character study on the individual, but a character study on God as he reveals himself to mankind.

At the beginning of January, we began with:

Adam — We considered God’s covenant purpose for mankind.

Eve — The reality of life on this side of God’s righteous curse upon sin.

One family was passing around this meme as a helpful summary of our message last week.

Suffering and exhaustion in light of the Fall: “This is normal!”

You know how I said at the beginning of the series, that this is going to be just a short January series.

Well … So, we’ve covered God’s revelation of himself to the first two humans.

This week, I thought it best to move to … the third human.

Yeah, this might take a while.

This week, Cain …

… now just how many more billion people to go!

God reveals himself as one who orders worship, warns against sin’s mastery, and upholds justic …

… so, as Cain bends inward upon himself, we are warned of the dangers of disordered worship

… and called to lift up our eyes to the righteousness of the Lord

… whose sacrifice is sufficient for the forgiveness of our sin.

PRAY

4:00

The passage begins with the beautiful, and faith-filled exclamation by the first mother: I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD!

Eve brings these two children into the world.

But unlike Adam and Eve, who entered into perfect creation.

These two sons enter a world under the a righteous curse.

And, they themselves enter as children …

… not only bearing the image of God

… but also twisted by the fallen sin-nature inherited from their father.

In other word’s, while Adam and Eve were created to walk with the their Maker in the garden.

Cain and Abel must approach God, only through sacrifice.

But, the first thing that we see is not merely a murder, but …

6:00

DISORDERED WORSHIP

Our passage begins with two offerings.

Abel — the younger brother of Cain brought an offering before God.

He brought a lamb to be slaughtered, as the means of his approach to God in worship.

Cain — brought an offering of grain offering from the field he had worked.

Where the lamb sacrificed prepared the way for Abel’s worship of God, Cain’s offering was the fruit of his own hands.

Abel’s offering was the offering of faith.

He brought an atoning sacrifice.

Cain’s offering was the offering of works.

He brought the fruit of his hands.

Abel is the first in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11.

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.

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Consider this description of the faith-filled sacrifice of Abel.

A.W. Pink First, he owned that God was righteous in driving fallen man out of Eden (Gen. 3:24). Second, he owned that he was a guilty sinner, and that death was his just due. Third, he owned that God was holy, and must punish sin. Fourth, he owned that God was merciful, and willing to accept the death of an innocent substitute in his place. Fifth, he owned that he looked for acceptance with God in Christ the Lamb.

All of this was contained in the faith-filled sacrifice of Abel.

All of this was lacking in the self-righteous offering of Cain.

10:00

Cain also came with an offering.

It wasn’t an offering according to the reality of his fallen state, or the reality of his only hope of redemption.

It was an offering of the will.

Cain’s offering says, “Surely God will be pleased with me. I’m bringing my best, something really special to me.”

Abel’s offering says, “Surely I am condemned unless God will accept a sacrificial substitute in my place.”

The Lord had regard for Abel’s offering.

Abel was assured that he had been brought into righteous reconciliation with God.

Abel was loved, commended, accepted, through the sacrifice.

The Lord had NO regard for Cain’s offering.

Can remained outside of fellowship with God.

Without faith, Cain remains exposed to the inward corruption of sin.

Abel sacrifice points us forward to the sacrifice of a spotless lamb in the place of a sinner …

… so that the sinner is commended as righteous and brought into relationship with his God.

Cain reminds us of our hopeless estate apart from a righteous sacrifice.

Outside of fellowship with God …

… without turning to submit himself to the Word of the Lord

… apart from turning in repentance and faith

… Cain is left to the counsel of his own wounded pride.

And, we will see how a man turned in upon himself brings ruin into the world.

15:00

APPLY

What we have before us in this passage is the second great sin in the record of human history.

First the Fall.

Now murder.

Adam brings death into the world through his disobedience.

Now Cain brings death into the world by the work of his own hands.

But, before we consider the murder itself …

… I want us to see something about this second grave sin.

It begins with disordered worship.

Oh, how much of our sin begins with disordered worship.

We feel as though we know what the Lord requires.

Isaiah 1:12 ESV

“When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?

What we presume is our offering to the Lord …

… has more to do with our own pride than it does what the Lord himself requires.

17:00

This is what is behind all false religion.

It is not faith-filled submission to the Word of the Lord.

It gives no attention to what the Lord requires at all.

False religion begins with a sense that we ourselves have something to offer in and of our own goodness …

… and results in vain innovations

… offerings of the self, rather than offerings of substitutionary sacrifice.

The sinner can never atone for his own sin by his own offering.

Such an offering is unacceptable to God

18:00

What do we learn about the Lord?

That what is acceptable in worship is not what we feel we can bring, but what the Lord requires.

Why?

Because we are not made acceptable to God by our own work, but by his own sacrifice.

We are prone, especially in our age of radical individualism …

… to presume that what qualifies us before the Lord is either our good intentions or to simply bring our best.

But, in reality, we are only free to bring our best because God himself, has given his best …

… the only begotten Son as the final and sufficient substitutionary sacrifice and ransom for sinners.

20:00

Now that Cain has come without faith …

… with disordered worship …

SIN IS CROUCHING AT THE DOOR

Read v5.

Cain became very angry.

Cain’s failure to worship rightly put Cain into a moment of decision.

What will he do?

Will he admit his error, and turn to the Lord in faith?

In other words, will Cain repent?

Or will he press his self-righteousness?

Sin is crouching at his door.

Consider how Cain began this episode:

Not by first considering the Lord and what he requires in worship and sacrifice

… but instead he begins oriented toward his own strengths.

In other words, Cain begins worship by considering himself first.

Now, the Lord warns him against this continued turn inward.

23:00

I use that language intentionally.

The reformer, Martin Luther, uses the language of incurvatus in se — “curved inward on oneself”

Martin Luther … our nature has been so deeply curved in upon itself because of the viciousness of original sin that it not only turns the finest gifts of God in upon itself and enjoys them … it even uses God Himself to achieve these aims, but it also seems to be ignorant of this very fact, that in acting [with such great injustice], so perversely, and in such a depraved way, it is even seeking God for its own sake.

The right orientation of the soul is to be turned upward toward God ….

… for the sake of seeing God!

The faith-filled orientation seeks but a singular glory.

He has abandoned all hope of glory in himself and is satisfied by the glory of God alone.

But, Cain turns inward upon himself.

Even his offering was an act of self-expression.

And the rejection of his offering becomes a wound to his already disordered pride.

Bob Dylan — What can I do for you?

Soon as a man is born, you know the sparks begin to fly, He gets wise in his own eyes and he's made to believe a lie. Who would deliver him from the death he's bound to die? Well, You've done it all and there's no more anyone can pretend to do. What can I do for You?You have given all there is to give. What can I do for You? You have given me life to live. How can I live for You?

27:00

APPLY

Scripture is clear as to what happens when a man’s eyes are no longer fixed on the glory of the Lord and turns inward upon himself.

He is a man untethered.

He is a man at war with himself …

… because he has nothing in himself of sufficient gravity to hold his world in proper orbit.

James 4:1–3 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

You can see in James how it begins with disordered desires.

Even when the person brings his covetous request to God, he does not actually look to the Lord.

His eyes are still fixed on his own desire, his own passions.

ILL: When I think of this wicked man’s request, the image of Golem from Lord of the Rings comes to mind.

Bent over, curved inward upon his own passions.

He does not look up. He looks down and in.

We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious.

James continues …

James 4:6–8 ESV

Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

The Lord does not waver.

Cain’s offering is not accepted.

He opposes the proud.

But James calls you and I, who are prone to pride like Cain.

Submit yourselves to God.

It is by laying down pride that we resist the devil …

… the sin crouching at your door.

31:00

The remainder of the story is a simple statement of tragedy.

Cain lures his brother into the field.

He rises up against his brother and kills him.

So …

BLOOD CRIES FROM THE GROUND

This violence is not merely a homocide, but a fratricide.

The third human murdered the fourth.

As one commentator (See PtW) points out, there were no guns or other creative murderous devices.

This killing would have been up close, violent and personal.

Did Cain hate Abel? Had Abel done anything to harm Cain?

No, Cain had turned inward upon himself.

His self-righteous anger first does violence to the soul of Cain before Cain ever does violence to Abel.

And what initially sparked Cain’s anger?

Cain was angry at God!

Cain’s fit of rage is not merely the murder of his brother, but a murderous protest against God!

Read Genesis 4:10.

And now his brother’s blood cries from the ground!

What does it cry?

It cries against the self-righteous rage of Cain …

… and for the justice of the Lord.

34:00

APPLY

What do we learn about the Lord?

When Cain killed Abel, the deepest wrong is not that Abel lost his life.

The evil of Cain’s murder of Abel is compounded by the fact that Cain treats human life, which God has called very good, as disposable.

He treats his brother’s life as something to be manipulated for his own ego, his own passions.

This isn’t just an affront to Abel.

Abel’s life belonged, as an expression of the image of God, for the purpose of the glory of God.

Cain’s violence is not merely against his brother, but is an affront to the glory and honor of God.

37:00

APPLY

God reveals himself as one who orders worship, warns against sin’s mastery, and upholds justice …

… so, as Cain bends inward upon himself, we are warned of the dangers of disordered worship

… and called to lift up our eyes to the righteousness of the Lord

… whose sacrifice is sufficient for the forgiveness of our sin.

Ordered Worship

The Lord maintains his right to order our worship.

The story that we have to celebrate and remember in our worship …

… otherwise known as our liturgy

… is not something we have the right to innovate.

It is neither something that we ourselves create …

… nor something handed down to us merely by the traditions of men.

We walk in a long history of faithful witness who have looked to the Word itself for guidance.

We worship in a four-fold movement that we see throughout the scriptures. Consider the pattern of God’s encounter with Isaiah:

1) Worship is oriented to the glory of the Lord and begins by God’s own call and his grace that enables us to gather in his presence.

ISAIAH — The glory of the Lord filled the temple, and the foundations shook at his call.

2) As those who gather by faith, we confess that we have no right to gather by our own righteousness.

So we come with confession, repentance and prayer.

ISAIAH — Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips!

And we may only continue in his presence by his work to take our guilt away.

ISAIAH: Behold, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.

3) As a people situated in the presence of the Lord by grace, we humbly listen to his Word.

ISAIAH — I heard the voice of the Lord.

4) Finally we respond with faith-filled obedience.

ISAIAH — Here I am! Send me.

42:00

Sin Crouching

When our worship is untethered from the highest glory …

… we turn inward and become petty and small.

We see this in so much of what passes for corporate worship today.

Our purpose is not to put ourselves in the position of judgement upon whether God accepts the worship of another.

The Lord does not turn to Abel to ask if he should accept Cain’s offering.

But we are in the position of asking ourselves, what has the Lord required of us?

We have made every attempt to be faithful at CrossPointe Coast from the beginning of our gatherings.

And we know, that we have much to learn and many ways to grow.

The elders are constantly active, particularly in this year, to consider what the Lord has ordered for the worship of his name.

As we continue to mature as a church in worship …

… we must at all times reject the mindset of worship as self-expression.

And at all times, keep our eyes fixed upon the glory of the Lord alone.

44:00

Blood Cries

Cain’s sin is not merely a sin against Abel’s life, but against God’s image.

There is blood that speaks a better word.

Let us come:

Hebrews 12:24 ESV

to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

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GOSPEL

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